[quote=""Shizle""]I just played Joe4holly same matchup with him being Germany and felt powerless to do anything. My cossacks got wiped out and then I just couldn't make enough muskets to matter. Pure Uhlan pawnage.
I've been wondering about how to counter this. Build 2 BH and ship 700 gold, everyone on food? Will that get your musket count up high enough?[/quote]
Try this: Age with 14 vils, forward BH. Build a house in colonial. Put 3-4 on coin. Once your BH and house are up, put everyone else on food. Age with 400 wood. As soon as you hit colonial, build a musket batch, not vils. Ship 5 cossacks instantly. Gather your wood and put up housing up to 55 or 65. Keep a constant musket spam going. Send 4 cossacks. If he hasn't attacked you yet, you have a decent army right there. If you can confront an all-uhlan army with 10 muskets and 9 cossacks, you should be OK with a little luck and micro. If you have 15 muskets, even better. Of course, scout to see if that stable is going up before committing to this. If you're short on food or coin for muskets, send 700 food or 700 coin after your cossacks come in. If you can beat his cav mass early, you will have him on the back foot the rest of the game, since he will have to mix in wood gathering for xbows.
This is the only Russian B.O. that can beat my uhlan mass, if you're curious

And it has to be done quick, since I can have at least 7 uhlans by 5:45, and 12 by 6:45 (ship 5 in addition to the 7 from 3 SW card and building). Keep those cossacks alive for as long as you can! They are the heart of Russia's early game.