• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Qorten - I thought about it briefly, but Bihar was allied to Rajputana and Orissa, so a DOW would likely have lost me even more allies, and possibly got me clobbered by Delhi while is was in a war with Bihar/Orissa.

gabor - That would have been a possibility, but the real missed chance came later, when Orissa/Bihar went to war with Delhi, and I decided I couldn't risk honouring the alliance. Instead of lamenting my fate, I should have been DOW-ing Gujarat, thus solving the "not alliance leader" problem, bringing in Rajputana & Vijayanagar (my other allies), and landing Delhi in wars with every significant Hindu power simulataneously. I just didn't think of it until it was too late.

The elephant's feeling a bit off-colour at the moment. Hopefully, the next update will cheer it up.

aldriq - I thought I could get the Kutch CoT! The problem with DOWing Sind directly was that if Gujarat didn't join I had no access to Sind, but once they were both in I was all set to grab the sieges and take Kutch and Surat. What I didn't realise was that Sind wouldn't be alliance leader either.

Junuxx - If Laurasia turns blue I will have a problem...

Enewald - Never underestimate the power of a sufficiently motivated elephant. ;)

Dariush - That sounds a little dangerous - for one thing we have seven continents and only four elephants, which limits precision at bit, and for another I suspect that letting the Disc fall off the Turtle would be a Bad Thing.
 
Did tell you I didn't like playing me-vs-superpower? <The elephant rolls its eyes> Well, the game's been going 13 years and it's already looking like me-vs-Delhi. And Delhi has the opening lead. As long as they've got a truce with Bihar and Orissa, they're free to beat up on me and Rajputana without worrying about a pan-Hindu alliance. All I need now is for Rajputana to DOW Sind again when the truce runs out.

The truce runs out. Rajputana makes it to the end of the year without DOWing Sind. I breathe again.

Nothing happens for a bit, except me slowly building up my money while waiting to see which way Delhi will jump. If they DOW Bihar when the truce runs out...

They don't and the next move comes from a completely different direction. Vijayanagar DOWs Travancore. <The elephant wakes up and rolls its eyes>.

Travancore is supported by Orissa only. I accept the call, stability hit be damned, and since Orissa is alliance leader and I might actually get something from them, rush my army to Orissa.

Orissa appears to have mislaid their army. I do not complain. Vijayanagar appears to be concentrating forces in Raichur Doab, nowhere near either of its opponents. I shrug and start on the sieges.

In the middle of all this, Assam DOWs poor little Manipur – and duly brings down the wrath of both the Bihar-Orissa alliance and the Delhi-Bengal alliance on their overconfident little heads. Could be interesting, but one war at a time.

It becomes a race against time as Vijayanagar finally starts to do stuff against Travancore. While I'm watching the sieges count down, our Statesman becomes internationally renowned, getting us out of negative prestige and boosting Government research.

The first siege completes. Orissa makes peace with Assam and Bihar goes and DOWs Tibet for reasons I cannot begin to imagine. Vijayanagar, bless their little horns, is chasing Travancore's army around rather than sieging.

Orissa's remaining mainland province go down like a row of dominoes. They offer me two – I settle for three and (almost as good) 150 lovely ducats. Orissa is now reduced to one province in India and two in Arakan – which means Vijayanagar probably won't get anything from them. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of cows.

We now have a sea-coast. Of course, it'll take us some time to have any ships, but it's a start. With my support limit now 14, and 8,000 manpower, I order up another couple of regiments and settle down to watch Delhi and Bihar.

Bihar takes Bhutan from Tibet and offers us an alliance. Sure. No hard feelings, Bihar. Bengal and Assam are going at it hammer and tongs. Delhi's built a 22,000 man army, which they can't get to Assam unless Bihar is crazy enough to give them military access. But Gujarat has shipped an expeditionary force round the cape and has actually taken a province in Assam.

Vijayanagar takes Calicut from Travancore. Travancore wants a royal marriage. I don't because I suspect Vijayanagar will be going for them again shortly. A new advisor pops up and it's an Ambassador. Do I need more diplomacy? <The elephant nods> Probably not, with the alliances already made.

Vijayanagar, despite my predictions, <The elephant holds up a sign saying “I told you so”> ships an army to the Arakan, takes Chittagong and forces the release of Arakan. Orissa joins Travancore in embracing one-province minorhood.

Gondwana_1418.jpg

Note the ongoing war in Bengal/Assam and that it's now Vijayanagar's turn to have holdings in the Arakan.

The revolts start – pretty inevitable since I have six provinces with high revolt risk. The war in Assam's still going strong, but it's not giving Delhi any war exhaustion so no hope there. We're forced to take a slider shift to Defensive in order to avoid losing a fort in a revolt-prone province. Then the admirals are concerned, presumably about sailing something larger than a paddling pool. Since we can't actually build ships, I'm happy to focus on Land.

With Bihar, Vijayanagar and Rajputana on-side, the chances of winning a war with Delhi look reasonably good. (We have 35,000+ troops between us and Bengal and Gujarat don't add up to much). But the first thing is to wait for the Assam war to end and hope Delhi disbands something.

That doesn't look like happening anytime soon, so I decide to take a break. It's 1418, the elephant's off to play on the beach, and overall things are looking up.

TN_bathing.GIF
 
Huh, about a week ago I was rereading Resistance is Futile and wondering when I'd be seeing some more AARs from you. A few updates late to the party, but it's still early.
 
Enewald - Of course more war - I've got three-and-a-half continents to take, after all. The plan is to warmonger my way to Indian dominance ASAP, so don't expect things to change soon.

aldriq - Delhi still has an army (individually) twice the size of mine, and a better leader. But I have plans...

gabor - It's funny you should say that... :)

Qorten - That's the mission. I just have to accept it. ;)

Dariush - Still to liberate Surat. Which suits me fine, now I have chance to organise it.

Kanil - People re-read my AARs? That's kinda scary - but thanks. Welcome aboard.
 
A Small Step for an Elephant

So it's 1418 and we're off to war with Delhi. <Elephant picks up flag and looks martial>

Just as soon as the silly Assam war finishes up. <Elephant sits back down> Bengal currently appears to be winning, and I don't want their armies hiding out in Assam, or Bihar/Vijayanagar getting drawn into sending their armies to Assam instead of Delhi.

I pass the time by raising another cavalry regiment. Our officers sensibly decide that the army is the way to glory and I get some free Prestige.

Delhi make peace at last, cuts its army to 16,000 men – and then immediately DOWs Tibet. Go Delhi! Go Delhi! Go as far into the frozen wastes as you can!

Bengal and Assam are still fighting. A Naval Forcelimits advisor turns up seeking employment. I laugh in his face and pass on.

The Bengal-Assam war peters out at last. I bring my troops to full readiness and prepare to strike. Just as I'm about to move, Sind complicates matters by inheriting Kashmir, and I get offered a 2-star Master of Mint, who's actually useful.

And we're off! Rajputana's in, Vijayanagar's in, Bihar's in. <Elephant runs about waving flag and trumpeting wildly> I send two regiments to Bengal and the rest to Gujarat. Bihar's helping in Bengal, Rajputana is attacking in Delhi in the north, Vijayanagar's advancing in the middle. The only Delhi troops I can see are in Nepal (allied to Tibet).

And then it all goes a little off track. Delhi annexes Nepal and their killer stack (12,000 men led by their king) comes rampaging down the centre of India, squashing Hindu armies right and left. Teligana seizes the chance to revolt. Gujarat keeps popping up regiments to tie up my cavalry. Just as the Delhi Death Stack is threatening to destroy my siege of Surat, they offer white peace. Ignoring the death-glare from the elephant, I grab it. They've hung Gujarat and Bengal out to dry, and I can always restart the war by DOW-ing Sind.

I wrap up, taking Surat and Kathiawar from Gujarat. Kathiawar was possibly a mistake, since it's dirt poor, but eventually I'm going to want a land route to Kutch. We now have ports on both coasts. The mission completes, giving us a coastal core (ships!). A new one pops and it's worth the wait. Liberate Kutch.

Gondwana_1420.jpg

Central India in 1420, during a brief moment of peace.
Kutch is the brown province in the NW with the Sindhi red-and-white flag on it.

Delhi makes peace with Tibet for ducats. I start positioning troops against Sind. Their only ally is the Mamelukes, but Delhi has guaranteed them.

Gujarati becomes our fourth accepted culture (the others are Telegu, Oriya and Bihari. Our biggest culture by population is Marathi. It's kinda hard to remember <the elephant gives a pitying look> that our primary culture is actually Avadhi.)

I get a slider-push. Going Centralised again would allow me to take the Militia Act – which would then push me over the policy limit on Centralisation and give me free RR. Mindful of what happened last time, I go Free Subjects again and get “Better Administration”, rendering my Master of Mint a little redundant.

Maharasthra, supported by Mysore, DOWs what's left of Gujarat, bringing in Sind, Bengal and Delhi. Since none of the participants can actually get at each other, it doesn't matter a whole lot. Troops now in position, I DOW Sind myself to show how it's done....

TN_elephant%20ride.GIF
 
Nice work so far, I'm looking forward to what you can pull off with Gondwana. Once you grab Kutch, your income should improve quite nicely. I'd guess your next step after that would be to pick up the cot in Bihar too?
 
lordkestrel - Thank-you. The problems with targeting Bihar are (a) Bihar is currently my ally, (b) they're co-religionists (Hindu) and I have no CB and (c) Bihar is the capital province, so I'd have to fight at least two wars to take it. Something for the medium-term, I think. (They deserve some payback for their iniquitous merchantilism. I mean, 24d to send a merchant next door?)

Kubelwagen - India is great fun in the early game - all those medium-sized powers mean lots of alliances and jockeying for position, and the Hindu-Muslim split and overlapping claims and cultures mean lots of wars. In the long run, you have to deal with a poor tech group, suprisingly poor trade, limited colonial opportunities and awful military units. Plus you can finally win domination of the penninsula only to find yourself bricked in by mega-Ming and a monster Persia or Timurids with 100,000 troops and a 10-level land-tech lead. If I want to avoid that, I have to start expanding overseas before the Latins lock everything up. But, hey, if it was too easy it wouldn't be fun.

quicksabre - <Takes bow> I only hope you still feel the same way in a few updates' time.

Personguyfellow - That was the general idea - I'm certainly not going empire-building in mainland Asia. On the other hand, I may have to allow myself a slight wriggle, since Indonesia (except New Guinea) was not part of Gondwanaland and I'll probably need at least one outpost down there if I'm to get to Australia. Plus Malacca is already calling to me...

aldriq - It is a liberation - they're fellow Hindus oppressed by those heathen Muslims! You also get missions to "liberate our cultural brethren", not to mention some completely shameless ones along the lines of "we need to take Province X to show that we are a Great Power".

Yoy21 - More elephants - and hopefully expansion - to come soon.

Dariush - Mamelukes are indeed thoroughly evil - anyone with a grain of humanity should have known I deserved Surat and Kutch! But when I was fighting them, their fleet was a distinctly minor issue, since I didn't have a coastline at the time. (Minor spoiler follows - that does not necessarily stay true.)

Enewald <Charges forward trumpeting wildly>

gabor - Not while I still have zero-cost CBs on the Muslims. The time for warnings and guarantees will come when the heathens are beaten and the Hindu blocs square off over the spoils.