Tips for playing the UK

Uh i think theres an event to absorb an indian sphere of influence state if they have high militancy maybe? Theres an event for sure but I'n not too sure how it fires:unsure:

Get the GTFO sphere mod maybe?

Just spam ships and units and you'll be fine. Send out your zerg Indian armies.

Yeah, the UK is easy peasy. Millions of Indians will assimilate to British, allowing you to build absolutely insane quantities of guards. The system is broken, play PDM.

calvinhobbeslik said:

My general strategy is to colonize most of Africa, SE Asia, sphere or even annex China, and not lose a War of Containment. Also, I'd like the Indian minors to be red; is there any way I can get them out of my sphere so I can attack them?

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Rush the techs to increase life rating, and colonizing Africa should be easy. Also, try to get Egypt not too late, as the IA has a policy of making alliances with everyone, so you will be facing a WWI in 1880 if you're not careful. You could get them to your sphere to prevent any intervention, but since you can't remove them from it, or declare war against them, I would advise against it. South East Asia is fine, but the mountains, and the numerous islands make it a chore. Aim for Panjab - for the Empress of India decision - Johore, Burma and, to add some historical flavor, try to win a war against China before 1840 and acquire Hong Kong and put them in your sphere. Other than those, Asia is a waste of time and effort, in my opinion.

There's this decision based thing, that when a ruler of an Indian Minor dies while the nation is in your SoI you inherit it. It's the best way to annex them, other than to wait for them to rebel against you. Got to get them all under your SoI ASAP, as well as Afghanistan - to have a nice buffer against Persia, Ottoman Empire and Russia.

calvinhobbeslik said:

PS: When I played Belgium, I used 1.1. How do the rebels in 1.4 compare?

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To me, same thing. Desorganized rabble, mop them up and forget about it. Indian rebels often stack 20~30 brigades, but with UK indian doomstacks, that's hardly an issue.

calvinhobbeslik said:

Did any of the patches do anything vis-a-vis assimilation?

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So far, no. The indian masses all integrate with the british overlords, like indu cows.

calvinhobbeslik said:

So, is it possible to do all that without crossing the infamy limit of 15, or will I have to face a war of containment?

And how do I annex Burma, since it's in my sphere from the start of the game?

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It is difficult, but not impossible. If you declare a war of conquest without justification, that's a infamy hit of 20. But you've got to work around that kind of infamy hit to keep under the limit. For example, since you don't need all of Panjab to enact the Empress of India decision, you can later release Kashmir for a -5 infamy. Johore, and other states that don't offer any other nation to release are a bit trickier. Either you rely on events and triggers to get CB against those nations or you bide your time: you want those asian nations annexed by 1890, for example. Without a CB, and using conquest against all of them as WG, if you wait for your infamy to reach zero before going to the next war, you will need roughly 53 years.

This estimate I make using the following logic: conquering Panjab = 20 infamy, minus 5 for releasing Kashmir; 20 for Johore and Burma; 4 for demanding Hong Kong as a concession from the chinese, plus 4 for adding them to UK SoI (when I did this, I was more with an eye towards Africa already, so I decided to SoI them diplomaticaly, but let's say you DW for it). That's 63 infamy; given that infamy lowers at 0.10 per month, that's 630 months before infamy get to zero again - or 52 years and 6 months. With some micromanagement, not wasting any time, it's possible to accomplish this in 55 years at the most. So, around 1887~1891 you will have conquered all those states and your infamy will be at 0.

Even so, those 4 years above the infamy limit, when it's lowering from 20 to 15, are tense; In my current game, I decided I would play UK and do all the historical conquests of the time. I got lucky a few times, since I managed to get CBs against Transvaal and Zulu, and managed to conquer them before 1880. But on the eve of the 20th century, I gave up on conquering Oranje and Egypt, since it would take too long to lower my infamy again. I just put them in my SoI and forgot about it.

There's other things you can do that lower your infamy, like the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (-2 infamy) or the treaty of London (-4 infamy), but most likely you will face at least a couple of wars of containment. You can, however, abide to the conditions imposed to you in a war of containment, since it reduces your infamy, but the penalties to your armed forces make it a bit risky.

EDIT: About Burma; I had forgot that they start in your SoI. I conquered them because they rebelled and got out of my SoI; I lowered my relations with them, to see if that would work to get someone out of your SoI - but that was the only case that worked, since I lowered relations with a few of the other indian minors, to no effect. You just need to get lucky sometimes in this game.

calvinhobbeslik said:

Is it the case that, if you get a White Peace from a containment war, the AIs are less likely to wage a containment war in the future?

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To my knowledge, no. Until your infamy lowers beyond 15, they will keep declaring war against you. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

calvinhobbeslik said:

Also, infamy only reduces while you're at peace, so I have to make my wars short...

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Yes. But that's not that hard. In the asian theater for example, the only real problem would be Panjab, because of those damned mountains, and China, because if they cross the Himalayans and get to your indian territory, it's going to take some time to expel them. If you don't mind the SoI game, you can just fill 30 transports with troops and invade Hong Kong while blockading them. As soon as Hong Kong falls, ask for it, since the cost to get the province is only 2. If you want to get China on your SoI fast, tough, war is the way to go. In my experience, that is the longest war you will fight in Asia, and even so, if you do everything right, it should not take more than 2 years. Panjab, on the other hand, will have it's troops easily defeated, but the terrain will give you high attrition, and walking around will take some time. But again, it takes at the most 1 year to conquer them.

Trust me, the real issue with playing UK is not time or anything like it, it's the enormous amount of multitasking.

Britain practically plays itself. That said there are a few things you need to watch out for.

1: Fortify the Western Canadian border; Russia loves nothing more than to attack your Canadian provinces, which usually don't have any troops in them.
2: Equally, watch India; if you've been distracted by some massive war on the continent, Russia can sometimes get military access and strike there, which can get quite messy.
3: Basically, watch out for Russia.
4: Transports transports transports. Your 100+ divisions are no good to you if you can't get them to the fighting.
5: Furthermore, your colonial fleets are inadequate; get a proper number of men of wars and frigates in India and Africa. This is particularly true if you want to dislodge the Spanish in the Phillipines; they've got a surprisingly strong fleet in the area.
6: Go for the Far East; the targets there are tougher than the African nations but the prizes, manpower, gold and rubber, are far more valuable than what you can get from Africa. Try to sphere African and Middle Eastern nations to contain the French.
7: Watch the French; they are quite capable of outstripping you industrially, and have a far better literacy rate (for that matter so does Prussia.) On top of that, they have a nasty (though quite historical) proclivity for allying themselves with the Russians. The Russians are a thorn in the side; the French are a genuine danger.

EDIT: I should've said "Go for the Far East in terms of conquests. You still need to think about colonisation, which is key to success as Britain. By Africa I was mainly thinking about North Africa. Its probably worth snapping up the Boer states if the 20 infamy price isn't too steep, thanks to the resources there.

Regarding China; in my experience you can get China in your SOI the old fashioned way (as in, not going to war and just using the influence mechanic) without too much trouble if you go for it right off the bat. If you aren't planning any hostile takeovers, sphering China early is your best bet.

I wouldn't try to break the infamy barrier unless you're sure you can take whatever is coming to you. Its not just the actual fighting, its the expense to your pops and your treasury as well.

Attack Attack Attack!!!

Wars of Containment (WofC) against you are easy if your a strong maritime power without direct borders to the GP that declares war on you, like the UK is at the beginning of the game.

France will probably be the one to declare a war of containment against the UK, possibly Russia if gets powerful enough. So keep a presence in Canada in case, keep a strong fleet to equal the French, and keep a decently large army in India. This way Russia will have to fight hard to get you, and France can't reach you.

Remember to blockade them when they declare their WofC, and if you can, kick down hard before declaring peace. My favorite tactic is to occupy as much of their territory as possible after totally defeating their army and navy. I then just sit on them and don't give peace until my War Weariness and other plans finally force me to give it. This way you cripple them from making new armies and kneecap their industry. So if they declare another WofC they'll be weaker while you'll be stronger.

I have never had to fight more than two WofCs if I exceed my Infamy limit, and if I don't care about Infamy, then I always declare war goals and take territory off of any nation that does declare war on me. Hope some of this helps.