Beginnings...
To begin, let us get a handle on the current state of the Sikh Empire, shall we?
This...
...is our empire in its entirety. Our lands include two complete territories--Lahore and Sringar--and two partial territories--Amritsar and Pashtunistan. Despite our relatively small size, our population, for an "uncivilized" nation, is quite high, standing at approximately 2.7 million adult males, with Lahore being our most populous state by a fair margin. In NNM, this makes us the third most populous unciv, after China and Shogunate Japan. Most of China's substates have a higher population, though. Still, third among independent "uncivilized" nations isn't too bad, yeah?
For an "uncivilized" nation, our military is unusually formidable...
The only other nation--besides the UK, of course--we border that can compare is Afghanistan. Oddly, they start out with irregular + cavalry forces, yet can build infantry, while we start out with infantry + cavalry, yet lack the technology to build infantry. Because of this, our starting military forces are
precious and must be preserved as best as possible, at least until I can retrain infantry from scratch.
Now onto our finances...
Our finances do
not look good at all. Our treasury is very small, and we're bleeding a large amount of money per day. We'll need to fix this...
Yes, yes, I know what you're saying right now. No, you clod, cut administration, not education! For the first few years, ensuring a steady flow of income will be paramount, mostly because I don't like to abuse the "uncivs can't go bankrupt" thing. Plus, higher administrative efficiency will, ultimately, result in more money, and thus a higher education budget. Mind the pennies and the dollar will take care of themselves and all that.
Onto westernization reforms. No doubt such a secular, progressive peoples such as ourselves are well on our way to "westernizing" as our not-at-all-egocentric friends from the west would put it. Let's just have a look-see...
...oh, uh... we haven't made any progress towards modernizing our country. Well, that's certainly... inconvenient. We'll have to remedy this post-haste. Anyway, onto our decisions...
I've taken the liberty of mousing over the most relevent decision right now. The "Embrace the Pashtuns" and "Form India" decisions will be important, but not right now.
The Rule of the Maharajah decision is very versatile, though not without a (small) drawback. The military bonuses are phenomenal--and we
will make use of them, I assure you--while the research points bonus is... decent, though that particular aspect comes with a militancy malus. And for an unciv, militancy is dangerous; very,
very dangerous. But don't worry, I have a plan to keep militancy under control. And like most of my plans, it will no doubt go horribly awry. Now let's enact the Rule of the Maharajah, hmmm?
Now we turn our attention to the outside world. First and foremost, there's the big kid on the block. No, that's not us, much as we wish it were--it's the UK, the world's (current) pre-eminent power..
I won't sugar-coat it. If the UK decides to eat us, there is little we will be able to do to actually stop them. It is paramount that we keep ourselves in their good graces. Otherwise... well, let's not think about that.
Conflict with the British, however, is inevitable, however, because they control the majority of India. And since we sort of need India to, ya know,
form India, we'll have to, erm, graciously offer to take it off their hands, in a manner of speaking.
To the northeast, you'll notice China--or rather, one of China's substates. If, or rather
when China westernizes, they could become very powerful. Or they could collapse into decades of civil war. If possible, I will capitalize on the situation either way.
Now for some military restructuring..
To avoid attrition (in our own lands, no less), I've split up our stacks and positioned them in key positions. Though the UK is dangerous, Afghanistan is the most immediate danger, since they have an 'acquire core' casus belli on us, thanks to some unfortunate business in the 1820s or whatnot.
Next, we'll use our sole NF to encourage bureaucrats in Lahore. Yes, I know, clergy and all that. That'll come a few years down the road.
Finally, we can unpause and let the world's economy (and, more importantly, my finances) adjust themselves appropriately. And once that happens, we begin losing a bit of money again. Time for a second budget adjustment...
Five pounds a day (more or less) isn't much, but it's still in the black, so it'll have to do. Now let's unpause the game again and see what happens...
January 22nd, 1836 - Sikkim and Makran both offer me alliances. Since both are very weak, I reject their offers.
Late in February, the UK acts aggressively towards an Indian State--thankfully, I am not the target...
May 25th, 1836 - Nepal offers an alliance, and I reject. Simply too weak to be useful.
June 9th,
1836 - I use 2 of my 2.1 diplomatic points to increase relations with the UK, putting me at 5 relations.
In the middle of June, I get the following event..
The other option gives me militancy and consciousness, so I take the relations hit. The US is too far away from me to be relevant, really.
June 22nd, 1836 - Makran offers an alliance again. I reject for the same reason I rejected them before.
July 12th,
1836 - Kokand offers me an alliance. I reject, despite them actually being useful in a war. Why, you may ask? Simple
--Russia. Russia typically goes after Kokand very early in my games, so I tend to avoid allying with 'em.
July 20th, 1836 - Nepal offers another alliance. Rejected, of course.
July 30th,
1836 - Kalat offers an alliance. Rejected for being too weak, as well as being one of my future punching bags/expansion targets.
August 1st, 1836 - Bhutan offers an alliance. Hahahaha, no.
August 22nd, 1836 - Mandate of Heaven notice. You can have everything under the heavens, China, because I'm aiming for the heavens themselves.
October 30th, 1836 - Bukkhara offers and alliance, and I accept. They'll be useful against Afghanistan, and Russia tends to ignore Bukkhara early on, at least in my experience.
January 17th, 1837 - Nepal bugs me again for an alliance. Guess how I responded.
March 1st, 1837 - I increase relations with the UK again, bumping Sikh Empire-UK relations up to 20.
Middle of march, 1837 - Unrelated to the Sikh Empire, but el salvador breaks away from the USCA as a presidential dictatorship.
March 18th, 1837 - Khiva offers an alliance, which I accept. Same reason as Bukkhara.
March 28th, 1837 - The UK and Portugal ask me for military access, which I grant. This puts Sikh Empire-UK relations at 50, meaning that they can't fabricate any casus belli against me.
June 17th, 1837 - Okay, seriously Nepal, begging me for an alliance is getting annoying. No. Means. No.
Haven't had a screenshot in a while, so let's see how our finances are doing?
Hm, we're making enough money to bump up education funding a bit, but our pops' needs aren't being met. Not good. Time to enact Operation Beat Up On Your Neighbors For Fun And Profit.
July 20th,
1837 - I begin fabricating a cut down to size casus belli on Sindh.
August 19th,
1837 - Bhutan's back with an offer I can easily refuse. Persistent little bugger..
September 1st, 1837 - Sikkim asks for an alliance. Seriously, what is with all of these small fry?
Late October, 1837 - I incur 3.2 infamy when my casus belli against Sindh gets found out. That's barely more than a humiliate CB, so I find this acceptable.
November 15th, 1837 - Casus Belli acquisition speed +25% event. Would've been nice to get before the infamy, but oh well.
December 1st, 1837 - My casus belli is completed, and I declare war on Sindh.
The sole battle of the war is a crushing victory for the Sikh Empire...
We actually lose more men to attrition than the battle. So much for preserving our initial military.
During the war, Queen Victoria's coronation takes place. Congratulation to our
GOOD FRIENDS, the UK.
Finally, after a crushing defeat and having 2/3rds of their territory occupied, Sindh capitulates...
This gives us a cool 10 prestige, as well as some of their (admittedly small) income. Still, it's enough for us to bump up our education budget a bit more, so that's nice.
Expect a lot of humiliation & cutting down to size wars while I'm an unciv. I'm going to try to get my prestige into the top 10, which should give me
just enough priority on the world market for my pops to meet their life needs.