The Right to Rule
blsteen - Crafty plans, Ho! (Actually, I didn't have crafty plan at the time, which shows up in the rather aimless play. Fortunately, it turned out not to matter too much.)
gabor - Yes, I should have guaranteed Orissa (or warned Deva Bengal, or both). I just wasn't thinking. As you have probably spotted by now, I'm not the world's best player.
Still, on with the motley....
Our first choice is easy. Bihar is the weakest of our so-called rivals, Bihar is the target of our current mission, Bihar is the only one not currently our ally. Bihar it shall be. It requires a little preparation, since an immediate DOW would draw a generous 9 stability hits. We arm our diplomats with suitable insults (“Anti-elephantine!” “Deva Bengali!” “AI!”) and send them forth to cancel our Military Access.
Bihar is allied to Vijayanagar, as are we. Vijayanagar is still fighting Mysore and has got itself seriously war-exhausted. All the better if they decide to jump the wrong way. Bihar is also allied to Bengal, Nepal and Punjab, and guaranteed by Tibet. I am not impressed (I mean, how low do you have to be to get a guarantee from Tibet?). They're also somehow at war with Persia and the Timurids, presumably in support of Punjab.
Relations duly lowered, DOW! It still sends our stability negative (drat that Royal Marriage mission),but the cause is just. <The elephant nods sagely and surreptitiously pulls out a copy of “Getting in Touch with Your Inner Rebel.”>
Hmm. That I did not expect. Vijayanagar is in, but Rajputana has dishonoured. At least it saves me breaking an alliance later. And Nepal (bunch of trimmers) has dishonoured both alliances. We're up against Bihar, Bengal, Punjab and Tibet.
Bihar tries to invade Jharkhand. Daipat Simha Duranjaya is waiting with the cavalry. I flood Bihar's provinces with siege armies while my cavalry hunts down the survivors.
Bengal sends their army to Pandua, where their siege (natch) goes much faster than mine in Bengal. Vijayanagar finally annexes Mysore and makes white peace with Bihar shortly after. Punjab buys their way out of the Persian war and invades Delhi. Kashmir is less lucky, losing a province to the Timurids. Rebels pop in Oudh. <The elephant looks unsurprised.>
After way too many ping-pongs, Bihar's army is dead and I can spare troops to deal with Punjab and the rebels. Assam (and Nepal) take the chance to DOW Bihar. Tibet sends an expeditionary force through Bhutan that gets as far as the coast. I drive it off, retake Pandua and vassalise Bengal.
Bihar finds some troops from somewhere and manages to retake Koch. Assam promptly takes it off them, and Bihar makes peace for Koch, isolating Bhutan. Telegu patriots revolt in Teligana and take the province before I can get an army to them. Vijayanagar kindly sends an army to take it back. Nepal takes U-Tsang from Tibet. I kill off Punjab's armies and roll over their provinces. Punjab accepts vassalisation and I take Allahabad and Maithil from Bihar, leaving them with only their capital and Bhutan. The mission completes, cancelling our BB.
Gondwana in 1448, after the reduction of Bihar. The dark green at upper left is Durrani.
Next mission is the return of “Incorporate Deccan”. I cancel and get “Reclaim Kondavidu” instead. Well, we have a core on Kondavidu, but it's also Vijayanagar's capital. One of those long-term projects, methinks. <The elephant nods sagely.>
Next target will be Rajputana, but we pause a moment to burn off BB and allow our new vassal-allies time to build some armies. I notice that Durrani has revolted from the Timurids, who are making a pig's ear of getting it back. Our Land Reformer dies and we hire a no-good Artist. Rajputana wants to restore the alliance, but I think not. The army is again brought to readiness – and then spends the next few months playing ping-pong with a stack of Delhi-ite rebels from Lucknow. <The elephant has set up a table and is practising with its attendants.>
Distraction over, we DOW Bundelkhand. They're still allied to the Rajputs from when they were released, and I see no point in unnecessary stability hits.
Rajputana, unlike some AIs I could name, sees no point in hopeless wars. They dishonour the alliance without blinking. I occupy and annex Bundelkhand anyway and send in the missionary.
I raise another couple of thousand troops as insurance. Access is revoked, insults are sent and the war is on. Once again, Vijayanagar drops out with white peace soon after it starts, but it doesn't matter as I clobber Rajputana's armies (with the Commandant, I'm on 112% Discipline and it shows) and flood their provinces. Meanwhile, random weirdness breaks out in the east – first Manipuri rebels pop up in Pandua and then a few months later Manipur itself rebels (from Assam) in Koch – a province which Manipur has never owned. At which point the rebels sieging my territory raise the Manipur banner, declare themselves the “First Liberation Army” and march “home”. Manipur isn't at war with me or anything. I decide to let bygones be bygones. <The elephant shakes its head and ostentatiously ties a knot in its handkerchief.>
Rajputana is made to grovel in short order and I take four provinces – Dadra, Baroda, Udaipur and Ajmer – and, even better, no less than 750 ducats. (The hoarding of cash by even minor AI powers is something I hope they fix in HttT – it makes warmongering far too rewarding). I now have the land link to Kutch. I also have, for the first time, enough BB (6.6) to notice. A few years' peace seems in order.
Gondwana in 1451, after the reduction of Rajputana. Note Manipur (light green) at right.
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Peace, of course is relative, as the rebels are keen to remind me. I hire a semi-competent (2-star) Scientist to replace my 1-star Artist and slowly crawl up to Naval 4, Production 4, Trade 5 & Gov 6. Ming annexes Taungu and is now pressed up against the borders of Assam. Ming has 98,000 troops. I'd prefer not to have to fight Ming. <”The elephant is studying “Chinese Phrases You Should Know.”>
Life, punctuated by revolts, goes on. Bhutan revolts from Bihar (dammit, I was hoping to avoid the BB from annexing Bihar). We get a Gift to the State and consider building temples. We re-instate our alliance with Nepal and they thank us by DOWing Bhutan. Faced with three stability hits for honouring, we drop the alliance and the alliance drops our prestige. Vijayanagar diplo-annexes Travancore, which cleans up the map a bit. Finally, we get our first cores (Maharastra and Nagpur) by occupation rather than event. This gives us Marathi as a fifth accepted culture (we actually have more Kanauji, these days, but that's in our culture-group so less important).
Multiculturalism is good, kiddies.
Trying out new cultures....
not just yet anyway, the elephant has to grow bigger to crush the dragon 
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