First playthrough to end of game. Tooting my own horn.

[Prebyster_Johannes]

 

[Prebyster_Johannes]

Wanted to post my first end of game playthrough. Started as Ajam and went Persia. Early game was intense, Transoxnia was my only post Timurid vassal revolt ally and had to carefully select enemies to keep that alliance. We broke up near the 1600s since they had a malevolent ruler who never helped me but kept calling me to war. Wish I had thought about drilling since my armies were usually mobilized. Learned alot and do appreciate all the help about developing for institutions here, y'all are a good well to draw from. Fought off Revolutionary Spain, number one power, and the Ottomans, number two for a long time, and finished in a good place. Next I'll try to learn trade and colonization or maybe try to survive as Byzantium.

 

[Nostalgium]

It's a bit counterintuitive, but Timurids > Mughals actually helped me learn a lot about trade. You can get the Doab > Lahore > Persia trade route (with other feeders) going very easily, creating an isolated chain for yourself where you can see precisely what increases the value of your trade without much outside interference. Mughals are so strong once you get that ball rolling that you should be able to easily apply the lessons learned in this game to focus on other things than expansion and warfare for your learning process, like trade. They're not so great for colonization, of course, but they can do bits of that too in eastern Africa and Australia.

 

[nobodyinparticular]

If you want to try a somewhat similar experience but really amped up - try starting as the Timurids. If you pass the trial by fire of keeping your vassals pacified, you'll be able to instantly annex Transoxiana, Khorasan and Fars after 10 years. Your powerbase increases massively and if you take Ajam's centres of trade you'll already got a decent trade network going on. I recommend starting with trade ideas, followed by admin, and then offensive.

 

[Prebyster_Johannes]

If you want to try a somewhat similar experience but really amped up - try starting as the Timurids. If you pass the trial by fire of keeping your vassals pacified, you'll be able to instantly annex Transoxiana, Khorasan and Fars after 10 years. Your powerbase increases massively and if you take Ajam's centres of trade you'll already got a decent trade network going on. I recommend starting with trade ideas, followed by admin, and then offensive.

I had tried them a month ago and went Mughals, then got stomped by Vijayngar and Ottomans. Now that I understand a bit more I may try them again. I just might give them a go after my Hungary playthrough. They were interesting and per you and another poster seem to be a good choice to try and understand trade.

 

[Prebyster_Johannes]

Wanted to post my first end of game playthrough. Started as Ajam and went Persia. Early game was intense, Transoxnia was my only post Timurid vassal revolt ally and had to carefully select enemies to keep that alliance. We broke up near the 1600s since they had a malevolent ruler who never helped me but kept calling me to war. Wish I had thought about drilling since my armies were usually mobilized. Learned alot and do appreciate all the help about developing for institutions here, y'all are a good well to draw from. Fought off Revolutionary Spain, number one power, and the Ottomans, number two for a long time, and finished in a good place. Next I'll try to learn trade and colonization or maybe try to survive as Byzantium.

Adal, Haasa, Jungarath, Multan, and Shirvan were my loyal vassals. Multan got a bit upset when I forced Shiite on them but with some gold, patience, and nearly 80,000 men ready to slaughter them for insubordination they got their priorities straight.

 

[Prebyster_Johannes]

It's a bit counterintuitive, but Timurids > Mughals actually helped me learn a lot about trade. You can get the Doab > Lahore > Persia trade route (with other feeders) going very easily, creating an isolated chain for yourself where you can see precisely what increases the value of your trade without much outside interference. Mughals are so strong once you get that ball rolling that you should be able to easily apply the lessons learned in this game to focus on other things than expansion and warfare for your learning process, like trade. They're not so great for colonization, of course, but they can do bits of that too in eastern Africa and Australia.

I went Mughals once but the trade I guess shifted and I started losing money. I'll have to try this as trade is still kind of beyond my understanding.

 

[MatthewP]

I went Mughals once but the trade I guess shifted and I started losing money. I'll have to try this as trade is still kind of beyond my understanding.

Your trade capital moved to Delhi, which meant all your old Timurid trade stopped being collected.

 

[Nostalgium]

I went Mughals once but the trade I guess shifted and I started losing money. I'll have to try this as trade is still kind of beyond my understanding.

What Matthew said. The first thing you do when you've formed the Mughals is move your trade capital back to Persia so you can collect there. The Persia node is almost psuedo endnode territory, so it's one of the strongest ones for any kind of North India/Central Asian empire to secure.

 

[nobodyinparticular]

Happened to me too, a healthy surplus flipped into a deficit because my trade network got ruined. It's an easy fix, make sure to have 200 dip on hand when you form Mughals.