Help with Indian minors

[unmerged(45754)]

I have a desire to play an Indian minor, as I really feel it could be a challenge of a game.

I'd prefer to play a Hindu nation, but I could be convinced otherwise. What is the best one to play with? What are some good starting ideas? I am considering the V-one, as it has quite a few provinces and has Dravidian culture, which is largely what southern Indian appears to be, but I am not sure.

What are some good strategies to actually be able to play a decent game with them?

 

[unmerged(15337)]

India is indeed a fun place to play. Here are some general comments about playing there.

Many of the Indian states start with an isolation penalty; once you know of at least 20 nations, counting your own, this goes away. If you are playing an isolated state, breaking this penalty is probably the top priority in the early years.

If you play a Muslim nation, you will not have a religious slider for Hinduism (or Buddhism for that matter). If you play a Hindu nation you have much more flexibility in this way.

Most provinces in India are fairly rich. But once you branch out to the East or West into Burma or Pakistan you start hitting much poorer areas. These provinces may still be worthwhile for other reasons, depending on your goals. And don't even attempt to conquer Tibet unless you have a real reason for it. These provinces are utterly worthless and movement and attrition is literally a nightmare.

Try to colonize all the open areas before about 1570 so that you can keep the Europeans out. Once they make a permanent settlement it is very difficult to get rid of them.

Most Indian states are in the Muslim tech group. Exceptions are Vijayanagar, Bengal, Arakan, and Assam all of which are Chinese tech.

In Vanilla, most Indian states do not have special events or leaders. Notable exceptions are Delhi (it is fun to watch the "incompetence of the Lodis" if you are one of their neighbors), Vijayanagar ("fall of the city of victory" -- this is disaster), and, of course, the Mughals.

Speaking of the Mughals, if they form and do fairly well you will be hard pressed during the mid to late 1500s as they get very favorable events and some really good leaders.

Hope you have fun. I've played both Bengal and Orissa, and both were very good games. My son also enjoyed playing a campaign with Gujarat.

 

[Thistletooth]

Vijayanagar is the easist Hindu state to play, and is extremely fun, provided you don't really care about tech. Taking on the Delhi Sultanate and/or the Mughals is pretty fun, though it really boils down to one "win all or lose all" campaign. Orissa, in the east, has a slightly better tech group, but they're weaker at the start. I prefer Vijayanagar's drive to the north, especially since you have to conquer a certain amount of territory by a certain date (check the event file if you don't want to be surprised), or else you'll face the horrible Fall of the City of Victory event. If it fires, you're in for a whole lot more fun.

Finally, Rajputana is a good country to play an early conquest game with. Sure, they're small, but check out those DP sliders!

The southern/central Muslim states will be similar to a Vijayanagar game, except that religion will be a bigger problem for you. Your tech will be slightly better, though.

Playing as Gujarat or Bengal is very interesting, but can be frustrating (Gujarat), or boring (Bengal). The west is very dangerous, and the east - barring an expansionist China - is usually too tranquil, and too weak to put up much of a fight.

And playing as Delhi is just boring. The Mughals can be fun, if you feel like playing as a REAL bully. Start in 1492/1520 if you can, as the Timurids in the former. Playing as the Timurids in 1419...isn't quite as much fun....

If you play a Muslim nation, you will not have a religious slider for Hinduism (or Buddhism for that matter). If you play a Hindu nation you have much more flexibility in this way.

Are you certain? I thought that the Sunni/Shia religion sliders include Catholic, Protestant (these shouldn't be separated, BTW), Orthodox, Shia/Sunni, and Hinduism.

 

[unmerged(25609)]

Heartily second what the previous posters said.
Vijayanagar has the added advantage of access to most of the un-colonized provinces in India, thus the best chance of preventing a foothold by the Europeans. Don't let them get established!
The Timurids in a GC are great!! It's like three games in one: you play a Muslim state stretching from Iraq to Afghanistan, then you face the 2nd worst rebellion phase in EUII (only China's is worse, in my humble opinion), then you get a super-leader & a military boost, and go conquer India and the Mughals. More good leaders, monarchs and helpful events thereafter.

 

[unmerged(25936)]

Yeah, I like to play Timiruds in GC, it pays real big dividends when you turn into the Mughal Empire as you are usually better able to hang onto your territories as well as getting the benefit of manipulating your Domestic Policy sliders early on.

The draw back is you probably won't get rid of your BB score if you're TO succesful holding onto territory, so make sure you take some strategic losses (poor un-fortressed Shiite provinces preferably to Sunni nations which will try to convert them for you) so you can start as the Mughals with a clean slate.

Then you switch into conquest mode with the Mughals, take India and convert it all, then you can turn around and retake all of Persia back, hopefully mostly converted for you =P (if Persia forms, just force-convert Persia to Sunni)

 

[Saulta]

I once played as Rajputana. It was pretty fun, but since they´re a one province minor it was a bit difficult. If you´re going to play as Rajputana, wait for the right moment to strike. You start as a vassal of Delhi, and so does Malwa and Gujarat. Wait for them to break their vassalage with Delhi, and then you do the same. When any of them declares war upon Delhi, you join them. You have a core on one of Delhis provinces, so you should have a casus belli on them. Now, Delhi is to busy being attacked by Malwa and/or Gujarat and will focus on them for a while, wich will give you time to take controll of half of their lands!Just watch out for the Timurids, they always ally with Delhi, and always seem to have troops ready to attack you, even though half of their country is controlled by rebels. Also try to get some merchants in the CoT´s since they will speed up you tech.You should also try to get some maps from the eastern countries, such as Arakan,Bengal or Orissa

I hope this will help you if you decide to play as Rajputana,

 

[unmerged(45754)]

I played as Rajputana. I added one more click to quality, declared war on them as a one province minor, and proceeded to kick Delhi's ass (I guess the one time I played Byzantium and made them a regional power after about 20 years, even at massive inflation, helped in this regard!), taking several of their provinces. Then I declared war on Malwa sometime later, Hyderbad and Delhi made war on me, V-nation assisted me, and in the end I managed to get another province out of Delhi as well as Malwa annexed

So I am doing well so far in my Rajputana game. It's rather fun trying to unify India!

 

[Kasperus]

Personally I found Mysore to be the easiest. You are a bit isolated in the beginning, which is techwise a negative factor, but strategically a positive one. Vijayanagar seems to be stronger than you, as they have more provs, but your home province is richer. Also, in contrary to Vijayanagar Mysore is in muslim techgroup which gives you an edge on techresearch one you get borders with states in northern India, so you can catch up on your tech. Since natives will destroy Vijayanagars colonies, soon you have them only on your northern border, being free to colonize in the south till the coming of Europeans (and in vanilla they give you often 200 years headstart). I found it easy enough to ally myself with Hyderabad and then got VIjayanagar in a sandwich. Together with colonization it should provide you soon enough with a strong base in southern India from which you can spread to the north easily. Hyderabad is later not hard to take, being itself pressed from the north, while most of their provs have your religion and culture. Mysore gets no historical events, though it has the possibility to convert to islam by randomevent, which is handy as you can convert your own provs to islam and hope that before you conquer it, the islamitic states in northern India will convert the rest (and islam is a bit better for tech as well). It has some decent monarchs and even one leader as well...

 

[Sleepyhead]

Hyderabad/Deccan in EP.

I have never had so fun playing an Indian country.
Good cultures, good events.
Cores on half of India when you become Mahrattis.

 

[unmerged(45754)]

I play vanilla and I wanted a Hindu nation specifically.

I'm hoping I'll get a lot of provinces defecting to me from revolts re: the Timuirids.I got one province from Delhi that way too, they had rebels, and the rest of Delhi was cut off from it. It joined my realm was state culture and state religion too.

Really do wish it were possible to get more cores or more cultures.

 

[Sleepyhead]

I play vanilla and I wanted a Hindu nation specifically.

I'm hoping I'll get a lot of provinces defecting to me from revolts re: the Timuirids.I got one province from Delhi that way too, they had rebels, and the rest of Delhi was cut off from it. It joined my realm was state culture and state religion too.

Really do wish it were possible to get more cores or more cultures.

Well in EP you can become a Hindi Mahrattis with Deccan that has 2 cultures and alot of cores.
vanilla is so booring