The "Big 3" close in -- what's my next move?

[Rituro]

Great advice, @viale . Thanks!

UPDATE: The Ottomans got absolutely molly-whomped, I believe the term is. Poland has retaken almost all their lost territory (to the Ottomans, at least -- that now-Russian territory is on lock) and the Balkans are now Austrian white. (Constantinople is still in Ottoman hands.) For my part, I got Afghanistan and Oman cores returned and freed Serbia before taking 1300 ducats for myself. I lost only one stack when I miscalculated my force march timing, but they were avenged in full. By the time we peaced out, Ottoman manpower was down to 20k with only 90k on the board.

Then things got interesting. I was able to quickly ally Russia (yay!), only for Ming to ally Austria(?!). As things sit right now, the truce has expired and we remain at peace, even after Ayutthaya decided they wanted Hsenwi and dragged me in. Apparently, Ming was too busy releasing Yi (???) to defend its tributary. Oh darn. Net result, I picked up two provinces, which is all the impetus I need to diploannex Tirhut.

Back to the western front, Hormuz saw a weakened Sind and poached two provinces for themselves. Coincidentally, my truce timer with them ended and all Sindi territory was given to Afghanistan. Both my flanks now have decent marches as buffer states, with Jharkand in the east to gain a province or two once Tirhut is absorbed.

To the north, Russia is picking apart Delhi piece by piece and taking their sweet time doing so. Not that I mind -- anything that keeps Delhi's manpower next to nothing is fine by me.

Current state of affairs: Great Britain and Austria (again??) are back for more Ottoman territory. Ottoblob is months away from being permanently neutered and other countries can sense it. Ethiopia is taking out its neighbours possibly in preparation to go after the final Mamluk provinces and maybe Ottoman Arabia. Looks like the big European fight will be between the blobs of France, GB and Austria, which should be one heck of a fight.

In other words, I think I'm safe from all but Ming. Time to start pursuing a Ming-plosion.

Thanks so much for your help, everyone! Onwards, Bharat!

 

[viale]

Congratulations on killing the Otto's. If you wish to pursue a more permanent alliance with Russia, you should keep increasing their trust, though keep 10 spare favors for emergency war declarations of opportunity. You should also take a look at you and Russias provinces of strategic and vital interests(?) and see if you can make them not overlap.

I once kept some fairly okay-ish relations with the Ottomans as Ethiopia(even when bordering them in the Sinai peninsula) by being aware of what they saw as important. Ie. I didn't get too many maluses with regards to the "we desire your provinces" negative modifier.

 

[Rituro]

EPILOGUE: WE DID IT! Vijayanagar/Bharat are now my 4th completed campaign, surviving all the way to 1821.

Partnering with Russia and not submitting to Ming was clearly the best choice. After the initial successes described above, the Ottomans were dunked on by everyone in the neighbourhood: Russia, Hormuz, Oman, Najd, Ethiopia, Mamluks/Egypt and, of course, the unstoppable juggernaught that was Austria.

All Bharati cores/permanent claims were either conquered or fed to Jharkand, after which I grabbed a little more territory just for fun (namely Tibet, some of Shan and a few pieces of Ming). This was made possible by Russia and I breaking Ming's back in a crucial war, popping out Yi and Miao and leading to repeated smack-fests all the way to 1821. At different points, Ming was under siege from any combination of myself, Russia, Ayutthaya, Yarkand, Korea and Great Britain(?!). The final 70 years or so of the game saw Ming on 0 Mandate and Beijing in Korean hands, which made me very happy.

For all the claims they made, the European powers never once troubled me. The closest they came was GB attacking Ming, but that was it. I guess they were too busy colonizing and wringing their hands over France and Austria going full blob. Here's how the world ended:

Not sure why the F10 screenshots end up like this but okay then...

LEGEND: I'm the lime-green blob at present-day India. My marches, Afghanistan and Jharkand, are on my western border and tucked inside on my eastern shores, respectively. Yarkand is the massive white blob between me and Russia. The white splotches between myself, Ming and Ayutthaya are a mix of Shan and Dali. Ternate and GB share Australia. The white blob stretching from the English Channel to the Caspian Sea is Austria. The beige blob taking up Italy are the Papal States. The yellow speck in the middle of the blue French blob is Castille; hilariously, the yellow island dot nearby is Spain, which means Aragon formed Spain first. (Not that it mattered, apparently.) Finally, the entire southern half of South America is Chile, who shook off their colonial overlord to form their own country.

 

[Horn and Ivory]

Beautiful. Nice going, and thanks for updating us.

 

[Dominion]

Nice read

 

[PhoenixG]

GJ finishing till the end date with pretty borders. You should use steam screenshot (iirc default F12) instead the build in EU4 one.