Introduction
For 1,500 years, it is estimated that India was the largest economy in the world. At one point in the first century, its economic output is said to have been 33% of the globe's total. When it was first unified as a centralised state in the fourth century BCE by Chandragupta Maurya, it controlled an estimated one third of the world's population, had the world's largest city, and fielded an army of 600,000 men, comparible to the standing forces today of India and China. Over the next thousand years, its classic civilization spread across asia, with hundreds of kingdoms adopting Buddhist, Jain and Hindu culture and art, so that today, one can find priests learning Sanskrit in Japan, the Ramayana as Thailand's national epic, the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia, and the largest Hindu temple in Cambodia.
Since the time of Chandragupta, few empires have managed to unify the majority of India. This AAR takes place at a time of warring states, when India's riches have attracted yet another invasion from the pourous northwest frontier, while protected to the east by the Himalayas. Muslim Sultans from beyond Gandhara have set up their throne in Delhi, Bengal and the Deccan. The mighty Rajputs fight a never-ending war against the hordes of fanatical central asian and Persian invaders. The Hindu Vijaynagara Empire stands as the last remnant of its once powerfull self, its magnificent stone capital city lost to the Deccan's Bahamani Sultanate. Although feuding between multiple kingdoms, the land is united by common legend, history and pilgrimage.
This AAR deals with the first 50 years of my game as the Vijaynagara, on normal difficulty. What would history have been like if Mallikarjuna Raya, who rose to the throne as Emperor in 1446, had not been a currupt and weak ruler, but had grasped the understanding of statesmanship needed to follow the example of Chandragupta and the heroes of the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics? What if a footnote in history turned into the next Ashoka? I hope that this AAR will inspire others to play amongst the vicious feudal atmosphere of this majestic land of jungles, philosophers and ancient temples. If you like this AAR, I also did a review of the game, based partly on my experiences as the Vijaynagara.
Ill try to expand this AAR over time, but until then, enjoy the screens at least.
The Maharaja's Dream
The objectives were:
1). Unite the Indian subcontinent.
2). Convert the people to the king's religion.
3). Establish friendly relations with all neighbours.
4). Plow funds into development.
5). Reduce my inevitable bad reputation through peace.
6). Explore overseas.
7). Colinize the islands of Indonesia.
The Kingdoms of India
In the south:
Vijaynagara - grey.
Kingdom of the Deccan - light blue.
Kingdom of Orissa - orange.
Kingdom of Mysore - yellow.
Kingdom of Tranvacore - medium green.
Kingdom of Sri Lanka - not shown.
Kingdom of the Maldives - not shown.
In the north:
Kingdom of Rajputana - dark green
Kingdom of Golconda - light grey.
Kingdom of Bihar - dark grey.
Kingdom of Gujerat - yellow.
Kingdom of Sindh - brown.
Kingdom of Nepal - medium green.
Kingdom of Assam - not shown.
Kingdom of Manipur - not shown.
Kingdom of Malwa - one province, below Rajputana.
Kingdom of Khandesh - one province, above Bahmani.
Kingdom of Bengal - blue.
Kingdom of Delhi - sickly green.
The Lotus Blossoms
First thing to do was gain enough provinces to have the resources to develop my income, and plow this back into research. To do this, I plowed all my funds into government research for an idea. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the coming invasion, I built up my army, with the hope that I could send one force after their main army and fortified provinces, and another after their unfortified provinces in the middle of India. All I needed was a cassus belli. Then my first idea came - I chose Deus Vult - I now was free to decalre war on any Muslim kingdom I chose without a stability penalty
Conquest of the Deccan
I gradully drove their forces back to Goa with my large army, whilst building another unit of soldiers to take their woefully undefended eastern provinces. An assult each time they retreated guarenteed that by the time they were in their final unconquered province, I could assult it with my 10k+ troops and then follow them into the province they were retreating to, to prevent its recapture. After quick negotiations, they had but one province left, and my borders had extended up to the one province state of Khandesh in the north.
Brutal Consolidation
After a short time, Khandesh and Malwa (both single provinces) made the rather unfortunate decision of allying with the Maldives (a single island province) and what remained of the Deccan sultanate (one province). By doing this, they had effectively guarenteed that in spite of my truce with the Deccan, they would join the war against me. When I decaled war upon the Muslim kingdom of Khandesh, all others followed suit. Using funds that I had built up, I hired a group of mercinaries, to take Khandesh and Malwa, who had only 1000 troops between them, and used my existing forces to defeat the Deccan, by chasing them after each battle until they had been wiped out entirely. I negotiated an annexation with them seperate of the alliance. I then took their captured fleet, and conquered the Maldives, leaving a small garrison there, as I planned to convert them. Khandesh and Malwa were then annexed.
Within 10 years, I had doubled my empire and destroyed a total of four soverign kingdoms, sweeping through India with only conquest in mind - it was time to build up my research and armed forces for the larger goal of driving Delhi and the other powers to a firey grave. As a final stroke of luck, my royal marriages paid off, with the inheretance of Tranvacore.
The Delhi Sultanate
I now bordered the vicious Delhi Sultanate, who were at the time, at war with the Kingdom of Bihar. I had the choice to either invade westward into Gujerat and Sindh, or eastward into Delhi, which would surround the Rajputs, and give me a border with the mighty Persian empire. I chose to invade Delhi (after letting them conquer most of Bihar, exhausting their forces and giving me three more provinces to target, lol), which sent me to war with both them, and their allies in Bengal. The conquest was a tough slog, but because I was fairly isolated from Bengal, their only resistance came in the form of a fleet, which I managed to crush, when my army repelled them off the coast, sending them back to their fleet, which was subsequently blockaded by my own as they moved onto their fleet, sending their small number of troops back onto land for total destruction by my 10k army.
Meanwhile, my other force had managed to conquer its way up to Ladakh and Kashmir on the Persian border, and so, sending the above mentioned force from the coastal slaughter to finish off Delhi was the next priority. They werent nearly as easy to tame as the Deccan, but eventually fell, letting me invade Bengal by land, and take all their provinces too. In the end, Bengal was reduced to one province, and Delhi, due to its size, to about six. I now controlled provinces all over India. Since the Persians had invaded Kashmir, and taken Jammu away, I conquered the single province it had left. I wondered whether it would be worth re-taking Jammu from the forces of the mighty Timurids, as it contained an Indian culture, and no Persian core....
The War to End All Wars
As it turns out, my dilemma was resolved when the Persians invaded my agressive nation. If India, China and Persia represent the old superpowers of asia, then this was a war between two giants. A pan-Indian empire (albiet with large holes), vs one of the great powers of the time. Using the vast treasuries that I had built up, I had to quickly recuit as many mercinaries as I possibly could, to take on the only power that could possibly rival my own. I couldnt even seen most of their provinces, and had no way of exploring them. Thankfully, a path to their capital was at least open. After a huge war, in which conquest and counter-conquest happened, the Timurids offered me two provinces - I only wanted one of them - Jammu, which had no Timurid core, and thus, wouldnt create diplomatic problems. I took it through a counter proposal, set about converting the population there and improving relations with the Timurids, to prevent another war.
My second national idea had occurred round about this time - I chose humanist tolerance, and coupled with choosing the noble republic government type, and religious tolerance sliders, I had virtually no chance of revolt anywhere, whilst I slowly converted to provinces I intended to keep, to Hinduism, thus getting rid of the need to have tolerance sliders to full for some religions.
Mass Consolidation
Another war with Delhi, saw me taking all their provinces save Delhi itself, and a war with Gujerat and Sindh, who were allied, saw me taking all but their two capitals, effectively surrounding the Rajputs, who took it upon themselves to annex these newly single-province nations. In South East Asia, my efforts to prevent other kingdoms annexing Manipur, which I was trying to diplo-annex, resulted in war with the Buddhist alliance of Pegu and Sri Lanka - resulting in the vassalisation of Pegu, and annexing of half of Sri Lanka. The Timurids, suddenly, through an event, gained several cores on my provinces around the former Delhi and Sindhi provinces, and war ensued as soon as the truce between us ran out, in spite of good relations. This war against a weakened Timurid empire, saw me vassalising the Timurid Empire - effectively sealing my place as the most feared nation on earth.
The years after the second Indo-Persian war were no less epic. At first, I tried to establish good relations with other Hindu kingdoms, in order to diplo-annex or inherit them, but to no avail. Since I had gained cores on most of them, I had cassus belli on some of them - who happened to be allied to others that I didnt have cassus belli on - so I soured relations with former friends, and took them down without mercy. Some nations were even unfortunate enough to be part of both alliances, resulting in their complete annexation, as they were forced to go to war stright after being defeated in the first war. Single province Manipur dissappeared beneath my warriors boots, as did Sri Lanka (left as a single province after my war with them and Pegu), Bihar (left as a single province by Delhi all those years ago), Mysore (part of both alliances) and Orissa (parth of both alliances) - Nepal, Rajputana, Gondwana and Assam were left with a single province each - the last nations in the way of my total conquest - surrounded on all sides. I was now the most powerfull nation on earth, with a yearly income of 250 ducats every year-end, compared to the 10 or so that I started with.
India United Again
Since both alliances that I had just made war upon had shared my state religion, I was forced to lose two stabilty - one for each war, giving me zero stability - so I plunged funds back into this for a while. However, as mentioned earlier, a combination of three things gave my empire unwavering solidarity - tolerance sliders were set to full on Hinduism and Buddhism, giving a tolerance bonus of +5 on every province except my single pagan one - I had adopted the 'noble republic' government type, giving tolerance of +1 tolarance - and I had adopted the humanist tolerance idea, giving +1 tolerance - this gives about 10% growth in every province.
After 50 years, the same aged Maharaja is on the throne of the empire. He has seen the downfall of 14 soverign states by his own hand. He now rules all of India, and after annexing the last single province nations, will focus on reducing the incredible reputation of his dynasty. But before this can happen, the northwest frontier lights up again in the third India vs Persia war. This is probably due to India having a core on Persia, even though I didnt desire it.
India as she looks in 1504:
Her diplomatic situation:
Her religious makeup:
The Quest for the New World
In just 50 years, a stable state has been created across India. As the research being plowed into government tech grows closer to level 9, the third idea, Quest for the New World, draws near, and will enable the Maharaja to send mighty treasure fleets to the nations of the world, and perhaps even explore the extents of the Persian Empire, as it is driven back once again. After this, the islands of Indonesia, once home to Hindu kingdoms, and even part of an Indian empire, will be the peacefull target of development, as badboy reputation is reduced, and relations with neighbours reach the +200 mark. Hopefully an alliance of some sort with Persia will prevent any further bloodshed - or perhaps they will force India to annex them? Perhaps forcing them to release their conquered nations will keep them occupied?
For 1,500 years, it is estimated that India was the largest economy in the world. At one point in the first century, its economic output is said to have been 33% of the globe's total. When it was first unified as a centralised state in the fourth century BCE by Chandragupta Maurya, it controlled an estimated one third of the world's population, had the world's largest city, and fielded an army of 600,000 men, comparible to the standing forces today of India and China. Over the next thousand years, its classic civilization spread across asia, with hundreds of kingdoms adopting Buddhist, Jain and Hindu culture and art, so that today, one can find priests learning Sanskrit in Japan, the Ramayana as Thailand's national epic, the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia, and the largest Hindu temple in Cambodia.
Since the time of Chandragupta, few empires have managed to unify the majority of India. This AAR takes place at a time of warring states, when India's riches have attracted yet another invasion from the pourous northwest frontier, while protected to the east by the Himalayas. Muslim Sultans from beyond Gandhara have set up their throne in Delhi, Bengal and the Deccan. The mighty Rajputs fight a never-ending war against the hordes of fanatical central asian and Persian invaders. The Hindu Vijaynagara Empire stands as the last remnant of its once powerfull self, its magnificent stone capital city lost to the Deccan's Bahamani Sultanate. Although feuding between multiple kingdoms, the land is united by common legend, history and pilgrimage.
This AAR deals with the first 50 years of my game as the Vijaynagara, on normal difficulty. What would history have been like if Mallikarjuna Raya, who rose to the throne as Emperor in 1446, had not been a currupt and weak ruler, but had grasped the understanding of statesmanship needed to follow the example of Chandragupta and the heroes of the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics? What if a footnote in history turned into the next Ashoka? I hope that this AAR will inspire others to play amongst the vicious feudal atmosphere of this majestic land of jungles, philosophers and ancient temples. If you like this AAR, I also did a review of the game, based partly on my experiences as the Vijaynagara.
Ill try to expand this AAR over time, but until then, enjoy the screens at least.
The Maharaja's Dream
The objectives were:
1). Unite the Indian subcontinent.
2). Convert the people to the king's religion.
3). Establish friendly relations with all neighbours.
4). Plow funds into development.
5). Reduce my inevitable bad reputation through peace.
6). Explore overseas.
7). Colinize the islands of Indonesia.
The Kingdoms of India
In the south:
Vijaynagara - grey.
Kingdom of the Deccan - light blue.
Kingdom of Orissa - orange.
Kingdom of Mysore - yellow.
Kingdom of Tranvacore - medium green.
Kingdom of Sri Lanka - not shown.
Kingdom of the Maldives - not shown.
In the north:
Kingdom of Rajputana - dark green
Kingdom of Golconda - light grey.
Kingdom of Bihar - dark grey.
Kingdom of Gujerat - yellow.
Kingdom of Sindh - brown.
Kingdom of Nepal - medium green.
Kingdom of Assam - not shown.
Kingdom of Manipur - not shown.
Kingdom of Malwa - one province, below Rajputana.
Kingdom of Khandesh - one province, above Bahmani.
Kingdom of Bengal - blue.
Kingdom of Delhi - sickly green.
The Lotus Blossoms
First thing to do was gain enough provinces to have the resources to develop my income, and plow this back into research. To do this, I plowed all my funds into government research for an idea. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the coming invasion, I built up my army, with the hope that I could send one force after their main army and fortified provinces, and another after their unfortified provinces in the middle of India. All I needed was a cassus belli. Then my first idea came - I chose Deus Vult - I now was free to decalre war on any Muslim kingdom I chose without a stability penalty
Conquest of the Deccan
I gradully drove their forces back to Goa with my large army, whilst building another unit of soldiers to take their woefully undefended eastern provinces. An assult each time they retreated guarenteed that by the time they were in their final unconquered province, I could assult it with my 10k+ troops and then follow them into the province they were retreating to, to prevent its recapture. After quick negotiations, they had but one province left, and my borders had extended up to the one province state of Khandesh in the north.
Brutal Consolidation
After a short time, Khandesh and Malwa (both single provinces) made the rather unfortunate decision of allying with the Maldives (a single island province) and what remained of the Deccan sultanate (one province). By doing this, they had effectively guarenteed that in spite of my truce with the Deccan, they would join the war against me. When I decaled war upon the Muslim kingdom of Khandesh, all others followed suit. Using funds that I had built up, I hired a group of mercinaries, to take Khandesh and Malwa, who had only 1000 troops between them, and used my existing forces to defeat the Deccan, by chasing them after each battle until they had been wiped out entirely. I negotiated an annexation with them seperate of the alliance. I then took their captured fleet, and conquered the Maldives, leaving a small garrison there, as I planned to convert them. Khandesh and Malwa were then annexed.
Within 10 years, I had doubled my empire and destroyed a total of four soverign kingdoms, sweeping through India with only conquest in mind - it was time to build up my research and armed forces for the larger goal of driving Delhi and the other powers to a firey grave. As a final stroke of luck, my royal marriages paid off, with the inheretance of Tranvacore.
The Delhi Sultanate
I now bordered the vicious Delhi Sultanate, who were at the time, at war with the Kingdom of Bihar. I had the choice to either invade westward into Gujerat and Sindh, or eastward into Delhi, which would surround the Rajputs, and give me a border with the mighty Persian empire. I chose to invade Delhi (after letting them conquer most of Bihar, exhausting their forces and giving me three more provinces to target, lol), which sent me to war with both them, and their allies in Bengal. The conquest was a tough slog, but because I was fairly isolated from Bengal, their only resistance came in the form of a fleet, which I managed to crush, when my army repelled them off the coast, sending them back to their fleet, which was subsequently blockaded by my own as they moved onto their fleet, sending their small number of troops back onto land for total destruction by my 10k army.
Meanwhile, my other force had managed to conquer its way up to Ladakh and Kashmir on the Persian border, and so, sending the above mentioned force from the coastal slaughter to finish off Delhi was the next priority. They werent nearly as easy to tame as the Deccan, but eventually fell, letting me invade Bengal by land, and take all their provinces too. In the end, Bengal was reduced to one province, and Delhi, due to its size, to about six. I now controlled provinces all over India. Since the Persians had invaded Kashmir, and taken Jammu away, I conquered the single province it had left. I wondered whether it would be worth re-taking Jammu from the forces of the mighty Timurids, as it contained an Indian culture, and no Persian core....
The War to End All Wars
As it turns out, my dilemma was resolved when the Persians invaded my agressive nation. If India, China and Persia represent the old superpowers of asia, then this was a war between two giants. A pan-Indian empire (albiet with large holes), vs one of the great powers of the time. Using the vast treasuries that I had built up, I had to quickly recuit as many mercinaries as I possibly could, to take on the only power that could possibly rival my own. I couldnt even seen most of their provinces, and had no way of exploring them. Thankfully, a path to their capital was at least open. After a huge war, in which conquest and counter-conquest happened, the Timurids offered me two provinces - I only wanted one of them - Jammu, which had no Timurid core, and thus, wouldnt create diplomatic problems. I took it through a counter proposal, set about converting the population there and improving relations with the Timurids, to prevent another war.
My second national idea had occurred round about this time - I chose humanist tolerance, and coupled with choosing the noble republic government type, and religious tolerance sliders, I had virtually no chance of revolt anywhere, whilst I slowly converted to provinces I intended to keep, to Hinduism, thus getting rid of the need to have tolerance sliders to full for some religions.
Mass Consolidation
Another war with Delhi, saw me taking all their provinces save Delhi itself, and a war with Gujerat and Sindh, who were allied, saw me taking all but their two capitals, effectively surrounding the Rajputs, who took it upon themselves to annex these newly single-province nations. In South East Asia, my efforts to prevent other kingdoms annexing Manipur, which I was trying to diplo-annex, resulted in war with the Buddhist alliance of Pegu and Sri Lanka - resulting in the vassalisation of Pegu, and annexing of half of Sri Lanka. The Timurids, suddenly, through an event, gained several cores on my provinces around the former Delhi and Sindhi provinces, and war ensued as soon as the truce between us ran out, in spite of good relations. This war against a weakened Timurid empire, saw me vassalising the Timurid Empire - effectively sealing my place as the most feared nation on earth.
The years after the second Indo-Persian war were no less epic. At first, I tried to establish good relations with other Hindu kingdoms, in order to diplo-annex or inherit them, but to no avail. Since I had gained cores on most of them, I had cassus belli on some of them - who happened to be allied to others that I didnt have cassus belli on - so I soured relations with former friends, and took them down without mercy. Some nations were even unfortunate enough to be part of both alliances, resulting in their complete annexation, as they were forced to go to war stright after being defeated in the first war. Single province Manipur dissappeared beneath my warriors boots, as did Sri Lanka (left as a single province after my war with them and Pegu), Bihar (left as a single province by Delhi all those years ago), Mysore (part of both alliances) and Orissa (parth of both alliances) - Nepal, Rajputana, Gondwana and Assam were left with a single province each - the last nations in the way of my total conquest - surrounded on all sides. I was now the most powerfull nation on earth, with a yearly income of 250 ducats every year-end, compared to the 10 or so that I started with.
India United Again
Since both alliances that I had just made war upon had shared my state religion, I was forced to lose two stabilty - one for each war, giving me zero stability - so I plunged funds back into this for a while. However, as mentioned earlier, a combination of three things gave my empire unwavering solidarity - tolerance sliders were set to full on Hinduism and Buddhism, giving a tolerance bonus of +5 on every province except my single pagan one - I had adopted the 'noble republic' government type, giving tolerance of +1 tolarance - and I had adopted the humanist tolerance idea, giving +1 tolerance - this gives about 10% growth in every province.
After 50 years, the same aged Maharaja is on the throne of the empire. He has seen the downfall of 14 soverign states by his own hand. He now rules all of India, and after annexing the last single province nations, will focus on reducing the incredible reputation of his dynasty. But before this can happen, the northwest frontier lights up again in the third India vs Persia war. This is probably due to India having a core on Persia, even though I didnt desire it.
India as she looks in 1504:
Her diplomatic situation:
Her religious makeup:
The Quest for the New World
In just 50 years, a stable state has been created across India. As the research being plowed into government tech grows closer to level 9, the third idea, Quest for the New World, draws near, and will enable the Maharaja to send mighty treasure fleets to the nations of the world, and perhaps even explore the extents of the Persian Empire, as it is driven back once again. After this, the islands of Indonesia, once home to Hindu kingdoms, and even part of an Indian empire, will be the peacefull target of development, as badboy reputation is reduced, and relations with neighbours reach the +200 mark. Hopefully an alliance of some sort with Persia will prevent any further bloodshed - or perhaps they will force India to annex them? Perhaps forcing them to release their conquered nations will keep them occupied?
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