Vijayanagar Campaign: a few questions

[Hylian Spectre]

So, I just booted up a Vijayanagar campaign with the aim to go for the "Sun Never Sets on the Indian Empire" achievement and whatever else I can pick up along the way. It has been a while since I've played in India, but with recent changes to Merc use being penalised and the not so new nerf to Religious a while back, I'm wondering if the dynamics have changed in this region. So far, I've secured all of Southern India in either the form of conquest or vassalisation, and am now recouping from the past few wars with the Sultans to the north while also working on blocking off Cape from the Europeans via Colonisation.

1) First off, Vija has an idea pertaining to the use of Mercs, and in the past, this made sense given that India has unforgiving Attrition, but with the new Professionalism features, is it still recommended to run around with predominantly Merc armies? On the past few nations I've played, I've been trying to avoid using them too often, and instead opting for Offensive/Quantity to get the job done and taking advantage of the nice Professionalism buffs.

2) Next up is of course the old Humanist vs Religious debate. When I last played in India, I opted for Religious due to Deus Vult being a 1st idea unlock and the nigh entirety of Northern India being Sultans, but this time around, I'm not so sure... The Hindu religion is rather conflicting, sporting both TotTF, ToH and Missionary Strength, with a couple of decisions to increase it further. However, their mediocre ability to convert and lack of Missionary options really makes me question if it'd be worth it. On the other hand, the Dravidian Cultural Union isn't all that big in the grand scheme of things, so having a few extra accepted culture slots, lower unrest and lower TechC may be of more use in the long run.

3) Is it generally beneficial to move your main trading port to Goa?

Any feedback is most welcome and appreciated.

 

[Lord Zsinj]

For mercs you can split the difference: Merc infantry and drilled non Merc cav & arty.

 

[KlinkerFyren]

Dunno about armies but here is a few tips from a regular India player. Be sure to take Bahmani´s gold mine province in the first war aside from cores and claims. If you have Bengal on your side few things can appose you in India check their rivals and mirror them (aside from Bahmanis ofc) for best chance of an alliance, if they rival you then Jaunpur is a good second, for the first Bahmani war you only need your allies to distract the Bahmani's main ally for long enough for you to finish them off. OPMs in India is best left for diplo-annexation imo, best way to save on AE too, also you are gonna need that paper mana for coring uncooperative larger nations. While Delhi is weak in the beginning they will soon recover and can become quite the hassle once they begin reconquering lost territory. Orissia is best for devouring. They are worthless. Feed them to your vassals or annex if you have a paper mana surplus. I like using the Goa node quite alot, however some people swear by the Ceylon node. Imo trade ideas should be your second idea group.

 

[kakatua]

Don't disband your mercs, so you won't have to recruit them and thus losing professionalism.

 

[Viktor Vaughn]

Religious v Humanism, it depends on if any of the Sultans have started converting. A lot of the high dev provinces in India are up in the Jaunpur and Delhi areas, so if a bunch of those have started to be converted to islam that can hurt religious unity a lot, even with humanist's +25%. So I like to take religious to convert them back and not have to deal with that. The religious cb probably won't be super helpful since once you get Canton, all your wars are going to be overseas pretty much (for London), but it can still help along the way. The perk of humanist is the accepted cultures, which can be great if you want to get the most out of your non-Dravidian provinces. The tolerance stacks well with Hindu tolerance, and you always get that -2 national unrest.

Really it's a coin flip, but I prefer religious.

 

[SantoshKashyap]

If you want to blob out of India region do take Humanism plus Religious but if you will remain mostly in India with few "satellite" cores like London or Canton then Religious is not of much help and use this slot with something more useful.

Given the high tolerance of Sultanate they usually don't convert all their provinces to Sunni or Shia and by 1650s too majority of the provinces in the North will still be Hindu. After taking Varanasi you get another missionary. Take "Vishnu" with at least 2 stability in case conversion are not easy. And more so with Hindu tolerance plus Vijayanagar tolerance idea plus Humanism you may not even care if you have many other religion province as well. And since you already get a free permanent claim on whole of India, religious CB are just not needed.

When you have most of India always keep your main port as Goa - You can pull from Bengal-Ceylon & Kashmir-Doab. Indus has a lot of leak.

Vijayanagari ideas with 10% Infantry & Cavalry Combat plus Quantity & Offensive usually offsets the use of Mercs. But can be used for short time and in emergency situation like what if Ming wants to get hold over you or a large Delhi or Jaunpur managed to invite Ottomans or Persia in the battle against yours.

In North-East (Ming Tributaries) if they are small, make them your vassal diplomatically, if they are large, ally their rival and help them in their war and get your claims. Once you are large enough take on Ming.

 

[True_Heir_of_Rome]

Take Humanist for sure. You're honestly not missing much in India even if Deus Vult was the opening idea, as you can form Bharat very quickly and have permanent claims on all of India. Once you are done there claims will suffice until dip tech 23 when you can go wild.

I would raise a small band of mercs(Probably 9 for sieging and not much else) once you get rolling and simply never disband them. India is so rich you can afford to keep them around and drill your troops as well, especially if you develop for some of the institutions.

You want your home trade node to be the furthest down stream node that you have a lot of trade power in, so yeah, the Goa node will likely be good for you for a long time. You might push even further west as time goes, and if so just move your trade post to compensate. Being in India means you can't use TCs, so you might actually consider taking trade ideas later in the game to give you an insane amount of income. You probably don't need to, but the option is there and it makes you a lot of cash.

 

[heliostellar]

Definitely use merc infantry. When sieging, use only mercs as well or else your manpower will bleed out.

How are you handling Ming? They became my biggest annoyance in my India games. I found it difficult to become their trib as Vijay and the northerners will get Ming protection eventually. Ming may even try to forcefully tributize you even when they refuse to take you in diplomatically.

 

[Hylian Spectre]

Definitely use merc infantry. When sieging, use only mercs as well or else your manpower will bleed out.

How are you handling Ming? They became my biggest annoyance in my India games. I found it difficult to become their trib as Vijay and the northerners will get Ming protection eventually. Ming may even try to forcefully tributize you even when they refuse to take you in diplomatically.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

As for Ming, I'm not sure yet. Ming more or less rivalled me right after my first war with Bahmanis was over. However, they seem to be having a lot of problems in this game. They got themselves into a big war trying to force Transoxiana into a Tributary, but it's not going over well because Transoxiana expanded decently and allied many of the Timmy minors, Ajam and a rather big QQ. Most of Ming is still covered with TI, but they appear to be -20% WS so far, with some rebels back home in China. My hope is that they continue to waste time in the Middle East for now and a few Chinese minors pop out in the process.

Also, I don't seem to be seeing a gold mine in any of Bahmanis' old Cores (they're dead). I've checked all of my own land, my economy and the few provinces that were nabbed by Malwa after I neutered them, and no gold; just once province with copper and another with gemstones that has a "good produced" modifier. Perhaps it was changed with the recent goods patch?

 

[SantoshKashyap]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

......

Also, I don't seem to be seeing a gold mine in any of Bahmanis' old Cores (they're dead). ....?

The production in Golconda has been corrected to Gems. Now only Mewar has gold (silver mine) in India.

 

[KlinkerFyren]

The production in Golconda has been corrected to Gems. Now only Mewar has gold (silver mine) in India.

Oh shit yeah I forgot about that.
In the before CoC controlling that one province made the Bahmani plays super easy. Since you would just dump all day 1 dip points into for easy money to beat the shit outta everyone.