What's fun in India?

[Ketilsen]

I was thinking about trying a game somewhere in India, so I thought I'd ask: what Indian nations are fun to play? What are good early moves and things to avoid?

My only previous experience with India was colonizing it somewhat late-game, so I have no idea what the subcontinent is really like.

 

[DDRussian]

As far as I know, Vijayanagar is one of the more interesting nations in India.

 

[Anzeginame]

I had a really fun campaign as Janpur, their ideas are really interesting and their starting position lets you leap into a great position.

 

[Sunspawn]

Any of Bahmanis, Vijayanagara, Bengal, Gujarat, Orissa can be fun, with unique ideas and strong positions.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

^ Gujarat and Bengal share ideas with several minor states near them (and have better synergy with Hindu than Sunni/Shia), so they aren't unique per se'.

The area is pretty tough for Hindus if you're not VJ, because you get extra AE for conquering heathens, to the point where nations like Najd, Timurids, and Malacca were putting coalition on me before I got even a full 1/3 of India conquered. As I was hitting Yarkand, Brunei and Sulu were in on it. In contrast, the Islamic nations only get this heathen penalty against the Hindus, of which there are far fewer. In that vein, Bahmanis/Malwa/Bengal/Delhi are probably easier than most Hindu nations.

But being an OPM in the region is certainly interesting all the same, for its challenge. In terms of flavor events, staying Islamic as any of Delhi/Bengal/Bahmanis/Jaunpur will get you a few. Vijay's aren't exactly great but they have more than usual.

 

[Sunspawn]

Also, Malwa with it's godly king can accomplish quite a lot, fast, with clever diplomacy and luck(so the dude lives a long life).

 

[MrParadux]

I think Vijayanagar has a lot of events, so I'd probably go with them to add a bit more flavor

 

[funguide]

there is an awesome achievement in India. I think its called the 'raja of the rajput reich'

 

[TheMeInTeam]

there is an awesome achievement in India. I think its called the 'raja of the rajput reich'

Certainly, that was a fun achievement run, but I'm not sure I'd recommend a dirt poor OPM with one of the worst starting rulers in the game to someone just getting their feet wet in India .

 

[funguide]

Certainly, that was a fun achievement run, but I'm not sure I'd recommend a dirt poor OPM with one of the worst starting rulers in the game to someone just getting their feet wet in India .

sometimes its best to just throw your feet in the fire.

 

[TheDanish]

If you're looking for a rewarding challenge, try Nepal. There's a reason it's called the Prussia of India. Good set of national ideas, but it's rather boxed in by larger powers.

 

[ssb]

there is an awesome achievement in India. I think its called the 'raja of the rajput reich'

Certainly, that was a fun achievement run, but I'm not sure I'd recommend a dirt poor OPM with one of the worst starting rulers in the game to someone just getting their feet wet in India .

sometimes its best to just throw your feet in the fire.

That approach worked well for me. I did "Big Blue Blob" for my second EUIV playthrough, and it really pushed me to understand the game's mechanics much better and taught me how to calibrate my playstyle. Failing the first couple attempts was very educational, and happened quick enough that I didn't lose a ton of time in them. (It helped that I was already familiar with Paradox games through HOI3, Vic2, and CK2, but it looks like the OP has a few Paradox games under their belt.)

"Raja of the Rajput Reich" is actually on my short list of achievement runs I'd like to try soon. Then possibly continuing into "The Sun Never Sets on the Indian Empire." They bring back fond memories of when I sailed an invasion fleet up the Thames as the Maratha Confederacy in Total War: Empire

 

[Xara]

I had a lot of fun playing Bengal, aiming for the Bengal Tiger achievement.

They have a decent starting position and you do not need to take very much in order to form Hindustan. Doing so gives you an absolute massive amount of permanent claims, and with that you can wage war literally as fast as your manpower, rebel chance, aggressive expansion, etc. will allow you. I was able to very rapidly gain land as I was allied to at least one other major power there so the AE they gained was much less and kept them from getting ticked off, which meant I could also easily betray and backstab them later.

From there it was pretty easy to hit the shattered Timurids + the other hordes who had been taking land from them in order to get the objective.

Alongside that, I was colony hopping to reach South America, which allowed me to westernize.

After catching up, I used colonial expansion to face off against England, taking over London as well as stealing a lot of their colonies. By leapfrogging to Canada, stealing more colonies there, colonizing a bit of it on my own, colonizing Taiwan and using that as an invasion point to take Canton, I also got the "Sun never Sets" achievement.

 

[Nirmara]

If your are not hunting achievements, starting as Badur (Timurids around 1509) and forming the Mughal is challenging and quite fun. It's much easier than it seem's since Badur is a great general and you have a key military tech advantage over your main target, Delhi.

You can, and should, blob very quickly in India regardless of your starting position because if you don't, other nations will. You can disregard AE completely at a certain point, as long the other major players in India are your allies. Unlike Europe, India tend to have at most 4 major players. If you are Muslim and have Cossack, it's very easy to keep the Dhimmi loyal and influential granting you a nice -10% tech reduction.

 

[ADuarteGon]

Jaunpur position is great. Mountains and wasteland to the North and grasslands and farmlands to the south filled with so much development and high supply limit.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

If you're looking for a rewarding challenge, try Nepal. There's a reason it's called the Prussia of India. Good set of national ideas, but it's rather boxed in by larger powers.

There is a reason Nepal is called the "Prussia of India". However, it is not a good reason.

They have marginally stronger NIs than the next best military nation in India. Their ideas are nothing like Prussia, either relative to their region or overall. They're a military-centric nation with awful starting development and a worse starting ruler whose NIs don't even take off until later (there are other sets in India just as good for the first 100ish years)...but lacking the flavor events or power of other starts.

 

[Cathal341]

If your feeling Blobby - Vijayanagar/Bahmanis/Janpur/Mewar
If you want more of a challenge - Delhi/Gujarat
If your in an achievement hunting mood - Orissa/Bengal
If your the sadistic type - Nagur/Ceylon (Both have pretty challenging achievements particularly Nagur) or the Maldives
If your a pansy - Malwa

 

[Rabid]

Delhi => Mughals is fun. Switch to Hindu for even more fun.

 

[bbqftw]

There is a reason Nepal is called the "Prussia of India". However, it is not a good reason.

They have marginally stronger NIs than the next best military nation in India. Their ideas are nothing like Prussia, either relative to their region or overall. They're a military-centric nation with awful starting development and a worse starting ruler whose NIs don't even take off until later (there are other sets in India just as good for the first 100ish years)...but lacking the flavor events or power of other starts.

I think Nepal is significantly better than Rajput, that said, both are really horribly backloaded and for some reason the first gets more overrated than the latter

 

[LikeNothing]

They're all fun!

Vijayanagara has the most amount of Events. Some of these Events are even more flavorful now with Estates. They are also obviously the greatest defender of Hinduism on the map.

Bahmanis starts on a central location with a highly lucrative Gold Mine and is Shiite surrounded by Heretics/Heathens. They also have strong Ideas including -15% Accepted Culture Threshold.

Delhi is actually the strongest start (Ironman or not), because you have Pretender Rebels close to pressing their demands. It doesn't take many Restarts to find a 6/4/6 Pretender. They also have the most amount of Cores on the continent, by far. The best WC candidate in India, and can form Mughals with the least amount of hassle.

Jaunpur starts with the richest lands in India, between two enemies of comparable size, and a uniquely interesting set of Ideas/Events.

Gujarat and Bengal have powerful Trade potentials and easy access towards challenging enemies (Gujarat towards the west, Bengal towards the east).

Nepal and the Rajput states have awesome military Ideas, on top of Shakti's godly +5% Discipline.

I play India a lot but I got to say Bahmanis is my favorite.