Who to play in India?

[I Have Low Eyes]

I haven't pplayed much in the Indian region. Who would be a good first nation to play?

I'm thinking of Vijayanger or TImurids. Who do you suggest? Flavor is the most important factor for me, but easiness counts too. I am not good enough to form Germany.

THe Mughals have a strong startinbg position but love to Mingsplosion.
Vijayanger has cool Hindu stuff. Hinduism interests me.

So who should I play for my first Mars Nostrum India game? (Unfamiliar with the other Indian nations)

 

[AwesomeKeith]

Jaunpur. Start as a regional power with great Ideas and plenty of flavor, and you have free reign to do as you wish (within reason). Also you're a Muslim with all Hindu provinces which is fun but a little tough to keep unrest down at the start. You also have someone as a vassal already who is Hindu so feed them your conquests.

 

[Sunspawn]

Timmies, release Persia and play-release Afghanistan. Buddy up with Persia, grab independence and go east.

 

[wielkiciensteam]

Bengal. I find them both not so easy nation to play and so rewarding if you do everything correctly. Best trading position, best NI in the area combined with powerful neighbors may lead Bengal to being strongest tag in their region. Of course if played without careful thinking it will without any doubts lead to extermination

 

[Violent AI]

Timurids is away from the Indian region, but is an easy start conquest wise. Rebels are the only pain that you need to manage. Aim for becoming Mughals in the first 20-25 years, and it will be smooth sailing after that. Not a lot of flavor events for Timurids/Mughals though. You'd be better off playing Vijaynagar/Bahmanis for that.

 

[Trin Tragula]

Fun and strong in 1444:
Bahmanis
Jaunpur
Vijayanagar

There are also a while bunch of medium powers but as you wanted something on the easier side...

 

[petertel123]

Timurids is away from the Indian region, but is an easy start conquest wise. Rebels are the only pain that you need to manage. Aim for becoming Mughals in the first 20-25 years, and it will be smooth sailing after that. Not a lot of flavor events for Timurids/Mughals though. You'd be better off playing Vijaynagar/Bahmanis for that.

Really weird that one of the strongest empires of the period has hardly any flavor

 

[Violent AI]

Really weird that one of the strongest empires of the period has hardly any flavor

Paradox AI means Mughals never forms and Timurids always disintegrates.
That said, Mughal ideas among the best.

 

[CrabHelmet]

It's really hard to model the foundations of the Mughal Empire, though. Even if you ran history again from as late as 1523, the Mughal Empire would probably happen less than it did not happen. Understanding it as "The Timurid Empire" invading India is going wrong from the start. Rather, there was a civil war in the Delhi Sultanate and Babur, who was merely ruler of Kabul at this point and certainly not in charge of an empire, was invited in as a rival claimant. I definitely think there should be an event chain for its formation. In general, the whole Timurid dynasty, from the death of Shahrukh to the collapse of the Mughals could really do with some good DHEs - and for @TheMeInTeam extra focus on the D!

What do you think @Trin Tragula? I'd be more than happy to send some reading material your way.

 

[DanubianCossak]

Fun and strong in 1444:
Bahmanis
Jaunpur
Vijayanagar

There are also a while bunch of medium powers but as you wanted something on the easier side...

Lies.

There is only one choice.

RAJPUTS

 

[generalolaf]

Bengal is the most fun, especially if you play as a bit of a pragmatist (read: beat up on weaker neighbours) like I do. There's also the Bengal Tiger achievement if you're into that kind of thing.

 

[Reverend Belial]

Vijayanagar gets my vote. A decent power-base with which to start from, but sufficiently strong neighbors and sadistic events to keep them from just swallowing everything around them.

 

[pikaemperor]

I am not good enough to form Germany.

Forming Germany has nothing to do on how good you are, playing in the HRE is hell. A fun nation in India is Ceylon, it's not hard to be successful just be creative on your moves and you can have a easy and very fun game. If you want to play an op nation in the area, play Malwa.

 

[Sunspawn]

Forming Germany has nothing to do on how good you are, playing in the HRE is hell. A fun nation in India is Ceylon, it's not hard to be successful just be creative on your moves and you can have a easy and very fun game. If you want to play an op nation in the area, play Malwa.

Ceylon... fun... ? Maybe in a masochistic fashion.

 

[Norpheus]

Nepal is the prussia of India... just saying.

 

[Krajzen]

For India I generally prefer Hindu states because well they exist only in India while Muslim states are all over the world, and also Hindu religion is awesome.
So,
*Vijanaygar if you want something not too hard
*Orissa or Nepal for medium difficulty (Nepal has awesome military ideas but is poor as dirt compared to Orissa)
*Some Hindu minors for a real challenge - I united India starting as Mysore, OPM vassal under Vijanaygar, early decades were really painful but really fun ( i certainly tells something perverted about me )

I also recommend Ceylon, the only Buddhist nation on the subcontinent, now after patches Buddhism is actually nice religion instead of tragedy it was on release. And has interesting events.

Even more hipster way to conquer India, however, is to do it with Sikh nation. You need to be lucky and get to sikh provinces and allow them convert you or do as I did and mod starting setup to start with small Sikh nation in 1444 (I did it with Punjab, cool national ideas). Sikhism is actually quite okay religion regarding bonuses (it gets various Guru bonuses for the entire game until guru's death, for example at one point in history you get +1 diplo reputation for a few decades).

The ultimate hipster way to conquer & convert India would be doing it with Animist nation, I am not sure but I think there are few such dirt poor jungle minors around.

 

[Violent AI]

If you want to play Hindu, you can start with a muslim nation and convert to Hindu. Just don't pick any nation with Indian Sultanate Ideas - going Hindu will give you generic NIs. To convert to Hindu, simply put a missionary on day 1. At the beginning of next month, you'd have hindu rebels. Go to the stability tab and accept demand to become Hindu.

Hindu gods also have awesome events. Have a look at the wiki: http://www.eu4wiki.com/Hinduism_events

Some of my favourites:

Vishnu - If you have no heir, you have a high chance of an event that after 8 years, gives your ruler +2 adm and +2 dip - good for young king

Surya - If you have no heir, you get a chance to get a Sun god dynasty weak heir that is atleast 4/4/4 - good for old king like Nepal's start

Shiva - If you're doing aggressive conquests, you'll be taking Shiva for cheaper coring. With Theologian and at peace, you get decent chance of event for +2 adm for your ruler. With Inquisitor and at war, you get decent chance of +2 mil for your ruler.

 

[Krajzen]

Yeah, Hinduism is very cool in eu4. In a big "best religions elimination thread" it ended up voted as 2nd best religion after Protestant (3rd was Shia).

 

[Magnificent Genius]

I usually play as Juanpur.

 

[Duarte]

Madurai for that Pandya dynasty swag (there is none but playing with the oldest dynasty in the world is it's own reward).