The Marathas Confederacy is one of the 12 major factions available for play.
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The Marathas Confederacy is one of the 12 major factions available for play.
Some tips I learned from playing ~50 turns.
- The mughal empire is extremely weak in the begining and your capital city can spam hindu musketeers x3 every turn. Use these very good troops to quickly blitz through mughal territories. Don't bother capturing the small settlements because theyre not worth much before you get them upgraded.
- Mysore will eventually backstab you unless you make them love you but I'd say they're not worth your trouble. At around turn 5-6 they will have built up both the gold mine and the gem pit at which point it's time to pounce. Capturing their one and only settlement will give you another school and a territory worth roughly 6-7k gold before taxes.
- Science! Once you conquer the indian subcontinent you will have roughly 6-8 cities capable of making Raja's Observatory(the building which reqruits scholars, the eastern faction equivalent of gentlemen). Build these all over and see your tech rate skyrocket! At this point the game is pretty much won and you can do whatever you feel like.
- Remember to get a few trading partners in Europe. I partnered with Spain and France and was pulling in roughly 14k gold per turn from just my plantations(no trade fleets at all).
Maratha Campaign
The goal as the Maratha should be obvious from the beginning: Unite all of India under your rule and reverse the course of history by preventing the European powers from colonializing the sub continent. Instead claim the vast resources of India for your own and use them to build up the strongest, richest empire the world has ever experienced.
The Maratha starts with very little but have the potential to become the undisputed super power of the world in a few short decades.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The early years
In the beginning you start out with just two provinces, no navy and little to no research. You have a couple of small armies and at war with the Mughal Empire, easily five or six times your size.
During the first 20 or so years your bread and butter unit is going to be the Hindu Musketeers. While they are a little less accurate than the Baghir Musketeers they have a solid melee attack. This is invaluable since none of your infantry units are good enough to rely on their ranged ability alone. The Hindu musketeers allow you to mix it up in close range when needed. Back them up with some Cavalry Lancers for flank attacks and cutting down routed units.
Turn 1.
Start building as many Hindu Musketeers in your capital as you can (3 pr turn) and a at least a few units in Arcot to stave off the inevitable backstab from Mysore and the Portugese.
Your first order of business should be to start biting into the Mughal. From Satara, your capital strike north and take Ahmadnagar. It’s not well defended and you should be able to take it with the army from your capital. Second, use your two armies in the field to strike at Hyderabad.
At the end of turn one you should have doubled the size of your empire, and once repaired the new areas will help you keep your front lines supplied with fresh troops.
Turn 2-10
Moving ahead you should have three short term objectives:
1) Strike north to Ahmedabad. Taking Ahmedabad will block the Mughals access to the wester Indian Ocean. Doing so early will help prevent enemy fleets blocking your trade routes to Europe and Persia. In addition it will give you an extra trade port.
2) Mysore starts with only one province but is within easy striking distance of your capital. Sooner or later they will have to be dealt with. In addition they have both a gold and a gem mine which should help build up your economy.
3) The Portugese will have to go. Like the Mysore they are right in your back yard and they will eventually strike. Don’t give them time to build up and remove this European cancer from your land as soon as possible.
Taking the rest of India (Turn 20-40)
Once the Mysore and Portugese have been dealt with you will be in a much better position, you can concentrate on a single front and your expansion north. Keep churning out Hindu Musketeers and stay on the offensive. The longer you take to destroy the Mughal the more units you’ll have to go through.
One problem you will have to contend with will be the increased Islamic influence in the north. But down any Madrassa you find in the areas you conquer and consider building some religious schools of your own when you get the chance.
After the War
Once the last of the Mughal regions fall it will be time to harvest the fruits of your labor. Leave Persia, it will server as a good buffer between you and the Ottoman empire, I’d suggest leaving the Dutch in Cylon alone, they present no threat and a war could result in the Dutch blocking trade routes in Europe.
For now focus on reducing your military size. Leave enough to keep your regions under control and nothing more. Throw all your money towards upgrading your trade and economy. Build one or two new schools from the towns that will start to emerge (You should already have three or four research centers from the areas you’ve conquered).
Add extra religious buildings in the North Easter areas where the Islamic influence is greatest and where possible a pleasure garden in the areas with schools to counter the unrest that the schools will generate.
Build up your navy. You’ll need it to protect your trade lanes and eventually expand beyond the Indian sub continent. Work to establish trade routes with everyone, this will be what will make you the richest most powerful nation in the world.
Note. Once you claim the Northern areas you will also get access to your future ‘bread and butter’ unit, the Sikh Musketeers. They outclass the Hindu Musketeers in all areas except for melee combat, however with the benefits from research into fire arms and improved Bayonets these will be the best infantry India has to offer in the second half of the game.
The world is yours for the taking! (Turn 70+)
By now you should be far ahead of all others in research. Most if not all of your cities, towns and structures should be upgraded as high as possible. This in turn should make you very wealthy to the tune of generating a profit of 30-40.000 pr turn. Keep building up your Navy since it takes a lot longer than building up the army. Kill anything that threatens your trade routes (Don’t be afraid to send a naval squadron to Europe if necessary).
Congratulations you’re now the undisputed super power of the world. With an unrivaled economy and a massive homeland secure from any land based attack and the strongest navy in the world.
I kicked Portugal off the continent, but it came with some big problems - namely, Great Britain. They block any and all of my trade routes in Europe. Any suggestions?
Try to buy off the British. Mix and match: state gifts, tribute, technology, Calcutta? Britain has been trying to buy Bengal Province from me for several turns...
OR get the French on your side, and when the french and british start raping each others fleet make your move on the british ships
An important consideration in your unit recruiting:
Baghir and Sikh musketeers get bayonets and can fire-by-rank.
Hindu Musketeers get neither.
It also appears that none of the Maratha mounted musket units can dismount, which makes me kind of sad. Those camel dudes would be godlike if I could put them on walls or in buildings.
EDIT:
Also, Marathas have officially earned my 'Easiest Faction' label. I completed their territorial requirements in 1706. First time I've ever bothered with a serious blitz in a TW game.
There were some uneasy moments there when Mysore and Portugal went after me, but there was never any real doubt as to the outcome.
Hindu musketeers are the Indian equivalent of militia.
Actually, to me they seem more like Scottish archers in MTW2. Their ranged function is kind of bleh, but in melee (and morale, I believe) they beat Baghir infantry and Sikh infantry, of the non-melee sort. Just dont ask them to go up against cavalry.
So far I've found Maratha to be extremely easy, especially after the juggling the French and Prussians foisted on me.
Goa and Mysore were the first to fall, my grand plan needs ships and every port will count. While the ports are churning out ships, the armies march, first to remove the "independents" then north to start looting their way through the Mughal. The bulk of my forces swept up the eastern coast and began making their way west while a smaller more mobile army harried what forces the Mughals had within the Marathan borders.
Every turn that you have ships made, send them out to the Trade Colonies. Your aim here is an economic stranglehold, depriving Europe of the massive cash flows that the trade will yield them if you don't move fast. (Even if, as in my game, your trade ships are bugged so as not to be able to generate a trade route :( )
You will have trouble with the Portuegese until you are powerful enough to have them begging for a cease fire and with them will come usually one major European power. In my case the British. Since you're a trade, or at least a trade-controller, they're going to have be dealt with since they can happily pirate up in the Med and Atlantic...
Push your borders north and west as fast as you are able, your eventual goal is to take Georgia and Chechnya, neatly hemming in both the Ottomans and the Russians, and allowing you to support a fleet in the Mediteranean.
With your primary land goals in hand, and I really don't advise going toe to toe with the Ottomans or Russians in a protracted land war given the vastness of yours and theirs holdings, it's time to hit the high seas!
In my case, well, I invaded the British Isles to remove the nuisance of British privateers raiding my otherwise profitable trading with the white skins. Austria or Prussia are going to need to be bolstered, whichever is dominant, in order to stymy the Ottomans and Russians further. With technology, gold and if you're inclined, the odd poached european province you can ensure the Russkies and Turks are kept too busy to turn their eyes to your lands.
With a firm presence in Europe, hopefully governing bothe the inner and outer sealanes from Georgia and England or France/Spain, perhaps it's time to turn to the Americas. If the Thirteen Provinces have emerged into the United States, they'll make an easy, and profitable mark in their infancy.
Well, that's how far I've made it at least!
Personally I chose to leave the Portugeese in Goa alone. This does mean leaving a resonable force in your capital in case of a backstab, but it means you can stay on friendly trading terms with everyone in Europe. I figure the amount of extra money from all the un-molested trade routes would more than compansate for the lack of that province and the extra army upkeep costs.
On a full sized campaign you'll have to take plenty of terretory from outside India to win. Personally I decided to trash the Ottomans. The Ottomans are a large faction but are vulnerable to amphibious assault (they won't keep armies in cities that have no land border with another faction). I piled a couple of armies into ships and sailed them around Africa, through the med (where I can sail happily as everyone in Euro-land loves me) to the Egyptian coast. A simultaneous landing of armies to take the three almost undefended Ottoman cities of Cairo, Jerusalem and Damascus together with an invasion from Persia and Azerbaijan to take Bagdhad and Armenia halved the Ottoman Empire in a couple of turns and opened up North Africa and Eastern Europe for the rest of the territory requirements.
Overal the hardest bit of the Maratha campaign is the first few turns, once you get Mysore out of the way and grab a few Mughal cities you are in a great position to secure all of India and then decide where you want to go invading for your remaining territory requirements.
I agree with leaving the Portugese alone. Either (a) Spain will destroy Portugal; or (b) if Portugal survives, Goa can be bought (money, land swap or tech).
My Marathas campaign was my very first E:TW campaing, and I didn't realize just how important trade is. I ended up declaring war on Persia to grab its two spots (and all its land!). As Spain destroyed Portugal during the AI turn, I was helpless to pick up the two Portugese spots. I did grab the now-Maratha rebel Goa of course.
I traded Morocco for Ceylon to unlock the Raj of India (or whatever it was) achievement before quiting the game. I might go back and hit end turn for another 30 game years to see the final video I suppose...
The Maratha were the second campaign I tried. I pushed north, and kept expecting the Mughals to turn up with a stack, and so I was a little cautious. None appeared however, so they got wiped out as fast as I could stabilise the captured territories. Mysore attacked a few turns in, and then Portugal did a little later. Took Goa and Mysore.
The Mughals had a big navy, while I concentrated on land, so they blockaded all my trade. Once I got rid of them my income went up considerably. With so many regions, only the Persians to worry about, and lots of big cities, you can really ramp up the research.
The Persians somehow decided to attack me just after I knocked off the Mughals, so I took their 2 neighbouring territories and got peace - they were just an annoyance. After a period of growth and research my income went through the roof, so I started building up the army and navy to invade the Americas and Europe. The Persians attacked me again so I wiped them out. After taking a few pirate regions in America I headed for Europe, but sadly, however, the game slowed down to snail speed and kept crashing, so I abandoned it. :thumbsdown:
Maratha were also my second campaign (after trying Great Britain first). I chose to deal with Mysore (who declared war on me on about turn 2) first - quickly sending a stack towards their only city and easily crushing them, along with taking the immediate north territory owned by the Mughals.
I also wanted to quickly deal with Portugal, so i declared war on them after i had finished with Mysore - this meant GB declaring war on me as well, and hence having my trade lanes severely raided, which was a big pain. To combat this, i recommend simply not worrying too much about your trade in early game - the Mughals have a far superior navy to you, and if you run into trouble with pretty much any european power they will simply blockade you massively.
Instead, i massed trade ships and sent them to all the trade theaters i could get to, and worked on my military and economy. By about turn 10 i commenced my blitz on the rest of the Mughal territory. In my game, they spent almost all of their forces in raiding my towns and villages, and plundering my economy - i chose to ignore this at the start, and simply push my armies (i had two main stacks - one advancing down the west coast, and the other in the east) forward "smash n grab" style, taking as much territory as i could, as quickly as possible - i figured that it would be best to do this quickly rather than risk the Mughals getting their acts together and forming any kind of reasonable resistance. I used my militia (mostly just the cheap armed peasantry type) to deal with the Mughal raiding parties if they ventured too near my cities.
Another note for when conquering the Mughals is to make use of your assassins - the Mughals have some extremely powerful Islam preachers in the northern territories, and it is in your interests to try to take out these and any other preachers you find with your assassins. Sabotaging religious buildings and assassinating preachers led to an altogether more peaceful takeover for me, due to far less religious resistance.
Regarding schools and techs, you will initially have one, and capture a second from Mysore fairly quickly - i set my first school to researching infrantry upgrades, and the Mysore school to Philosophy - ensuring that i could keep up with the European powers in technology, whilst giving my troops the edge over the Mughals.
Another note regarding philosophy - you will start with an Absolute Monarchy. Having never experienced (or known how to instigate) a revolution, i wanted to give this a try early on - about turn 10. I then changed my mind and stopped trying to instigate revolution for two reasons:
1) Public order was so high in my capitol i simply couldnt get the lower classes angry enough to rebel.
2) You start with an excellent set of ministers and a very good monarch - all of which are pretty young as well. Regardless of the flaws of an Absolute Monarchy, i recommend sticking with it because of this - your ministers and Monarch do an excellent job on all aspects of your faction (and the queen has a Man-eating Tiger as well, dont screw with that :help:)
I am still relatively young in this campaign, but having now wiped out the Mughals (their last two territories rebelled), the real growth can begin - the next step is to upgrade all my infrastructure and economy, and without the Mughal fleets blockading my ports, and raiders pillaging my farms and craftworkers, my income will shoot through the roof.
Militarily (if thats a word) - my next step will to be taking the island of Ceylon. In my game this presents some problems, as the Dutch actually traded Ceylon to the French very early - and the French are one of my main trading partners. I am hoping to buy the island off them, if not then i will simply have to go to war.
General starting tips for maratha:
1) Dont be afraid of war with european powers early in the game. They may be stronger than you, but the AI is very reluctant to conduct any kind of naval assaults or amphibious landings. India is well out of their way, and the only real downside will be the pirating of your trade lanes - your territory is well protected by the ocean.
2) Establish trade and good relations with the Ottoman empire. They are a very profitable trade partner, and will allow you to strike at Persia without fear of intervention.
3) The american nations are your friends in early game. Thirteen Colonies, New France and New Spain make viable trading partners, even if your european tradelanes are blockaded - it is worthwhile to try to set up links with these nations, even if they are annexed by their home nations fairly early on.
marathas, if played correctly, will become the easiest campaign.
the first priorities should be to take Goa and Mysore.once these are taken, you should have 2-3 ports capable of building Dhows. these were essential to my game, because in only 2 turns you can send them to east africa(with the ivory, they should be making a load of money instantly).
once you have established the west coast and southern india under your rule, your next priority should be to take the 2 cities directly north of your capital, giving you even more ports. these will be extremely essential to the campaign, as the mughals love spamming brigs to blockade your ports.
once you gain these ports, just keep those Dhows going and you shouldbe raking in a very fair profit per turn. make peace with the mughals once you control the west coast.
for some reason i got lucky, and recieved a trade agreement with not only france, but great britain and some south-european minors as well. however, for some reason the trade routes with GB and france were land and were being blocked. noticing it was about 4,000 dollars a turn for them, i built up my armies and sent them to the border, ready to take the mughal city keeping my trade from reaching me somehow.
before this happens, you should research socket bayonets and naval techs. by 1718 i believe i already was building 4th rates with 180 upkeep rate and enhanced guns. these proved an enormous asset for the mainly-naval mughals.
once my armies were ready, i built some forts across rivers to hold down any enemy advances. i then moved my men to take the 3-4 provinces directly above me. my trade route was free and i saw an immediate spike in income.
now, i had accidentally done the trade spot glitch(where you get no income) and was forced to scupper all my Dhows there >:'(. by the time i got another fleet of Dhows to east africa, the mughals had taken my former trade spot PLUS another one across the channel at madagascar. luckily i had built 4 6th rates in advance for escorts, and made short work of the mughals, who had simply spammed brigs(plus gained another Dhow).
now i was in control of 2 trade spots, in addition to cutting off nearly 1800 dollars of trade they were recieving from them. portugal refuses to sign peace with me, and has enough galleons that i cannot get my ships into europe until i have built some 3rd-4th rates. this is actually a good thing, as they will not risk blockading any european powers, leaving my trade free and profitable.
they are now trading with the mughals, which i immediately blockaded.
it is now in the 1720's, and i am now making upwards of 14,000 dollars a turn (nearly 11,000 on trade alone!). i can afford to maintain enormous armies, and am currently using my most elite units to cut a swathe through the mughal towns.
if you want to know, my elite units are a unit fo shaturnal camel gunners with 3 XP, 2 units of Bargir infantry with 3 XP, and an extra unit of Bargir's with 2 XP. they have not lost a single battle, and i have named them(respectively): Maharajahs 1st Camel Guards, Maharajahs 1st Guards, Maharajahs 2nd Guards, and Maharajahs 3rd Guards. unfortunately, i recruited a general for them, and he was assassinated on teh very next turn. damn mughals....
Although it has been a while (it was my first campaign more than a month ago), here is what I did:
- On turn 2 captured the two Mughal regions immediately above Sirinagar and Carnatica: Hyderabad (with the stack right next to it) and the one above Sirinagar (with the stack from the capital). Then those two armies went norh.
- The cavalry stack dealt with the Mughal army in Sirinagar, then joined the Hyderabad army on its march north-northeast.
- The stack from the capital went on to Ahmenagar (the two regions above Sirinigar have good trade ports), then into the Sikh territories.
- I built units in Sirinagar and Carnatica, waiting for Mysore to attack. It never did. I ended up attacking it instead by 1706-7 or so.
- Hindustan was the toughest battle with the Mughals.
- I left Goa alone, expecting the Portugese to attack. They never did, and were destroyed by Spain. Problem solved. The Mysore stack took it, jumped on a boat and joined the Persian expedition.
- Destroyed Persia (who DoW on me as soon as I captured the rich region below Kashmir - Punjab IIRC).
- Took Morocco. Swapped Morocco for Ceylon with the Dutch.
The Mughals never built a significant naval presence, as Bangalore's port was the only one they had left after the 4th turn. I only built one dock (in Carnatica). I started building a fleet to attack the pirates, but gave up on the game around 1720.
I didn't know the importance of the trade nodes at the time, so I think I had only three trade nodes in total - one in Brazil, and two in Madagascar Straits.
thats weird, the mughals have always maintained an enormous navy of brigs in my games.....
i quickly took over southern half of india buying ceylon and goa. after that i forced a democratic revolution because i simply hated that flag. but i have a question. can maratha become a constitutional monarchy. i surounded hindustan with eveery unit i had built and killed the mughals took over persia made portugal my protectorate. i then quit my long campaign at 1760 after having my full goals plus six and looked up the video on youtube. yay i threw ou those filthy europeans:egypt:
In my game I had issues with a HUGe pirate fleet sitting on my trade routes, which i threw my entire fleet of 6 3-rates,6 4h-rates and a 5th-rate at to try and remove them,but there galleon and flyute fllet was nastier than expected and smashed my fleet, Apart from that Portugal seems to be surving the war with spain someone and is being a rotal pain with blockading my trade routes,after they declared war with me and I brought 10 hindu musketters over from mysore which I had just taken and smashed them,not expecting them to hang around that long..
well, i have now conquered all of india, and the U.P.'s provinces and pirate provinces in america. blockading sweden, blockading U.P., and taken all of U.P's trade spots. I want to expand into europe via the south, but i would have to betray persia, and then either get an alliance with the ottomans to pass through to aattack the barbary states and morocco, or lose a chunk of my trade money DoWing on them. im not sure if georgia is still alive, but i would have nowhere to go after i conquered it.
so basically, my only option is to land naval invasions of minor countries. if i attack any major country (besides sweden, who everyone including me is at war with) i will have lost a $*^&-load of trade.
I'd advise dealing with persia asap. In my experience they will attempt to backstab you at some point,I'd advise dealing with them before they get any funny ideas.
really? theyve been my protectorate for like the whole game, and im in 1760
well, i just beat my marathas campaign. the final province i took was norway(yeah, you read right. im using elephants and Sikh's ni the snow in norway) the turn before the deadline.
right now, i have eliminated spain, and taken all of their former provinces except for colombia(from which emerged Gran Colombia, who is now being spared as my protectorate), and taken the plains nations provinces. Wurrtemburg is next on my hitlist, with saxony and denmark up next. i intend on moving my southern european army up through denmark after capturing saxony, then meeting my swedish invasion army in arhus. once i cannot expand outwards by land without waging a new war, i'll land my combined armies into poland and wipe out those arrogant flies.
after i take them out i'll probably give myself a rest period, just pressing enter a bunch of times to end the turn. then once i get into maybe 1810-20's I'll see whos giving me the least trade money and who was the least regions, and atack them. of course, by that time i'll be so rich (over $50,000 a turn) I could afford a war with everyone.
so essentially, now i can do whatever i want.
if you think about it, the Marathas have the best line infantry late-game. the A.I. almost never uses guards or grenadiers, so you don't have to worry about them. Sikh Musketeers are one of the best non-elite units in the whole game: they have great reloading skills and accuracy, so they will outclass most line inf. in ranged battle, but they can also hold their own in a melee fight until warriors can come in.