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I'm really not looking forward to invading a unified India again, and I'm plum out of ideas to at least stretch out the Mughal's existence for a while longer short of me invading and racking up major negativity in the diplomatic front. One would think that the other Euro powers would be trying to get a piece of the Indian action but as it is all that is going on is the non-war between Maratha and GB. And since I'm France and GB is to not be...
Edit the savegame to make the Mughals a Republic or a CM. Then gift them a bunch of techs and money. Money. More money. Endless amounts of money. You need to be their purse whilst they fight off the Marathas. Sadly, the Mughals don't get their better units until the higher levels of barracks, so they desperately need your military techs. And since the Marathas' most prosperous provinces are in southern India, it wouldn't be a bad idea to send a minor expeditionary force to take the Maratha capital and the southern tip of the subcontinent, then quickly gift those to another power (Mysore, although any strong European state which can maintain a regional garrison would be nice).
You need to be aware of the problem from the beginning of the game.
Trade, sell, or gift techs, especially military techs to the Mughals. Give them money occasionally. Don't trade with the Maratha in the early game.
Keep a close eye on the theater and support the underdog. In that way you can prevent one of the two moving out of India and going into other theaters or controlling the entire Indian subcontinent.
Also since you are France, don’t forget to do the same with your protectorate colonies in America. Give them the techs as you gain them and they will be much better developed when you finally bring them under your direct control.
Hmm I thought it might be that. I thought of sending the expeditionary force over and perhaps even gifting the territories to GB or some other Euro power and try and drag them into the theater. Sadly I could only extend the Mughals a short while longer as I was stuck in some American adventures at the time. Maybe when I play as Spain...on the plus side I pulled off the British extermination in a one turn lightning strike that included getting my prestige victory provinces in America sans Cherokee. Huzzah!
EDIT: Guess this means another 5 stack invasion, assuming Maratha doesn't decide they want to invade America again. Oy! They make for great battles at least.
Been working with this over the course of 3-4 games with several factions.
As has been noted here, you have until -- roughly -- 1730 to do as you please in Europe and America. At about this time, the Mughals will have been eradicated and you can look forward to Maratha adventurism.
They DO seem to be coded to pick on you a bit, but you can maneuver around this.
1. Do not have a border with them in the Middle East. When you do, it will be war within a few turns. Do not create such a border until you are ready to hammer back.
2. Do feel free to give them a region in America. Having given them French Guyana and then given Dutch guyana to someone neutral, the Marathese have not singled me out for attention in the New World. Seems that appeasement works in controlled doses.
3. You can try giving them a region in Africa or a Med island as well, but do not give them a territory in Northern Europe unless you are playing in the Med or as Russia. They get very expansionist up in the North for some reason (Elephant chilblains/bad moods?). They tend to declare war if they share a border with you anywhere in Europe or the M.E. Be ready if it happens.
4. If you know that they'll be invading you (you're playing England or Sweden/France and you've taken England) be certain to have a fleet of powerful heavy hitting units with one or two fast frigates as chasers. Maratha early invasion fleets tend to be 10+ brigs/sloops/dows and three or four heavy units with a chaser can wipe out Marathese invasion fleets and really keep things cozy at home. Be sure to have picket sloops at key points so you can spot them coming. Sloops are among the cheapest units in the game....dying to give you information is their speciality.
If all else fails, have fun in the battles. While hard work, slaughtering two full stacks as they try to take you city is rewarding. Moreover, its just FUN to be musket-dueling with elephant gunners in a Dublin area blizzard!
I'm Indian and non-Muslim, so Maratha was first thing I played as. I kicked Mughal butt so hard till they didn't exist and I had a united India pretty quick. I even went messed around with Persia a bit took Balochistan and Afghanistan to get a secure frontier to the west on land. The British, Dutch and Portuguese tried messing with me but I took none of that.
Call me historical, I launched a full-fledged invasion of the British Isles as soon as the entire subcontinent was mine. It was hilarious eliminating the British as a faction. USA was born in 1730 something LOL, and they offered me an alliance. I was like meh...alliance with the world's future superpower, why not, they exist because of the Marathas now lol.
India being united is like Europe being united. Its just too much potential for dominance getting centralized.
Its funny reading the comments of "supporting the weak" though, many Indians will argue this is what happens in current day with propping up Pakistan and what not.
Anyway, its good to see Hindu India so dominant in this game :)
I just modded the game to give Mughal something like two million coins and I constantly give them all of my techs, and this has kept Maratha at bay for most of the time...