Played as Maratha on H/H raising hell

I started off a H/H campaign as the Maratha Confederacy. Mughals got a strangle hold on me and blocked all my ports in first 2-3 turns. Then it got worse. Spain killed Portugal and I took over Goa - purely for "maintaining Public Order". Apparently my humanitarian efforts ticked off Mysore and they declared war on me. It was hard as I had no other trade partner left and Mughal armies were attacking from Hyderabad.

Phase 1 : Baby Steps - Defeated the Mughal army out of Hyderabad and placed my army in a defensive posture ready to hit either Hyderabad or Mysore. The army I had in the second starting region for Marathas, I ordered to pillage Mysore towns near the border while I raised new units.

Phase 2 : Pyrrhic Victory - My newly raised army invaded Mysore from the south only to be met halfway by a full stack Mysore army thankfully with no cannons. Facing them was a half stack with 2 cannons in the center, hindu swordsmen, bargir and hindu musketeers a general and no cavalry. The Mysore cavalry went around my lines and tried to hit my cannons from behind. They managed to hurt one cannon unit before my general and a Bargir unit drove them off. Reformed my lines quickly as a the Mysore army advanced.

Cannons took a toll on their remaining cavalry and the units that came in canister range and around this time I noticed that my left flank was collapsing. I had let the Mysore units come straight against my Bargirs and while the 2 sides slugged it out my swordsmen hit them from behind. What I had not considered was the Mysore units which moved from the center and blanketed my swordsmen who after a while were reduced to less than 1/3 of their full strength and wavering. Having no choice I pushed my General into the melee and somehow the line held.

Meanwhile the Mysore cavalry reformed and hit the guns again this time shattering them. Now my line was split into 2 parts of severely depleted units. Thankfully the General held the left flank and I was left with 1 bargir unit with ~ 50 men and 1 hindu swordsmen unit with ~ 40-45 men. The right flank was gone and 2 understrength cavalry units and 3 depleted infantry units were coming for me.

I set my bargir units as a square and they made short work of the cavalry. Quickly I set them to melee and along with the swordsmen hurled them at the infantry. Once the furball was complete I added my General to hit from behind again. The enemy finally broke and I had won a Pyrrhic victory.

Phase 3 : Stabilization - My victorious army was in tatters so I moved it back to friendly territory but had no money to repair it. I used my army in the north to attack Mysore where I was greeted with 4 units of infantry, one general, 2 cannons and rest being peasant levy. Killed them quickly and moved units back to Satara to preempt any Mughal attack. Mysore and Goa made my income level sufficient to field 3 half stack armies providing me a much needed breather. Now I could hit the mughals.

Phase 4 : The Tech Whore - Marathas peddled their tech (had 2 scholars each in satara and mysore) to any one who would pay 1000 gold a tech. Britain was very happy to oblige with cash while Spain and Russia always refused or counter offered 4-500 gold and a tech in return for 2 of mine which i always obliged. The British Gold upgraded my Roads and Towns, helped me pay the bills when the going was tough (ports were still blockaded).

Phase 5 : The Port Snatcher - I was determined to hurt the Mughal empire. So I pushed 3 half stacks into Mughal Lands and Promptly snatched Hyderabad and the port regions above Satara. I then threatened the Mughal empire to accepting Peace and a trade agreement. The Mughals accepted this and I got my ports unblocked. Since Mughals had lost 2 ports they had lost 1/2 trade partners. Spain was happy to trade with me instead but Austria,Prussia and France remained aloof. Kept on whoring the Tech I researched and I believe the 10-12000 gold I had made during that phase saved my campaign.

Phase 6 : Consolidate and Upgrade - I disbanded all Hindu Musketeer units and replaced them with Bargirs. Did away with Cannons wherever I had them and got 12lb artillery in its place. Declared War on the Mughals and Snatched central and eastern India along with the last Mughal Port - Calcutta. Garrisoned all border town with atleast half stacks.

Phase 7 : The Mughal surprise - The Mughals were not the docile cows I thought but cunning bastards. When peace was declared they loaded a full stack into a few boats and parked them off the coast of Sindh. When War broke out they landed the stack in Goa !!! Luckily I had a decent 3/4 stack in Satara which I used to beat the Mughals. In this Phase I took Rajpootana and Sindh.

Phase 8 : Hindustan - The territory of Awadh is incorrectly labelled as Hindustan with the capital as Akbarabad which should have been Lucknow. The Mughals always held court in Delhi and Agra. I besieged the city with a full stack and attacked. My cannons ripped apart the fort, I rushed my armies inside through the breaches where I realized that when in tight places and surrounded your Maratha swordsmen and bargirs dont hurt the peasant levy much. I lost a hard fought battle just because I had lost patience - a useful reminder for later campaigns. I repaired my army and attacked again this time winning. But a rebellion cost me the region again forcing a new series of battles before I could finally claim this region as my own. The mughals now had only Punjab and Kashmir of their own.

Phase 9 : No More Mughals - Remembering my experience against Akbarabad I played patiently and took Lahore. Kashmir fell very easily and the Mughals were gone. Their friends the Persians invaded Punjab from Afghanistan but I defeated them and took Kabul. The Persians attacked in force against a half stack of Sikh Sword and Bargirs with cannons but no mortars. I looked at my situation - I dint have the numbers for an open battle, if I deployed inside the castle I could not use the Cannons. I chose the safety of the walls over the firepower of the cannons. My units manned the cannons on the fort (the lousy ones with slow rate of fire) and bled the Persians who then moved for the walls where Sikh Swordsmen waited for them. I shattered their unit after unit when finally their guns made a breach in the walls. Their cavalry rushed through - to be greeted by Angry Elephants, Bargirs and Cannons set on cannister. Soon afterwards the Sikhs went after the Persian Guns outside. The Maratha Empire had won a Decisive Victory.

Thanks

Marathas or Mughals with a startpos modification (odd that they weren't enabled) have it easy once they clear out any significant faction sharing the subcontinent. Their neighbours are only Persia or an emergent Afghanistan. There are also the single provinces of the Dutch and Portuguese, but I've never seen them expand and the Dutch province often falls to rebels. Fighting a European sea power isn't wise early in the game.

The problem with taking on the Dutch is that somehow this annoys all Europeans. With no one to trade, Marathas buckle under their own weight. I always wait for the Dutch to get drawn into a war with me and then take Ceylon.

The starting advantage of being the only big boy in the theatre is a mid game curse. By the time you are strong enough to move into Europe, all European powers are in strong positions (the only useful jump point I have come across is Morocco) You come into Europe and have to immediately feud with Spain and France at the best and Spain, France, Ottomans in the worst case. Morocco cannot pump in so many troops to keep two armies happy.

The land route to Europe via Persia puts me against Russia. Russia always beats Persia around that time and I dont want to annoy a major trading partner. So the Marathas are stuck, bottled in the Indian Subcontinent. By Late Game when their economy can pay for their mad antics, there arent enough factions to feud with.

Been a while since I played anything but DMUC for empire.

As I recall the base game, though, Maratha always did better aiming for the new world rather than Europe for its initial overseas expansion (I, as you, tended not to go overland since the Ottomans and Russians tended to be better trade partners than the other Euro powers). Expansion into the Caribbean or the Canadian North or Texas (at the expense of Pirates and Amerinds so as not to chuff off the Euro trading partners) not only netted developable provinces, but often increased the mix of trade goods and thereby increased the profits from each trade link as well.

You are still left with the need to face and defeat at least one major European power in the endgame, in order to secure the provinces for a win, but I found that this approach made the mid-game more doable and profitable. Otherwise, you are somewhat stalled while your econ buildings ramp up so that you can afford to train...and endlessly replace...all those sword troops (since putting Baggies up against Prussians on a musket duel is a recipe for "close defeat.").

Yeah the Bargirs dont fight well against line infantry. So I keep use the hammer and anvil approach. I let the line infantry mass up against mine and then attack their flank with sword infantry all while my Bargirs happily shoot away. The moment they break, I send an elephant unit in. It works quite nicely.

My invasion armies in Europe have Mortars, Camels (with a sprinkling of Horses) and the rest split between Line Infantry and swordsmen. On H/H I ve found that this can beat even the most determined enemies.