1.3.1, Maratha steamroller - the only AI with a "purpose"?

[Slaists]

oddly, ive never seen any non-me european power(except portugal and UP obviously) even in the indian theatre, not even ships.

I second that.

However, given the current AI, I am not convinced a European AI faction would be able to survive in India two/three turns...

1) They'd need to get a substantial army (more than 1 stack, for sure; a mix of Baghirs, Sikhs, Elephants, etc., have high chances of auto-win against any faction's early/middle period troops) there, past the European enemies, the Indian fleets and the pirates. More than one stack implies a coordinated movement of several fleets.

2) Even if an AI faction managed to ship a decent army over, as already suggested in #1, the Maratha unit mix/stats seems very favorable for an auto-resolve in their favor. Even if the aggressive European faction won the auto-fight, at best, they'd have a province with destroyed infrastructure and a half depleted (or worse) army. The next fresh army, or two, that Marathas would throw at them would wipe the European aggressors off the sub-continent...

So, I do not see any European AI potentially being successful at invading India, given the current state of CAI. A European AI might get lucky at an opportunistic province grab, but the Maratha AI would wipe them out very fast. Maybe, a successful invasion could be possible if a European AI was given a scripted, coordinated invasion plan during the initial fight between Marathas, Mysore and Mughals. But I do not see it happening without a script...

P.S. Sensei has suggested that in the beta 1.4 patch he has witnessed Maratha invasion of the Americas. THAT I can see happening... Marathas should be able to auto-wipe the floor with the colonial units in the Americas...