Maratha

[Monk]

Maratha guides

Please review the ToC before posting new strategies.

[Kekvit Irae]

Overview:

Let's face it... you're not exactly the sharpest knife in the block. Your units are underpowered, your tech tree stinks, and you're underpowered compared to your neighbors.
The primary advantage to playing Maratha is that your neighbors are exactly the same way. Except for Portugal (who owns Goa) and the Netherlands (who owns Ceylon), the two neighboring nations that you will fight (Mysore and Mughal) have virtually the same units as you do.
The second advantage is that, because there are only a very small number of nations inhabiting India, once you kick them out, you can dominate the trade market.
And finally, because you aren't a part of Europe or America, you don't have to get involved in the petty European conflicts.

Starting out:

You only have two provinces on hand at the moment, the Mughals are knocking at your door, and the Mysores will eventually backstab you. You have two options at this point... 1) head north and kick the Mughals out of your home, or 2) secure your southern flank by kicking Portugal and Mysore out of India.

Personally, I always choose the second route. Mysore will nearly always attack you when you least expect it, and it's NOT a wise idea for a European nation to gain a foothold in India with their superior units. For the moment, ignore the Mughal Empire unless it is kicking them out of your own provinces and concentrate on attacking Portugal and Mysore. Early on, they won't be that hard to take on, and once you do, your southern flank will be (mostly) protected. Be sure to lead a raiding party or two to capture the Mughal ports while you accomplish your southern campaign, as you do not want them building up a navy or getting strong through trade routes.

Once your southern flanks are protected, head north and eliminate the Mughals. Concentrate on the provinces that have sea ports, for the above reason that you don't want them to get fat from trade.

There is one last tip I should emphasize: ASHRAMS. Build them. Build lots of them. Not only do they convert your population and give you more Brahmin, but they give happiness to all the Hindu population (as opposed to the low-level Brothels which only please the lower class). Ashrams can free up Brahmin from the duties of converting your own population for converting the enemy population.

Units:

Carnatica and your capital are both good provinces to spam military units. The problem, as I've stated before, is that your units are lacking in firepower. Bargir Musketeers, Hindu Swordsmen, and Lancers will be your primary military force. Avoid the Hindu Musketeers unless it's for defense, as their accuracy is almost half that of the Bargirs. Personally, I prefer spamming more Swordsmen than Musketeers, especially against lesser nations like the Mughals. These guys are definitely invaluable in siege defense and attack.

When you start reaching the Mughal capital of Punjab, you'll start finding provinces that can build Sikh Musketeers and Swordsmen. Once you are able to build these guys, replace your armies with them. They are vastly better than your Bargirs and Hindus, despite only being able to be trained in certain northern provinces.

As far as your navy is concerned, Brigs are fine starting off. They only require a single turn to build, and can be built from all three port types. Once you build a Seaport, switch to Fifth Rates and better.

Diplomacy:

Because your nation is underpowered at the start, AVOID MILITARY ALLIANCES. Avoid them like the plague. The last thing you want is to get into a military alliance with Great Britain and find French or Spanish troops landing on your doorstep. Accept only trade agreements. In fact, spam trade agreements with every nation you can. Not only will this fatten your purse, it will also increase the relations with those nations by a small bit every turn.

Just be sure to keep your port cities well defended. Great Britain declared war on me for no apparent reason (I was Friendly with them) and landed a large invasion force in my capital region. If the inevitable happens, be sure to have good relations with other nations so they wont join the side of the enemy if they have an alliance.

Mid Game:

By now, you should own most of India. It's time to colonize! Europe is a no-go unless you want to attack the Barbary States (and risk getting into a war with the Ottomans). The best solution is to colonize the Americas. The Pirate islands, despite being defended by large fleets of Galleons, are lightly defended by troops that are worse than yours. Not only that, but they make VERY good trading ports. Bring a few Brahmin with you to convert the populace, as not all islands have spots for towns.

If, by some stroke of luck, a major European colonial power gets killed (such as France in my game), all their colonies will turn rebel. Use this to your advantage and invade the rebel colonies. More than likely, they will only be defended by Amerindians.

Another useful tactic is to attack and kill off as many Amerindian nations as you can, but only if you have the Warpath campaign. Not only are they weak compared to you, but with the Warpath campaign installed, you will find some provinces have Meeting Halls already built. Meeting Halls are better than Traditional Universities in all aspects. They give +2 happiness to your population, they produce more research points than Traditional Universities, they spawn assassins, and they do NOT produce any negative reform effects. If you manage to capture one, spend the time to transfer some scholars there.

[Malkut]

Just be sure to keep your port cities well defended. Great Britain declared war on me for no apparent reason (I was Friendly with them) and landed a large invasion force in my capital region.

This may be scripted, as it happened in both my 1.5 test playthroughs. It tends to happen fairly early on, before I could finish defeating the Mughals. I suggest a large force of Bargirs at your capital at all times.

I have little to add to the excellent post above, except to state something obvious: unfiy India under your rule, post-haste. India is perhaps the wealthiest theater in the game. Once it belongs to you, then you'll have vast income even without colonies.

That said, I had a fairly easy time colonizing as the Marathas, due mostly to luck. France conquered the Netherlands, who lost their colonies; the Dutch then rebelled, re-won their freedom, and conquered France right back, forfeiting their colonies as well.

Long story short: I ended the game with both a vast colonial empire, and friendly relations for every country in the world.

Strange, but true.

[A1_Unit]

Ok I've found that having 2 elite full stacks as the Marathas (one in the south and one in the north) is very effective. Your first stack will push south and take out Mysore, and then wait for the British to land while your second stack takes out the Mughals and secures the border with Persia. I haven't played much further than that but elite full stacks guarding a specific amount of territory seem to be the way to go.

[roy_d_merkel]

It appears that all is as it was in previous versions except for england's strange need to land a huge army on a small fleet.

I had to restart a couple turns before 1714 so that I could build a navy to kill the ships before the british could land on my capital territory. This also forced me to make peace with the Mugals... I haven't played for a couple of weeks because I haven't figured out how to break the stalemate... (while I was rebuilding my new terratories and regenerating my armies, the Mugals were busy building full stack armies)...

I think what I'm going to need to do is empty out what remains of my sourthern army, and move them up with my eastern army into Bengal, while trying to hold off their full stack armies with my full stack armies in the west...

[Iavorios]

I had the same problem with the UK. It has a simple solution, on H/H unleast. First allways garnison ALL your ports. Second keep watcing for the enemy. And at last upgrade all your southern towns (routes and barakas). When the enemy comes you will have one turn before he desembarks and one after that. All you need is a garnison of 4-5 bargir musketmen and a general. When the cursed anglos come you can build 8-12 units in a single turn. This is more than enough to kill the invaders. Then send the army to kill some mogols. Afcourse you will to blitz from the start in order to have the cash, but this is the way allmost everyone plays.
Now, if you are realy good wiht the navy you could try to kill them in the water. But the money you will need to build and mayntain this navy so early in the game is well to much. The army recruit could be used against the mogols. But on the ather hand you will need to build a large navy later on any whay.