Maratha

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I turtle, so at 1775 and 24 provinces, I am not bothered by my overall progress.

I am constantly annoyed by the inability of Indian troops to dig in. Defending fortresses is a ghastly bloodbath without entrenchments.

Moreover, I am annoyed with pretty much all of my infantry, Sikhs included, in the late game here. I am always being outshot. Just had a Regiment of 110 Bargir, behind an entrenchment (built by a peasant unit)m fighting a 96 man unit of Cairo Jannies standing in the open at about 40 yards. Mine were shot down to 14 and broke having dropped the Cairos only to 49. What gives. Yes, they are more accurate and load a bit faster, but I'm behind a bloody great pile of sandbags -- and I still couldn't go one for one.

Really leaves you wondering if all you should do is make Sikh sword -- since it always seems to come to the scrum anyway since if you stand to trade fire you lose. Frustrating.

[Kanamori]

The Maratha have the best starting position, far and away, IMO. I try to make friends with most everyone, which you'll stay friendly with easily if you have trade agreements with everyone (I avoid alliances until there are few people left, and especially try to make sure not to get drawn into conflicts that take away trade and make enemies...). I basically just invade the Ottoman Empire, hopefully while they're still having fun with Persia, make sure to make friends with Russia, and make concessions to Austria to avoid a serious war, if they start one, by giving them poor provinces that aren't troop recruiting centers. Fighting Austria from the south is a bad idea because of how long the marching will be and how few and far away the troop recruiting cities are. I usually end up fighting Britain and the Netherlands with France and Spain (and let them do the heavy naval fighting, until I nab London)... anyway, if you give out tech and occasionally money to the European powers who are the underdogs, when they need it, you'll be able to keep Europe in perpetual war with no clear winners until you waltz in... giving away tech and money also means that you're going to be very friendly with most everyone, so you can ally with France and Spain, only to backstab them later on and wipe out a nation in a single turn, which saves you the mess of having to deal with most of their military, creates new nations to trade with in the Americas, who won't be a challenge to your power. Since the computer gets antsy to invade when they're blocked in by you, it's the perfect pre-emptive strike, and lets you refocus totally on Russia and Austria, or Prussia if they happen to be the next dominant power.

As to their troops, I make up for their weakness by using lots of mortars and shrapnel/canister shot from cannons, with cavalry/elephant charges to break them faster, if they're in an opportune position for that... also I think it can be a good idea to recruit more than one or two generals for an army and use the elephants to start the chain routing, or take care of a flank.

[Infantry121]

Take Control of Southern Indian,including Goa,Mysore,Hyberbad,Abgmerbad or how ever its spelled,and Celyon.Then make peace with the Mugal Empire and spend time using the trade theaters to get money then invade Poland.

[Sebastian Seth]

I didnt find the units that bad at all. I favour infantry and like to mix melee infantry to it. In these kind of brawls the morale and fatigue plays vital part. Almoust all of indias troops are resistant to heat and balgir musketeers have resistance to morale shocks. Melee infantry seems to be little better than european one. Both Sikh and Hindu Warriors are pretty good alltought they tire quicky. On top of that the camel units have some nice suprices on them. One having 90 range. Later on you get Balgir Lancers as well and they are somewhat more usefull than the original indians.

I didnt waste time on the start. I took two provinces around my capital form the Mughais right at start. Then there was some brawls between Mysore and Portugal. It lead to Goa being unprotected and Mysore weakened. As such opportunity was presented I took them both. This lead me to have one more trading port and one more school. Futher more, Mysore is also nice province to spam troops from. After that I quickly turned the momentum against Mughais. I pretty much blized with 2 armies and followed with 1 to subdue the rebellions. Then endless number of harbor invasions and navy brawls led me to garrison all my ports with 1-2 units. Also gathered 2 brig, 2 sloop navy to take out the Mughai navy. Moved fast on the west side to take their trading ports. If its possible I'm going to take on the ottoman empire and persia next. I'm allready allied with the Russians for it. Then mayby grab some american provinces from spanish.

Economics are the key with Marathas. My armies may be little underpowered but they'll never be underhanded.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

...Economics are the key with Marathas. My armies may be little underpowered but they'll never be underhanded.

Actually, that may be the best one sentence summary of Maratha as a faction. It pretty much encompasses their strategic composition and approach in a very pithy fashion.

[Napoleon The Emperor Of Europe]

Damn...

When I played the Marathas in Campagin mode,the ungraze(Brits) never came to my land,the mughals were almost defeated..The Punjabi's had risen against my rule,and I conqereud Persia,but I was always at war with georgia or russia,,

[BharatRakshak]

I played Maratha as my first faction. All I remember is that when I was in the middle of a critical stage of beating the Mughals back, the British landed a massive force in my capital and kicked my butt. I tried for a few turns to beat them back but apparently losing my capital to a surprise naval attack lost me so much dinero (and conversely gave the Brits so much) that I continued losing. So I backtracked a few turns and prepared for the British assault. It was bloody this time still but I barely survived the onslaught. After that I finished off the Mughals, took Afghanistan and Balochistan and left them as buffer from the Middle East and then I did the unthinkable.
I sent a massive fleet and landing force into the United Kingdom LOL. I premeditated American independence by 30-40 years there.