Maratha taking over the world

[Diocletian]

I tried to colonise India as France at 1935 today, and the moment I declare war, about 4 full-stack Marathan armies pop up in the Carribean and take literally everything but the windward and Leeward Isles. I think I can get them out of there fine, but I wanted to know how one could go about making the likes of Great Britain and United Provinces start colonising Maratha? I'm trying to give them one of the provinces I just captured, but until recently I was at war with both Britain and the Provinces, and they just won't accept it, even for free. If about three of the European naval powers started fighting Maratha head on for colonies, do you think they would be able to win, or would the Marathans just kick them out anyway?

As it is, it looks like I'm set to lose my really experienced full stack army, they're just getting swamped by Sikh Swordsmen and they are much stronger than I anticipated. I remember one game I was Austria and I gave the Marathans saxony because I knew the Prussians were about to steamroll me, biggest miscalculation ever XD

Edit: just to clarify, since I never had the commitment to drive a grand campaign till 1800; if Maratha get too strong, will they literally pose a threat to winning the campaign? Or is it just that they are annoying and kill all your favorite enemies ;)

[Fisherking]

They are a royal pain but you should be able to win so long as everyone else doesn’t jump you in the bargain.

It will not be easy and not much fun unless it is for the long term challenges you will face.

You need to beat them at sea first and disrupt all their ports and kill their trade before they do the same to you. Also don’t auto-resolve your battles. You should not have too much trouble beating their doom stacks with good troops if you fight them your self but auto-resolve will flatten you.

[wal_martian]

I think it's because their economy is so amazing. I haven't seen anyone ever get close to their prestige. Declaring war on them is a death sentence they destroyed all of my prussian colonies in a few turns. Now im playing as austria and they are getting closer. These guys seriously piss me off i wish there was a simple way to defeat them. Next time im going to play as the dutch and im going to try to expand into india early on and get rid of this slime.
The problem i had with them is that they were so far away and i had no navy early on. As soon as i sent an army to their side of the world they already had enough soldiers to obliterate it.

If you don't have any strong territories nearby it is impossible to reinforce your armies. I will win a few battles but my units will continue to dwindle down and i have to keep recruiting more and more. Also it helps if you have 2 separate naval fleets maybe even 3 to help you get from point a to point b.
Next time im just going to try to take their capital city with my first or second assault. It would make conquering them a bit easier if i had their best territory working towards my advantage at the start of the war.

Also i wish i could unite the entire continent of europe against them. They just start to pick nations off one by one. I wish you could hold war conferences and discuss strategy with your allies. For example tell britain to attack their ports and attack their coastlines while i focus on moving soldiers through the middle east and fight land battles. It would be so much easier to deal with them if we could coordinate our assaults.

lol never mind yesterday im actually matching them economically
but i don't think it will last long because it has something to do with my countries inventiveness
once india reaches the same level they will be right back on top