Any advice playing the Solanki Rajputs?

[Neptune7]

I downloaded Broken Crescent last night and started my first game playing the Hindu faction Solanki Rajputs..While I layed seige to the nearest settlement I went deeply in debt and quit the game..I started another game with the same faction and disbanded my starting army..I still went deeply in debt, as my army upkeep was close to 4,000 because of the 1913 upkeep each with those elephant bodyguards..Is there a great income generating rebel settlement nearby to take? Or any other advice on playing this faction?.....I quit the rajputs and started the green afghan faction, but I plan on coming back to the rajputs...

[Berkut]

It's the same as with most other factions, you just have to take as many rebel settlements as you can early in the game. I don't think I've had a single campaign yet where within the first starting turns I didn't go into 10,000 or so deficit, before finally conquering enough/loosing army during sieges to start getting profits

[Iguanaonastick]

Those elephants are quite capable of crushing stacks of rebels underfoot almost all by themselves. I suggest splitting your starting army in two small forces so the rebels will sally out, and then crush them with elephants. That way you can take two settlements at a time and don't need to spend time on a siege. Ergo: less debt.

Can't offer more advice than that since I have to admit I lost interest in elephant siege-sally battles pretty quickly. I prefer my good old cavalry-based armies.

[Intellected]

Never played them, but I love the elephants.. especially against the Mongols

[Animosity!]

Factions like the abbasid caliphate and the ayyubid caliphate are in the first turns not in dept. I advice to play the ayyubid sultanate (EGYPT) if this is the first time you play this game. After you captured Antioch and destroyed Kingdom of Jerusalem, you should make ~15.000 florins building money each turn.

[Intellected]

Or press ~ and type add_money 99999
And never never ever cheat again!

[damnfap]

they are the hardest faction in BC very bad choice... -10k a turn crushing debt plus you are hemmed in by expansionistic neighbours

[Goofy]

It's very interesting to hear that you have problems as the Solankis. I'm a first time BC player and - guess what - had problems with them, too. I chose Solankis just due to their amazing elephant units... surprisingly.

I chose VH/VH difficulty level and in the beginning I was having real problems because of the economical issue. Then I came up with a new style of conquering and battling.

Just a few ideas here, I first thought to write proper explanations but then decided that short ones are better and easier to understand.

1. On the first turn of the campaign conquer Anhilvara (located to South-West from Dhar) and Mumba (located to South from Dhar). Don't take too many units with you, otherwise the Rebels won't attack you during the first turn change. One bodyguard elephant unit CAN crush a whole enemy infantry army of 1000 men regardless of the difficulty level.
Anhilvara is the richest city in the Western part of India; you can build a Port right when you've conquered the city.
I used Raja's Guard, Mercenary War Elephants and 3 units of Hindu Longbowmen to conquer Anhilvara. Mumba required just two units of Rajput Elephant Archers (there is one Rebel elephant unit in Mumba but they are pretty useless, they don't throw javelins, just roam around the settlement and don't aggressively attack you).

2. Once Anhilvara and Mumba have been conquered, send one Hindu Longbowmen unit to Dhar and one to Mumba. Then bring all elephant units from Mumba to the southern side of Anhilvara and send some troops to conquer Kutch (to West from Anhilvara; easy to conquer, one elephant unit should be enough) and some more to conquer Somnath (to South from Kutch).
Then just start raiding the Northern side of Dhar; conquer Gwalior first (to North from Dhar) but don't touch Ajmer (to West from Dhar) before you've conquered as many cities as possible in North-West.

3. In the beginning sack EVERY city you conquer and build ports when it's possible; start building ports in Anhilvara, then build a Merchants' Wharf there. Then build Dirt Roads everywhere you can. Once this is done, focus on the Ports again.

4. Be very careful when fighting against mounted javelinmen; dismounted aren't so dangerous. Javelins kill elephants like flies.

5. As said, at their best two elephant units can conquer a whole town.

6. In the beginning you MUST adjust the tax rates nearly every turn. Make sure your purse doesn't go too badly negative.

7. Don't accept the offers of new generals, at least not before you've conquered Mumba, Anhilvara, Kutch and Somnath.

they are the hardest faction in BC very bad choice... -10k a turn crushing debt plus you are hemmed in by expansionistic neighbours

I can't quite agree. The neighbours are willingly expanding, yes, but the elephants are an unbeatable force to be used in siege-sally battles. Additionally they're OK inside a settlement, the problem is just that it takes much time to get your elephants in because they are almost bigger than the gate.

Still back to Neptune7's OP: I attach my Solanki screenshots here so you can see what I did and use it to help your gaming.

I hope I helped someone.

PS. I don't post very often anymore, it seems that the amount of post has been transferred to their length.

EDIT: Seems that I can not attach the folder, it's way too big.
Anyways, Solankis are a great faction to play as.

Regards,
~Master Goofy

[damnfap]

>I can't quite agree

solankis are by far the most difficult faction, on my campaign the ghorids and chuahan were up my ass very early plus there is the massive debt which barely breaks even when you take all the rebel settlements. Also as you stated javelin units destroy elephants making the advantage debatable (I would prefer good ole fashioned cav)

[Neptune7]

thanks everyone for your advice.....I will definetely try it out, because the way I did it was seige with my one army and wait the full duration of turns before they sally out, and then go to the next rebel settlement. Which was a slow proces..I didn't accept any generals, however my family line may become extinct because its small and no one is having any kids.. I accumulated 80,000 in debt and took me forever to reach 0 again and actually build something in any of my settlemets. Luckily I formed an alliance with the yellow hindu faction to the north, so they never attacked me, however I could not form an alliance with the other red ghorid faction bordering me..And I feared an attack from them the whole time..With no money, there is no recruitment, and no war. The game is over with...

[Berkut]

not necessarily true, with no money you can still wage war. AI can't gather it's forces like you can. You can win a war against an AI opponent who has 5 times your armed forces because as you fight you will probably win nearly every battle(through combining your forces against AIs separate stacks) and as you take AI settlements/loose your forces you will gain funds that can be used to hire mercs to continue with the blitz (not have to wait for recruiting and moving up your forces/allow AI time to recover). I found that totally steamrolling AI factions by sacking cities and hiring all mercs available is the most efficient way to crush an AI faction. Usually by the time I take out an AI my native forces compose like 10% of my armies, if that even.

[wudang_clown]

I don't agree that Solankis are most difficult faction. You can check this and this AAR.

Anyway, elephant units upkeep will be changed, so in BC 3 it will be a different experience.

[damnfap]

after playing a quick solanki campaign I noticed that the faction was different. I was only -5k in debt at the start instead of 10. Also the garrisons appeared to be different, each having some of those 'indian knights'. Was alot of work done to them in the 2.02 patch? I think that I found them difficult because the 2.0 Solankis are harder i.e. twice as much debt and more elephant garrisons.

[Sharzak]

I just barely started up a campaign earlier today. Try to solidify your little corner of India. I went 35000 into debt at one point before my economy started turning back upward. My faction leader died at the same time that I took two settlements, so I went from losing 3000/turn to gaining 4000. This allowed me to get back into the black and start working on economic infrastructure, and I haven't had problems since. There will be lots of turns where you do little except hit end turn waiting for funds for a while, but once you get on your feet the faction is very powerful.

[damnfap]

the problem is that elephants are far too powerful, the indians have many interesting units but all I do is trample everything with elephant charges

[anaztazioch]

I quit MTW2 for some time before the 2.0 was out
but in earlier games i remember some of the cities around have sources of gold that give great trade and mining income.
I think attacking the city to the north of your starting possition is best. It has quite the population as well as lots of provinces to trade with, including 3-4 in the south and Delhi, which gives MAJOR trade income. Also sending some man to conquer the "Ivory coast" in africa and trade ivory with merchants, that gives about 1000 denars from merchant a turn.

But like i said, i dont know how much the map changed in 2.0.

[Kharn]

I found myself using just Elephants to steam roll every rebel settlement and enemy army. Once I had all the rebel cities and castles taken before I bumped into the AI I had all my generals in one army just annhilating everything and sackking all cities and castles. I had an income of at least 4000 every turn, when a general died that made it another 1000+ and because I accepted new family members everytime, never ran out of generals of it. It got pretty boring smashing every single army thrown at me, no matter the size, with elephants only.

When facing other Elephants, the best tactic to use is Javelin Cav to snipe their general. Works for sieges also, attack with 2/3 units. Rush them forward and turn skirmish mode off and gang up on the general unit (which is usually Elephants when playing against any indian faction) and he falls in one volley most of the time, if not he'll be down by the second or third and then simply harras the remaining enemy troops with the rest of your Javs, try bring a spear unit to tie up all the inf forces and slam into the enemy from behind with the Cav when ammo is gone, nearly always results in a rout.