A Victoria:Total War would probably have too large a map to do it justice, so what about a Total War spanning from Persia to California starting around the time of the Opium War
>China has the most provinces but anyone who tries to dominate them outright will struggle with rebellions and tax inefficiency so highly profitable treaty ports are the way to go
>Britian controls a ton of Indian vassels instead of owning the country outright with the exception of major ports and Dehli
>Netherlands Indies
>Europeans can either recruit locals, who are a mixed bag in terms of quality (based Gurkhas tho) through normal barracks buildings or import sturdier continental regulars from the mainland
>European colonies need to keep the motherland happy so that they can justify taking away resources from Europe to help in the colonies. Europe also has some control over whether or not you can declare ware based on the governments policies.
I'm not sure if I got Britain right, as far as I know direct rule wasn't really their style. I hope someone else can flesh out the native countries a bit better. Give them something that can give them an advantage against the Europeans.