Has anyone ever seen the AI British or French invade India?

[irish437]

I would love to see them establish colonies there but have never seen it in my hundreds of games of Empire.

[poa]

england never fail to attack me at game start when i play a faction in india region, including persia

[Alwyn]

When I use one of the Early American Revolution startpos files (the 18K version), Britain normally takes over between one and three regions in India during the first few years of the campaign.

However, this does not happen through Britain sending an army by ship. It happens because, in that startpos, British rebels appear in those regions if there is a rebellion, and I have created conditions in those regions which increase the chances of a rebellion occurring. This, at least, means that Britain will compete with other factions for control of India. If Britain succeeds (which is not guaranteed), then this makes Britain into a powerful late-game opponent for the United States (which was one of the aims of the mod).

(You could make other European factions emergent in India. In an unreleased test startpos, I created conditions in which France took over regions as well. However, for some reason, if France loses their home region in Europe and then French rebels capture a region in India, the game crashes. This did not happen when I took over Britain's home regions in Europe, when British rebels then took over a region in India. That is why I only made Britain, not other European factions, emerge in India.)

[eschelar]

Recent play through on vh/vh as Karat, had Britain drop a full stack on bijapur. I think it was my third naval invasion. France DoW on me early from carnatica but no naval invasion. I traded for peace and they DoW on me again later, but they didn't survive that one.

[irish437]

What I am really trying to find out is if you play with France, will Britain establish a foothold in India. I have no doubt if you are an Indian faction, the AI will come for you there.

[poa]

england never get that far when i play france, i delete them from the map on turn 5

[douglas]

I've seen them in India a couple of times. Once when playing the US campaign. Most of the time though they wind up attacking me, whichever faction I am playing.

[Leonardo]

I've seen only the British in India at least in the early campaign when playing Maratha.

[General Maximus]

Another issue is that India is obscenely rich and prosperous (which is historically accurate), and Marathas quickly conquer most of India within 30 years from a collapsing but grand Mughal Empire (which is also accurate).

What is not accurate is that the now-huge empire of Marathas, with all that unending flow of cash and resources, decides to build a bunch of huge stacks, and then a bunch of large fleets, and then ships them off to invade Europe.

This happens before any of the AI European states have sorted out their colonial and internal mess and would be able to focus on India. The result is that before Britain or France can take lands in India, Marathas end up taking Ireland or Belgium and so on. After that any idea of AI taking India goes out of the question. Marathas become like an annoying Courland with actual resources and armies to back their Mongol Invasions type attacks.

It still happens occasionally, for example French taking over Dutch-controlled Lanka in a war and then expanding on a few coastal provinces in mainland India, or British taking and holding Bengal for some time before being kicked out again by Maratha doomstacks. But not as well as it could've been.

One way to help AI do it if you are inclined, is to fund Mughals with as much money as you can (which is odd since they are already richest in game for the entire time they exist), and provide them with all latest technologies you have. It doesn't improve their troops much, but at least they will build more troops and armies, and hold on their own for a while until AI can sense Maratha weakness and invade southern India.

I think if CA put more effort in making India campaign historical (with factions like Nizamat of Hyderabad, Awadh and Bengal Nawabates, Rajputs, Maratha breakaways in late period like Holkar/Shinde/Gaikwar/Bhonsale...and all such minor factions who were historically siding with Europeans to defeat imminent Maratha invasions and eventually grew powerless, the game would've turned out different.

[poa]

One way to help AI do it if you are inclined, is to fund Mughals with as much money as you can (which is odd since they are already richest in game for the entire time they exist), and provide them with all latest technologies you have. It doesn't improve their troops much, but at least they will build more troops and armies, and hold on their own for a while until AI can sense Maratha weakness and invade southern India.

i sort of did exactly that with a couple of mods, in the startpos mod, i gave them around 30k to build some measure of infrastructure, and in another mod, i gave them access to sikh infantry without any barrack upgrade requirement, so those two mods balance out maratha to some degree, in a few campaigns, mughals managed to take over, in most campaigns, maratha wins, but it takes them a whole lot longer, they havnt got any leftover resources to occupy the trade nodes. page 27 & 29 iirc http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...le-Now!/page27

[Basil II the B.S]

In the standard game with no modifications Britain and France will not get involved in India, based on hundreds of hours of experience.

Though there's a way to make the game more balanced.

This is tested with Russia/Prussia, Ottomans mainly on VH:

First turn: swap your second most important region (eg Konigsberg/Kiev) for Hyderabad (better) or Ahmadnagar. If you have additional worthless regions (that make 0 income for various turns), swap them as well for Hyd/Ahm, whatever you couldn't get with the first offer.
Gift Hyderabad to Great Britain, Ahmadnagar to France.

This means that while at war with the Mughals, now the Maratha must attack either France or Great Britain first to then move on to Mughal territory. If they do, then it's likely that Britain/France will remain at war with the Marathas for long, and while they do not tend to disembark troops, they attack their docks and trading ships, crippling their income. It also gives Mughals a bit of time to amass armies Southwards.

If you swapped Hyderabad, the Mughal army will be moved to the region of Orissa/Cuttack, which still borders a corner of Carnatica. I'd say 40% of the time, that army rushes Southwards and takes Carnatica from the Maratha, meaning the Maratha are stuck with having to attack France/GB and with 1 region.

Now, this generally ends with the Maratha winning, but it takes significantly longer (up to 50 years) and I have seen the Mughals winning more than once too.


(Note, you have to attack the Mughals to get back your Kiev/Konigsberg on turn 1 after all the region swaps, because getting back your second most important regions is rather crucial to the gameplay, since this generally happens within turn 1/2 it doesn't have a lasting impact on the gameplay)

[poa]

...

you get the effect without having to sell your land by using the mod i linked, that gives mughal 29k

[Basil II the B.S]

Though part of my strategy is to have Britain and possibly France as well at war with the Marathas.

This cripples them in various ways, ranging from their Britain pirating their trade ships in the nodes, to blockading the docks in Bijapur.

[poa]

Though part of my strategy is to have Britain and possibly France as well at war with the Marathas. This cripples them in various ways, ranging from their Britain pirating their trade ships in the nodes, to blockading the docks in Bijapur.

mughal with 29k in the bank will destroy marathas ships and ports, maratha never get to send ships to trade slots, try it and see for yourself