dealing with the Maratha problem
A year ago the Maratha Confederacy was just another faction. But somewhere in the patches they became an uber power.
If you want to keep Hinduism out of Europe and the Americas these are some suggestions.
Others may have better suggestions.
Diplomacy 1700 - 1740
In my experience the Ottoman Turks, the Persians, and the Mughals are economically and technologically backward anyway, and militarily weak. Thus, normally, they represent little threat to Europe. and I have yet to see any of these powers put in an appearance in the Americas.
I habitually play the Austrian faction, and the ottomans typically aren't even a problem for Austria.
So, be generous for once, and freely give these powers every military, economic, and philosophical technology you have.
Normally , even with such largess, they still won't catch up to you technologically.
If Altruism is just alien to you, while these powers rarely have any techs or other benefits to offer in return, sometimes they do.
The Ottomans start the game with improved grenades. They won't give it up easily, but if you give them 5 or 6 techs in return for the improved grenades, even 5 or 6 techs will help them little, but getting the improved grenades saves you valuable research time.
Why give these powers all that tech ? Are you a sucker ?
No, the idea is to prop them up in the face of the coming Maratha onslaught.
Even if you sent these powers 50,000 gold every turn, they would probably still fold before the Maratha juggernaut.
But hopefully it will slow the Maratha's up a bit.
Trade ?
Trade with the Maratha Confederacy ? I never trade with them. My king writes dirty - hopefully seductive - letters to, and trades portraits with, their pretty queen, but that's about it.
Whether a boycott of their trade really hurts them though is open to question.
So the choice is yours.
The basic problem
Fighting the Maratha's in Europe and the America's is generally a vain exercise. that is, destroy a full stack or two, never mind, he will just send three more stacks in less than ten turns !
You have to go to the heart of the problem.
i.e. You must go to India.
Navy
The Maratha's can build 2nd and 3rd rates, but typically they only build them in ones and twos.
So you need an Indian ocean fleet heavy with 2nd and 3rd rates , so you can go where you please, and strike where you please, anywhere in the Indian ocean.
In the long term, eventually, I find the Indian ocean to be the most strategically critical ocean in the world.
You can conceivably guard your European and American ports and trade lanes with 4th and 5th rates.
But it doesn't pay to economize in the Indian Ocean.
The Marathas weakness is in Naval power. Exploit that weakness.
Ceylon.
You don't really want colonies in India ? India doesn't appeal to you ? That's how I feel about it too. But you need Ceylon. The Dutch typically lose Ceylon at some point. If they do, You'll be fighting rebels. Create a halfway decent Indian expeditionary army, in most cases it need not even be a full stack, and go grab it. If the Dutch don't lose Ceylon, then go to War with the Dutch. They will get over it.
Ceylon is the ideal jump off point / staging area for attacking India.
Think of Ceylon as an unsinkable warship , or a fortress with a really wide moat.
Btw, if you never build town walls anywhere else, build them in Ceylon promptly.
Build up your Army in Ceylon.
If you have a spare spy, and you usually do, send him to India and land him on the shores of India. Preferably use a young spy. Your coaching inns will typically be in Europe, and you don't want to have to send back to Europe for a new spy because your spy dropped dead of old age.
Your spies job in India is to lift the fog of war, so you can see clearly what is there in India, and where his army stacks are.
Look for a town on the coast that is lightly garrisoned, with an un-garrisoned port.
Load up your army in Ceylon onto your fleet, sail into his port, unload in his port, take the town in the same turn.
At this point you can do one of two things ;
-- destroy every building in the province with the possible exception of the port.
If no army stacks are close by, and you can stick around two turns, you can get cute and build all church schools. So that he is not only left with an impoverished province, but has religious unrest, maybe even a priest, to deal with.
-- Give the province to a minor faction like the Knights of Saint John, a faction that is unlikely to ever represent a threat to you, or give the province to one of the Maratha confederacy's own trade partners, so that there given only two --BAD -- choices ; take back the province and lose a major trade partner, or just let the province go.
I prefer the scorched earth policy, at least initially. He will spend a lot of money, while he is losing money, trying to rebuild. While he is spending all that money, if, for example, it was a level 4 barracks you destroyed, it will take him a long time to get back to where he was developmentally. Meanwhile, you are off in another part of India destroying other buildings, creating more money pits for him.
After you have wrecked the whole province, or given it to another faction, return to Ceylon, build your army back up, find another coastal target , repeat the process.
if you happen to have another fleet to spare, send it off to check every trade theater. If you find Marathas on any trade node, wipe them out.
systematically shut down or destroy all Maratha sea trade.
The Marathas should slowly, or quickly, turn into a bankrupt state with armies of Militia, a faction that even the Persians push around.
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What the hell happened to this WORLD?
Originally Posted by happycynic
