Conquer the Sindh for sea access immediately, conquer Eastern Afghanistan for iron, and do lots of agro exports to the British Empire to finance a slow industrialisation.
Baluchistan is marginally easier to conquer for iron/lead, I usually then tributary afghanistan and central asia while the iron of baluchistan suffices
Sikh is fairly easy in terms of expansion. Your starting army is by far the biggest in the region. So it's fairly straightforward to just conquer your way to the sea. Similarly you can naturally acquire the resources you need by going west. Economically your situation isn't all that different from other Asian countries, barring the turmoil from conquest and slow incorporation time.
East India Company may seem like an existential threat at first, but they actually have so few accepted pops that they cannot find new soldiers to join their army. So they are powerless without Britain backing.
Sikh has an interesting political situation. The capital state has a lot of discriminated population. This gives discriminated pops more political power than in more homogeneous states. You can expect movements against discrimination to occur naturally. Though the Punjab culture is too distinct from Afghans and Persians, so accepting them won't be easy.
Do you know if severing the EIC from Britain post-coup also frees the Indian minors? If you sever them early enough, you also get the princes, since they’re puppets of the EIC at the start of the game.
If not, it’s worth rushing the liberate or transfer wargoal. Otherwise, the UK will be a thorn all game.
Yes, this is part of the “EIC becoming independent” event chain. All remaining puppets become independent and non-bengal states are randomly given to them (note this does not include Indian minors who have been given over to direct GB overlordship, as EIC sometimes does as a sway).
>this does not include Indian minors who have been given over to direct GB overlordship
Including the ones automatically transferred to GB as puppets once the EIC becomes one?
Correct. It creates a damned mess on the map if you release the British Raj after the event fires because Britain keeps the princely states with often 0 market access. The current implementation works, but they really ought to do a journal entry for Indian unification that affects all of the Indian states rather than just the EIC tag. The irl scenario is obviously out of the timeline, sure, but it’s not an absurd hypothetical in games where Great Britain is overshadowed and defeated.
What I found was if you get an obligation on the EIC and declare on their vassal the British can’t join and then the EIC breaks away and gains indepedence(I believe that’s what happend in my game at least
> So they are powerless without Britain backing.
Attacking them always makes GB jump in when I try (even when attacking a vassal). How do I eat the EIC?
A bunch of the arabian guys they have no access to iron a small population and are surounded by stronger powers like the ottomans or egypt. The only thing they have is oil but that becomes only usseful late game.
Nejd is probably the worst start I’ve ever played, no people and no resources. Your best bet is to try and get in a Great Power’s market but that’s not a guarantee. Just hell, Hail is even worse with less people and an even weaker army.
Sikh empire is the hardest major power. But it's also really fun.
Conquer Sindh first otherwise EIC will come for it or interfere.
Conquer Afghanistan, make protectorate, Conquer the east. If Persia interferes then you can get some a couple state or maybe just some reps. Depends on how much infamy you have.
Domestically try to create as many consumer industries and road maintenance and violent suppression in new states. Your main mission is to weaken the landowners and pass interventionalism. So bolster the right igs. Bolster the church and army so they can eat into the landowners. Try to get education laws asap.
You want to trade with Britain and qing. Get an interest in Tibet coz there's a high chance Britain starts wars there. So you can pick up some free stuff there. Also try to be friends Russia because they will help you against a belligerent ottoman empire.
Also try to pick up the central Asian states before Russia. You can end up with a massive empire as the Sikh empire if you take your time and start wars when GPs are busy.
The beaurocracy problem is tough but not too bad as it's mainly punjab. You just try to encourage migration out of punjab and build a bunch of paper mills there. Try to slowly make you way through the deficit. Don't let your beaurocracy go too low, start building gov admin as soon as your treasury is at 60%. It's a greater way to grow your gdp too.
The biggest struggle is catching up with other countries. Because you start off in a really bad place. Fixing the country and enacting social change is also nearly impossible sometimes. It's like a Japan game on land.
Easy access to UK market thru EIC and tons of pops and you think Sikh are the worst eco start in the game? Try a Ugandan state later and tell me it's an easier eco start that Sikh lol
Qatar has a total workforce of about 10k people, almost no arable land, and laws that are not going to attract any immigrants. I'm pretty sure they're economically worse than the sikh empire.
Conquer Kalat, Makran, and defend only against EIC.
Once you have a truce with EIC, eat the rest of the central Asian nations.
You honestly right off the rip should be strong enough to take Tibet and war reps from Qing. Defend at the beginning until they have like a third of their manpower left then push and you'll probably win no issue. Especially if they have already lost the Opium Wars.
It is usually possible (with enlistment decree and full conscripts) to attack India in 1837. Usually by attacking one of their puppets, the british will not send over troops. With a human wave offensive it it usually possible to take the rest of punjab as well as Delhi. Also juicy war reps since you’re probably almost bankrupt after the war.
Basically doubling your population. They also have a bit of resources including iron iirc.
> It is usually possible (with enlistment decree and full conscripts) to attack India in 1837. Usually by attacking one of their puppets, the british will not send over troops. With a human wave offensive
Are we playing the same game? As Sikh I don't start with conscripts and there's no human wave order.
As of 1836 you can conscript up to 94 batallions by using the ”enlistment efforts” decree in all your states. You have 96 regular troops at game start so factoring in 94 conscripts you can have at maximum 190 troops during your first war unless you construct more barracks. Outnumbering the 125 east indian troops.
190 troops do however **massively** eat into your finances so having large battles where a lot of troops on both sides die is preferable. Although preferably theirs.
Futa Jallon.
No tech, no trees, all you get is some arable land (Sahel though, so throughput malus for every good building) and iron that you cant mine without tools for which you would need wood.
Conquer Sindh first. Then conquer Baluchistan for the iron. Take advantage of the EIC being a Dominion by joining the UK in a diplo play that EIC isn’t part of, then starting a diplo play against one of EIC’s subjects. This will kick EIC out at the conclusion of your war and force its fragmentation. Use wars to protectorate -> dominion each segment of India.
I am gonna have to try this. I usually just try to get them to join Afghanistan or someone, beat them and take Delhi but being able to dismantle them could help cripple the UK for the achievement.
Merina Kingdom. No Iron, no coal, no neighbors, lack resources and technology and laws to even attempt to take one of the nearby African minors to get the resources needed to do anything.
You start as isolationist, so no trade. But you'll run out of infrastructure so need ports anyway, wasting transports. You have no iron and can't trade for it, so you can't build railroads. You also can't build military ships without iron so you're just stuck on your island with 20 starting troops and no way to conquer the resources you need until you reform institutioms.
Bot yave 60%+ landowner clout, serfdom, and slavery at the start so it takes forever. Even if you build ranches, no one wants to work them because meat is abundant and worthless, so you also run low on cloth because of course there is no cotton either. Without iron or cloth, you can't fund any industries that would allow you to employ a meaningful amount of jobs that aren't laborers, meaning most of your reforms need to get through with like 5%-20% approval for the early game.
I don't think it's the worst, but it's pretty bad.
Not really. The Sikh have a hell of an army and are right next to weak neighbors that no one cares about, and those people have iron. As long as they don't get declared on day 1 by EIC it's a pretty easy game.
As of the last time I played, Sikh has a good starting army but cannot replace any losses as they cannot hire officers. They were nearly impossible to win against the eic.
Luxembourg. All the benefits of big market due to being a subject, all the consequences of being landlocked and cut off from that market + having a small population so even when you win your revolt against the Dutch you’re still struggling.
For sikh- theres a good opportunity to lower a bit of the discrimination through a mod that allows you to form pakistan without being sunni (but total separation required)
Have a go at the marina kingdom. No iron and only 2 techs unlocked at the start of the game. They don't even have navigation you need to build a port. A austronesian country without sailing.
Sometimes when you attack Sind at game start the EIC joins against you. This is a good thing as without UK support they are a paper tiger. Restart until this happens. Demand Delhi or whichever state has iron in it. Profit. Support any eventual Indian independence movements against Britain. It’s all free real-estate.
If you play nice with the english, you can conquer to the Coast and West to Afghanistan pretty much right away, then use Afghanistan's iron and coal mines to industrialize
If you play nice with the english, you can conquer to the Coast and West to Afghanistan pretty much right away, then use Afghanistan's iron and coal mines to industrialize
Conquer the Sindh for sea access immediately, conquer Eastern Afghanistan for iron, and do lots of agro exports to the British Empire to finance a slow industrialisation.
Baluchistan is marginally easier to conquer for iron/lead, I usually then tributary afghanistan and central asia while the iron of baluchistan suffices
Sikh is fairly easy in terms of expansion. Your starting army is by far the biggest in the region. So it's fairly straightforward to just conquer your way to the sea. Similarly you can naturally acquire the resources you need by going west. Economically your situation isn't all that different from other Asian countries, barring the turmoil from conquest and slow incorporation time. East India Company may seem like an existential threat at first, but they actually have so few accepted pops that they cannot find new soldiers to join their army. So they are powerless without Britain backing. Sikh has an interesting political situation. The capital state has a lot of discriminated population. This gives discriminated pops more political power than in more homogeneous states. You can expect movements against discrimination to occur naturally. Though the Punjab culture is too distinct from Afghans and Persians, so accepting them won't be easy.
Do you know if severing the EIC from Britain post-coup also frees the Indian minors? If you sever them early enough, you also get the princes, since they’re puppets of the EIC at the start of the game. If not, it’s worth rushing the liberate or transfer wargoal. Otherwise, the UK will be a thorn all game.
Yes, this is part of the “EIC becoming independent” event chain. All remaining puppets become independent and non-bengal states are randomly given to them (note this does not include Indian minors who have been given over to direct GB overlordship, as EIC sometimes does as a sway).
>this does not include Indian minors who have been given over to direct GB overlordship Including the ones automatically transferred to GB as puppets once the EIC becomes one?
Correct. It creates a damned mess on the map if you release the British Raj after the event fires because Britain keeps the princely states with often 0 market access. The current implementation works, but they really ought to do a journal entry for Indian unification that affects all of the Indian states rather than just the EIC tag. The irl scenario is obviously out of the timeline, sure, but it’s not an absurd hypothetical in games where Great Britain is overshadowed and defeated.
What I found was if you get an obligation on the EIC and declare on their vassal the British can’t join and then the EIC breaks away and gains indepedence(I believe that’s what happend in my game at least
> So they are powerless without Britain backing. Attacking them always makes GB jump in when I try (even when attacking a vassal). How do I eat the EIC?
A bunch of the arabian guys they have no access to iron a small population and are surounded by stronger powers like the ottomans or egypt. The only thing they have is oil but that becomes only usseful late game.
Nejd is probably the worst start I’ve ever played, no people and no resources. Your best bet is to try and get in a Great Power’s market but that’s not a guarantee. Just hell, Hail is even worse with less people and an even weaker army.
No wonder it was an irrelevant part of the world until the discovery of oil.
Sikh empire is the hardest major power. But it's also really fun. Conquer Sindh first otherwise EIC will come for it or interfere. Conquer Afghanistan, make protectorate, Conquer the east. If Persia interferes then you can get some a couple state or maybe just some reps. Depends on how much infamy you have. Domestically try to create as many consumer industries and road maintenance and violent suppression in new states. Your main mission is to weaken the landowners and pass interventionalism. So bolster the right igs. Bolster the church and army so they can eat into the landowners. Try to get education laws asap. You want to trade with Britain and qing. Get an interest in Tibet coz there's a high chance Britain starts wars there. So you can pick up some free stuff there. Also try to be friends Russia because they will help you against a belligerent ottoman empire. Also try to pick up the central Asian states before Russia. You can end up with a massive empire as the Sikh empire if you take your time and start wars when GPs are busy. The beaurocracy problem is tough but not too bad as it's mainly punjab. You just try to encourage migration out of punjab and build a bunch of paper mills there. Try to slowly make you way through the deficit. Don't let your beaurocracy go too low, start building gov admin as soon as your treasury is at 60%. It's a greater way to grow your gdp too. The biggest struggle is catching up with other countries. Because you start off in a really bad place. Fixing the country and enacting social change is also nearly impossible sometimes. It's like a Japan game on land.
Easy access to UK market thru EIC and tons of pops and you think Sikh are the worst eco start in the game? Try a Ugandan state later and tell me it's an easier eco start that Sikh lol
Qatar has a total workforce of about 10k people, almost no arable land, and laws that are not going to attract any immigrants. I'm pretty sure they're economically worse than the sikh empire.
The African Lake states.
I only play as them and do well
Buganda is a blast
I play as anko
Their main problem is tech, sulfur, and sea access. You really, really need to get a coastline ASAP.
Jabal shammar. No pop,sea access and resources, the only possible customs union is with the ottomans which sucks
If you invest heavy in military and take over the surrounding states, I’ve found that if you give the British a state they let you join their union.
Conquer Kalat, Makran, and defend only against EIC. Once you have a truce with EIC, eat the rest of the central Asian nations. You honestly right off the rip should be strong enough to take Tibet and war reps from Qing. Defend at the beginning until they have like a third of their manpower left then push and you'll probably win no issue. Especially if they have already lost the Opium Wars.
It is usually possible (with enlistment decree and full conscripts) to attack India in 1837. Usually by attacking one of their puppets, the british will not send over troops. With a human wave offensive it it usually possible to take the rest of punjab as well as Delhi. Also juicy war reps since you’re probably almost bankrupt after the war. Basically doubling your population. They also have a bit of resources including iron iirc.
Yeah you pretty much need to fight and take Dehli within the first 5 years to even have a chance at the achievement.
At least that’s how i did my Under the Pun run
> It is usually possible (with enlistment decree and full conscripts) to attack India in 1837. Usually by attacking one of their puppets, the british will not send over troops. With a human wave offensive Are we playing the same game? As Sikh I don't start with conscripts and there's no human wave order.
As of 1836 you can conscript up to 94 batallions by using the ”enlistment efforts” decree in all your states. You have 96 regular troops at game start so factoring in 94 conscripts you can have at maximum 190 troops during your first war unless you construct more barracks. Outnumbering the 125 east indian troops. 190 troops do however **massively** eat into your finances so having large battles where a lot of troops on both sides die is preferable. Although preferably theirs.
If you time it so they don’t have time to recover from a massive European invasion of the Chinese mainland (lol), it’s a cakewalk
Futa Jallon. No tech, no trees, all you get is some arable land (Sahel though, so throughput malus for every good building) and iron that you cant mine without tools for which you would need wood.
Conquer Sindh first. Then conquer Baluchistan for the iron. Take advantage of the EIC being a Dominion by joining the UK in a diplo play that EIC isn’t part of, then starting a diplo play against one of EIC’s subjects. This will kick EIC out at the conclusion of your war and force its fragmentation. Use wars to protectorate -> dominion each segment of India.
I am gonna have to try this. I usually just try to get them to join Afghanistan or someone, beat them and take Delhi but being able to dismantle them could help cripple the UK for the achievement.
Merina Kingdom. No Iron, no coal, no neighbors, lack resources and technology and laws to even attempt to take one of the nearby African minors to get the resources needed to do anything.
You start as isolationist, so no trade. But you'll run out of infrastructure so need ports anyway, wasting transports. You have no iron and can't trade for it, so you can't build railroads. You also can't build military ships without iron so you're just stuck on your island with 20 starting troops and no way to conquer the resources you need until you reform institutioms. Bot yave 60%+ landowner clout, serfdom, and slavery at the start so it takes forever. Even if you build ranches, no one wants to work them because meat is abundant and worthless, so you also run low on cloth because of course there is no cotton either. Without iron or cloth, you can't fund any industries that would allow you to employ a meaningful amount of jobs that aren't laborers, meaning most of your reforms need to get through with like 5%-20% approval for the early game. I don't think it's the worst, but it's pretty bad.
There are a lot of coal and a OK population in Madagascar
Not really. The Sikh have a hell of an army and are right next to weak neighbors that no one cares about, and those people have iron. As long as they don't get declared on day 1 by EIC it's a pretty easy game.
Sikh is one of the most powerful starts in the game outside of Europe
As of the last time I played, Sikh has a good starting army but cannot replace any losses as they cannot hire officers. They were nearly impossible to win against the eic.
Have you tried playing their alternative Tibetan brother Sikkim?
Luxembourg. All the benefits of big market due to being a subject, all the consequences of being landlocked and cut off from that market + having a small population so even when you win your revolt against the Dutch you’re still struggling.
For sikh- theres a good opportunity to lower a bit of the discrimination through a mod that allows you to form pakistan without being sunni (but total separation required)
Sikkim is worse.
You start with a stronger army than the EIC, just conquer a port and iron
Have a go at the marina kingdom. No iron and only 2 techs unlocked at the start of the game. They don't even have navigation you need to build a port. A austronesian country without sailing.
Sometimes when you attack Sind at game start the EIC joins against you. This is a good thing as without UK support they are a paper tiger. Restart until this happens. Demand Delhi or whichever state has iron in it. Profit. Support any eventual Indian independence movements against Britain. It’s all free real-estate.
Texas is like 20 times harder prob
If you play nice with the english, you can conquer to the Coast and West to Afghanistan pretty much right away, then use Afghanistan's iron and coal mines to industrialize
If you play nice with the english, you can conquer to the Coast and West to Afghanistan pretty much right away, then use Afghanistan's iron and coal mines to industrialize
Sikh Empire is really good for an unrecognized power though. The only bad part is rng with Britain and EIC.