India has no religious bonus, no growth bonus (ok, that's debatable, but it's not a growth bonus in the same way that Siam's is for example), struggles to churn out cities early on (due to happiness) and its UB doesn't hit until the mid game. The only way to make ICS work with India would be to go wide and tall, which probably means a Tradition opener that leads into Liberty in the mid game. I assume that you would focus on gold acquisition from luxury resources and Trading Posts to fuel Maritime city states (for growth purposes) and Mercantile ones (to ensure that your empire remains happy and can keep growing).
To put it bluntly, that all seems ambitious at best. Mayans have an early science and faith advantage, which is critical for getting an early religion going in order to get those happiness bonuses rolling out. Also, since building the National College (NC) is Hell when you're ICSing, the early science boost helps to offset your inability to build it. ICSing is also best employed when you're warmongering, and that's not India's typical strong point. Its UU is strong, there's no question about that, but ultimately it's a very defensive civ that wants to grow big and win peacefully if possible. Mayans can churn out some Atlatlists early on, upgrades them to Composite Bowmen/Crossbows as time passes, and rush Iron Working + Steel or Physics to get a serious military tech lead. From there it can mass (Long)swords and bows, support them with Trebuchets (or Cannons, depends what stage you're at) and start taking other civs out to keep growing. India, who doesn't have that science boost (nor the faith boost to speed its religion up) just plain can't employ that tactic nearly as well.
My question to you is why would you force an ICS plan with India? Why not go for some 4 city Tradition opener, get your happiness high, start growing like mad, and spam trading posts and whatnot to support a Science win? I don't think India is a particularly strong civ, I mean he just seems much worse than say Siam, but I really don't see how you could ever ICS effectively with them. The early-game happiness hit just seems insanely difficult to overcome, since it isn't offset until you have what? 6 citizens or something? That's a tall order in my mind. Staying happy to grow enough to hit those 6 citizens is ambitious at best in my mind.
Who did you hear this from exactly? Unless there's some bug or exploit that I'm just completely unaware of, India seems like one of the single worst ICSers in the game (maybe even the worst). Maybe your friend was trolling you?
per pop, which means India loses half the benefit of the policy.
