Here are my notes from playing the Kushans.
UP - Syncretism, Gold from spreading non-state religion to any city (yours or others). Decent but not noticeable, though did contribute at least passively to the gold goal. If you were a bit more vigilant you could maximise this, but it wasn't too necessary for me.
UB - Caravanserai, market with +1 trade route. Nice to have, but you'd be building markets anyway.
UU - Asvaka, Horseman with +1 combat and City Raider I. Super super strong, god tier unit akin to Mobile Guard and Legion. Kills archers with city defender in 20% cities like it's nothing.
UHV1 - Build 3 pagan temples, six buddhist stupas, 3 hindu mandirs. Easy.
UHV2 - Silk route in 8 cities, spread Buddhism to 12 cities. Medium, challenge is associated with surrounding factors.
UHV3 - Large amount of gold and culture. Medium, challenge is associated with surrounding factors.
Starting situation - Spawn in Takkasila (north Punjab), flip Kashtpur and Central Asia. Core on those two cities and a few tiles in the Hindu Kush, large historical expansion over much of Asia. Start with a lot of advanced start money, and a stack of 4 Asvaka, 2 Catapult, 2 Skirmisher, 2 Swordsmen. Very strong start. You can can conquer most of your enemies with this starting army. Takkasila is a mid city, Kashtpur is good, Central Asia is mid although can get decent production.
Play on Marathon, lots of moving around here so no point wasting free turns.
My strategy, somewhat chronologically:
- Restart if Persia has razed Merv.
- Spawn and flip Kashtpur and Central Asia. Advanced gold I spent on a barracks in Kashtpur and some improvements around Takkasila, grab a road into the Hindu Kush if there isn't one.
- Civics to Despotism, Slavery, Merchant Trade, Clergy, Conquest. Do NOT convert to Buddhism. Tech on engineering.
- City Raider 3 on Asvakas, City Raider on Swordsmen and Catapults, Hills on Skirmishers.
- Takkasila and Central Asia build Olympian Temples. This should cover all three needed.
- Drop cash to 0, so you can distribute to save Indian cities.
- Attack India, their army is basically just archers and maybe a couple of other units. Asvakas can take cities without any siege needed, so you should be able to rush Delhi and Sahastrarama. Mithila may need healing and catapults+swords, but it's not an issue.
- You should be able to conquer India up to Mithila (the Hindu holy city). They probably collapse by this point. Conquer any remaining cities, like Tamralipta, Bikrampur, Ujjain and Thatta. Independents and Barbs will only have archers so Asvakas should easily take them.
- Indian cities pump out workers, I aimed for around 6-8. Whip olympian temples when possible.
- Takkasila builds basic infrastructure. Kashtpur builds archers (remember the starting barracks) to garrison cities. Indian barbs spawn so have two or three archers in risk cities. Central Asia can build barracks and some archers.
- Situation should be solid by now. Once Olympian Temples are done, convert to Buddhism. Start building mandirs and stupas. Whip out sanghas/ashrams if you need to spread, but you have plenty of time.
- Cash up to tech. Research Engineering and Law. Engineering for unit movement, Law for jails. Cash to 0 once done, you need money.
- Alright - time for a challenge. Persia is either strong or weak, or even collapsed. Collapsed is bad. They can respawn and fudge you over. Consider a restart. If they're strong, you can fight them but have to build a lot of military. If they're weak (eg, Rome/Greece beat them up), great. Attack Persia, take Nishapur/Herat. Hopefully you will be able to take some more cities or force vassalise them, vassal is best.
- Peace out Persia once you have at least one city, your preference, again I vassalised them for best outcomes.
- Whip out remaining religious infrastructure. UHV1 complete well ahead of deadline. Civic swap to Monarchy for some necessary stability and happiness.
- Caravanserais in all cities where possible. Mithila runs two priests to spawn great prophets with its high pop. Kashtpur runs two merchants and even a priest to grab a great merchant, not necessary though.
- Hunnic units spawn in the Indian plains. Build some light cav to kill them as they spawn.
- Settlers out. Settle two cities in Central Asia along the Amu and Syr Darya. Settle one in Afghanistan. Conquer Kashgar and the other Tarim Basin city. Settle another Tarim Basin city. Settle Thatta cause why not.
- Open borders with Tamils, Persia vassal or neutral, China, Rome if possible. Conquer independents if needed. Spam Buddhist Bhikkus, there should be ample cities to spread to after you start settling Central Asia. 12 Buddhism spreads shouldn't be too hard, but China and Tamils are both options. Your core and Delhi are all good production, so I built Bhikkus there, no need to whip.
- Silk Route should spread to your cities over time. Merv+Kesh+Nishapur/Herat = 3. I founded Kandahar for 4. Two settled cities in Central Asia for 6. Three cities in Tarim Basin for 9. Another city in Persia for 10.
- UHV2 done ahead of deadline. Turks spawn soon.
- In my game, Romans attacked at some point. Had to send military to Persia to kill them. Not a major issue, Persian units are strong and can fight Romans.
- Turks spawn. Accept flip, which kind of sucks. Build some mil up. Attack them later, Asvakas slaughter oghuz+archers in cities. I conquered them all the way to the Tarim Basin until they capitulated on one city.
- Flip to Manorialism/Caste System for more stab at some point. Expansion will destroy you, but, you should sit around unstable-shaky with good civics, buddhism spread and some nice vassals. Note that you don't have to care about respawns if Persia is alive, as India won't respawn (from what I saw, at least. I went collapsing once, flipped to Caste System to save me).
- Sell resources to Europe/Asia where needed. Spread Hinduism/Zoroastrianism to make some cash. Build endless caravanaserais to generate gold, jails to lower maintenance. Great merchant from Kashtpur goes to Korea for cash. I only made one, two might be better, but I only needed one. When cash is done, run culture. Great prophets in holy cities for cash.
- Goes without saying, but build lots of religious buildings, monuments, libraries and theatres to get culture. If you conquer your way across Asia you'll also accrue plenty.
- Arabs spawn eventually. Not a major threat, but you've got an army so go fight them. They collapsed my Persia, we fought pretty hard and I peaced out after taking a couple cities.
- At some point you'll have enough gold and culture. Even the plague couldn't stop me. GG!
Pictures attached. Sorry this is written kinda sloppily, just give em a few retries and you should get it.
UP - Syncretism, Gold from spreading non-state religion to any city (yours or others). Decent but not noticeable, though did contribute at least passively to the gold goal. If you were a bit more vigilant you could maximise this, but it wasn't too necessary for me.
UB - Caravanserai, market with +1 trade route. Nice to have, but you'd be building markets anyway.
UU - Asvaka, Horseman with +1 combat and City Raider I. Super super strong, god tier unit akin to Mobile Guard and Legion. Kills archers with city defender in 20% cities like it's nothing.
UHV1 - Build 3 pagan temples, six buddhist stupas, 3 hindu mandirs. Easy.
UHV2 - Silk route in 8 cities, spread Buddhism to 12 cities. Medium, challenge is associated with surrounding factors.
UHV3 - Large amount of gold and culture. Medium, challenge is associated with surrounding factors.
Starting situation - Spawn in Takkasila (north Punjab), flip Kashtpur and Central Asia. Core on those two cities and a few tiles in the Hindu Kush, large historical expansion over much of Asia. Start with a lot of advanced start money, and a stack of 4 Asvaka, 2 Catapult, 2 Skirmisher, 2 Swordsmen. Very strong start. You can can conquer most of your enemies with this starting army. Takkasila is a mid city, Kashtpur is good, Central Asia is mid although can get decent production.
Play on Marathon, lots of moving around here so no point wasting free turns.
My strategy, somewhat chronologically:
- Restart if Persia has razed Merv.
- Spawn and flip Kashtpur and Central Asia. Advanced gold I spent on a barracks in Kashtpur and some improvements around Takkasila, grab a road into the Hindu Kush if there isn't one.
- Civics to Despotism, Slavery, Merchant Trade, Clergy, Conquest. Do NOT convert to Buddhism. Tech on engineering.
- City Raider 3 on Asvakas, City Raider on Swordsmen and Catapults, Hills on Skirmishers.
- Takkasila and Central Asia build Olympian Temples. This should cover all three needed.
- Drop cash to 0, so you can distribute to save Indian cities.
- Attack India, their army is basically just archers and maybe a couple of other units. Asvakas can take cities without any siege needed, so you should be able to rush Delhi and Sahastrarama. Mithila may need healing and catapults+swords, but it's not an issue.
- You should be able to conquer India up to Mithila (the Hindu holy city). They probably collapse by this point. Conquer any remaining cities, like Tamralipta, Bikrampur, Ujjain and Thatta. Independents and Barbs will only have archers so Asvakas should easily take them.
- Indian cities pump out workers, I aimed for around 6-8. Whip olympian temples when possible.
- Takkasila builds basic infrastructure. Kashtpur builds archers (remember the starting barracks) to garrison cities. Indian barbs spawn so have two or three archers in risk cities. Central Asia can build barracks and some archers.
- Situation should be solid by now. Once Olympian Temples are done, convert to Buddhism. Start building mandirs and stupas. Whip out sanghas/ashrams if you need to spread, but you have plenty of time.
- Cash up to tech. Research Engineering and Law. Engineering for unit movement, Law for jails. Cash to 0 once done, you need money.
- Alright - time for a challenge. Persia is either strong or weak, or even collapsed. Collapsed is bad. They can respawn and fudge you over. Consider a restart. If they're strong, you can fight them but have to build a lot of military. If they're weak (eg, Rome/Greece beat them up), great. Attack Persia, take Nishapur/Herat. Hopefully you will be able to take some more cities or force vassalise them, vassal is best.
- Peace out Persia once you have at least one city, your preference, again I vassalised them for best outcomes.
- Whip out remaining religious infrastructure. UHV1 complete well ahead of deadline. Civic swap to Monarchy for some necessary stability and happiness.
- Caravanserais in all cities where possible. Mithila runs two priests to spawn great prophets with its high pop. Kashtpur runs two merchants and even a priest to grab a great merchant, not necessary though.
- Hunnic units spawn in the Indian plains. Build some light cav to kill them as they spawn.
- Settlers out. Settle two cities in Central Asia along the Amu and Syr Darya. Settle one in Afghanistan. Conquer Kashgar and the other Tarim Basin city. Settle another Tarim Basin city. Settle Thatta cause why not.
- Open borders with Tamils, Persia vassal or neutral, China, Rome if possible. Conquer independents if needed. Spam Buddhist Bhikkus, there should be ample cities to spread to after you start settling Central Asia. 12 Buddhism spreads shouldn't be too hard, but China and Tamils are both options. Your core and Delhi are all good production, so I built Bhikkus there, no need to whip.
- Silk Route should spread to your cities over time. Merv+Kesh+Nishapur/Herat = 3. I founded Kandahar for 4. Two settled cities in Central Asia for 6. Three cities in Tarim Basin for 9. Another city in Persia for 10.
- UHV2 done ahead of deadline. Turks spawn soon.
- In my game, Romans attacked at some point. Had to send military to Persia to kill them. Not a major issue, Persian units are strong and can fight Romans.
- Turks spawn. Accept flip, which kind of sucks. Build some mil up. Attack them later, Asvakas slaughter oghuz+archers in cities. I conquered them all the way to the Tarim Basin until they capitulated on one city.
- Flip to Manorialism/Caste System for more stab at some point. Expansion will destroy you, but, you should sit around unstable-shaky with good civics, buddhism spread and some nice vassals. Note that you don't have to care about respawns if Persia is alive, as India won't respawn (from what I saw, at least. I went collapsing once, flipped to Caste System to save me).
- Sell resources to Europe/Asia where needed. Spread Hinduism/Zoroastrianism to make some cash. Build endless caravanaserais to generate gold, jails to lower maintenance. Great merchant from Kashtpur goes to Korea for cash. I only made one, two might be better, but I only needed one. When cash is done, run culture. Great prophets in holy cities for cash.
- Goes without saying, but build lots of religious buildings, monuments, libraries and theatres to get culture. If you conquer your way across Asia you'll also accrue plenty.
- Arabs spawn eventually. Not a major threat, but you've got an army so go fight them. They collapsed my Persia, we fought pretty hard and I peaced out after taking a couple cities.
- At some point you'll have enough gold and culture. Even the plague couldn't stop me. GG!
Pictures attached. Sorry this is written kinda sloppily, just give em a few retries and you should get it.
buildings take an awfully long time to pay back, IMHO it is better to build wealth instead of caravansaries, except in top cities. If a need arises, culture can always be made via running the slider,as gold should be the lesser problem. At this point expansion is also costly.
