The India Thread

[FraggleJock]

Monarch/Normal
Found the game much easier than the Old version.
No real trouble with any of the UHV goals.
Was way ahead in tech compared to 1.17 the Mughals spawned with me able to trade 5 techs to them and with nothing to trade to me.

Noticed in the list of Victories that there is a Leader Ashoka@no.2, I was playing Asoka is this the same guy?

 

[Hickman888]

Just put out my video on India: I think the overall flow of their game is great, just had a few random thoughts to collect.

1. The versions that I've played the last couple months, Harappa doesn't seem to want to collapse. In fact, for my video, I rerolled maybe half a dozen games to find a world where Harappa had already collapsed, to give me that extra difficulty. Flipping Dilli on turn 2 is so powerful, it can make the game so easy for India. I think it's great that there's some variance on when Harappa collapses, maybe a window of 2000 BC-1550 BC, but I think they should always collapse before India spawns.
2. The Varu UU would be much better utilized if it replaced the War Elephant, rather than the Lancer. I used the basic War Elephant to basically conquer India. Later, I unlocked and used the Varu to take over Indochina in order to hit the population goal, after India was already conquered and my empire was secure.
3. The Patiyodha UU's Civilopedia description says they were an effective counter to invading horse archers, but he doesn't have a bonus against them. Those barbarian horse archers that spawn in the Thar Desert are a real menace, and I think the Patiyodha would love a free "Skirmish" promotion, or a bonus vs light calvary to help counter them.
4. Speaking of barbarians, and I may be conflating memories from 1.17, but the barbarians that India can face seems to be pretty inconsistent between games, roughly in the mid-Classical era.
5. The plague also seems to be very inconsistent between games. In my recent game ,there was no plague at all. But when I last played India a few months ago, the plague hit right as I was trying to finish my 25 temples, and it left me scrambling to finish by the skin of my teeth.
6. I didn't find their UB, the Edict, overly compelling. For India, I first want to train a strong military, and then construct several temples and monasteries, and then infrastructure in order to support population growth, maybe some libraries and markets, and then a jail... And finally, the Edict was last on my list. My religions and temples had already given me all the that I needed, and -10% maintenance is super marginal. I think a UB that replaced the Granary or Weaver might make it compete a little more with the temples and military that I want in the first half of the game.
7. The Iron Pillar gives a free forge in every city, and never obsoletes. However, forges become free with settlers in the Renaissance era. Perhaps the Iron Pillar should obsolete sometime in the Renaissance?
8. Crop Rotation allows us to improve a plantation on the jungle Incense, but there is no icon or description of that on the Crop Rotation technology.
9. Asoka's favorite civic is Monasticism, but that civic comes way later, and Asoka never really gets a chance to adopt it. I would say maybe Syncretism could be another good alternative, but that is also pretty late.

 

[Leoreth]

What about the Indian UHV? I looked at it recently and wondered if it was too narrowly focused on religion and population, ignoring other aspects of Indian culture.

 

[xerxess]

I actually really like the Indian UHV. It makes you focus on growing tall, culture, wonder building and making a good army. Covers almost every aspect of the game. Maybe merging the first two goals and making a second one for building certain wonders before X year? The only problem is that it would make the third goal harder than it already is.

 

[Hickman888]

What about the Indian UHV? I looked at it recently and wondered if it was too narrowly focused on religion and population, ignoring other aspects of Indian culture.

I actually don't know enough about Indian history to offer other suggestions, but as @xerxess said, the current goals already indirectly include expansion, conquest and wonder building. Gameplay wise, there really isn't really a dull moment as India, there is always something to do. You complete your temples, you build up some basic infrastructure for the next several turns... and then the 3rd UHV deadline is already upon you, only 50 turns out from the 2nd UHV.