Defeat Maratha

[Mikee]

Which is the best strategy to defeat Maratha? I've tried by raiding their trade to destroy their economy. Has worked so far. Anyone has other ways?

[Insaniac]

Kill them. And if they've made their massive "Greater Indian Empire" which they usually do late game, assuming you're like me, and cannot bear to lose a single region, then I strongly discourage you from trying to take them in one war. Seek to drive them back as many regions as you think you can manage, then make peace, establish defensive positions, and wait for their inevitable war of revenge. Rinse, lather, repeat until you reach Bijapur.

[traveller]

Be prepared for some nasty melee units. Kill as many as you can before they close in. Put a city under siege, but don't attack. Make them come out to you. Attacking them is playing into their strength. Raid their resources with cheap cavalry to destroy their economy. It will be a long hard fight, but India is rich with resources and you will have the money to pursue any other campaign you require for victory.

[Empire_TW]

plan to destroy them on turn one, the Dutch have Ceylon and can start recruiting mercs there. Spain, Britian, and France all can send their first armies to go and capture a region in India, the Maratha's capital should be the target, Russia, Austria, and The Ottomans all will eventually have land in the middle east so pouring into india should already be planned if your those factions. As Sweden or Prussia you will just have to find a moment early game to send a half stack to india by boat. For America the campagin starts out in 1783 and Britian has a good hold in the theater so the maratha's shouldn't be such a threat for a good while.

[operating1]

Depends on your strategy, economics and of course which nation you are representing.. MC usually defeats the Monguls sometime around 1720 (give or take), then immediately goes after Persia, in the meantime MC is nation building, spending it's income where you would have had to if you went in there early. Yes, there is advantages to going to India early, but if you are struggling to form or shore-up your home empire, let's say as Austria, it may take awhile before you can embark on an expedition to the Far East. In any event, New Dehli is a good place to start your India campaign, usually the least defended, the most to offer and one of the easiest to convert.

[Inardesco]

Well, the problem about invading Maratha early on is that when your invasion fails, and your army is defeated. You'll be getting the first war declarations, assuming you went there in turn 1 you'll be there around 1702-1703. With the first wars starting in 1703-1704.

Once it fails, you'll be having to fight off European powers + having the constant threat of a Marathan invasion. Trust me, they're not shy on that!

Personally, I'd like to prepare multiple armies to take several locations in one go, preferably, locations with trade ports so that there's an immediate finanical gain upon capturing the region. 2-3 armies are the vanguard with possibly more to follow.
Once you've set foot in India however, it'll be the bloodiest war you've fought. The Marathans have quite the manpower and unless there's a dominant European faction (aside from you) that get's you thinking twice on warring with, you'll be in for quite some battles.

On the other hand, the technological differences should be in favour of the European nation.

[Eat3n]

Firstly, raiding trade routes, attacking ports, and even raiding farms and factories does absolutely nothing to affect the AI's economy. Even if they don't repair them the AI in Total War games can have no trade rights with anyone, all of their economic buildings destroyed, and they can still magcially pump out full armies...only the player can go bankrupt, the AI never can so it's pretty useless to engage in economic sabotage beyond training up agents.

Second, if you're trying to take on the Indian continent controlled by the Marathas you're in for some trouble. You will need to prepare a ton ahead of time before invading. Here is my basic plan:

-Stock up on agents. You want assassins/spies who can not only scout out the land but can also kill Maratha Priests. Bring a lot of priests with you. If you want to hold a settlement and prevent rebellion you're going to need a ton of priests for a quick(er) conversion of the populace and the assassins to kill off competeing priests.

-Check the trade nodes first. If the Maratha's have any ships on nodes take them out first. I still maintain attacking their economy does nothing BUT if you attack them it prevents them from hounding your ships on trade nodes.

-Take Sri Lanka (ceylon) first. Buy it from the Dutch or take it or if you're lucky the Dutch will have been defeated and Sri Lanka will be rebel held. This will be a good base of operations from which to invade India.

-Stick to the coast. Keep the Marathas in front of you, you don't want to have attacks on multiple sides. Bengal is a good place because it's semi-isolated and you can move south and take cities or move northwest along the mountains. Don't take Bijapur first...you'll be surronded.

-Big Cities means victory. Big cities means more money and more variety for troop recruiting...try to take the big ones first.

-Destroy all schools/colleges. Obviously you're going to destroy religious buildings and replace them with that of your faction BUT schools/colleges also create upheavel in regions so i always destroy them and build either another church or the garden thing (it recruits spies) that helps calm the people.

-Use your superior technology to your advantage. I rarely openly attack, i prefer to put cities under siege and wait for counter attack. Why? You can cut enemies to pieces with your canons while they are marching towards you-i like to focus on cavalry. Then when the armies get close switch to cannister shot and rip units to shreds, then let your infantry wipe up. Also, light infantry has a ton of benefits. If you have the "Light infantry tactics" tech researched you're golden. When defending, troops can put up the ramparts or the spiked log thing to stop cavalry. Light infantry get mines that do a ton of damage. I like to set them out ahead of my main army and then run the units back after the mines are set. With the canons it's another means of doing damage to an army. Plus, some light infantry can deploy stakes (maybe they all can, i don't know, i'm going from memory). I like to put these on the flanks to stop cavalry OR, if i don't get mines, put them out front of my canons to protect them.

-It will be expensive but send multiple armies when you invade. If you send 1 and take a city, retrain, recruit more troops, and move to another city, you're giving the Maratha's time to counter attack. Hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast.

[Insaniac]

The AI doesn't have unlimited money. It's just that India is so wealthy that her economy eventually becomes self-sustaining. I actually have a rather amusing screenshot of the ***GREEKS GOING BANKRUPT***. Shocking, I know.

[Inardesco]

I've seen the French going bankrupt, Westphalia, Prussia, Austria and plenty more.

[Mikee]

I've already fought the French, Ottomans and Russians by taking them to bankrupcy. But seems true that Maratha has nearly unlimmited funds. I started the invasion the invasion of Maratha with your recommendations and has worked so far to siege the East coast of India with multiple armies and taking out all their fleets outside of India theatre. But I think that agents (rakes) are useless. Has anyone a good strategy with rakes or are they simply broken?

[Insaniac]

Without mods I'd say that rakes aren't that useful. You can certainly do without them. I've modded rakes in my game so that they can immobilize armies, which is very helpful.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by Kumelowski:

I've modded rakes in my game so that they can immobilize armies, which is very helpful.

*flashback to Rome 2's traumatizing agents*

[THE John Gaming]

Originally posted by TheAdmiral:

Which is the best strategy to defeat Maratha? I've tried by raiding their trade to destroy their economy. Has worked so far. Anyone has other ways?

Here is how, Cripple Economy, Ally with Strong Countries, Ally with Countries that dislike it. Then Slowly or fast then Declare war

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by Kumelowski:

The AI doesn't have unlimited money. It's just that India is so wealthy that her economy eventually becomes self-sustaining. I actually have a rather amusing screenshot of the ***GREEKS GOING BANKRUPT***. Shocking, I know.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

I've seen the French going bankrupt, Westphalia, Prussia, Austria and plenty more.

I'm going to disagree with both of you because i've tested my theory in both Empire and Shogun 2. I have an American campaign in Empire and i beat Russia back to a single region, Arkhangelsk. They have no trade with anyone (i checked diplomacy) and i've sabotaged all the buildings that could make any money like farms and factories (not that there are many in Arkhangelsk). Yet, with all of that they still managed to have like 7 full armies just chillin' around their region (i have a screenshot). Shockingly, they've yet to go bankrupt...I did the same exact thing in Shogun 2 the only difference is that every turn the buildings i sabotaged were magically repaired so i had an army of agents re-destroy them every turn...still no bankruptcy.

[Insaniac]

You can either admit you're wrong now, or I can blow you out with a single screenshot. Your move.

[Inardesco]

https://afteractionreporter.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/aa_empiretotalwar_barbary_006.jpg?w=261&h=300

IF you look closely, you can see as negative factors; War weariness, religions, tax, government, industry, clamour for reform and the one with digits; Bankruptcy.

Originally posted by Kumelowski:

You can either admit you're wrong now, or I can blow you out with a single screenshot. Your move.

Yours might be better :P