Great Britain - Getting to India?

[Lestrade]

I've been debating tactics to use in reaching India during GB campaigns. During my first run, I invaded North Africa and tried to walk to India, although that didn't work. I've also considered buying a region off the Dutch or the Confederacy, although my bartering never succeeds. What are your recommendations for reaching the Indians? :O

[A Wild Sandbag]

The Invasion fleet of Gentlemen!
Get the grand 1st and 2nd rates, with a few smaller ships and send your gentlemanly guard units at them!

[Iszrhguy]

Just Go for it, build a strong fleet, board your armies and head for India...
In my Sweden Campaign I sent one army to invade cherokee territory in the americas and one army to capture Bengal from the Mugal Empire, now I own all of Northern India. :D

[Nightknight]

Invade Mysore first, if the Dutch fall (or you destroy them) take Ceylon, attack the muhgals immediately with your starting army/navy, there is so many ways to do it.

[Lestrade]

Originally posted by Ichigo1uk:

The Invasion fleet of Gentlemen!
Get the grand 1st and 2nd rates, with a few smaller ships and send your gentlemanly guard units at them!

FOR CROWN AND COUNTRY! >:D
So what route do I take? Do I go through the Mediterranean to reach India? :O

[OnyxUsedHarden]

i would take the atlantic to india route.

[Desert Fox]

you should first conquer america and then invade india by sea

[Vigo the Dudepathian]

Take every starting unit in gb and ireland, giving you like 2-3 spearmen, a few line infantry, some militia, and one cannon and build as many units as fast as you can, basically the number of turns it takes to collect everyone in a few ships, then immediately sail them to india once you get a full army and invade the one province nation of Mysore before the maratha do. Then be prepared to hold out in some of the most epic siege battles ever as the Maratha throw everything at you to try to dig you out, as soon as you can get another army out (5-8 turns) invade the province above maratha as its a castle and can pump out east inda line infantry, then kill Maratha. Usually for me by the time I have taken out Maratha the green mhugals will declare war, take them out and india is yours. Make sure as you invade provinces to destroy any mosques and build churches to help supress revbelions and any province with a school requires a standing army of at least half strength. I usually do a holding game in the americas until I have taken india, usually about 20-15 turns in. Also keep in mind that as great britian, france and spain get pissed almost immediately so keep at least one ship at every port and try to build back up a standing army as soon as you can afford it.

[BruntForce]

Green is Mughal Empire. and also this sounds very expensive, good for an invasion plan but at the start would you really have enough income to deal with quelling rebellions, sending an invasion army to india and keeping every port you have stocked with a ship? Not to mention the annoying task of fixing up your armies after a big battle. Mysore would have enough men to deal some damage, enough to cost you a fair bit to start and yet as you said maratha (who start powerfull and only get more so) will attack you quickly. Youre faced with no money, a horde of angry Indians and a depleted army held up in a city. Ide rather say go for Mughal empire first, theyre weak and wont take so much effort to kill. Simple half army should serfice to take somewhere like Benghal, Maratha wont be bothered as youre technically "helping them". Get a descent foothold in india and continue onwards to take maratha and mughal territories.

[Crossbow]

You can walk into India by going to the edge of the European map.
I hope you didn't try walking south from Africa, because that would make no sense. GO EAST.

[Craig]

Honestly, i usually do it like this:

build 10 indiaman, homeland.
build 4 to 6 6th rates.

take 1 standart army, few arties nottin fancy, invade Mysore(next to goa) so that if portugal falls(wich it usually does) you can take goa before the maratha do.

after taking mysore in 1 or 2 turns, take them 10 indiaman and half of your 6th rates with them to the ivory coast(since its the trading post that brings in the most money) and leave the other half in india.

from there your pretty much set to start your own indian empire( i would stay friendly to the maratha) untill the portuguese fall. and from india you can just take to the otomans just as easely.

remember to keep your routes protected, the mughals will most likely try to wage a naval war at you once you reach india, persians usually follow.

So keep a fleet in india, and keep building more indiaman in india, as to send to ivory coast.

Thats pretty much what i do, few battles along the way...

[Craig]

Originally posted by TheBrigadier:

Originally posted by Ichigo1uk:

The Invasion fleet of Gentlemen!
Get the grand 1st and 2nd rates, with a few smaller ships and send your gentlemanly guard units at them!

FOR CROWN AND COUNTRY! >:D
So what route do I take? Do I go through the Mediterranean to reach India? :O

BTW i would very much like to know how to cross the mediterranean to India lol.

im portuguese we discovered the way there a few 500 years ago.

[Vigo the Dudepathian]

Originally posted by spireiteboi:

Green is Mughal Empire. and also this sounds very expensive, good for an invasion plan but at the start would you really have enough income to deal with quelling rebellions, sending an invasion army to india and keeping every port you have stocked with a ship? Not to mention the annoying task of fixing up your armies after a big battle. Mysore would have enough men to deal some damage, enough to cost you a fair bit to start and yet as you said maratha (who start powerfull and only get more so) will attack you quickly. Youre faced with no money, a horde of angry Indians and a depleted army held up in a city. Ide rather say go for Mughal empire first, theyre weak and wont take so much effort to kill. Simple half army should serfice to take somewhere like Benghal, Maratha wont be bothered as youre technically "helping them". Get a descent foothold in india and continue onwards to take maratha and mughal territories.

Yeah Mhugals. And its not overly expensive, and is very doable and is an easy way to get a solid tech lead and a huge income bonus, mainly I rush out fire by rank as fas as is possible so once you get that you start destroying the Maratha, and it does take some skill and a bit of luck to pull off. As to the expense of the ships, great britain starts with an already overyly large fleet, and you only need one ship and then only if you are at war with spain and or France, usually both. And also you run a holding operation in the Americas and europe until you have beaten at least the Maratha, and rebellions are easy to handle as long as you keep taxes low and 3-4 units in provinces with schools. Your standing army in india will be able to handle any rebel army easily and get some good experience at it, coming out an elite vet force. As far as the damage from the Maratha invasion forces, its only a couple turns, and the Maratha have a lot of big units, but they are lots of garbage units that get scythed by line infantry with fire by rank if they survive long enough for you to research it, and ALWAYS get them to assault your castle to kill off their units in droves.

[Lestrade]

Ah, I see the issue here: Don't laugh, but I didn't notice that India was a theatre you could reach in the same manner as the Ivory Coast of South America... Silly me :P

[Johnny be Good]

The way i do it is at the begening once you get the 13 colonis , exchange it for a mugal region of punjab or a other large one mungal wont be able to defend and exchange terrotorie , and then just attack reatke your colooie and built defense and conquest of india begin its the easyest way

[Sol]

I would honestly Attack Mysore/Maratha before the Mughals, yes, the Mughals start out weak and are easy targets, but if you dont grab the Mughal territorys fast enough (and I mean fast) Maratha tends to start steamrolling the Mughals and just getting stronger. Hitting Mysore and Catarnica (whatever territory that is right south of mysore and north of Ceylon) is usualy a good opening because Catarnica is a significant chunk of the Marathas Income, they get most of their money from Catarnica and Bjapur, which they statt out with, and Mysore is decent income aswell, while the Mughals hold the rest and the only one with good income is Hindustan and maybe one or two others. thus, taking one of the Marathas key starting provinces in the beginning the game will strangle their future income and axe their ability to quickly rally new troops after you fight off their starting armys.

and you dont need to play it super safe as Britan, you have Line Infantry comparable to Prussians in strength, some of the best in the game, and its quite doable to take out Maratha with some work, and the Mughals wont stand a chance after you grab Bjapur and whatever else the Marathans grabbed.

If your not going to Invade India ASAP, I reccomend supporting the Mughals with Trade/Tech, and whatever else you can afford to give them for free, because they start out so bad compared to Maratha in Vanilla, you have to support them with free tech and the like so they can stand against the Marathans longer (they still tend to lose regardless, but they wont croak as fast and you do not want the Marathans getting everything in India, they start getting expansionist and very high in troops and tech and will be ten times worse to fight)