Once Hindustan is done, and I finish off conquering all the Indias, I should be solidly in place as a regional hegemon. The Timurids are doing their usual epic collapse, with Baluchistan, Khorasan and Persia carving out big chunks. Delhi is a minor state, as is Gujarat. For the most part, the Islamic states in India have utterly failed.
You are VERY lucky you having so little problems with timurids, in my Hindustan game they was a biggest power I forced to deal with. Seriously, land scorching, 50+ stacks massacres. And thats was after Hindustan was formed and i had all indian peninsula (rich and lots of manpower/flimits)
You actually losing alot of fun here.
as a bonus, just wait for
15 Indian Shock Cavalry 3 1 5 2 5 2
and go on rampage 
This stats is SICK for 15 land level.
This game seems to be inverting a lot of the typical EU3 outcomes. The Timurids are completely gone at this point. In the late 1400's, England was very nearly wiped off the map by Scotland. They've gotten better since then, and now Scotland is a OPM, with the upper half of its old territory taken by the Hansa, and the lower half by England. Wales is independent, and Castille holds Cornwall. Castille has virtually the entire Iberian peninsula but hasn't formed Spain for some reason.
France....got gang-raped by all of Western Europe. Excommunicated for like four monarchs in a row, and DoW'd by everyone.
Meanwhile, for a good long period of time through the 1400s and early-mid 1500s, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the Balkans to
Tibet.
Then they got overextended and into a war with Mega-Muscovy and Austria at the same time. The peace treaty liberated three nomadic hordes and half a dozen civilized states. Basically disintegrated the Ottomans.
I've been steadily improving my relations with Austria and Muscovy, as natural partners to deal with the Islamic states in central Asia. My income is the largest in the world (about 1800/yr) and my army the 4th largest in the world and dwarfing that of the nearby Islamic powers in Baluchistan and Khorasan.
The problems I'm running into are:
A. Tech gap. I'm at Army Tech 8, the nearby Muslim states are at 15, the Ottomans are at 18, and Austria is at 21.
B. Terrain. If I'm going to expand into Baluchistan and Khorasan (and I do have some cores), I've got to do it through some of the nastiest, hilliest terrain in Central Asia. Supply limits in the low single-digits, but if I'm going to win against the Muslims, I need massive stacks to do it. I've got the manpower to absorb a good bit of the attrition, but it raises my war exhaustion really fast to do so.
My one saving grace is that I nabbed a couple of provinces from Baluchistan and Khorasan that are dual-core (I have a core, they still have a core). Thus, I can recruit their troop types in those few provinces. So I've been trying to build up as many Qizilbash Cavalries as I possibly can, to replace all my Indian cavalry with. I also have early access to cannon this way, even if they're just culverins. Faster sieges = less time for hideous attrition to do it damage. But what I really need are better infantry. I'm still stuck with Indian Foot Soldier infantry, which have ZERO ratings on defense. So I can't even effectively use the terrain against them. If I can manage to recruit Muslim infantry, it should be Musketeers, which would be a huge step up.
As far as the Europeans, I've seen Portuguese and English ships sailing by my coast, but I think they're scared to try doing anything against me. The Hansa have extended their reach as far as Swahili/Mutapa, so I may be seeing them on my shores before long. Trying desperately to get my sliders in position for Westernization. Moving up even just to the Muslim tech level would be a big help. Then I can punch through the central Asian states and get a border with a friendly Muscovy and move up to the Eastern tech level. Then it's GAME ON as I steamroll the Middle East and/or East Asia.
Author
Topic: Europa Universalis III (Read 464112 times)