I play Indians exclusively, and i know they are very underrepresented, I have been playing every since they came out and recently started playing DE 1v1 ranked. I am stuck at 950 ELO and 3000 Rank, i go a little bit up and down but thats where i am at. I have tried sepoy rush and fast industrial. But most of the players i match up with who are 1000+ elo just beat me with everything. I am trying to improve my gameplay and get better and atleast cross the 1000+ ELO mark.
If any of you play india and have some recordings of your own or other higher ranking players, please do share with me. I have tried watching twitch streams of popular India players but they are very rare to come accross.
you trying mix sowar and gurkas on age 2 ?
i use always and i win
good gurkas and sepoy in age 2
india very bad for long games train time very slow and no have decent artilhary
india lose for all euro civilizations in long game depending on type player
Im a team and treaty game player as India main and there India fits very well, as for 1v1 my experience is limited, although in team im <1500 and in 1v1 ifI played regularly, ill “Probably” be around 1000 +/- 100
But some basic things that should obviously apply and @tahska probably already know that:
U need to deplete enemy eco early! so you dont watch the Japan/Dutch/Chinese and other boom too much
A timing rush is very effective, when u let ur enemy let his gaurd down a bit in age2 so he booms and you attac when he just started aging up
Initial 10 sepoys are always necessary, but against Musk civs as Japan,brits,otto, a gurkha opening is far more effective than a sepoy opening, against Dutch, addign 4Sowar shipment would be nice too,
if the enemy is heavy on cav as Lakota or some Otto or French players try, u better go min 25 zamburaq blindly! then add sepoy/gurkha as per requirment! this probably is the only case when initial 10 sepoys are not necessary
if ur enemy went to age3 before you! and u were unable to deplete his eco or destroy his village, personally ! I would suggest to stall ur enemy by raiding or diverting/decoying his attac and age up urself coz without siege ele things will be super difficult!
Some civs I have personally rated as Better to destroy fast, or else they out-boom you, in particular order are: USA,Dutch,Japan (still testing against USA but probably its one the worst late game matchups for India , coz of flag ability and many other reasons)
Important: Without multiple barracs i,e, atleast 6 at each fb, in/after age4, u’ll lose a stalemate! Ull win a fight but ur troops are slower to reach the captured ground so capturing and doing an Instant FB is more important as India than anyone else !
when things go rough and u cant figure out what to do probably due to lac of good cav! try building 2 castles and spamming full upgraded flail ele and provide ranged support from behind it, this strategy will only work in very “odd” and “unexpected” situation, as flail ele is underrated/underused/2pop/ONLYFastestSpamming/50 rage resist unit, and good to push bac battle lines
siege ele are slow to create hence having 3-5 always ready is a very good practice, and microing them in pairs of 2 or 3 is more important so kill artillery efficiently and not do a overkill, usually 2 siege ele , 1-shot a falc or flaming arrow
Sad Reality of India ie - Mohouts pathing practice and control is crucial, coz u always want some of ur unit to engage in melee be it sepoy/urumi or mouhout, to keep enemy away from ur cannon-less main army, coz if u had cannon U could’ve stopped an advancing infantry mass with few canon fire instantly! so u ned some melee units to keep enemy mass favourably away from ur army/base!
Practice on how to sneak urumis and mohout! from side, and how to use siege ele sneak + Taj mahal ability effectively, it can turn the tides of the game
Going for howdah in age3 can be a great stratergy too especially against the civ that dont have skirms as: Sweden,German,otto etc
Be confident on Indian eco of karni mata! the food boom from it can be enormous! so early rice paddies is a great move, I personally do 2 rice paddys while aging to age 3 ! also ! for that purpose ! the age1 card to remove wood cost from rice paddy upgrade is a brilliant card and always keep both rice pady food upgrades! missing even 1 of them will break ur eco in long game but having all 3 resource all the time is tricky, but if one can focus only on 2, things will be fine hence best strategy would be to use less vills on wood and almost equal on gold n food, if u are making mohouts alot then u have to keep juggling between all 3 resources
Or mix it with sowars. Sepoys for siege, sowars to take care of skirms. Once Dutch is out of barracks and market he will have a hard time rebuilding.
Some tips
Usually 10/10 with distributivism + the age II wood trickle and agra fort in the middle of the map (this way its not an all in and more of a timming attack that can snowball) TP in the transition.
Make stable vs lakota and go zambs, or go full gurka vs Japanese, Otto Brit (since they will try to musket/ashi/jan rush you). Mix sepoys for siege only.
Dont forget to put the sacred shrines early on for xp boost especially on maps like Malay or Mongolia or texas. I usually put the sacred shine with the 600w shipments
U do need to add these 4 sowar with more cav, either from otto consulate or train more otherwise they just need to train 5 pike and that’s it. They also die quickly to tc fire and mm.