Empire: Total War Journal - Maratha Confederacy, 1703 - 1704

As the Sauron of India, I turned my eyes of conquest to my Southern neighbors, the Mysore. They are allies of the Mughal Empire, and I cannot afford to have them sitting amidst my realm, poised like a dagger at my lightly defended homeland.  They must fall.

The Mughals are not led by anything close to a military genius (though, neither are the Marathas, come to think of it.) The muslims seem to have embraced the "March Divided" aspect of military strategy, but seem unable to pull off the "Fight United" clincher. This allows my northern army the ability to crush the Mughal's piecemeal in the summer of 1704.

This gives my southern forces the breathing room they need to lay siege to Mysore controlled Goa. The siege begins that summer, as I spent the winter of 1703 training Hindu Swordsmen to aid the fight against Mysore's antiquated military. The Mysore might not have much in the way of guns, but there is little a muzzle-loaded rifle will do for you when a screaming, bearded dervish is in your face with a sharp saber- the lesson the Portuguese must have learned for themselves a year before. So a few hundred mustached sword-arms are just what Goa needs.

These generals appear to be twins.

 I lay siege but I do not press the attack. I hope to force the Mysore forces to sally from Goa. This will give my troops a better chance of getting off a salvo of rifle-fire before the Mysore blades are at their throats. I get my wish, and the Mysore immediately sally- putting me into battle with 1000 fewer men than my enemy.

I intersperse my riflemen with swordsmen, so when the enemy melee units inevitably come charging in, my own melee troops can charge out to stop them from getting to the gunners. I have to stop my riflemen from shooting into the melee for fear of killing my own troops, so I started ordering my musketeers into melee anyway to club themselves a few foes.

Above: Inevitably, the enemy troops break and flee before the determination of my veteran troops. This general and these men have seen many battle against the Mughals, and the Mysore have seen but one. It is a slaughter. My non-committed riflemen circle around the enemy lines and fire massive volleys into the sides of the remaining enemy melee units.

After that, only knife work remained. The survivors limped back to Goa, and I'll finish them off quickly on my next turn. Mysore itself soon to follow.