14 DAY TRIAL // An entire subcontinent is hard to take in at once and when I first looked at India as it appears in the most recent expansion for Crusader Kings II, I felt the same way I did when I first looked upon Europe when the game was launched.
I was utterly baffled by the amount of options I was presented with and I saw no way of choosing which of the families, religions and factions I wanted to play as.
India allows gamers to be Hindu, Buddhists or Jain and there are kings and dukes that have some very cool starting locations and initial challenges.
I am pretty knowledgeable when it comes to European and Middle East history, but I know pretty much nothing about the history of the subcontinent during the time frame, so I chose my first game based on tactical concerns rather than an emotional and historic connection.
I chose to become the Buddhist king of Pala, settled near the north east corner of India, able to expand in some interesting directions and with a ruler that seems capable to lead it for the first few years of the game.
My unique advantage is the fact that I can gain tech levels faster than my neighbors, something which I always appreciate in strategy titles, even if the impact in Crusader Kings II is smaller than it sounds.
This also means that I need to give up some of my ability to wage war against fellow Indian rulers, but there are plenty of ways to get territory if I have the armies to do that.
My first few years are mostly dominated by attempts to secure my dynasty by marrying, making sure that my wife loves me and by praying for some male heirs, but I am already impressed by the rate at which my military tech is advancing.
I then upgrade my holdings a little and gobble up some small factions in the East to secure my back before I try to declare war on my big Hindu neighbor, which is dealing with some internal strife.
Unfortunately, I misjudge my strength and I am quickly defeated as the Jains to the south also join in and pick up a chunk of territory.
My king then dies, presumably heartbroken by the defeats, and I lose another chunk of my kingdom to a revolt.
The beauty of Crusader Kings II is that I can recover in the long term, but with Rajas of India just launched, I plan to also try out some of the other religions.