Vijayanagar Guide

Unique Strategic Advantages

• •Massive Starting Population: 3.4M+ pops provide unmatched economic potential and military manpower
• •Unique Bund Buildings: Generate food surplus for food-for-all population satisfaction, create urbanization multipliers
• •Best Spice Trade: Control pepper, incense, and elephant trade routes worth hundreds of ducats monthly
• •Shaivism Religion: Self-Control mechanic provides massive economic bonuses (-100 for +tax income and +vassal income)
• •Natural Expansion Targets: Weaker neighbors (Bahmani, Bijapur) provide easy early conquests

CRITICAL: Opening Month Priorities

Economic Slider Settings

• •Court Support: MAXIMUM (rush to 100 stability for double pop promotion speed)
• •Stability Cost: MAXIMUM (stability is most valuable resource early)
• •Army Maintenance: MINIMUM (relying on levies initially)
• •Diplomatic Spending: LOW (limited subjects initially)

CRITICAL: Bund Spam Strategy

Building Priority Sequence

1. Marketplaces everywhere — 100% profit building, increases trade capacity, prioritize capital first
2. Bunds everywhere — Unique building, food surplus enables urbanization and population satisfaction
3. Roads in all provinces — Proximity cost -20%, massive control increases in distant provinces
4. RGOs based on market demand — Check Markets tab for shortages (pepper, incense, elephants priority)
5. Guilds for urbanization — After Bunds create food surplus, build Guilds in urban provinces for production multipliers
6. Temples for conversion speed — Once economy is strong, temples accelerate religious conversion in conquered provinces

Markets & Trade Routes

• •Create your market first month — You start with NO market despite having trade goods. Mandatory step.
• •Spice trade dominance: Export pepper, incense, and elephants for massive income (100+ ducats/month from spices alone)
• •Import construction goods: Establish trade routes for lumber, iron, stone to reduce building costs
• •Auto-trade for beginners: Use Economy → Trading → Auto-assign feature to establish profitable routes
• •Trade range priority: Research institution for trade range to Mecca/Egypt for European market access

Values Strategy: Centralization Priority

• •Push centralization aggressively — Centralization provides +crown power and -proximity cost, both critical for India's large geography
• •Revoke Communal Lands immediately — Despite 33 stability cost, this stops massive decentralization push
• •Use parliament for centralization debates — "Expand Gravel Road Network" provides +10 centralization push
• •Cabinet assignments for centralization — Assign members to push centralization alongside other priorities

Parliament Strategy

Critical Laws to Change

1. Raja/Rajya Law (State Parliament) — First priority, enables frequent parliamentary sessions for debates and law changes
2. By Blood Instead of By Tradition — Makes province integration significantly faster, critical for rapid expansion
3. Burger Control Laws — Increases plutocracy and capital economy values, beneficial for urbanization strategy
4. Inquisition Laws (Local Court) — Increases population conversion speed for conquered territories

CRITICAL: Shaivism Self-Control Mechanic

Cultural Acceptance Strategy

• •Telugu is primary culture — You start with Telugu accepted, this is your core cultural base
• •Accept Marathi early — Conquest of Bijapur/Bahmani provides Marathi pops, accept this culture for levy recruitment
• •Use vassal cultural opinion trick — Create custom vassals with "problem" cultures, improve cultural opinion with them (50-year cooldown), reduces cultural capacity cost to accept that culture by ~50%
• •Religious conversion priority over cultural assimilation — Religion conversion is faster and immediately enables province coring. Culture assimilation is slower but permanent.

Religious Conversion Approach

• •Build temples in conquered provinces — Temples increase conversion speed, prioritize Muslim provinces conquered from Bahmani
• •Assign cabinet members to conquered territories — Cabinet assignment increases maximum control which speeds conversion
• •Inquisition law for conversion speed — Change to Local Court law via parliament for +conversion speed (accept heretics/heathens have reduced opinion)
• •Province becomes core at ≥50% state religion — This is why religious conversion is prioritized over cultural assimilation for rapid expansion

Early Expansion Targets (1337-1360)

Mid-Game Expansion (1360-1400)

• •Complete Bahmani conquest — Multiple wars across decades, create 2-3 custom vassals from conquered territory
• •Consolidate southern India — Annex small neighbors, integrate custom vassals when size allows
• •Build vassal swarm — 3-5 small custom vassals handle integration/conversion automatically, annex when integrated
• •Avoid Delhi wars — Delhi is extremely strong, focus on regional consolidation first

Late-Game Expansion (1400+)

• •Challenge Delhi for northern India — Once southern India consolidated and economy massive, begin Delhi wars
• •Eastern expansion toward Bengal — Bengal control provides massive trade income from eastern spice routes
• •Ceylon conquest — Island provides naval base and additional trade capacity
• •Form Bharat (optional) — Unite all of India under Vijayanagar for achievement/roleplay

CRITICAL: Black Death Event Choices

Post-Plague Recovery Strategy

• •Do NOT panic-build to fill population shortages — Stability investment naturally promotes population to refill buildings over 10-20 years
• •Focus on infrastructure (roads, Bunds) — These buildings don't require pops to operate and provide permanent bonuses
• •Rush to 100 stability post-plague — 100 stability doubles pop promotion speed, accelerates recovery
• •Conquered provinces gain high disease resistance — Provinces affected by plague gain 80%+ disease resistance permanently, making future outbreaks trivial