Panjab

Panjab
Government type	Absolute monarchy
Ruling party	Royal Faction (conservative)
Capital	Lahore (ID 1227)
Population	2.7 million
Primary culture	Panjabi
Accepted cultures
Religion	Sikh
Literacy	2%
National value	Order
Tech school	Uncivilized
Status	Uncivilized

Punjab along with the British Raj in 1836

Panjab is an uncivilized South Asian nation bordering Kalat, Afghanistan, Xinjiang, Sindh, United Kingdom and their satellites, and Chinese substates Xinjiang and Tibet. They have a large military and are 20% civilized, and at a perfect position to expand. They can form India, a largely-populated and strong nation. Despite this, neighboring Britain wants the beautiful lands of Panjab and to unite the Indian subcontinent.

Panjabs RGOs consists of a good variety of goods. They have access to the cash crop tea in Kashmir, and they have both cotton and silk which will give a good amount of money for an unciv especially considering that artisans will likely produce luxury clothes. Additionally they have a bit of wool, fruit and grain.

First Steps

Dealing with the British

If the British starts to fabricate a casus belli for full annexation early in the game, there is not a lot to do. Even if you against all odds has gotten the protection of Russia, it is probably not enough. Quickly annexing two states, so that you cannot be targeted by the 'establish protectorate' helps. Getting in UK's sphere of course solves the problem for good.

First targets for conquest

First off, use the national focus in the largest-populated province, and encourage clergymen. This helps Panjab westernize faster, and that is always good. Next off, justify a conquest war on Kalat. The war here is quite simple, destroy their armies or don't, just occupy all their land and they will surrender. After this you can be a bit risky and justify a conquest on Sindh, or you can wait for your infamy to lower to about 5 and safely justify a war on Sindh. Trying to justify a conquest on Sindh right after defeating Kalat runs the risk of going over 25 infamy. And once you go over 25 infamy chances are the Otttomans, Russians, and/or British will declare a War of Containment. With a bit of luck, you could actually beat the Ottomans, but definitely not the Russians or British. And a war with Ottomans will likely be a pyric victory, even if you manage to win. Once you have defeated Sindh using the same strategy as used on Kalat you can turn your focus towards Afghanistan. Once again you have options about how risky you want to be with your infamy and they still are consequences if you go over. Once you have successfully acquired a CB on Afghanistan for conquest, invade it. Here unlike before you'll have to deal with the enemy's armies. Afghanistan tends to have two main armies and destroying them is simple. Simply use bigger numbers and your better troops to crush their armies and chase them after their defeats. With their armies out of the way Afghanistan will not be able to hinder your ability to occupy its provinces. Eventually the war score will hit 100% and Afghanistan will surrender. There are two benefits to waiting with Afghanistan. With Kalat and Sindh annexed, you have more troops to fight them and Afghanistan has likely annexed its core from Bukkhara.

When you have annexed Sindh, you will gain another source of tea which further helps the income, and Afghanistan has access to more cotton. Other than that, you will only have gained wool and grain.

The war with Persia

After Afghanistan has surrendered you have the options of conquering Makran or maybe a Central Asian country, or attacking Persia. Right away throw all ideas of Central Asian Conquest out the window. Without extreme luck or cheating conquering Central Asia as an unciv will bring you into conflict with the military juggernaut Russia. Now at first you might be able to beat the Russian armies, but soon enough they will be sending in more and more stacks to annihilate you. Now taking

Makran is sorta fruitless, because its up to 22 infamy for one unimportant province, but it is necessary for forming India. You could always conquer it for up to 10 infamy once you've westernized.

But anyways the more fruitful option here seems to be Persia. Now you personally could defeat Persia and its allies, but there are complications. Many times once you start winning the war against Persia, Russia intervenes. Sometimes even whilst engaged in a truce with Persia, Russia will intervene against you. In fact I've seen Russia intervene 1 day after finishing a war against Persia and the Central Asian countries. So you'll have to be prepared for the Russians. Honestly though the Persian war is simple even Russian intervention. You have to quickly send your armies over the border and defeat the Persians armies whilst occupying the province you wish to take from Persia. Yet at the same time you must utilize at least one army of 30,000 to defeat any Central Asian countries that join the war as Persia's ally. Once the Central Asians are defeated go ahead and occupy some provinces. Meanwhile, in Persia, after beating the Persians armies near the border the Russian armies will probably enter in from the west. Sometimes they trickle in armies as small groups of a few brigades other times they send in stacks of brigades. Either way you'll have to fight those armies, by using terrain and numbers to your advantage. Try to draw the Russians to attack you, but have armies close by so that you can defeat the Russians with 2:1 Panjabi soldiers.

Westernization

Throughout this process of conquest you will continually receive events and have the ability to reform your government. Reform-wise you have two options, up your military capabilities or focus on westernizing by picking the more thrifty (Research points-wise) economic reforms. If you choose the military reforms you'll gain more RP with conquests, but over all will westernize slower than if the economic reforms option were picked. Now of course you can do a mixed option, but overall it doesn't matter too much. The events are more important. Throughout the uncivilized portion of the game you'll receive events offering faster westernization at the cost of militancy, better military leadership at the cost of military, etc. It is recommended you pick the options that offer fast westernization and military buffs. But when receiving the regular events like the ones involving stockpiles and such always pick the ones that either lower militancy or cause it to rise the least even at the cost of higher consciousness. By making that decision you can lower the chance of reactionary rebellion and decrease the size of them if they come. All those conquests will net Panjab a lot of military power, research points, and prestige. Eventually, Panjab is given the option to westernize, and Panjab will enter the world stage!

Post-Westernization

The combination of prestige and military power will immediately make Panjab a secondary or great power. From there, you are free to do what you want! Africa could know of the greatness of Sikh. Maybe all of Persia will be conquered, with less infamy, thankfully! Eventually, though, war with Britain will happen, usually for you to reacquire a core. If you fight enough wars to free their puppets, eventually, one of them will fall to pan-nationalists, and formation of India is possible.

Attacking United Kingdom might seem daunting at first, but the more wars you win, the stronger you become and the weaker they become. So when the first re-conquest war is won, it should be relatively easy to build on that succes. Since your casus belli, reconquest, is always present you can time your first war to a moment, where UK is in distress and cannot fully commit to you.

India has an extraordinary amount of Pops to fill your armies, so if you manage to conquer most of it back from UK, getting to the no. 1 position should be easy.

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