Foothold in India 1.3.2 is out! news

Foothold in India 1.3.2 - Big changes in early campaign

Hello everyone! I'm happy to announce that Foothold in India has received a new update.

Most of the effort was focused on the 1700 The Great Game campaign, fixing the wild imbalance in strategical positions of the factions, inherited from vanilla, and readjusting relationships between various factions, especially in the East, to make them more dynamic.

A little bit more to the Caucasus

Caucasian factions acquired access to a little bit more different troops, common for all Eastern factions, and received one new unit: Circassian Horsemen, an irregular missile cavalry unit [which the Caucasus previously lacked], ideal for skirmishing, mirroring Russian Cossacks and Ottoman Deli.

Moreover, following numerous requests from the community, I'm presenting you two new packs: Guns of Caucasus and Guns of Maghreb, which unlock access to artillery for Crimean Khanate, Georgia and Dagestan and for Morocco and Barbary States accordingly.

My initial idea was not to include any artillery in the rosters of these factions: in my opinion, this makes the gameplay for a player choosing to lead their forces a special experience. However, I do understand the concerns of the players who wish they had a say in that, be it for reasons of historical correctness or their own idea of the gameplay. So if you wish to enable artillery, simply put the packs into `data` folder and remove the ".bak" extension to activate them.

A pack, which I called Unconquered, is also included in this update: the pack greatly increases the strength of spawning city garrisons of Afghanistan, Georgia, Dagestan and Crimean Khanate. By default, it is deactivated. To activate the pack, remove the ".bak" extension.

The Great Game campaign

Diplomatic relationships in the Indian subcontinent received another overhaul in 1700 The Great Game campaign. Allied with France and Portugal, Mysore should become a more prominent player in the region, starting its own wars against the British and the Mughals after an initial buildup of its forces.

Wikipedia article:

By 1761, Maratha power had diminished and by 1763, Haider Ali had captured the Keladi kingdom, defeated the rulers of Bilgi, Bednur and Gutti, invaded the Malabar in the south and conquered the Zamorin's capital Calicut with ease in 1766 and extended the Mysore kingdom up to Dharwad and Bellary in the north. Mysore was now a major political power in the subcontinent and Haider's meteoric rise from relative obscurity and his defiance formed one of the last remaining challenges to complete British hegemony over the Indian subcontinent—a challenge which would take them more than three decades to overcome.

Britain, Marathas and Mughals should act more or less independently, outside coalitions, and mostly fight between each other, while Portugal, the Netherlands and France are taking a more opportunistic approach, grabbing territories when chances arise and using alliances or geography to shield themselves from retaliation.

AI should now tend to be a bit more active. Eastern European factions and Sweden should rely more on cavalry, although not to the extent that Eastern factions do. All factions should be a bit more active on the sea, although Britain and France remain the most favourably positioned for maritime expansion.

Other theatres also received overhauls: you will find a stronger Spanish garrison in Flandres and a shipyard in Denmark, Morocco allied with the Safavids [to deter an Ottoman invasion], slightly readjusted diplomacy in Italy, Central Europe and the Caucasus, new victory conditions for all Eastern and Italian factions - and much more.

Stay tuned for further updates, and have an enjoyable game!

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Detailed changelog

New packs:

• tgg_battle_triggers: Bran's events triggers. These should theoretically improve AI's response to certain events during battles, such as flanking attacks, encirclement etc. However, in vanilla, for some reasons, these triggers were disabled. EXPERIMENTAL. Use at your own risk. To activate, remove the '.bak' extension.
• tgg_campaign_ai_mfr: My own AI adjustments in the style of Minor Factions Revenge (tgg_campaign_ai_tuning prior to 1.3.2). The AI is generally more helpful towards allies and has a bit more incentive towards maritime expansion. One of the highlights is that the AI recruits generals more frequently. Another is making Eastern factions much more reliant on cavalry. Use either this or Succession, but not both.
• tgg_campaign_ai_succession: My own AI adjustments in the style of Succession - A Total War: Empire Revival Mod. The AI is more cautious and less prone to foolish actions. To activate, remove the '.bak' extension. EXPERIMENTAL: not really tested that much yet. Use either this or MFR, but not both.
• tgg_unitpack_guns_of_caucasus: Enables cannons for Georgia, Dagestan and Crimean Khanate. I personally recommend against using this pack. However, due to numerous requests from the community, I provide it to you. To activate, remove the '.bak' extension.
• tgg_unitpack_guns_of_maghreb: Enables cannons for Morocco and Barbary States. I personally recommend against using this pack. However, due to numerous requests from the community, I provide it to you. To activate, remove the '.bak' extension.
• tgg_unitpack_unconquered: Greatly increases strength of garrisons of Crimean Khanate, Georgia, Dagestan and Afghanistan. I personally find this pack too unpolished to use. To activate, remove the '.bak' extension.

Changes in existing packs:

• tgg_unitpack_caucasus now includes Circassian Horsemen [shooting cavalry available to Dagestan and Georgia], enables DLC Armenian Archers for Georgia and gives every Caucasian faction access to bedouin unit roster (should they conquer a desert region) and to Circassian Armoured Cavalry (should they conquer Anatolia).
• Removed all city fortifications in tgg_campaign_early.
• New victory conditions for Italian factions.
• Dutch Guyana's Demerara Trading Port replaced by Shipyard in tgg_campaign_early.
• Denmark now has a Shipyard in tgg_campaign_early.
• Mysore now has a Trading Port in tgg_campaign_early.
• Afghanistan now has a Minor Governor's Encampment in tgg_campaign_early.
• Fixed Ottoman capital location - it should now be properly moved to Ankara.
• Increased the strength of the Spanish garrison in Brussels in tgg_campaign_early: this should deter the Netherlands from annexing it on turn 1 and get into a premature meatgrinder with France (which the Netherlands usually loses too quickly).
• 1 new loading screen for Native American factions in tgg_campaign_late_vanilla_america.
• Readjusted diplomatic relationships in the Indian theatre in tgg_campaign_early: Mysore is now allied with Portugal and France, deterring Marathan invasion of Goa, and tends to attack the Mughals. Britain, Marathas and Mughals should tend to act independently, outside any coalitions, and fight mostly between each other.
• Readjusted diplomatic relationships in the Maghreb, the Caucasus and the Middle East in tgg_campaign_early: Caucasian factions are now hostile towards most of their neighbours and should stack up troops more actively. Morocco is now on bad terms with France and allied with Safavids to deter an Ottoman invasion.
• Readjusted diplomatic relationships in Italy in tgg_campaign_early: the factions are generally on worse terms with each other (especially Venice vs Genoa) and with Spain. This gives the theatre a bit more spice and is actually historically correct at the same time.
• Venice and Poland don't allow any more passage to Austrian and Russian troops accordingly - in vanilla, it lead to big Austrian and Russian stacks standing passively in their allies' territories without any practical use.
• Made Hannover and Denmark hostile to each other: this should make Denmark recruit troops more actively and not lose the capital so easily to the Swedes.
• Minor factions now earn less "other" income than major in tgg_campaign_mechanics. Crimea, Georgia, Dagestan, Venice, Genoa and most of the Western emergent factions are downgraded to minor in order not to allow them to stack up insane amounts of cash, which they could use to buy treaties, territories and protectorates.
• Made some changes to the AI. If you apply tgg_campaign_ai_mfr, you should see a little bit more activity. Austria, Russia, Poland and Sweden should start relying a bit more on cavalry.

Author's note:

It is advised to play tgg_campaign_early or tgg_campaign_late to see the full extent of the changes - in vanilla campaigns, minor factions do not have a fully active AI profile. You can apply tgg_campaign_ai_mfr or tgg_campaign_ai_succession to see more changes in AI, or simply disable both AI packs to experience a more predictable vanilla behaviour.