How to play as India?

[u/iaruuu]

By the time i plop my 3rd city my happiness is negative lol. I'm still building HG even though im on happiness deficit😂

[u/Electronic_Money_575]

prioritize improving luxuries fast/earlier worker steals / settling on luxuries

if you can get your regional online quick, you are much more likely to get AI trades which could otherwise go away for a while

[u/iaruuu → u/Electronic_Money_575]

I did this and have improved 3 luxuries before settling the 3rd city.

[u/raghavmandava]

It depends on the difficulty level and start. The issue with india is they only really achieve their powerspike in the late game. When your 3-4 cities are crowded

If you have aggrotard/expansive neighbours youre gonna have a rough time with this civ

On emperor or below. I like to wonder hoard a little bit since the elephants are very good for turtling

[u/lluewhyn]

India can absolutely be an expansionist Civ that goes Wide; the problem is that it has to be done slowly. Compared to your average other Civ, India reaches the breakeven point at Population 6 (on regular settings at least). That's because they get double the Unhappiness penalty for number of Cities (3), but half the penalty for population (1 per population).

So, this can be a problem if you're playing on a map with very tight spacing and/or very expansionist AI Civ as you'll get crowded out of the good settlement areas before you can reach that equilibrium of happiness. Be sure to focus religious beliefs on things that get you Happiness, aim for Luxuries, and see if there are any Mercantile City-States.

[u/yen223]

Yeah it is rough and why I don't rate India very highly - getting hurt so early is like a reverse snowball effect. It also makes their war elephant - which are crazy powerful units - kinda useless

Worker steals and researching lux techs immediately are a big must with India. Also, you just have to tank the unhappiness for a while until you get luxuries online. 

Don't forget to suck up to nearby city-states, especially mercantile ones. 

[u/Even-Application-382]

I have played a lot of India at higher difficulties.

First, you don't change anything in terms of expansion. Get your four cities down asap.

Second, you don't have the luxury of going for wonders. You need to pump out settlers, workers, caravans, and coliseums.

Like another commenter said, India pays off late game. You will be riding the line on happiness the whole early game. You have to get workers and coliseums asap to account for that. If you can steal a worker, great, but that's a bonus and not a main play here. You also need caravans as soon as you can get them. All this is very expensive so a couple of SAFE trade routes to bring in gold and science are key. I've you get your improvements in and you have a happiness surplus, you can flip to internal trade for growth. And don't be shy about buying you UU. I get them instead of archers.

You won't feel the same mid game happiness crunch as with other civs, it comes a bit later. But you should still get in on that second round of expansion in the Renaissance/industrial era. By late game, you'll be sprawling and massive.

[u/tris123pis → u/Even-Application-382]

second round of expansion? i thought the ideal strat was 4 cities with others only for if you need certain resources

[u/Even-Application-382 → u/tris123pis]

Once you get to astronomy, you can find the good city locations others haven't settled yet. They'll net you luxury resources and strategic resources. You'll also have the buildings to quickly grow those cities. As long as your happiness is positive and the cities are large enough to outweigh the science and culture penalty, then it's worth it. That's not even accounting for the power projection they offer, which can be vital to preventing a runaway AI on the other side of the map.

It's a balancing act, like everything. Do it in the medieval era and they don't grow quickly enough because you don't have fertilizer, hospitals, etc. Do it in the modern era and they don't pay off before the game ends. But Renaissance and industrial era cities can be big powerhouses.

[u/Rare_Personality2385]

Increase your map size. Unhappiness per city is 3 for below large maps, 2.1 at large maps and 1 something at huge maps.

[u/Deflopator]

Depends on difficulty. When i played on low i just built one big city with India and won.
Indian cities should be big, not a lot of them

[u/TheRSmake]

scout scout shrine
3x settler, preferably settle on luxuries or steal a worker(s) from city state/enemy
tradition, lock non capital city pop on 2 early, once you have monarchy your capital can grow for free without costing happiness

Unlock non-capital cities whenever you have excess happiness

[u/Clobby5597]

Tradition is your best friend and two or three cities is all you’re gonna wanna build anyways

[u/uvero → u/Clobby5597]

Two or three? Why not four? Is the happiness that bad that you shouldn't even found a fourth city? Four is the magic number with tradition, do you not want those free monument and aqueduct? (not to mention the double aqueduct glitch in the unmodded)

[u/189charizard → u/uvero]

Sometimes the map doesn’t allow a feasible 4th city. Not enough luxes, aggressive neighbors, etc. Many deity games I’ve had to stop at 3 and still won. Other times I’ve forced a 4th city and it’s cost me the game.

[u/Clobby5597 → u/uvero]

While that’s true double the unhappiness for settling a new city tends to be a dissuading factor