Spotlight on: Vendhya
Every few weeks or so HWE will feature a review of a different kingdom of Hyboria by players who think that they have what it takes to win! These contain strategy tips, ideas, and a general direction to go for those interested in making the most of their bid for Hyborian dominance. Crom is very interested in gathering in as many reviews as possible from different players, so don't be shy about sending them in!
Our final Vendhyan Lord is Steve Hinkley , who took time off from terrorizing the world as the Lord of Shadows in HW 680 to write about his OTHER favorite kingom!
The Juggernaut of the East
Overview
The second-largest kingdom as the game of Hyborian War begins, Vendhya's victory conditions are the number of provinces it controls and its economic strength. Since Vendhya starts the game already big and already pretty wealthy, don't think this automatically translates into victory points--it doesn't. In fact, I found that it meant I had to work especially hard to make my kingdom that much larger and that much richer in order to get really good ratings. Once Vendhya gets going, however, it is unstoppable! Below is my indication of Vendhya's resources and how they can be used to attain victory! But remember this: moreso than with just about any other kingdom in Hyboria, Vendhya is versatile in so many different ways. The possibilities for playing Vendhya and where you want to take the kingdom, while not limitless, are many.
Vendhya's Court
I found Vendhya's court very diverse and capable in most areas. I never wanted for a better general, a better diplomat, etc. This isn't to say that there aren't better characters in Hyboria--just that I never needed them as Vendhya. Vendhya almost always had exactly what was needed for every occasion. With this in mind, below is a list of the individuals who make up the initial court of Vendhya and my views on their strengths and weaknesses.
Jaipursa Jamaner (VEND-CHA)
The old matron of Vendhya's court, Jaipursa had
Excellent rulership and not much else...if you feel
you need someone more diversified, send her off
adventuring...I was perfectly happy having her actively rule Ayodhya and so
were the citizens.
Shahal Shan (VEND-ADJ)
Adventure is a great command, I always say! Shahal had nothing but Adequate
personal combat so I didn't waste my time keeping him around.
Noble Enam Chand (VEND-1)
The Monarch of Vendhya, Enam kind of missed his calling. He only had
Adequate rulership ability. However, as it turned out, he was one of the
best military commanders Vendhya ever saw. But be wary: when he commanded
an army that meant he wasn't actively ruling--and when he wasn't actively
ruling fully half or more of Vendhya's provinces revolted. So I kept him
actively ruling his fickle citizens. If only his sister (VEND-3, see below)
had been Queen!!
Gitara Bal (VEND-2)
The best ruler in all of Vendhya was Gitara Bal.
However, his Superior rulership was superceded by his Good military command
and Superior heroism. He wasn't the best military commander in Vendhya but
that was where he was most beneficial. No one could rally troops like
Gitara Bal!
Naipa Chand (VEND-3)
The King's sister, Naipa should have been Queen but
Fate erred and chose her brother over her. She was one of the many great
rulers Vendhya boasts (Superior rating) but she could also do a bit of court
spying and even rescue herself if she was captured (which only happened
once). I even found her adequate military command and heroism beneficial
the few times she led a flank attack. She even had a Bless spell that
worked most of the time. Also, when she became Queen after an Aesir hero
killed her brother in a duel late in the game, Vendhya prospered more than
ever.
Jaihan Shan (VEND-4)
The first of Vendhya's generals in name (I'm not
counting that Adjutant General guy I had to mention earlier), Jaihan was a
pretty valuable character. He had Good diplomacy (the third best behind two
Excellents when the game starts) which you'll probably have occasion to use.
An Excellent rulership ability kept Central Vendhya happy without the need
to Actively Rule so I preferred to use his Good military command and
Excellent heroism in battle where he excelled...before being killed by an
angry Uttara Kuruan who didn't appreciate Jaihan's useless Dispel Magic
spell...
Punjar Khan (VEND-5)
An amazing guy simply for the fact that he lived
throughout the entire game without a Long Life spell, Punjar was a great
general. He had Excellent military command so was always involved in some
invasion. He could also protect in a pinch with his Good personal combat and
was an Adequate ruler. He had a Diplomacy spell but I never got it to work,
though I tried and tried...
Uttar Bomanpur (VEND-6)
Vendhya's third General, Uttar Bomanpur was best
suited for leading raids or flank duty in a battle.
His Excellent personal combat also made him a good
province protector or rescuer.
Shahal Chand (VEND-7)
One of the many lost souls who missed their true
calling, Shahal considered himself a hero. Really, though, his only ability
was Diplomacy where he excelled--when he wasn't adventuring...which got him
killed.
Palan Patiangi (VEND-8)
Another hero who begged the question, "Why?". Palan had Adequate personal
combat and Adequate rulership
ability. I would have used him to actively rule or
protect if he didn't get killed while adventuring on turn 1.
Lord Goram Bhandarkar (VEND-9)
Vendhya's first priest was another exemplary ruler
(Superior) and also the strongest character Vendhya
began with (Superior personal combat). Everything
else fell by the waist-side for this guy so really
I had few options for how to use him but he was good at what he did. He
could actively rule, protect or adventure (though in the end he didn't come
back...).
Punjar Bomanpur (VEND-10)
This guy had Excellent rulership, Excellent diplomacy and Superior intrigue.
He excelled at avoiding
influence and any other diplomatic mission as well as getting any spy info I
needed.
Dian Bal (VEND-11)
One of the only two wizards (in name) that Vendhya
ever knew was Dian Bal. She could do nothing else but Dispel Magic (ha),
Earth Demon and Prophecy. I liked to think of her as a "sometimes" magic
caster because "sometimes" one of her three spells would work (but never
Dispel Magic). In her defense, though, I did find that once in awhile she
was an asset in battle on the flanks so that was a nice surprise.
Shalpun Bal (VEND-12)
Vendhya's other wizard in name was Dian's younger
brother. He had a Diplomacy spell as well as Bless,
Far Sight and Rains. Unfortunately, he died before I could use any of them.
Jhalpur Bal (VEND-13)
A fine agent (Superior intrigue), Jhalpur was best
suited to court spying and counterspying. His Good
diplomacy was a boon when needed also.
Enam Shan (VEND-14)
Another agent with Superior intrigue, Enam's
specialty was military spying. The combination of
Enam and Jhalpur pretty much had the bases of
intrigue covered (except for that Assassination
thing). Enam also had Good military command so was useful as a flank
captain or archery commander.
And that's Vendhya's beginning court. As the game progresses Vendhya is aided by even more rulers and generals and will get more than its fair share of Personal Combat and Heroism. I also received several talented Priestesses (mostly Chancellors) who had some pretty good spells (Long Life! Summon the Dead! Firewall!) as well as being accomplished at other great things. I did find Vendhya to be lacking in the intrigue department, however.
By the end of the game I had received 44 characters, Chancellors and Adjutants excluded. There was always someone for whatever task I had in mind. In fact, sometimes my problem was finding things for some of the characters to do (when in doubt, World Spy or Protect). All in all, Vendhya's court was one of its many great assets.
Vendhya's Location
I found Vendhya's location to be, probably, it's greatest asset of all. Since Vendhya is a subcontinent, it is protected by water on three sides. Who could ask for a better defense than that?? Only two PKs border you (flank you)--Kosala and Uttara Kuru--although neither one is a real threat in the beginning (unless their rulers are kamikazes). What's more, Vendhya's in the east, far away from all but one huge predator (Turan) and can initially expand with relative ease to the north with little fear of attack.
Vendhya's Military
Okay, let's discuss the strengths of Vendhya's military first to lessen the blow of the weaknesses. The biggest strength in Vendhya's military is the Kshatriyan Infantry, a slightly above-par (in my opinion) medium infantry. You must maintain a minimum of 60% of these guys so they better be worth something, right? I found that they were able to easily dominate light troops (duh) and do slightly better than 1:1 against mediums (except for Uttara Kuru who achieves the 1:1 against Vendhya with their own mediums). I also found that they were capable of almost going 1:1 against Turan's heavies in battle (if the conditions were right), something that really surprised me and was desperately needed. In the east, Vendhya's military can do better than hold its own in battle and many times will dominate the competition. For example, when I went head-to-head with Kambulja in the end of the game, Vendhya decimated the competition easily.
The other good troop Vendhya boasts is the Vendhyan Lancers, a medium cavalry unit. Only 10% of these could be maintained at any given time and I made sure to always have them maxed out. They're almost as good as the Infantry and much faster. The last good point about Vendhya's military is its naval unit, the Vendhyan Carracks (MNA). Vendhya should never lose a sea battle with these babies unless they're heavily outnumbered (and even then Vendhya may still win). Uttara Kuru's, Khitai's and Kosala's units don't even compare and hopefully you won't have to worry about Iranistan's--they're okay--because you'll be allied with them (but more on that later). By the end of the game, I had one full navy and another with 15 troops. Vendhya can truly be the ruler of the Southern Oceans!
The weaknesses of Vendhya's military...where to begin? First, there's the Kshatriyan Archers which are a Light Infantry Archer unit. As far as LIA go, they're probably one of the best in the game...but they're LIA after all, so how good could they really be? Put them in your PAs and use them on raids. The minimum for these troops is 10% and that's where I kept their numbers.
Vendhya's other pitiful unit--and I do mean pitiful--is the Woolly Mammoths. I'll say this once and I mean it: there is absolutely no worse troop unit in the game (except maybe Kambulja's Great Mammoths). Don't get caught up in the exoticism of having Mammoths in your army (We have Elephants!). They're always the first troops killed in battle despite their supposed Superior melee ability. Luckily, there is no minimum requirement for these troops so I just forgot they were even available. And if you simply need these guys you can only have 5% of them...probably the game's way of saving you from yourself.
The last weakness in Vendhya's military is the noticeable lack of heavies. In the beginning this isn't really a problem (and really wouldn't be fair to your neighbors) but it can be a problem as the game progresses. Then again, your MI can handle itself pretty well in tough situations so despair not. Unfortunately, even when you DO get heavies in the form of your Imperial Troops, they're not that good. They lost miserably when fighting medium troops--I never fought heavies with them and I'm probably better off for it.
Vendhya's Enemies/Allies
Your biggest enemy in the beginning will probably be Turan. Luckily, he has other enemies to worry about besides Vendhya. Use this to your advantage. Contact Khauran early on--he will almost definitely be happy to have an ally against Turan. Contact Iranistan at the outset of the game as well. Try to recruit him in the fight against Turan. You need to get to him early because Turan will be looking for his support as well (entice Iranistan with the idea of splitting the Southern Oceans between the two of you). If you can get Iranistan in on the action--on your side--then Turan will be surrounded by enemies and almost definitely will not win the war. In battle against Turan, NEVER go Open Field unless you know you've got lots more troops in the battle than he does. I preferred terrains like Mountains and (especially) Forest because my troops could fill all the spaces in the battle formation if I had a full army. Somehow this seemed to give my MI equal footing with all of Turan's heavies. And for goodness sakes, PLEASE stay out of Open terrain or anything wider than Hills. You won't stand a chance unless you've got twice Turan's number of troops.
Now it's time to talk about all of the Eastern kingdoms. First of all, I'd advise against allying with Kusan, Khitai and Kambulja. Kusan's victory conditions are too easy and they're almost always ranked highly VERY early on which hurts Vendhya's standing and chances of victory. Khitai is a goliath who will be expanding at least as quickly as Vendhya will. While it would probably be fun for the two of you to bully the rest of Hyboria, there's really just not enough room for both of you. And Kambulja, well, he'd make a nice ally against Khitai but he'd be the one to benefit most. One Khitain province and he'd jump to, oh, the top five or something. No thanks...
All this rambling leaves Hyrkania, Uttara Kuru and Kosala. Now, this is where Vendhya's versatility really shows through. Let's take Hyrkania. Yeah, they're allied with Turan at the start but chances are neither one of them really cares about the other. Go ahead and ally with Hyrkania if you want (I did). It's one major headache you won't have to worry about and their lands aren't really THAT rich. Plus, you may get him to fight Kusan and/or Khitai (or--dare you dream?--Turan)! If, however, you find yourself at odds with Hyrkania, don't fret. Hyrkanian cavalry, while good, cannot stand up against the famed Kshatryan Infantry!
As for Kosala and Uttara Kuru, both need a Vendhyan province. Some HW players are more than willing to trade home provinces, VCs and IGs for alliances and that's fine. If you're one of them, go ahead and make a deal with either or both of these two runts. I, for one, DESPISE giving up home provinces for the sake of early security. But that's just me. Admittedly, though, I can see the logic in making a deal with Kosala...after all, he'd make a GREAT buffer against Turan (and Iranistan if he's an enemy, too)!
If Kosala is your enemy, there's a little matter of a perpetually-renewing peace treaty which benefits them. That is, the peace treaty Vendhya signed oh-so-long-ago when you weren't ruler of that great land cannot be broken EVER unless Kosala deems it so. Thus, if you want a piece of them, they have to invade you first. Be prepared. But remember that once they do that, you can take care of them in, say, two turns. Unless they peace you again (don't worry, it's no longer perpetually-renewing). Okay, so that's one of Vendhya's biggest problems--taking on Kosala and Uttara Kuru without them sending some snobby pale-skinned geek to get you to sign a peace treaty. Thing is, you almost always fall for it... I have no real advice to give on how to avoid this other than the usual: kill the diplomats, avoid their influence or dare them to fight you without peace treaties (somehow this works a lot no matter what kingdom you or your enemies play...). And remember, if you can get Kosala or Uttara Kuru to fight you, they both take Light losses in Open Field and both of them have some good battle magic.
Well, whoever your enemies/allies end up being, remember one thing: don't take on more than one strong enemy (i.e. Turan) or two relatively small or weak enemies (Kosala and Uttara Kuru!) at a time. The result could be...bad. And don't forget to work with whatever allies you have. Turan's not good enough to stand up against attacks from all sides. No kingdom is, for that matter.
Vendhya's Beginning Strategy
Vendhya begins the game with 94 troops. Not bad but 46 are in PAs. The rest are distributed amongst your four IAs (10 troops each) and one IN (8 troops). Expect to raise almost thirty troops on the first turn and 15 troops during the warseasons in the beginning. This will help flesh out your armies. I didn't find any need to watch my treasury at any point in the game, even when I had to pay war factions on three or four dismissed battles per turn due to bad planning...of course, I ended up in second place, so take this bit of information (and the rest of it) with a grain of salt.
Eight troops in your Navy in the beginning is pretty impressive in the East so go after as many seazones as you can and raise your Carracks to their maximum. I chose to secure the seazones that directly surround Vendhya (begin with the Kosalan Bay--it's got Good revenue) so I wouldn't fall victim to a sneak sea attack on my southern provinces. Unfortunately, though, these aren't the richest seazones in the Southern Oceans (those are all in the northwestern part of the Southern Oceans where Iranistan will probably be gobbling them up).
Two of your IAs start off Defensive in Ayodhya and the Ancient Lands while the other two are Active in Jheiai and Peshkhauri. Uttara Kuru and Kosala are off-limits in the beginning because of those pesky peace treaties so this limits your options. I would suggest that you activate one of your defensive armies to begin with (which one you choose depends on where you think an invasion is more likely). Send your (now) 3 Active IAs north. One should head for Secunderam, trying to get there as soon as possible to secure that Imperial Goal. Be sure to get Turan to sign a peace treaty and be sure that you get to Secunderam first.
In the meantime, another IA should be heading northeast to secure the provinces north of Uttara Kuru, especially aiming for any province that Uttara Kuru covets (i.e. Issedon). You will be accomplishing two things by doing this: cutting off Uttara Kuru's expansion and (hopefully) conquering one or more of those provinces which are so important to Uttara Kuru. The purpose of this is to provoke Uttara Kuru into battle with you later in the game. But you don't want to fight Uttara Kuru just yet, so make sure you send a diplomat to get them to sign a peace treaty.
The third IA headed north should aim straight for Meru. These are important provinces in the beginning of the game especially because they are likely to be the only rich provinces around which Vendhya can conquer. Remember that one of your victory conditions is a great economy. Thus, it is my opinion that conquering Meru's provinces early on is the best bet for increasing your victory standing right away. Be aware, though, that (against me) Meru took heavy losses in the open field and TOTAL losses in set-piece battles. How you decide to fight them depends on your own style. Either way, Meru should take up the bulk of the first warseasons for Vendhya (and will probably continue to be one of Vendhya's major goals in the second set as well) if you decide to go after them--and you should. A little trick to make your life easier against Meru: break their alliances with the surrounding kingdoms. Meru will turn on those ex-allies and vice-versa, wearing down forces all around!
One last note: the mountains to Vendhya's north seem to breed battle magic, so beware. And if you enjoy going open field, be advised that many of the mountain provinces also have more than their fair non-player kingdom share of troops (and they're not afraid to invade...).
All of this should take you through the first set of warseasons and beyond. By the time the first peace years turn rolls around you should be bumping up against several different kingdoms and you'll know where you want to go from there.
Conclusion
Well, I'm sure this is more than enough for the average player to get an idea of what kind of strategy to use as Vendhya. Don't take any of this as gospel and be sure to go with your gut instinct if it tells you differently than what you've read here. In my opinion, Vendhya is one of the most fun and most intriguing kingdoms to play in Hyborian War, not to mention one of the most balanced. Enjoy!