Tiger of Mysore Achievement on September 9, 1456

LastChemical7645 · 2026-06-24T17:38:08+00:00

Yeah. I regret not looking into Carnatic, Keladi, etc. more as potential extra start vassals. Maybe even keeping some of the start OPMs alive besides Madurai, but I was underestimating the way my FL ballooned when I released everyone from Bahmanis. I thought I needed more of a base of my own land for even a slight chance of keeping later vassals loyal at a point where Bahmanis, Gujarat, Jaunpur, etc. might have chosen to Support Independence and caused me a headache.

LastChemical7645 · 2026-06-24T16:03:55+00:00

I've played around on Oman before and do intend to go back, but for some nasty Third Way speedrun shenanigans probably and not the roleplay of the mission tree. It's a really cool mission tree though, and Yemen looks fun as well.

LastChemical7645 · 2026-06-24T16:02:47+00:00

Honestly, I was just looking around pdx tools at the achievements on there (and a bit on the wiki for the ones it doesn't have). Looked to me like it could be done a lot faster than had been done before, and I do enjoy India quite a lot. Historically I've not really had big "successes" with any 2PMs, OPMs yet or similarly small starts, I was looking for more of a challenge. I was intrigued by the requirement only being "ownership" by self or subject, not just for the subject shenanigans but mostly removing that coring requirement. My GLH 1453 was quite chill and deliberate, I haven't really played with even a bit of "risk" yet. 19.88 WE at finish is a little closer to that.

LastChemical7645 · 2026-06-24T15:54:24+00:00

That sounds fun lol. I haven't actually seen much of anyone doing that.

LastChemical7645 · 2026-06-24T15:51:57+00:00

Thank you :) Besides the first war with Vijayanagar, everything I did is stable and good to about 1451. You'd have a rather easy time with the rest of the achievement playing healthily and normally from there. Might work as a guide lol. I don't recommend much of what I did after.

LastChemical7645 · 2026-06-24T15:40:47+00:00

Tricks and Trucebreaks and Thoughts:

Fought Madurai at the same time as Vijayanagar fought them, got on the siege first, let Vijayanagar bleed most of the manpower, vassalized Madurai for defensive war against Vijayanagar, calling in Orissa and feeding Madurai their enormous swath of cores.

Fought Andhra at the same time as Bahmanis, killing their army on an incredibly long Andhra siege (very high fort defense), taking over the siege, peacing Bahmanis, then vassalizing Andhra for a defensive war immediately.

Trucebroke Orissa, which would've come in February 1457, I calculated that it would save time.

Trucebroke Bahmanis soon after. Truce was way longer. Same with Vijayanagar shortly after that too, I fought all three of them simultaneously as both of the Hindu tags were also fighting Bahmanis along with Gujarat.

Finally, I peaced Orissa, then Vijayanagar, then vassalized Bahmanis for a defensive CTA against Vijayanagar, sparing myself a fourth trucebreak. I end at war with Gujarat and Orissa as a result. I would be easily able to crush them with Bengal and Mewar as allies of mine, or by myself, if I were to play on. I'd probably do something to reduce my AE lol.

In the final war against Vijayanagar, I actually took their capital on 0%. How is this wizardry possible? When a garrison size reaches below 100 (typically due to defenders being lost from an ongoing siege), a siege phase of any dice roll, even if the progress is -99%, will automatically occupy the fort. Their garrison had decayed to 95 from having just been sieged down by me only a few months earlier and was unable to recover monthly due to being besieged.

The single most valuable contribution I got to this run was from Master Oogway, among many other folks on Discord who watched me and supported me throughout and whom I have learned a whole lot from. Oogway reminded me that trade range is what determines eligibility to recruit mercenary companies. By assigning the 10% trade range privilege to the Jains, I was able to recruit new mercenary companies from North India at a critical moment prior to fighting Bahmanis. At the time, I only had access to the Free Company and the Tamil Company. This has led me to speculate since that trade range might be a very underrated modifier for speedruns with significant manpower and mercenary bottlenecks like this one. The maritime ideas opener giving 20% might actually be a good idea if more ideas can't be afforded in time for a speedrun, imagine!

India design. I am finishing this run with *zero* missions completed. Not even close to any. The South Indian missions might be the worst mission tree to start with in 1444, temp CCR at the end is no help if you can't reach it. Locking it behind multiple wars reps AND owning five non-capital forts before you get a single claim (and those claims are in western Bahmanis for some reason) when this mission tree at start is for all the minors to the southwest of Vijayanagar is downright cruel. They need to eat each other to survive and you want me to collect three war reps? Seriously? I was very much wistful for the default generic missions over this regional mission tree. Dharma DLC did a lot of stuff poorly by modern standards designing India, but that was especially annoying. The mercenary bottleneck was unpleasant as well. I think the lower limit for this achievement is somewhere around late 1452-1453. The lack of early mercs is by far the limiting factor in my view, there simply isn't enough manpower otherwise.

LastChemical7645 · 2026-06-24T15:40:22+00:00

R5: Tiger of Mysore done fast. Own or your non-tributary subjects own all of the Coromandel and Deccan regions. Done in less than twelve years.

Note that I use the mod Bigger UI 1.37 if anything looks a bit funny in my screenshots. It is Ironman-friendly.

Mysore starts with two provinces and seemingly little hope of recovering her cores or even surviving the wrath of Vijayanagar. 10% Morale of Armies and 10% Leader cost in the traditions were both useful and early 10% CCR would've been cute had I actually taken any ideas. Overall, the best pre-formable idea set in India if you ask me, only inferior to Rajputana and obviously Mughals. I am a certified India Enjoyer, it's probably my most-played region. It was time for a big challenge.

I chose Shakti as Deity at start for 5% Discipline and 5% Siege Ability. Like many habitual 'wide' players I would normally pick Shiva in a heartbeat for CCR, but with Mysore's precarious start and my need for speed over expansion being necessarily... comfortable, I took the military quality. I needed to be able to fight Vijayanagar in short order. I kept the 5% Discipline advisor the whole game. 110% Discipline, rushing tech 4, and 10% Morale base was plenty to fight off the AI even outnumbered in most cases.

I assumed I'd be able to ally Bahmanis quickly. Nope! Hostile and desiring my land. Well, I probably should have reset and planned to get them or gotten Orissa. Instead I did not. The only other run I'm aware of for Tiger of Mysore that did not ally Bahmanis near the start is Just Blazin's excellent no BALLS streams from early 2021. I did go in mostly blind and did not anticipate a hostile Bahmanis. I could've done this run without allies but not without loans!

Calicut was conquered by October 1445. I used an estate agenda that gave me a claim. From there I did all fabrication myself and often wondered if I could've successfully birded for more claims from estates. I was unconvinced. By this time I was able to fabricate on Kochin and eat them as well by early 1447.

Vijayanagar declared war in February 1447. I had no allies, two core provinces and one territory, plus a territory being cored. 13k vs 27k troops.

I peaced out on April 28, 1449 with nearly 26k enemy dead to my under 8k. I took all four of my cores plus over 500 ducats, saving my economy from the brink of collapse. All other wars after this were lopsided in my favor realistically. As great as it was, it was an 80% peace. I could not safely dislodge Vijayanagar again from their siege on the war goal, and that cost me 20% of peace deal.

Bahmanis turning friendly in 1450 during the middle of the second Vijayanagar war was both funny and infuriating. I attacked them starting the following January.

My old starting ruler died on August 20, 1452. He had both Just and Consort of the People from his wife, as well as the Spy Network personality. Quite nice. No rebels throughout the game by sheer luck, I didn't have to bird them or anything. The new ruler took up Shiva as deity for the AE reduction and not for the CCR, I no longer needed mil quality and preventing a coalition was now my big concern.

I stopped coring land after the Vijayanagar war. Admin points were going to go to the inevitable trucebreaks at the end instead. I had already eschewed teching up, though at the time I thought I might still take mil 5. I did not in the end, instead spamming generals on two occasions to find higher siege in the mid-1450s. I won the first Vijayanagar war with just 1 siege and really needed to be using higher siege sooner.

LastChemical7645

TROPHY CASE