Variant: PRE-GUNPOWDER MAHARAJA

Mon Sep 24 11:16:28 PDT 2001 Contents: Justification General Rules Specific Rules, Charts and Tables Counters Sample Scores Questions, Sources and Recent Changes to These Pages Background   Justification

In the sacred Vedic hymns, the god of war Indra (shown at left) is described riding a golden chariot drawn by two powerful horses (a symbol of the sun?). The chariot may have been the decisive war weapon that the Aryans brought with them to India. In Indra's right hand is a thunderbolt which can be used to destroy or to revive men fallen in battle. He essentially combined the functions of Mars and Zeus, being simultaneously war and rain god. He later gave way to Vishnu who took over most of his functions. (Source: The Atlas of the Ancient World)

Certain races, especially, but not only, the Sikhs often had no chance in the game whatsoever, because when it was their turn to enter the mapboard, another player or cooperating players could stack up their pieces so as to force them to attack either at ruinous odds or in such devastating force that they lost most of their surviving counters to the Overpopulation rule. There was just no middle ground. A particularly pernicious way to do this was to abuse the Submission Rules so as to prohibit attacks on yourself by the invader and yet cover all his possible entry points. In this situation, not only does the invader not get a decent chance of coming on, he doesn't even get to come on! This cannot be the way to play the game. ¹

There were also the problems with the last few turns of the game where factories are being built, weapons are being sold and the British are subjecting everybody. This entire rules area was an ugly growth on an otherwise fairly clean game system and deserves to be thrown away and never seen again. In Britannia one never gets past 1066, i.e. the game remains medieval in character throughout, so how can one justify all these modernities in Maharaja in the same game system? The game is meant to model a certain type of combat and combatant; stretching it very much out of that mold and all you're left with is something that just doesn't work. (It's true, the "Pre-Gunpowder" title is somewhat misleading as the British, Dutch and Portuguese do enter in during the last two game turns, but this pre-sage of the new era is slight.)

At the same time, I noticed that there were certain historical problems with the game as well, which will be plain to anyone who knows anything about Indian history, or even someone who just reads the historical background article which comes with the game. The background article, as far as it goes, is historical, whereas the game often is not.

You can see this right away by the treatment of the Aryans, who here are portrayed as a monolithic, homogeneous race under a single king. This was quite far from the truth however. The Aryans, upon entry to the subcontinent were more tribal than anything, hardly cohesive, and entered in waves, which were not always peaceful with one another, even though they would band together in the face of a common foe. The variant addresses this with Aryans who are now played by four players rather than one, which should provide a much more realistic situation. These waves are now correctly called the Aryans by the way, rather than the Mauryans which was the actually only the name of the successor kingdom of one of the groups.

Similarly, the old game failed to take into account what happened when empires such as the Mauryan and Guptan broke up. Before, one used to get in the first case a lateral transfer of power from the old empire to the new and then a simple disappearance (the yellow counter removal alluded to earlier). Of course, in reality these groups did not simply vanish from the earth one day and there seems little reason to have that happen in the game either. What really happened is that the empire broke down in to about sixteen smaller kingdoms. The game system can't tolerate showing all of these, but it now at least breaks both empires into three or four when they fall so as to provide a much more realistic feel for the situation.

Similarly, the old game has the Sinhalese sprouting up from nowhere on Ceylon, as if they were scarabs which the ancient Egyptians believed could spontaneously generated from nonexistence. In fact, these were more Aryans who had migrated to Ceylon and this too is now simulated in the game.

Other new sides now in the game include some very historically important ones. The Persians made significant conquests in the northwest and indeed it was in pursuit of these that Alexander ventured to India. The Bactrians were a successor kingdom to Alexander's empire in Central Asia; led by their king, Demetrius, they conquered large parts of India for a relatively short period. The Scythians or Sakas were Indo-European horse pastoralists from the steppes. The Kushans were a very important kingdom of Central Asia which grew rich from control of the Silk Roads between Rome and China and is generally considered the 4th wheel in the Rome-Persia-China trade cycle. Their leader Kanishka is mostly known only from coins. The Ephthalites or White Huns were probably an Indo-European people who first appeared as mercenaries in the history of the Byzantine writer Procopius, contemporary of Justinian. They later conquered large portions of eastern Persia and northern India as well.

To depict some of these groups, finer-grained turns were necessary -- otherwise they would appear and disappear all in one turn which is satisfying neither for designer nor player. The original game had a 500-year turn (!), a 300-year turn, eight turns of 250 years, a 200-year turn, two turns of a century and three turns of half a century. Comparison with Britannia may be interesting. There one finds a 65-year turn followed by ten 75-year turns, a 60-year turn, two 50-year turns, a 35-year turn and finishing up with a 15-year turn. The point is that one can see a lot more history happening in these finer-turned turns. Accordingly, in this variant there are three 300-year turns, followed by a 150-year turn, fifteen century long turns with the rest comprising 75 years each. It hasn't reached the Britannia granularity, but does come a lot closer without impossibly lengthening the game.

Another serious omission in the game is the significance of the Ganges delta and even the Lower Ganges River itself. To its owners accrued all the benefits of the all-important river trade, its fertile farming plains, trade up and down the east coast of the subcontinent, its timber for building, its elephants for both building and the army and its iron ore for technology. Once it was overtaken by Aryan invaders who knew how to exploit it, it should come as no surprise that over and over again the masters of India were kingdoms which began in this region. This importance is now reflected in the game by special rules for population growth.

All of the above is not meant, by the way, as a criticism of Avalon Hill. Rather, I would rather praise them for having enough daring to release a game on a topic which is somewhat obscure to the Western world. And, considering the marketplace, to not prominently include the British in such a game when British TV programs and films have made them so well-known would not have been wise. Unwise too would have been to include as many counters and rules as are suggested by this variant. Fortunately, the Internet has different cost limits and we are able to comfortably consider a more historical variant here.

I hope you enjoy the variant and welcome any and all feedback. If you try the variant, perhaps you can give me your thoughts on these questions for players.

Rick Heli
August 7, 1998

¹ I am since informed of a General erratum to address this matter, apparently worded: "If an invading army is blocked by submitting nations it may attack from an adjacent foreign area; if still blocked, it may attack anyone." This ruling from issue 30-2 is absent from the Official Maharaja Errata on the Avalon Hill website. Other items omitted are prohibitions on direct travel between the following areas which are not adjacent: Lahore <=> Agra; Bundelkhand <=> Khandesh; Malwa <=> Gondwana. See also the Official Maharaja Q&A from The General. September 30, 1998

• 4.7 Turn Record Chart (change)
  Play proceeds through 25 turns.

• 6.0 Overpopulation (clarification)
  The Official Maharaja Errata from Avalon Hill state "Regarding Rule 6.0, the second-to-last sentence should read: 'Note that overpopulation limits are imposed at the end of the last movement phase of a Major Invasion (7.4 Major Invasions, below).'" This is not helpful since Overpopulation is to be applied after the Combat Phase, not after the Movement Phase. Thus, this variant has been designed with the intent that the Overpopulation limit be only applied once during a nation's turn, that is, after the second Battle Phase.

• 10.8 Ganges Income (addition)
  Through the first 13 turns of the game (inclusive), any side which does not begin with counters in India on turn 1 (i.e. all but the Pandyas, Cholas and Harappans), receives an extra income benefit for ownership of Magadha area and the four non-hiland areas which surround it (Bundelkhand, Bihar, Bengal and Orissa). Instead of counting these areas for income, place an army in each one of the areas that the side owns. After this is finished, calculate and apply income normally for the rest of the side's areas.

  If an army cannot be taken in a Ganges area due to stacking limits, apply the area to normal income instead.

  From turn 14 onward, armies are no longer received instead of income for these areas (technologies had by then changed), but they are still worth twice as much as other non-hiland areas for income.

• 11.0 Submission (change)
  Certain sides may submit to another nation, but only as is detailed on the player cards. A submitted side still receives income, but it is only one-half (rounded up) of what it would normally receive. A submitted side also receives victory points, halved. The subjecting nation receives victory points for these areas as if it owned them. If not otherwise stated on the player cards, submission ends when the subjecting nation no longer has any pieces on the mapboard. As before, Submission means that neither side may attack one another although they may pass through one another's areas without stopping in them.

• 13.0 Raj points (change)
  Raj Victory points are achievable by any nation, not just the ones listed in the rules. The British may no longer count vacant areas, however, and have no factories or alliances. Note: to make scoring easier, non-scoring turns are blocked out on the Victory Points Chart, but this does not intend to preclude winning Raj points on these turns. Instead, it is recommended that the player earning a Raj point hold the appropriate Raj point counter and "turn it in" during the next general point scoring phase. Raj points start to be counted from the first turn.

• Mauryan Kingdom breakup: Turn 8
  At the start of Turn 8, the Mauryan (yellow) kingdom splits to form four new kingdoms, one played by each player. This occurs in the following sequence:
  1. The Yellow player converts all Mauryan (and submitted to Mauryan) counters currently in Magadha (using Gupta counters). Then he also converts all Mauryan and submitted counters in up to 4 areas adjacent to Magadha. Counters are replaced token for token in each case.
  2. After the Magadha kingdom is created, the Blue player chooses any 3 contiguous areas currently occupied by Mauryans counters to form the kingdom of the Mauryans-2. If at least one Aryans-4 territory is adjacent to any Mauryans-2 territory, all Aryans-4 may be converted to Mauryans-2, even if not submitted.
  3. After the Mauryans-2 kingdoms is created, the Green player chooses any 3 areas currently occupied by Mauryans counters to form the kingdom of the Mauryans-3. If at least one Aryans-2 territory is adjacent to any Mauryans-3 territory, all Aryans-2 may be converted to Mauryans-3, even if not submitted.
  4. After the Mauryans-3 kingdoms is created, the Purple player chooses any 3 areas currently occupied by Mauryans counters to form the kingdom of the Mauryans-4. If at least one Aryans-3 territory is adjacent to any Mauryans-4 territory, all Aryans-3 may be converted to Mauryans-4, even if not submitted.
  5. After the Mauryans-4 kingdoms is created, remove all remaining Mauryans tokens from the mapboard. Nations previously submitted to Mauryans remain on the map board and are no longer considered submitted.

• Gupta Kingdom breakup: Turn 14 (addition)
  At the start of Turn 14, the Gupta (yellow) kingdom splits to form three new kingdoms, one each played by each Yellow, Purple and Green. This occurs in the following sequence:
  1. At start of turn the Purple player replaces all Gupta tokens in Rajputana and areas adjacent to Rajputana, excluding Malwa, with Rajput counters.
  2. If there are no Gupta tokens in any of these areas at the start of Turn 14, place 3 Rajputs tokens in Rajputana and 2 tokens in the adjacent area (excluding Malwa) currently having the least number of tokens (Purple player chooses which area in case of ties). Any tokens already in these areas must retreat; those which cannot retreat are destroyed.
  3. No matter what the previous state of the Gupta Kingdom, the Rajputs must have at least 5 counters at the end of this process, stacking them up in Rajputana and forcing possibly non-Gupta tokens in Rajputana to retreat, if necessary.
  4. After the Rajputs are placed, the Yellow player flips over all Gupta tokens in Malwa and areas adjacent to Malwa (excluding Rajput areas). The counters are considered part of the new Malwa kingdom.
  5. If there are no Gupta tokens in any of these areas at the start of Turn 14, place 3 Guptas tokens in Malwa and 2 tokens in any adjacent area (excluding Rajput areas) currently having the least number of tokens (Yellow player chooses in case of ties). Any tokens already in these areas must retreat; those which cannot retreat are destroyed.
  6. After the Malwa are placed, all Gupta tokens in Magadha and areas adjacent to Magadha (excluding Rajput and Malwa areas) are now considered Guptas of Magadha (green).
  7. If there are no Gupta tokens in any of these areas at the start of Turn 14, place 3 Guptas of Magadha tokens in Magadha and 2 in any adjacent area (excluding Rajput and Malwa areas), currently having the least number of tokens (Guptas of Magadha player chooses in case of ties). Any tokens already in these areas must retreat; those which cannot retreat are destroyed.
  8. No matter what the previous state of the Gupta Kingdom, the Guptas of Magadha must have at least 5 counters at the end of this process, stacking them up in Magadha if necessary.
  9. Following this, remove from the map board any remaining face-up Gupta counters.
  10. Finally, flip right side up the inverted Malwa counters.

• Blue Player Cards: Harappans · Aryans 4 · Mauryans 2 · Kushans · Ephthalites · Muslims
• Green Player Cards: Pandyas · Aryans 2 · Greeks · Mauryans 3 · Guptas of Magadha · Tibetans · Mughals · Portuguese
• Purple Player Cards: Cholas · Aryans 3 · Persians · Bactrians · Mauryans 4 · Rajputs · British
• Yellow Player Cards: Aryans 1 · Mauryans · Sinhalese · Magadha · Scythians · Guptas · Malwa · Ahoms · Dutch
• Turn Record Chart
• Game Turn Track & Order of Play Chart
• Victory Points Chart

• Aryans
• Bactrians and Scythians (Muslims are optional.)
• Mauryans

Questions
Sources
Recent Changes to These Pages
Thanks to Academic Gaming Review for their review of this variant.
This variant is being played by e-mail (as of December 31, 2003).