Several recent postings on TAHGC's new game "Maharaja" have reported low scores for the "Yellow" player, coupled with difficulties in achieving the population levels provided for by the Maurya/Gupta countermixes. I suggested that this might be due to inexperience with the game system of the kind which often leads to "Red" victories at Maharaja's sister-game "Britannia", but was unable to make any tests until the game arrived at my local shops in the UK last week. The rules themselves have no suggestions on player-tactics.

Initial solo and group run-throughs (kibbitzing sessions) have clearly indicated that the changes in M vis-a-vis B have generated a new "tactic" whose sharpest effects occur at the start of turn 5, when the Rajputs invade Mauryan territory.

The Rajput countermix limit is 12. Ten arrive in the turn 5 invasion, and a further 4, *plus* any needed for population increase from areas controlled, in turn 6. Additionally, the Rajputs get a *triple* invasion phase relative to the yellow forces, two turns after the Mauryans, and one before the Guptas who replace them.

It follows that the Rajputs can afford to attack like lunatics in the initial invasion, since they *need* to lose at least 4-5 counters just to service their reinforcement/population increase entitlements in turn 6, at which point they can regroup before any Gupta counterattack! On the other hand, since the Mauryans no longer increase population, every Mauryan lost to this invasion is one less Gupta after replacement...

The Mauryan response in turn 5 is simple: Get out of the way!! Remove the 6 counters and leader from the North and West of Northern India, and withdraw to the Nepal-Oudh-Bundelkhand line, plus some counters in Ladakh, which withdraw to Nepal after the first round of any combat. The Rajputs can't reach you, so they can't kill you, and by turn 6 they want areas for VPs...

This tactic, plus sensible preliminary moves to facilitate it, should allow players to translate most if not all of the Mauryan countermix into Guptas, and breed the rest back in time for Chandra to strike West in 7, followed by shrinking back East and to the Himalayas in turns 8/9.

Our testing suggested that anywhere between 23-27 Mauryas/Guptas would end up on the board this way, with the Maurya scoring about 25, and the Guptas 30+, including Raj points, over the game. One playthrough managed 27/27!! Since the Sinhalese (like the Caledonians in Britannia) can score well if carefully handled, Yellow should now be able to accumulate a decent score...

The same tactic can profitably be employed by those in North India in the face of the Mughal and Muslim invasions; and don't forget that Maharaja, unlike Britannia, enforces stacking limits at the end of *Movement*; invasions can't overstack into combat and hope that their losses will rectify things, and since leaders don't grant an extra "unlimited" stack any more, (and several of the invasions arrive without them in any case) defenders may be a harder target than they used to be.

If anyone has an uphill struggle it might be Purple, whose two medium- sized invasions (Rajputs/British) are statistically more vunerable to short runs of bad die rolls; there seems to be some evidence that the developers think so, because Purple have been granted the chance to go last in most Victory Point situations like Blue in Britannia.