Ming Strategy guide

This guide is for the current state of the Ming in B1.2/B1.3, as well as anticipating future changes. I am open to feedback and comments of course.

Starting Position:

Ming starts with 5 units, in a relatively open position, not shoehorned into any particular path but neither super flexible. On the B1.2 Map, your starting cores are Chengdu, Kunming, Lanzhou, Nanjing, and Peking. Your opening is going to be highly press-dependent of course, but there’s a few things to keep in mind.

You have few natural allies and many natural enemies, and your neighbors are able to coordinate against you from the start of the game. Y1 you need to get as many allies as manageable. Several powers can deny you builds for little consequence. Netherlands, Qing, Tokugawa, and sometimes Mughals/Ayutthaya can all deny you growth at little risk, and your position is really vulnerable. This is liable to change, but the presence of Lanzhou means Chengdu is your most important center. It’s going to be the center of gravity of your entire position, regardless of strategy.

Regardless, our Y1 goal is pretty simple. Get +4. We want to have enough units to cover the many, many gaps in the position, and shore up strength for the midgame, where we truly shine. Ming’s got potential as both a lategame snowball and an early solo rush, and we want to be able to be flexible between those options.

I will go over your key relationships first, as well as how to approach them. Diplomacy is a game of negotiations and relationships first and tactics second. Of course, every game is different, and no guide can possibly account for every variation in board state. Rather, these are general approaches that assume both you and your neighbors are acting at least partly based on reason. If you can get a neighbor to unnecessarily handicap themselves to your benefit, almost always just do that, even if it’s against some of the advice here.

Relationships

Ming has quite a few neighbors, here I’ll generally go over what you should expect from each, and what my thoughts are on the viability of short and long-term alliances, and what you should know about conflicts. Useful cores are situational, and generally don’t core unless you need to be maintaining unit positions. Some cores also may be more likely, and shine brighter than others. General rule of thumb, cores must be at least a year’s distance from your existing cores, and provide a new type of build.

Qing

Qing is your closest neighbor, and the only one that can seriously harm your position immediately if the press goes awry. Russia cannot offer much help against them, and Y1 we do not want Tokugawa to help. Thus, this is your most important early game ally.

• Coordinate with Qing against Russia. Immediately you have the opportunity to secure a nice line West into Yarkand or North into Karakorum, both from Turfan, and guarantee that Russia cannot win against you two. You both profit but you benefit far more than Qing, and if you’re able to spread a little fear about Russia going to Buryatia, you will be fine.
• Clean split Korea. Ideally you propose an Eastern Triple in Y1 to both Qing and Tokugawa and cleanly get your dots. You want Qing able to pressure Oriental Sea with possible builds in Pyeongyang, and set up a bounce there Y2 so that Qing can commit East. Whether or not we stick with Qingfor the long haul, Qing is useful for fighting your early threats.
• Bounce in Beizhili Sea only if the Dutch will deny Okinawa and/or Tokugawa will fight for it. Peking is your least important core, and it’s possible to reconquer. Qing will die if they attack you Y1, same with you attacking them.
• Hohhot essentially functions as a sort of combined Ruhr-Burgundy from Classic, and Qing and Ming’s dynamic is similar to France and Germany from Classic, but. The combined province does not maintain the same advantages for general mobility that Burgundy and Ruhr do for France and Germany, and thus neither Qing nor Ming should really ever want to move there, especially early. In a game about tempo, neither party should want to fight an early 1v1 war of elimination.
• For an attack, the key areas to break are Beizhili Sea - Zhili - Hohhot, and Turfan - Gobi. Useful cores of Qing are: Pyeongyang/Haishenwai (area control, ec F Oriental Sea), Hailanpao (Area Control), Nivikhs (F Sea of Okhotsk area control).

Tokugawa

Your neighbor across the Yellow Sea, Tokugawa shields you from the rough waters of the North Pacific, and can be useful against the colonials. But make no mistake, a Tokugawa that helps you too much is one that will stab you, and our early focus with Tokugawa is going to be getting them to focus on NPO.

• Coordinate with Tokugawa on Okinawa, you want the dot for the build and as a bargaining chip, but do not expect to keep it unless you are stabbing early and have Dutch support.
• Again clean split Korea, and be wary. Fusan is the most important province there, and we want it long-term unless you have some sort of wacky plan to split Qing. Tokugawa should be okay with swapping Fusan for Okinawa, and if not then they’re trying to prepare a stab on you or Qing, or unnecessarily paranoid. Note that if you do split Korea with them, Tokugawa should be offered Pyeongyang off of Qing.
• Y1 don’t bother bouncing Amami or Fusan. The builds from actually taking centers in Hanyang and Okinawa are better.
• The key area to break Tokugawa is Tsushima - Kyushu. Useful cores off of Tokugawa are: Amami (F for Kyushu, Kuroshio Current), Kyoto (F Oriental Sea, A Echigo), Aomori (F Oriental Sea, works with Amami on NPO).

Netherlands

When I said you had few natural allies… well this is the best you can get. Netherlands and Ming have near-identical hit lists in the region, and they should recognize that (by giving you a build in Okinawa). That said, a Netherlands that cannot see reason must be killed fast lest they overbuild in Asia and make your life miserable. This is why you should still be friendly with our other neighbors, even if we have a clear best long-term ally.

• If the Dutch cede you Okinawa, we have a game here. You offer kills on basically every possible Dutch rival, and you share an extremely important natural enemy in Ayutthaya.
• Y2 we can coordinate attacks on Tokugawa or Portugal, and Y3 on Spain. If they instead elect to kill the Philippines first, be careful and make sure you get the lion’s share of Ayutthaya. This is the one scenario where an early game Dutch ally becomes a problem, and one you have to snipe Formosa against.
• Otherwise, a weak and dependent vassal unit of a strong power is great. The Dutch also allow us to influence events globally, more on that later. An ideal Netherlands is strong everywhere except for Europe where they have hopefully lost Amsterdam, and are desperate for allies while still being strong.

Portugal

While we may have a desire to vassalize the Dutch, it is trivially easy to vassalize Portugal. They should never expect Macao to grow much, and promising survival is usually enough. And we can always break them for easy dots later. Never attack Macao with two units in Y1. Generally we can use Portugal to troll Ayutthaya or a hostile Netherlands.

• We run a few risks with trusting Portugal, but the payout is that we can win a 2v2 on Ayutthaya and Mughals. Either supporting you into Hanoi, or bouncing Ayutthaya out, are valuable tasks, and while killing Hainan gets us a new core and a new front, we wait until Y2/3 for that.
• Pay attention to who is getting Brattahlid and if Hyderabad bounces. We want the Mughals weaker than us or focused away from us, and getting Hyderabad to bounce twice is amazing. Portugal and England doing well in India can be very good, and of course Ming can attack South really well.
• If Portugal is allied to the Mughals, we need to shift tack and propose an immediate gank of Ayutthaya. The most flexible opening we have allows for that pivot. If Ayutthaya is friendly with Portugal, it’s time to try and get the Dutch to snipe them.
• Break Guangxi, break Portugal. Hainan is our pre-core.

Ayutthaya

Your most natural enemy. There has been No Successful Ayutthaya - Ming alliance that hasn’t in effect vassalized Ming to Ayutthaya, and I would hardly classify that as success. The cluster of centers around Kunming is vital for both growth and security, and while Ayutthaya can ignore it, you cannot. Be ready to kill Ayutthaya at a moment’s notice.

• Immediately, we need to set up safety measures. Bouncing Ava gives you security in Kunming, a vitally important dot that Ming often loses and then cannot regain. This lets us both stab Ayutthaya (Mughal support into Ava) and often Mughals.
• A friendly Ayutthaya must understand that we don’t care about denying the dot, and would rather be in Hanoi and be allied. If we can scare one of Mughals/Ayutthaya out of opening into Burma in Spring, we can take Hanoi and hold a stab at our leisure.
• Wars of elimination are messy and costly. We need Ava, Chiang Mai, and Phan Rang, and that’s about it. Once you do stab, try and vassalize Ayutthaya, as those fleets can be useful. If not, they cannot defend well against a combined attack, and you have an easy split with the Dutch.
• The key province to break is Lan Sang, any war is a slog but if you can sneak in early, Ayutthaya cannot defend. Useful cores are Chiang Mai (area control), Pegu/Tavoy (F Andaman Sea), Nakhon Si (ec F Natuna Sea), Phan Rang (F South China Sea). The sheer quantity of useful cores makes Ayutthaya an excellent vassal once sufficiently weakened.

Mughals

I see a lot of thinking that Ming and Mughals must fight. I would like to dispel that. While it is indeed profitable for Ming and Mughals to fight, neither strictly needs to: Mughals benefit from Ayutthaya’s demise as much as you do, and mild concessions in Central Asia (Mughals should always kill the Safavids) should be enough. Do note that allying both Qing and Mughals is basically impossible long-term, and Qing is still better. Especially when most Mughals I’ve seen don’t seem to understand what is needed for a win. You’re absolutely able to win with them if your relationship survives the early border.

• Immediately, you need to gauge their threat level and competence. While the safe/neutral move is often seen as bouncing Bhamo (I did so myself), I do think it’s giving Ayutthaya say in your relationship you do not want unless you have Ayutthaya hooked. Kunming can either stab for Bhamo in fall, joint stab Ayutthaya for Ava in fall, or simply take Hanoi.
• This is another power where your relationship is going to be determined by their moves elsewhere. Specifically, are they going to Yarkand, are they getting Uzgen, are they getting Hyderabad? A Mughals that is unwilling to attack the Safavids and Ayutthaya is not one that can stay friends with you.
• If we can stay friends, we concede Bhamo, Ava (if necessary), and Pegu to them, in exchange for a really fast kill on Ayutthaya into a joint push against the Dutch East Indies. If war is the word, we must attack on two fronts. Yarkand is about as far West as you need to go, but getting their early for an attack on Kabul while simultaneously attacking Sasaram is nice. We need Bhamo Sasaram Kabul Yarkand Kathmandu off the Mughals if we attack, and often can get Delhi.
• Key provinces to break are Tsangpa — Bhutan. Useful cores are Kolkata (F Bay of Bengal, A Gondwana), Ahmedabad (F Lakshadweep Sea).

Russia

B1.2 Russia sucks design wise. Ming should always kill Russia, there’s nothing they can offer that doesn’t immediately pivot into stabbing you, and similarly with Qing. In a future iteration where Lanzhou has been fixed, half of this section is useless, but even on the A2/B1 Map, Ming should almost never really ally Russia, unless Qing has already attacked.

• Initial goals are to get Russia and Qing at arms. It’s a false triangle with you three, either allying Russia gives Russia insane leverage on the other two. Bounce in Buryatia is ideal, and you should follow it up by denying Russia a dot in Karakorum if possible.
• Turfan and Yarkand as allies coordinate great together. Mughals should hopefully be allied with Russia and killing Safavids together, giving you and Qing room to kill up to Krasnoyarsk. Strictly speaking, you do not really need Karakorum/Krasnoyarsk, but getting one or both is really important if you plan on stabbing Qing in the future.
• An unworkable Qing that’s either going to attack you or already has is the one case where Russia may be useful as a temporary ally. But once you have a handle on Qing (if you get into Shengjing and hold Turfan still), make peace and stab Russia before they collapse your entire North simultaneously.
• The key to cracking Russia depends on the opening, but controlling Turfan and either Gobi or Tumeds cracks Russia. Useful cores are Krasnoyarsk (A SIB) and Verkhoturye (A literally anywhere everything is great, F Kara Sea).

Further Neighbors

• Safavids: a great early ally against Russia and a hostile Mughals, do be wary about giving up Yarkand. And if they kill Mughals too fast, well your Mughal problem is now a Safavid one.
• Spain: do not be tempted by an early snipe of Formosa or coordination against Ayutthaya. Manila is one of the most important centers in the whole area, and without it we are vulnerable without a ton of units. Spain should be passive or defensive, and do not cede Phan Rang to Spain. Hainan and Manila are too close and Spain too big to coordinate well as either allies or as your vassal.
• Inuits: Inuits are great for balancing power against Tokugawa, but do not invite them against Qing, or you will quickly find your Qing problem becomes an Inuit one. Think Spain and Athapasca, and you’re Spain. You will be stalemated at best.
• Indian Colonials: Generally the approach is if they’re in Delhi, Surat, Sasaram, or Kolkata, they’re too far North and need to be excised. Rajamahendri - Hyderabad - Goa (and if they hold Ahmedabad) are generally safe, and they’re useful as naval allies while we don’t have a core in Pegu yet.

Openings

Okay, so let’s put all that to the test. We generally want to open neutrally, securing at least 4 builds, with friendly relationships with neighbors.

The Default Opening

This is in my view the most flexible and generally strong opening Ming has. Let’s go over the moves and how it works.

Moves:

Lanzhou - Turfan

• It’s now or never with Turfan. Go now and secure the Northern Gate, lest your enemies walk in unopposed. Play against Russia and later the Qing/Safavids, too good. Chengdu - Rinpungpa
• Rinpungpa is a fantastic defensive position, as well as a place to push out from. Having the second unit adjacent to Kunming is vital for your early game safety, and it’s a nice place to compel the Mughals into cooperation from, as well as stab them. Kunming - Ava
• Bounce with Ayutthaya here for your own safety, but do not make this move if you think it will not be bounced. Two units on Kunming in Fall Y1 is not a position Ming typically recovers from. While ideally neither open to Myanmar, a Mughal army in Bhamo is able to support you against must-kill Ayutthaya, whereas an Ayutthaya army in Ava can only mess with you. Nanjing - East China Sea
• Simply put, Okinawa is ours. If the Dutch recognize that, great! Ally them for the whole game, and watch as the Dutch shift the balance of power in your favour simply by existing. If the Dutch are fools, bounce them and refuse to stab Ayutthaya until you can cut them out of the deal. Peking - Yellow Sea
• Qing is a friend who will give us Hanyang. If Qing is instead dumb enough to attack, you can ally Russia against them and sack Peking for now, and Qing will have a bad time.

Zooming out: Preferred centers and builds.

We of course would like to double, and maximizing our chances at a +5 year one also gives us the best chances at the more modest and necessary +4 year one. With our starting units, we have many possibilities, but 3 of our units have a clear best target.

The Army in Chengdu should be stationed in Rinpungpa and stay there most often through the first year or two. Rinpungpa ensures that a potentially duplicitous Mughals doesn’t have an easy stab, and it’s a really valuable province to have a stationed unit issuing supports. The one caveat is that if we expect to land in Karakorum or Yarkand in fall (not just bounce), Rinpungpa should pivot to Xining to have an easy move to Uighuristan comboing with a newly built army in Lanzhou moving to Turfan.

The Army in Lanzhou should always move to Turfan unless you’re certain that Qing and Russia are allied against you. If that’s the case, you have bigger problems. This opens a vital front that’s otherwise locked behind a tough geographic barrier.

The Fleet in Peking should always want to grab Hanyang. Bouncing in Beizhili Sea isn’t worth much at all, and Peking is your least strategically useful core. Lanzhou is just as close to Qing on land, and attacking into a dead-end with a fleet is generally inadvisable. Thus, we always want to be amicable with Qing and attempt a peaceful resolution in Korea with them. Hanyang does that well, and unless Tokugawa opens away from Fusan, we should be moving to Hanyang in fall.

Thus, the object of our opening is to set up our Army in Kunming and our Fleet in Nanjing for builds.

This is generally why in a vacuum, the opening is just. Strong. Qing as an ally is all you should need to get 4 builds, and Qing is of your regional neighbors the best one to ally.

So, this is the general permutation space of a standard, strong Ming opening. You cannot and should not rely on suboptimal counterplay from neighbors to win, and while a dubious opening still can do well, I would generally not recommended going for risky 2-strength attacks on Macao or ditching Central Asia as an expansion route unless you are certain that you know what you are doing.

Strategy

Ultimately Ming’s path to victory runs through Ayutthaya centers. Basically every path towards a win runs through Ayutthaya, and no Ming has won without holding at least one Ayutthaya starting core. This is the only “must do” here.

Generally, your strategy should be geared towards an alliance you are able to maintain for the majority of the game, and focus on getting a stable win for you and an ally. Think about how tightly Austria hugs Italy in Classic, except you don’t have to let go to win.

Balanced Approach: Qing Alliance

You and Qing share natural enemies in Tokugawa, Russia, and Inuits. Now the first two are obviously enemies of both, but why is Inuit a Ming enemy? Simply put, any joint attack on Qing will result in you gaining a few dots, and trading a neighbor you can directly handicap for a more powerful neighbor that will be flush with resources and units from dismantling Qing, and inertia carrying them directly at you. So, you want to coordinate early and often with Qing.

Fleet builds from both, and an unsuspecting Tokugawa getting stabbed by both in Y2 gives you both naval security and joint goals, that being a carving of Tokugawa. Notably, you should consider ceding Hanyang for Fusan, or arranging a disband on Qing’s trapped fleet, maybe both.

You should be simultaneously allied to one of Ayutthaya or Mughals against the other, but make sure that you maintain the advantageous position in this alliance. A Mughals growing too strong should be stabbed in Yarkand, and at the very least needs to cede one of Bhamo or Ava. Ayutthaya meanwhile needs to be similarly kept in check with a large “defensive” force nearby, and cut off from growth on land as much as possible, to encourage as many fleets being built as possible.

Russia and Safavids are both enemies, and you should act accordingly. Ideally a weakened Russia may find temporary reprieve with a Safavid-Ottoman war, just for us to swoop into Central Asia and vacuum up dots. Regardless, against you and Qing, you’ll be pushing hard and fast, and you will have the units to dispatch Russia’s Eastern holdings while managing other fronts.

With the colonials, you need some sort of conflict to spark by the start of Y3. A Netherlands - Spain - Portugal triple is suffocating, and combined with Russia and Mughals as targets for balancing power, I’d recommended establishing early relationships with England, France, and Safavids.

By around 1648, you should be in Yarkand, most of the Ayutthaya centers, Portugal’s colony has been wiped out, Tokugawa should be split Southwest - Northeast between you and Qing, and you should have a smattering of other centers between Central Asia, India, and the outlying islands.

You and Qing break each other through key bottlenecks, and even at peak your border is comparible in size to the Mughal border. Not insurpassible, but certainly defensible, and at all points Qing should be more overextended and exposed than you are.

Most positions get close to a win and then make up the last few centers on a winning front. While this example map is not going to be exactly what you do, it’s a possible 36 centers that can be feasibly attained in even a fast game. Do be aware that if you’re significantly faster than Qing, you may have to cede the steppes (Turfan, Yarkand, and everything else North of Kabul and West of Lanzhou). Instead, you can just push further into Borneo and into Sulawesi.

Balanced Approach: Mughal Alliance

So, you like the Mughals player, and you’re a strong enough player to play a Qing-Tokugawa war to your benefit while chipping away at both sides. Or simply you are not enthusiastic about one of Qing/Tokugawa, while the other lacks the ambition, drive, and strategy to run the game with you. The idea is similarly simple. You and the Mughals share both short-term enemies and long-term enemies, and can supply the other with amply defensive positions to allow the pair to focus on pushing outwards.

So, this opening is a bit more constrained in a few key ways than Ming-Qing. Not only must you be concerned with a Colonial Triple NPS, but also the Qing - Tokugawa alliance and keeping Russia alive long enough to handicap the Safavids. That said the principles are pretty similar: get two strong land powers a defensible, safe border, and let the surplus units do work on other fronts, while both powers spend effort on establishing strong naval bases and increasing the fleet:army ratio.

While it may be tempting to definitively ally one of Tokugawa/Qing against the other, each comes with problems. Ally Tokugawa too hard and Russia can get a faster line into Qing before you can react, and then you’re essentially boxed in on land. Ally Qing too hard, and a strong Qing will block your entry to Karakorum and contest you at sea, walling your North. Rather, you must try to keep all of Qing, Russia, Inuits, and Tokugawa maximally weakened. For this purpose, Ute-Shoshone is someone you want to do well, as well as Spain to the extent that the Philippine colony is messing with Tokugawa/Inuits in NPO. Similarly, a strong Ottomans is a boon, meaning Mughals can be more expedient moving armies away from you and into the Safavids.

The crux of the attack here is wrapping up Russia’s Far East fast for your benefit, then folding in on Qing while you’re simultaneously striking Hohhot. You and the Mughals will both need some new Naval cores, ideally Phan Rang/Amami/Okinawa for you and Pegu/Masulipatnam/Goa/Mahra for them. You’re incredibly efficient at splitting the Dutch East Indies, and simultaneously pushing past Iran in the West. While you may lack the more consistent splits of a Ming-Qing alliance, if you can stabilize past the midgame, this becomes an incredibly stable long-term position, with the ability to push completely different Naval theaters and coordinate effectively in many places.

A similar potential position, for a Mughal alliance.

Unbalanced Approach: No Allies, Just Targets

So this is the strategy from my own Ming Solo, and basically combines the potential growth from Qing and Mughals into one, coherent sphere surrounding your core territory.

Not only do you have to ride the knife’s edge between Tokugawa and Qing, but also between Mughals/Ayutthaya/Safavids, all while ensuring that you’re getting enough fresh units each year that any setback on one front can be matched by more units plugging the gaps.

The press required is not only large in both time commitment, but also persuasive power. You basically need to be gunning for this specific type of win from at latest Y3, while keeping every single neighbor in the dark. You have to thoroughly stamp out any chance any of your neighbors can hope for more than survival, while also being tantalizing enough to evoke suboptimal defense in hopes of vassalization.

Ming’s tempo potential is truly insanity. 42 centers lay just 3 moves from the Ming starting centers, 44 if we also use the pre-core in Hainan. Your goal is to simply push every single front, while your press keeps everyone else distracted and moving units away from you, building units that can’t harm you, disbanding close to you. If you can weasel your way past a couple key choke points, you can very quickly create a position that far exceeds your requirement to win, but keeps steamrolling.

This is my own game (1648), the only center further than 3 moves from the Ming starting cores is Nakhon Si, and if this game was somehow kept going, the position snowballs further out of control.

So, why isn’t it possible for everyone?

Simply put, I had two moves in Spring Y1 that presented such an enticing position and way to do basically everything I wanted that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Mughals: A Kabul Holds

Tokugawa: F Aomori - Oriental Sea

With two moves:

Mughals had given me such a dominant position to have free reign against Russia that I could effectively encircle Qing as per the Mughal strategy, while not needing to ally the Mughals, and temporarily keep Ayutthaya leashed so I could later stab for everything.

Tokugawa had given me an immediate in to forever poison the Tokugawa - Qing relationship, with a paranoid move into a Y2 stab that I could effectively fight both and win, without putting undue strain on my position into Central Asia or Ayutthaya.

For the back half of my game, I was deliberately storing future builds in Ayutthaya centers only I could access, meaning I had both units to make a front and guaranteed growth I could use at any point. Combined with full frontlines nearly everywhere, I could fully envelop my position and set up crushing lines, on land and at sea. From an overextended position relying on press, to a gunboat monstrosity, even a boardwide coalition wouldn’t have been able to do anything because I had minimal surface area to actually interact with hostile units outside of the centers I won.

Further Strategies

Of course, this is not the sum total of strategic options and opportunities for Ming. As I have said, any alliance besides Ayutthaya can win you the game, but the problem is that the remaining options are just more unstable. However, we can briefly discuss the contours of each.

Ming - Tokugawa:

So, if you don’t like to build fleets, and are going to stick with Tokugawa, there’s good and bad news. The good news is that it’s quite feasible to ally with Tokugawa, leave the seas to them besides providing limited assistance against the Philippines, and focus on establishing a land empire. The problem is that the later the game goes, the more unbalanced the relationship will get, and ultimately one side or the other will attack across a border stretching from the Philippines to Manchuria. You’ll need enough fleets to prevent a stab, which is also enough to stab, and usually also deprives builds that otherwise push West and South.

Ming - Russia:

The good news for this pairing is that Russia can choose to ignore Turfan and focus down Qing. The bad news is when Qing is dealt with, Russia has a bunch of armies that go towards you and nowhere else.

Eastern Triple:

The nice thing about the Ming-Qing-Tokugawa triple is that you are in by far the best position of the three to eventually reach a win. The bad thing about this pairing is that you’re giving Tokugawa far too much control over your relationship with Qing, and sooner or later Tokugawa will stab one of you and rope the other in. Generally if Tokugawa is willing to be extremely aggressive in NPO and Qing gets some colonies setup on the Pacifc Coast of America it’s technically feasible for all three of you to stay together and win, but you should be prepared for a stab.

Full North-West:

While it may be tempting to ally Ayutthaya even when going away from them, the issue is that you will always be the junior partner in any relationship you can’t stab, and if you can stab, you absolutely should. Instead, we’re relying on strong colonials to deal with Ayutthaya while we maybe snipe a few dots, and the bulk of our forces are spent on an aggressive push West and North. You will need to be able to quickly defeat the Mughals and Russia and absorb their positions before pushing further into the Safavids, as well as deep into India. However, by ceding Ayutthaya, you lose an insane amount of tempo, and stabbing a strong Dutch Indochina is going to be a slog.

Final thoughts.

Ming is absurdly fun in this variant. Explosive growth options, high levels of vulnerability, and the ever looming threat of instant annihilation. Through neighbours you have strong reasons to talk to over half the board in the opening phase.

Writing this guide, my approach has been to find the strategies that can lead to wins. While I engaged mostly with two particular strategies I find to be powerful at getting the sorts of fast wins that are becoming more common, it’s entirely valid to play the long game.

I should also say that as long as you can maintain a decent position into the mid-game, you’re absolutely not out of contention. As of the time of writing this, three out of the five wins this power has were from slow starts stabilizing, and being able to then leverage a well-timed stab into snowballing. Ultimately the strategy is yours, and while I have my opinions on the viability of some over others, a truly determined player can make just about anything work with enough skill. I look forward to seeing what new strategies develop and how folks play!