The Best Mughal Ideas in EU4

The Mughal Empire is one of the most fun nations for a world conquest run (WC) in Europa Universalis IV. Their unique Assimilation mechanic means you won’t have to worry about cultural issues. In fact, the system incentivizes you to conquer and “collect” other cultures.

The other fun part of the Mughals is their “True Heir of Timur” (THoT) challenge. It’s an achievement that requires you to own all of India before 1550.

As such, this list will be divided into two halves.

The first three idea sets are for THoT, since only 3 idea group slots are available to you in its time frame. The rest of the list will feature useful ideas for a WC run. Lastly, all idea groups in this list revolve around the common problems of a WC and THoT game:

• Time
• Overextension (OE)
• Aggressive Expansion (AE)
• Core-creation cost (a.k.a. core cost reduction or CCR)
• Governing capacity

True Heir of Timur (Best Ideas)

1. Diplomatic

The Diplo set addresses two of your three problems: time and AE.

The extra diplomats and faster relations improvement makes it easier to manage AE. The diplomats can also double as spies, who can make your sieges end faster.

However, Diplo’s biggest boon is the -20% province war score cost. With it, you can annex more land in a single war. You won’t have to wage multiple wars with long truces in between them.

2. Offensive

Offensive is always a great early pick for most nations, especially for aggressive expansionists like the Mughals.

Its main appeal is its +20% siege ability.

Being able to take down forts faster means shorter wars. You can then move on to your next target and not waste time on protracted conflicts.

And when you need to fight battles, Offensive gives you plenty of unit and leader modifiers. These buffs will shift the odds in your favor.

3. Humanist

You need Humanist for the -2 unrest and the -10 years of separatism.

In your race to conquer India, you’ll have to deal with high unrest caused by overextension.

Rebels can derail your run and undo all of your hard work. In order to prevent that, you need some way to manage unrest, preferably a passive modifier.

That’s why Humanist should be your third pick.

But apart from its first two ideas, you don’t need to unlock the rest of the set. Because once you’ve gotten the THoT achievement, you may want to drop Humanist. Any of the next groups can be moved up to replace Humanist as your third set.

World Conquest (Best Ideas)

4. Administrative

The Mughal Empire already has the potential to get around -50% CCR, especially if you convert to Hinduism.

With Admin ideas, you can increase that to a ridiculous -70% CCR. That means every single province you conquer will become dirt cheap to core.

Admin also gives you +20% governing capacity.

You’re going to need a massive amount of gov cap when going for a WC.

5. Expansion

Expansion gives you 2 Colonists, which you can use to colonize the East Indies.

Specifically, you’ll want to colonize the Moluccas Spice Islands before the Europeans. It’s the only region where you can find Cloves — the most profitable trade goods in the game.

To discover those regions, you can use the “Request to Trade Maps” action in the Diplomacy screen. You don’t really need Exploration ideas for that.

6. Quality

As you expand west to Europe, you’ll likely face nations who’re stronger than you.

You must have a good military to match their strength.

In particular, the Westerners have the best units in the late game. Hence why you should get Quality ideas.

It isn’t as good as Offensive, because its naval modifiers won’t matter much to you. But there’s nothing stopping you from getting both Quality and Offensive.

7. Influence

Feeding provinces to your vassals is a common strategy for a WC.

But eventually, you’ll need to diplomatically annex them to take over their nation. Large vassals will take a long time to diplo-annex.

Which is why Influence is a great set.

It has a -25% diplo-annex cost and +2 diplo reputation modifiers. Both make your diplo-annexations finish faster.

Then there’s also the underrated -25% envoy travel time. Your diplomats, colonists, and merchants will take less time to reach their destinations. That’s a godsend when you have an empire that spans continents.