INTRODUCTION
Maharaja is a Britannia clone. It covers the epic sweep of history of the Indian subcontinent from the Aryan invasions to the British Raj.

The game plays with 3 to 5 players, but the components are geared for 4

COMPONENTS
The counters are set up for 4 factions (yellow, green, blue, purple). Each nation is labeled and has a different soldier printed. The population growth is silhouetted. The counters are functional in the 80’s style.

The map board is an area map of India and Pakistan. The different areas are outlined clearly, but the script used for the names is difficult to read. The major area boundaries (North/south India, Himalayas and Ceylon) are clearly marked but not labeled. The difference between open and difficult terrain is clear. The rest of the board has a turn order, Nation appearance chart (includes leaders and invasion troops), and population chart. All are useful even with the difficult to read font.

Each nation has a player card which outlines the victory points that nation can score and in small print references to special rules/cases for that nation. It does not include the leaders/and invasion forces for that nation.

GAME PLAY
There is a few ways to score victory points. The lion’s share comes from area control. Many powers can get extra points from controlling most of the areas in India so you can become the raj. Colonial (European) powers score by building factories with their allies on the different coasts (It is noted in the design notes that these are not factories in the modern sense but forts build to proctect the factors (merchants)). Some nations will score through eliminating enemy units and being able to temporarily hold an area.

The game has 16 turns with each nation having its own turn within the game turn. Nations become active when their first units appear and can be eliminated from the game. The order of play for the nations is listed on the game board and does not change.

Each nation’s turn has the following phases:
- Population growth/reinforcements
A nation only controls the areas where it has troops. It gets 1 population point for each normal area, 1/ 2 for difficult terrain. For each three population points it gets a new force. Fractional amounts can be kept for the next turn.
Off board invading armies and leaders noted on the game turn chart are placed on the board.

If a power is listed as having a major invasions it gets to move and fight twice in its turn.

- Movement,
Indian Armies can move 2 areas, (3 with a leader) Colonial powers move 3 areas. Movement must stop in difficult terrain and when a force encounters an enemy unit. However, when the moving player has more than twice the units in an area - subsequent forces may freely move though the area. There is a limit of 3 units in normal areas, and 2 in difficult terrain, only one area can have units in excess of that limit.

- Battle,
Battles are resolved by area. Each army rolls one die. Regular armies and factories are removed on a 5 or 6, unless the defending unit is in difficult terrain, in which case it is only removed with a 6 Colonial armies are removed with a 6. Leaders and colonial arms add 1 to the die roll. After each battle round the attacker and defender have the option to retreat.

At the end of some nation’s turn if it owns more than 9 areas it can earn between 1 and 4 victory points for being the raj.

- Colonial powers can build factories and supply arms to an Indian nation. Factories can be placed in coastal areas where the power controls the area or by another Indian power’s permission (if the Indian power is the same color this is automatic (unless you are Braxton Bragg). The factories are the primary scoring mechanism of the Colonial powers.
The colonial power may give adjacent Indian power arms - which act like a leader.

- Overpopulation check.
Each nation can only have armies <= 2 times the number of areas they control. Armies in excess of that limit must be removed. Colonial powers do not check for overpopulation

- End of game turn scoring
At the end of some game turns nations score the areas they occupy. The different nations have different area objectives and will score a varying number of points. This pushes peoples to their historic areas. The player must be very aware of how each of his peoples scores points.


COMMENTS
Maharaja has been labeled as Britannia’s poorer cousin, a sentiment I can agree. There are several issues with the game that prevents it from playing near as well.

Unlike Britannia all of the major invasions come from one direction - north & west. This makes each invasion a sweep across the North Indian plain while the remnants of previous civilizations cower in the difficult terrain of South India.

Like Britannia each color and nation has different objectives and the game play is asymmetrical. However, the colors are not as well balanced as Britannia. The problems with Yellow player are well documented, it is a weak faction, and much of its strength is just removed from the board in the mid game. There are several house rules needed to balance the game.

Submission rules are quirky at best. Several nations can submit at any time to any and all comers once they meet the criteria. There appears to be no penalty for that behavior, and it is quite advantageous for the weaker power. It can lead to anomalies like a key area being held by a weak power that cannot be dislodged so another faction can score points for that area.

Colonial powers: The European powers in the last few rounds provide a good change of pace. Since they can make alliances with Indian powers, share areas using factories (defensive armies), provide weapons (die roll modifier) to an ally they add quite a bit of flavor all in all it is the most interesting part of the game.

Final thought:
Get Britannia (old or new edition) it is a superior game.