Portugal AAR : in Portuguese

In portuguese, of course

thank you very much Graymane for the translation!

I played Portugal in my first EU games as I thought it would be easier than other countries and I have been looking for Portuguese AAR. Having Bartolomeu Diaz doubling the Cape of Good Hope is just great!
But I think that when playing Portugal, you just keep your eyes on the sea and forget about Europe: you are a mouse and you dont go playing with the tomcats. If there's an alliance to seek, it's Spain and you do whatever they want. You just dont mind about losing Tangiers (I did not bother reinforcing it). The only thing of interest is the road to India and to a lesser extent Brazil. The must-do is funding research in Trade Level which coupled with a lot of trading posts will earn you a LOT of money

I typically find Portugual the hardest of the majors to play and don't enjoy it too much. I would definately suggest Spain for someone just starting out as they can play either a colonial game or a continental game quite easily either way. When I play Spain, I tend to conquer Portugual within the first 5 years so I don't have to compete for territories early on.

Originally posted by minimax
thank you very much Graymane for the translation!

I played Portugal in my first EU games as I thought it would be easier than other countries and I have been looking for Portuguese AAR. Having Bartolomeu Diaz doubling the Cape of Good Hope is just great!
But I think that when playing Portugal, you just keep your eyes on the sea and forget about Europe: you are a mouse and you dont go playing with the tomcats. If there's an alliance to seek, it's Spain and you do whatever they want. You just dont mind about losing Tangiers (I did not bother reinforcing it). The only thing of interest is the road to India and to a lesser extent Brazil. The must-do is funding research in Trade Level which coupled with a lot of trading posts will earn you a LOT of money

Click to expand...

Sorry, but I'm not of the same opinion. Portugal has possibilities of expanding in Europe, too. In the game I am currently playing (the same that I've posted my Indian performance in portuguese, upwards), I have always had RM with lots of european countries, not only the majors but such minors as pommerania, Brandenburg, Baden, etc. When, in the late 1500's my allied Pommerania went on a war against a Brandenburg-Hannover-Saxony-Hessen-Hanseatic League alliance and asked me to join (her ever-allied, +200 always), I arrived with a 50k army and annexed Hanseatic League, starting the Portuguese North-European Empire. Next, to assure I would not be attacked, I improved my relations with all my neighbours and vassalized Pommerannia. Well, in the next 60 years I have vassalized and diplo-annexed them, getting a few provinces from netherlands due to a war, I've received Cologne by Inheritance... and,. most of all, my domination of the indias is total, the CoT of Cochin is valued at 3054, with my monopoly... currently i'm improving my relations with Danmarck, Baden and Thuringhen.
As you see, Portugal can and may be a continetal strong force, not afraid of some dummy tomcats...

Yes there are alternatives....But what I think is that they are:
- less productive (taking european provinces wont give you as much money as oriental trade)
- less realistic: the tomcats are dummy because AI-managed. It is actualy possible when you have built up your strength...but...do you really think it could have happened?
- less historical..I mean that I take great pleasure in playing a country with the "spirit" of the country...Portugal had devoted a century-old effort in finding the road to India and accepted the fact that his fate lie oversea...
Of course, we also play the game to rewrite history!

you expanded in Europe by the turn of the XVth century...I was talking mainly about the initial start (first 50 years)... not much choice there IMO....

Yes, you're right... but is always fun to rewrite history, as you said