Having read the Portuguese AARs, I realized that I play Portugal very differently than other people do, so I decided to start a Portuguese AAR showing my play style. I’m afraid that this AAR isn’t going to be a literary masterpiece, but rather a practical description of actions taken, and my reasoning for taking those actions.
I’m playing Hard/Weakling version 1.07 AGC 2.3. My reasoning for this is that I like a somewhat quicker decline in BB than is possible at Impossible, but I also want a stronger AI response to my transgressions. I've found that I never get attacked if I'm playing Cowards unless I'm a one province minor. I’ve chosen to play the AGC because I like extra events, and Portugal’s expansion is a lot more realistically portrayed with realistic CB’s.
House Rules:
1) Never launch a war of aggression against a Catholic country.
2) Never forcibly annex a Christian state.
3) Never declare war against a Christian state without a CB and a *very good reason*. In other words, I’m not going to backstab my Protestant or Orthodox allies of many years because I’ve got a sudden opportunity.
4) Never deliberately create a CB against a Christian state.
5) I’ll limit myself to declaring one war a century against a non-Christian state without a CB. (For simplicity’s sake, I’ll count the centuries as the 1400’s, the 1500’s, the 1600’s and the 1700’s on.)
6) No reloads. No cheats.
7) When I win an alliance war, I will be fair in making the peace treaties: e.g., if the AI got half of the VPs, then the AI is getting half of the provinces. (That shouldn’t be a big deal – I don’t usually call on allies except in cases of life or death.) Separate peaces when the AI calls me into a war are a different matter: I’ll take what I can out of those wars. I'll have done him a favor by weakening the common enemy.
January 1, 1419: Portugal is at war with Fez. One army is already in North Africa. I have another army and a navy in Portugal.
I’ve got very good relations with Castile and Aragon, and am fairly neutral with the rest of Europe. I really don’t care about my relations with the rest of the world; they are only waiting to become Portuguese.
I have a level one colony in the Azores, and three mainland provinces.
My first actions are:
1) Send a colonist to the Azores. (With the new colonization rules, I really don't want to leave undeveloped colonies hanging around.)
2) Send a merchant to Tago. (I only had four merchants there)
3) Order my remaining fleet and army off to join the war against Fez.
4) Create a new alliance with Castile. I’m deliberately leaving Aragon out since I’m hoping that Castile will drag me into a few wars of conquest in eastern Iberia. Castile joins the war with Fez, which immediately reminds my army in Tangiers that we are at war and that it should actually start besieging the city.
5) After much debate, I’ve decided to increase my quantity rather than increase the peasants’ freedom because Portugal is so squeezed for manpower. I really hope that this isn’t a mistake since my land tech isn’t very good, I won’t invest much in land tech for a long time, I’m mostly naval, and I’m decreasing my moral one level rather than increasing it one level.
6) I reset my budget sliders so that all of my income is going to improve infrastructure. My reasoning here is that if I can quickly gain two Infra levels I’ll have a significant boost to my income which is going to be vital when I switch to colonization.
I went with the King in the Social Revolution of Joao I. While long-term I prefer decentralized (delayed revolt risk is a good thing when you’ve got a vast global empire, especially as you start picking up non-Christian and non-Iberian provinces), in the early game I’m still compact enough that +3 centralization won’t hurt. I’m really indifferent on the aristocracy/plutocracy tab; both sides have advantages. Freeing the peasantry counteracts the quantity change to the sliders that I made earlier. Trade +250 is a good thing. I really need more money right about now. +3 Revolt Risk is a temporary problem, so well worth ignoring in the grand scheme of things.
Fez attacks me in Tangiers, and my army holds out -- just. I was right to make the gamble, but will need to keep a very close eye on my army till I can increase my moral to something reasonable.
My second army landed on Fez, defeated Fez’s army and started to besiege their capital. Fez’s forces retreated to Tangiers where I crushed them. I immediately lowered my naval maintenance to 50%. While this helped, the real drain is from my oversized army.
In April, Castile granted me access. Short term, that means that I can still use their ports to resupply my fleet if they make a separate peace with Fez. Long term, it allows me to use the Canary Islands as a base from which to explore the African coast.
On the first of May, I finally learned how to promote my bailiffs. I did so immediately. Did I mention that money is a problem? I left my budget priorities to improving infrastructure.
In July, with the last of Fez’s stragglers defeated, I reduced my military maintenance to 50%, which reduced the budgetary drain to 7.4%. That means that I can maintain my army indefinitely without risking bankruptcy, though I would hate to see the inflation results.
In August, I took out war taxes. I expect the war to end next year, so might as well accept a boost to my war exhaustion in exchange for more money.
One the first of December, Tangiers fell to my forces. Castile immediately made separate peace. While that wasn’t very honorable of them, I really don’t mind: I’ve got one province in my hands already, the other is besieged, and the enemy has no army to lift the seige. It’s only a matter of time till I get a complete victory. In any case, if I’d declared war after forming the alliance, I would not have called on Castile to help me.
I’m playing Hard/Weakling version 1.07 AGC 2.3. My reasoning for this is that I like a somewhat quicker decline in BB than is possible at Impossible, but I also want a stronger AI response to my transgressions. I've found that I never get attacked if I'm playing Cowards unless I'm a one province minor. I’ve chosen to play the AGC because I like extra events, and Portugal’s expansion is a lot more realistically portrayed with realistic CB’s.
House Rules:
1) Never launch a war of aggression against a Catholic country.
2) Never forcibly annex a Christian state.
3) Never declare war against a Christian state without a CB and a *very good reason*. In other words, I’m not going to backstab my Protestant or Orthodox allies of many years because I’ve got a sudden opportunity.
4) Never deliberately create a CB against a Christian state.
5) I’ll limit myself to declaring one war a century against a non-Christian state without a CB. (For simplicity’s sake, I’ll count the centuries as the 1400’s, the 1500’s, the 1600’s and the 1700’s on.)
6) No reloads. No cheats.
7) When I win an alliance war, I will be fair in making the peace treaties: e.g., if the AI got half of the VPs, then the AI is getting half of the provinces. (That shouldn’t be a big deal – I don’t usually call on allies except in cases of life or death.) Separate peaces when the AI calls me into a war are a different matter: I’ll take what I can out of those wars. I'll have done him a favor by weakening the common enemy.
January 1, 1419: Portugal is at war with Fez. One army is already in North Africa. I have another army and a navy in Portugal.
I’ve got very good relations with Castile and Aragon, and am fairly neutral with the rest of Europe. I really don’t care about my relations with the rest of the world; they are only waiting to become Portuguese.
I have a level one colony in the Azores, and three mainland provinces.
My first actions are:
1) Send a colonist to the Azores. (With the new colonization rules, I really don't want to leave undeveloped colonies hanging around.)
2) Send a merchant to Tago. (I only had four merchants there)
3) Order my remaining fleet and army off to join the war against Fez.
4) Create a new alliance with Castile. I’m deliberately leaving Aragon out since I’m hoping that Castile will drag me into a few wars of conquest in eastern Iberia. Castile joins the war with Fez, which immediately reminds my army in Tangiers that we are at war and that it should actually start besieging the city.
5) After much debate, I’ve decided to increase my quantity rather than increase the peasants’ freedom because Portugal is so squeezed for manpower. I really hope that this isn’t a mistake since my land tech isn’t very good, I won’t invest much in land tech for a long time, I’m mostly naval, and I’m decreasing my moral one level rather than increasing it one level.
6) I reset my budget sliders so that all of my income is going to improve infrastructure. My reasoning here is that if I can quickly gain two Infra levels I’ll have a significant boost to my income which is going to be vital when I switch to colonization.
I went with the King in the Social Revolution of Joao I. While long-term I prefer decentralized (delayed revolt risk is a good thing when you’ve got a vast global empire, especially as you start picking up non-Christian and non-Iberian provinces), in the early game I’m still compact enough that +3 centralization won’t hurt. I’m really indifferent on the aristocracy/plutocracy tab; both sides have advantages. Freeing the peasantry counteracts the quantity change to the sliders that I made earlier. Trade +250 is a good thing. I really need more money right about now. +3 Revolt Risk is a temporary problem, so well worth ignoring in the grand scheme of things.
Fez attacks me in Tangiers, and my army holds out -- just. I was right to make the gamble, but will need to keep a very close eye on my army till I can increase my moral to something reasonable.
My second army landed on Fez, defeated Fez’s army and started to besiege their capital. Fez’s forces retreated to Tangiers where I crushed them. I immediately lowered my naval maintenance to 50%. While this helped, the real drain is from my oversized army.
In April, Castile granted me access. Short term, that means that I can still use their ports to resupply my fleet if they make a separate peace with Fez. Long term, it allows me to use the Canary Islands as a base from which to explore the African coast.
On the first of May, I finally learned how to promote my bailiffs. I did so immediately. Did I mention that money is a problem? I left my budget priorities to improving infrastructure.
In July, with the last of Fez’s stragglers defeated, I reduced my military maintenance to 50%, which reduced the budgetary drain to 7.4%. That means that I can maintain my army indefinitely without risking bankruptcy, though I would hate to see the inflation results.
In August, I took out war taxes. I expect the war to end next year, so might as well accept a boost to my war exhaustion in exchange for more money.
One the first of December, Tangiers fell to my forces. Castile immediately made separate peace. While that wasn’t very honorable of them, I really don’t mind: I’ve got one province in my hands already, the other is besieged, and the enemy has no army to lift the seige. It’s only a matter of time till I get a complete victory. In any case, if I’d declared war after forming the alliance, I would not have called on Castile to help me.
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