Gold and Spices - Portugal AAR

[Layonix]

Hello! I am Layonix,

I would like to present to you my idea for an AAR of Portugal. Before the release of the Dharma DLC I always liked playing as tall, colonial powers (portugal, netherlands) where I'd stick to historical-ish borders and only a couple trading outposts in India. Now with Dharma I can purchase a couple of trading charters instead of outright conquering them. Although because the AI doesn't want to sell you land if you are already near them we will have to convince the Indian princedoms and sultanates in another way .

Now about my plan for the AAR itself and a couple of questions to you. I would play on a mod that I've just discovered. The mod motivated me to pick Portugal as the country for my AAR instead of England or the Netherlands. The mod might be considered a little bit over-powered. It's called Portuguese Flavour for 1.26, so you can check it out on steam. But in exchange I'd be playing on my self-made difficulty level. It's basically what hard should be - the AI gets 33% manpower and land/naval force limit. Along with -2 unrest. And also, the game would be played on non - ironman as I sometimes use the console to try and make the AI take better decisions, but I'd only use it if you guys would vote in polls I'd create or just ask you.

The rules would be :
- stick to the eastern side of south america
- only trading outposts in India, no outright conquering bigger masses of land unless they have stacked natual harbors/river estuaries next to each other
-if allowed by you, using console commands to be able to buy more trading posts closer to each other (I'd give a lot of gold to AI and then just tag switch to them and sell the province.

Alright, that should be it, let me know if you'd be interested in such AAR, I am trying to contact the mod creator to maybe tone down the modifiers a bit. I'd like the AAR to be more complex and longer than my last AAR as Japan. Waiting for feedback!

 

[stnylan]

I would be interested in such an AAR.

Edit: Most folks probably won't comment by the way. They will just wait to see if you go ahead or not.

 

[Dirkfelpy89]

Seems a good idea! Portugal was my first country in eu4, so yes go ahead!

 

[Layonix]

Chapter 0 : Set up

Alright, I'd like to ask the first couple of questions before I begin. Below I will present you with a couple of screenshots of the modifiers from the mod and I'd like to know what you're thinking about them.

This one, in my opinion isn't too bad. It reduces my tax income from the province to only 25% and I think that it would allow for quicker exploration first and foremost. As we know from history, Portugal reached Japan in early 1500s and even set up a trading post there. I still want to know what you think about this though, especially after I show you the next modifiers.

This one is quite strong. And without many downsides to it. The more important thing is, the modifiers can be upgraded by further missions. At the last, third level of it, I'd get -48 tax income. But in my opinion it's a bit too strong on level 2 and 3. Let me know what you think about lvl1.

Colonising the Congo basin could be quite interesting, but I am not sure how the 'Make Konog a colony' would work, I guess we could either find out or just leave Kongo people to themselves, maybe take a trading post from them to spread Christianity AND wealth to Portugal .

This one has not so small penalties, but the bonuses are quite strong, it in theory takes away 25% taxes, but we all know late game taxes mean basically nothing. Maybe I should take this one only after a set date? Or just ignore it and leave it, please let me know!

One last thing - Do you think I should take Morocco's coast except Melilla? I thought about it and it might've been beneficial to Portugal in history if they'd have achieved it, but then I know that the Berbers weren't that weak and easy to subdue, as represented by the coring cost modifier in game. Please let me know about this one too!

Okay guys, please tell me what you think about every one of these options!

Much love! xx

EDIT : lmao, this feeling when I started Portugal AAR right before Arumba's Portugal let's play

 

[Stonewall]

Please don't get discouraged if people don't comment. It can be very discouraging when you put effort into this and see little or no active participation from your readers. We're out there.

On topic, wow, those modifiers are very very very strong.

 

[AzureSkye]

Just thought I'd say this: I'm not a very big talker/poster, but I am and will continue to keep up with this AAR.

 

[Alex Borhild]

I created a game as Portugal recently (about a week before Dharma released, oops), and I've played to the 1540s, so I'll watch this with interest. I'm all in favor of expanding into Morocco, though in my game I wound up fighting Morocco for 22 years and lost eighty thousand men when they tried taking Ceuta from me and none of my allies came to my aid...

 

[Layonix]

Chapter 1 : Moroccan crusades

Hello! Welcome to the first chapter of Gold and Spices - Portuguese AAR. I am pleased to finally begin the AAR after the set-up/prologue. This chapter is full of war and internal problems in the Kingdom of Portugal.

The situation in year 1444

The Kingdom of Portugal is currently ruled by the Duke of Coimbra - Peter, also known as Infante Pedro which loosely translates to Prince Peter. The regency began in 1438 after death of King Edward I of house Aviz. The first son of Edward, Afonso V is currently being prepared to become the ruler. The young heir has found interest in discovering the unknown, he likes to travel with his court around Iberia to find out more about the neighboring countries and cultures.

Prince Peter has been making efforts to increase the standing of Portugal in Iberia. One of his early decisions was to create a university focused on the navy. That could allow the future kings to field a feared and respected navy. The Escola de Sagres would also study ways to allow our ships to travel further and discover new lands along the coast of Africa, which we have yet to discover fully. The school will be placed in Algarve and most of the funds in that region would go directly to the Escola.

The King soon after ascension to the throne has announced his ambitions. He declared that he will attempt to stop the Berber raids on his subjects and strip the Moroccans of their western coastline. The King will also send expeditions to the west and to africa. Any man who brings any information on new land will be suitably rewarded for his accomplishment.

The war was costly and consuming, but with the help of our allies - the Trastamara dynasty to the east we have managed to deal a blow to the Moroccan sultanate and have gained the lands of Tangier and Gharb. Our allies have taken Granadan sultanate, finally ending the reconquista in Iberia. Now it is time to take the reconquista further, to the coasts of Nothern Africa and the Berber tribes which have been wrecking havoc in the entirety of Meditereanan. The King will deliver his promise and take the western coast of Morocco. This is surely not the last crusade that Portugal will participate in.

Afonso the Fifth has led his armies personally against the first rebellion in Africa. The battle was won decisively, young King has done well in his first encounter and has proven to be a capable military leader. He thought it was necessary to lead the army himself to increase the morale of his troops and prove his devoutness to God.

Our ruler has produced an heir to the throne, securing the Avis dynastys existence and rule over the Kingdom.

Our young King has recently been quite cruel towards his subjects. He was harsh and ruthless in his judgements. He was especially hostile to the newly conqured population. People of Tangier and Gharb have recently been visited by our missionaries. The King ordered for the missionaries to use any mean necessary which meant killing the ones not willing to accept the one true God. We're hoping they will learn that the religion of Islam is nothing but lies.

Our Monarch has recently been focusing more and more in setting up small trading posts in Africa, he had sent small forces along with merchants and builders to create small cities on the coasts. Recently the King has invited his advisors into a closed meeting. We are told that the King is planning to make the Azores into a modernized naval and trading base. the Rei believes that there is land to the west and he will be the one to claim the land for the glory of Portugal. Many of his courtiers believe he didn't receive proper education and is speaking nonsense but he whole heartedly believes it.

The first larger expedition has arriven in Arguim, just south of the Castilian Canary islands. It was the only piece of land which was suitable for farming, surrounded by the sea and desert. We've met aggresive natives, which have attacked us shortly after our arrival. The expedition was led by the eager King himself, known for his cruel nature. The next few days have been spent on chasing and exterminating the native population of Arguim. Now there were only Portuguese left, free to settle down. The Crown has allowed people sentenced for thievery to be sent to Arguim to create new farming settlements.

Shortly after our Lord has returned to Ceuta, planning the second crusade against Morocco. He has sent a letter to the Castilian king telling him to rally his forces and set sail to Ceuta.

Dire news! Our grand armies have been besieging the seat of Moroccan sultan - Fez for many weeks. The local population, upset with their ruler and an invading force in their homeland has taken arms and fought both the garrison and the invading armies. Our forces, surprised by this have suffered disastrous losses. Shortly after, the Sultan has led his army into the capital and finding only a weak Portuguese force consisting mainly of cavalry. Due to cavalry being highly ineffective in the mountainous regions these heathens had an easy task and the army had to flee. This will surely not be the end, there are many eager, young men willing to fight for God...and loot.

Due to the strong Castilian presence during the recovery of our army the Sultan was forced to sign a peace. It was mostly due to a pretender of the Wassid dynasty marching on their capital. We were able to get all of the coast. Unfortunately, the further south the less control we had over the new lands. The King has decided to set up a puppet state and has granted fiefs to a local nobleman, who bent the knee to our monarch.

The situation isn't perfect though. The war was even more costly than the previous one. The army had to be re-equipped, re-trained and then transported back to Africa. This has taken a toll on the budget. Many have advised the king to stop the process of colonizing Arguim atleast for the time of the war, but he would not listen.

Afonso was sitting on his trone as usual, listening to his subjects' problems and trying to solve them. One after another, the King was bored with solving disputes over farm animals and other 'silly' problems. Then something unusal happend. A man has come all the way from the Italian city of Genoa to propose a plan of raching India by sailing westwards. The Rei was particularly interested in that matter since the Byzantine city of Constantonple has fallen to the Turks, cutting of Europe from spice trade. Our Lord has decided to fund the mans expedition, the King was as excited as the man was, his name was Cristovao Colombo.

Very suprising and unsettling news come from Castile. The Trastamara dynasty could not fully enforce their rule on the Andalusian population and busy fighting in Morocco was not able to put down a revolt that was happening at the time. Now we're once again not able to transport our units to Ceuta from Gibraltar. This will surely prove to be quite problematic in the future. Although maybe now we could attempt to take control over Gibraltar for ourselves? That would allow us to control everything coming in and out. (vote if I should take the chance to take the Rock)

Cristovao Colombo has returned. He has returned with more gold than he left with and now he will leave the throne room with even more gold. New lands have been found to the West. Strangely we did not reach India. We found completely new lands, never visited by civilization before. Cristovao has named the new lands Columbia and Caraibas. The King was never this excited. He had already sent tax collectors to his personal domain and asked his vassals for more funds. The upcoming years will see a lot of resources going back and forth accross the Atlantic sea. Many men going to the New Lands will stay there forever.

End of Chapter I.
Thank you very much for reading and following the story if you've made it to the end. It has been pretty exciting, almost losing the entire army in the mountains. New Lands have been found westwards. We will surely attempt to bring back many riches from there.

Please tell me whether i should take Gibraltar or leave it to Castile?
Also waiting for feedback regarding the writing style and such, thank you very much once again!

 

[KingJerkera]

I wouldn't tamper with the Castile it usually doesn't go well. Also good work so far on the conquest if I were you I would work on strengthening your homelands and conquering Morocco.

 

[Alex Borhild]

If you mess with Castile, you'll probably wind up with fewer resources for overseas expansion. If you can stay on good terms with Castile, you can let them have Gibraltar (or waltz in to take it if/when they're severely weakened).

I'd vote for conquering Morocco and developing mainland Portugal.

 

[Layonix]

I don't think conquering Gibraltar would cost so much. Conquering Morocco though definitely would and also I think historically conquering the coast would be hard enough. Now the Moroccans retreat to the mountains and desserts making it hard and costly to conquer further. Especially with the core creation cost.

 

[stnylan]

I tend to find, once one has started on Morocco as Portugal, one naturally starts to acquire more of it, as there are some useful provinces there and eventually removes an annoying potential threat. Also there are some other provinces on the Med coast usually help by other nations I ordinary try to snag before Tunis or someone else gets them, but that's just me.

 

[Layonix]

I think Morcco will be left alone alteast for now. They have the coring cost and the lands aren't really worth that much in my opinion. By the way, I think I will start writing the AAR from perspective of the player not some silly courtier or stuff like that. I am not creative enough.

 

[Layonix]

Chapter 2 : Conquest of the unknown

Hello! Welcome back for chapter 2! This time I will abandon the perspective of a courtier/court chronicler and will instead just write from my point of view. In this chapter it will be mostly conquering the natives of Brazil and financial struggles back home.

As the King is still focued on colonising the New World he has made some reforms to make this entire process more efficient and worthwhile. We will hold the lands with a tight grip to make sure we benefit from the process of settling down our people in Brasil.

We've established our first colonies on the coast of brazil. The first settlers have names them Rio Grande which loosely transfers to 'big river' and Ceara. The first expedition was made difficult by a storm that we've encountered on our way there, but the mission was a success nontheless.

Year 1476 marks the death of Afonso the Explorer and the ascension of Jose, first of his name. The new King is known to be stubborn and fierce in negotiations. Jose has proven to be a good administrator as he was appointed to rule the region of Gharb and ensure that the rebelious Moroccan population is kept in check.

News from the world. Scotland, after suffering an initial defeat to the English have managed to overrun the English northern marches and have occupied most of England. The situation is looking grim for the Lancasters as also the local Lollard heretics have captured London, the seat of parliament and the ruler himself. In the meantime the duke of Burgundy has died causing a conflict between the French king and the Holy Roman Emperor - duke of Austria. Young Burgundian princess, the only heir of the Burgundian duke has decided to marry into the Habsburg dynasty.

Our allies to the west have been struggling for many years now. Castile has somehow lost the Trastamara dynasty, most likely it was one of the pretender armies taking over. Now that's not the end. There are even more pretenders marching on the capital. We've been good friends with the Trastamara but now we should probably try to make friends with one of the pretenders.

The Castilians are asking us to share our maps with them. I think that would not be very beneficial, we should try to take as much as possible before the other powers arrive with their own expeditions. In the meantime the local population of Big River has decided to take up arms against our settlers. I have left a garrison there to ensure that nothing bad happens to our people.

The Moroccan sultanate has fallen yet again. That's the 3rd dynasty in the last 30 years I believe. I thought about setting up the Sultanate of Sus to rule over Morocco making it basically our puppet state, but the weak financial situation discouraged me from that idea. Maybe in a few years when our empire is set up and going I might go on and invade Morocco for the glory of God.

Sending a small expedition to scout the neighboring lands. So far every tribe that has tried to resist us was beaten. These savages know nothing about military tactics and are just an unorganised mess.

After finishing building our settlements in Brazil I've sent 2 colonists to Africa to set up settlements on the coast. This will prove beneficial when we send expeditions further down the african coast.

Portuguese missionaries have entered Kongo and began preaching the word of Jesus Christ. The pope is delighted with our devoutness and will surely reward us. Not only did the pope liked that, the Kongolese have grown more fond of us as well. This might lead to us securing a trade deal with them in the future.
Meanwhile the Renaissance has reached Portugal. New, beatiful buildings are being constructed, the art styles have changed and so did the fashion.

The King is dead! Long live the King!
Joao II has ascended to the throne, but some of the subjects claim he is not strong enough to lead Portugal. A pretender has been gathering forces in Braganca and is preparing to march on the capital. Not only are his supporters quite numerous but most of the armies I've sent down to africa and Brazil. Our forces will need to quickly return home and prepare for the inevitable battle.
Whilst that's happening at home we've had major success in Africa. We've reached the so called Cape of Good Hope. We've quickly sent settlers to these fertile lands to establish a community and a naval base which will allow us to travel even further east.

The new King has been losing the battle for most of the time. I thought we might have a new dynasty on the Portuguese throne, but somehow the tables have turned. Our monarch's great manouvering skills have proved to be crucial in winning this battle against the pretender of Mendonca dynasty. Unfortunately this has cost us many lives of our soldiers.

One of the scouting expeditions we've sent has sent a letter back to Rio Grande, the seat of a Viceroy sent there by the King. In the letter the Conquistador has informed the Viceroy of a tale about Cibola - a city made entirely out of gold and diamonds. Some of the natives say that there's a monk not far away which supposedly knows the location of Cibola. He has offered to lead our expedition to the city, but only if we share some of the loot with them. That's quite suspicious, since he could take the riches alone. So that might be a trap. But the Conquistador didn't ask for a permission and is said to be already looking for the city. We hope to hear back from him, hopefully he will also sent proof that the city actually exists.

As the first country to reach the New World and set up settlements there, we've been visited by many envoys from foreign countries, they were trying to learn about ways of travelling to the New World. Now we've been hearing of foreign expeditions to the New World, new lands are being discovered to the North West of our settlements.

Thank you for reading!
I am hoping it wasn't too bad, I still have a lot to learn about writing. The situation in Portugal is nice, our new holdings are prospering very well and we almost made it to India. The financial situation is also looking way better than just few years back. Now I am hoping to stash some money and buy land from the Indian sultanates and princedoms.
A question for you guys, do we conquer any trade posts in India or stick to purchasing land and then making it the best possible + using ships?
Question number 2 - Invade Jolof to take their river estuary and natural harbor?
Question number 3 - Annex all of Benin or only take their harbor?

Once again, thanks for reading, hoping for feedback! See you soon in the next chapter!

 

[Layonix]

Chapter 3 : Laying foundations

Hello! I am happy to present the next chapter of my Portuguese AAR. This time there won't be much going on, I mostly focused on colonising and gaining trading ports in India and... China! I might sooner or later attempt to gain a trading city in Japan.

My ally Castile is calling me to a war against France. Usually I would refuse, but I think I prefer friendly, weak Castilians next to me rather than the ambitious and expansionist French. That means I will actually try and help my allies a bit with the 8 thousand units that are currently in Lisbon. On our side we also have England which will surely be helpful in tying down the French navy.

After a couple of years of nothing major happening and the war reaching a stalemate where both sides wouldn't move much a peace treaty was signed. Nothing was gained, nothing was lost, except almost four hundred thousand men.

During our first visit in the mysterious land of China we've been contacted by the Chinese Emperors emissary. We were offered strange bowls and pots with beatiful paintings on them. Our King really liked these and has decided to send the men back to China to establish a trade deal to bring more of these back to Europe, hoping for a good profit. An expedition was sent with a large amount of gold. Chinese Emperor's men have agreed to our offer of a hundred golden ducats in exchange for a piece of land.
I hope that this trade port will bring us much wealth later on. Currently it doesn't have much value to me as we can't really bring back the money from China home. In near future I am hoping to purchase land in Malaya and then conquering some more. For a short time I managed to actually ally the Ming, but then they became domineering towards me and broke the alliance, later on I was offered to become the tributary of Ming, which I obviously refused, the king of Portugal will not bend the knee to anyone.

Vasco da Gama - the man who was the first to reach India by sea has returned with great news. The local lords quickly have signed a trade deal with us and have offered us some land to set up out trading port to allow better trading. Not only have we gained a valuable foothold in India, but we were also gifted many spices and shiny things. We're hoping that the trade will be very beneficial and that this is not the last trade deal we will sign with these people.

Okay, I was hoping I could maybe get enough ducats to first buy some other land before getting this event, but unfortunately I think we won't be able to buy more land from the Vijanagari unless I'd use console commands to take away a large sum of gold from me and then tag switch to sell the province. Or we could also conquer the trade posts we'd need. That decision I'd like to leave up to you to decide.

We've been capturing a lot of slaves in Africa, that we later transported to our colonies in the new world. That proved very efficient, we could get a cheap workforce to work on building our colonies whilst we'd focus on bringing back the riches of Brazil back home. Some began to call that process the Triangle Trade, where slaves would leave Africa for the New World and wealth would leave the New World and arrive back in Europe.

We've began to efficiently convert the Moroccan people under our rule. At first they were very difficult to convert, even when using brute force to do that. But now when we've established more...efficient ways of converting the local population we've been seeing much more progress. Soon the process of re-settlement in Northern Africa will begin, we will bring Portuguese settlers not only to our colonies but we will settle them in N.Africa too.

The Age of Reformations begins, but they will surely be no reformation in Portugal!

Thankfully the King is not a zealot, so I don't have to actually abolish slavery in 16th century. That would surely not benefit us.

After leaving the port of Macau and sailing west to explore what's there we've found new lands. We're hoping to establish new trading possibilities.

After establishing a foothold we were facing unrest for a long time. Now we've managed to convert the African subjects to the only true religion. Now that we've finished the first step we can move on to the re-settling process. We can invite our Portuguese farmers to take over the farms and we shall start moving the native population to some of the more remote colonies of ours. St. Helena and Mauritius should be good places.

Unfortunately I was right and the Monk turned out to be a liar. Such act could not be tolerated and so the monk has mysteriously disappeared. We do not know anything about that and it has nothing to do with the freshly raised cross upon a hill.
We will not stop our attempts though. We will keep discovering new lands and putting them on the maps. We're hoping to find other mythical treasures on our way.

Due to the increasing importance of our trade with India we've decided to establish a new institution. Casa de India will be responsible for managing our overseas lands and trading posts. From now on the King cannot be managing all of his colonies and from now on it will be Casa de India that will be responsible for all of them. We're hoping this will prove beneficial to us and that with a specialized institution behind it our trade will bring us even more wealth.

The first goal of ours has been reached. We set out to find a new way to india for the spices and we've found more than that. Since we're the only Europeans in India so far we have a monopoly on spices. This can make us filthy rich very quickly. We shall try to keep our monopoly for as long as possible.

Our brazilian coffee has been enjoying quite a rise in popularity. Coffee was quite rare in europe before, but since we now have plenty in our colonies the popularity of coffee is on the rise.

We've already sent missionaries to Kongo before, but they didn't have too much success, the Kongolese still stayed with their own, pagan religion. This time, we can double our efforts. We've converted our North African holdings to the catholic faith so now we can spread it further south. We're hoping to establish very close ties with the Kongo Kingdom. We've been already trading with them for quite a while, they were supplying us with slaves and ivory and we've been paying the gold and some more modern weapons.

The financial situation is finally stable and looking good. We've got no more loans to pay back and we can focus on infrastructure and expansion on land and on the seas. We've decided to invest most of our resources towards building a new merchant fleet that could ensure that all the goods find their way to the Ivory Coast, from which they will go directly to Lisbona. We're aiming to create a fleet of about 30 caravels and 10 carracks. This new navy will prove crucial to keeping our domination on the seas of asia.

Thank you for reading!

Thanks for reading yet another chapter of my AAR. I am glad I could write a second one today since I had more time than usual. I hope you're enjoying reading this, I know they are not very good quality, but I am enjoying writing them and learning english at the same time. There should hopefully be some warfare in the next chapter. Possibly with the 2 african tribes.

 

[stnylan]

The initial colonisation is doing very well.

 

[Specialist290]

I'm a few chapters in, and this certainly looks like it will be worth following

 

[Alex Borhild]

Colonization and exploration seems to be going well. I look forward to reading about what happens next.

 

[Specialist290]

Finally caught up to the present!

Can't give any serious gameplay recommendations as I'm a relative newcomer to the game myself, but I'll be looking forward to seeing the Portuguese expand their presence both East and West.