The_Kaiser said:
I had tons of fun playing as Brazil. Not nearly as small as Portugal, but you are IC bound. Go for it and just play for a little while. I will say you learn more when playing IC bound countries because you really get the hang of bang for buck units and wars.
Oh? Not particularly IC-bound, if you ask me - in my current game, I have 200 IC, have bases all around the world, and am a major world power with an entirely up-to-date military... and am about to conquer the U.S. The nice thing about Brazil is that, for once, it IS worth building up your IC instead of units in the start, because no one bothers you... at all... ever.
I personally built my way up to 85 IC before I even bothered conquering much more than Uruguay and Paraguay. Actually, I highly recommend Brazil as a starter country - they even have good tech teams.
As for Portugal - take Ireland, too! So long as you suck up to the U.K. first... then go prey on small helpess countries in the Middle East and Asia. Can take Guanxi Clique if you act quickly (otherwise, SOMEONE - be they China or Japan - will annex them), and perhaps Yunnan, and then you have a good base of operations in Asia, with which you can eventually take advantage of a distracted Nationalist China while they deal with Japan (in my Portugal game, I actually managed to annex them). I also suggest Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, Sinkiang, and Tibet... but again, act quickly, and make sure you're on friendly terms with the Soviets. Could also (though I never actually did this, as a member of the Axis) join the Allies, and then use Belize City as a jumping-off point for conquering Central and South America. Brazil would make a tempting target, with all that IC - and you'd bring that errant colony back into line, too!
Spain is also a good target, but only when distracted, at which point you can run some cavalry in and take all the Victory Point provinces. VP-seizing - a small country's best friend.
Either way, good luck!
