Portugal

[Greene]

How exactly are you supposed to have a large colonial empire as Portugal? I have two major concerns:

1) Since you have like what, less than 10 provinces(?) your colonial subjects will have huge liberty desire due to relative power, no?

2) Won’t Castile just proffit from your hard work and collect your ducats in Sevilla since they have more provinces in that node than you do?

Also, how do I expand into India? I know I get Goa by event but still, don’t think that’s enough to get get a proper shot at conquering land there since you’re still taking on massive nations with your twenty regiment army.

I know that historically Portugal was fine just colonising coastline and having small patches of land designated as trading posts as far as Japan, but can you actually have an Empire the size of Spain’s or Britain’s? And can you have it without having to obliterate Castile?

 

[Frossa]

It's easy to build a power base in India if you get there early enough to opportunistically attack minors before the majors kill them. You won't need to expand in Europe at all.

 

[gia257]

your colonies outside america/australia count for your direct empire so you are not less than 10 provinces even if you stay pacifist in europe

 

[Bouchart]

By colonizing along the Ivory Coast. You can conquer some of the interior of Africa, but I'd stick to just pagan territory to start out since Sunni nations are hard to convert early on. Unless you want to convert to Sunni, which might make some sense.

 

[Dominion]

Getting into colonial range of Goa gives you the province for free.
African nations are hilariously underpowered compared to you.
Morocco is easy pickings.
Castille is possible with good timing (or after waiting a while, since they don't expand at all)

You don't start with 500 development colonies. It takes time. Use that time to expand wherever you want to.

 

[Shatter12]

Colonize Islands and South Africa, and the grain coast as well. This should help with the development and the number of provinces you have and improve your relative power. Australia shouldn't have a huge liberty desire, but your American colonies might.
As other people have said, you could relatively easily expand into the Mali region and along the Kilawan Coast that it controls after colonizing the grain coast for the earlier and South Africa for the latter.

 

[Greene]

African nations are hilariously underpowered compared to you.

Normally yes, but after having a direct border for some years they will catch up in institutions/technology.

 

[makaramus]

well as I rembember colonies will not care about total power of subjects but just others. this means if you colonize diffrent locations subjects will not rebel.
also you can colonize old world to incrase your devolpment.
you can easly conquer entire africa, india and later on japan as long as you got enought admin points and since all 3 of this places are away from each other aggresive expansion is very little
BUT! Only person hearing all this conquest is ottoman -_- oh boy I hate ottoman when I play portugal they allways got 200 aggresive expansion towards me because of their location

 

[Dominion]

Normally yes, but after having a direct border for some years they will catch up in institutions/technology.

Doesn't matter. Their pips are still dirt. Tech isn't everything.

 

[makaramus]

Doesn't matter. Their pips are still dirt. Tech isn't everything.

only reason I avoid playing africans Tech groups are really sad fact I wish that it was possible to change them by doing someting :/

 

[DarthDanMan]

As other people have been saying, Portugal is fine. Just balance growing CNs with conqering Africa and you'll have more than enough Dev.

only reason I avoid playing africans Tech groups are really sad fact I wish that it was possible to change them by doing someting :/

Form Mughals I guess? Only thing I can think of that changes unit types...

 

[Lord Zsinj]

If you take Tangiers (which you should), you will have 3 CoTs/Estuaries to Castille’s one.

You can start by improving relations with France, ally Aragon. If both are not rivaled to Castille, restart. Break alliance with England, pick up France as ally. Then use France and Aragon to smash Castille. Take Canaries & Sevilla. Rinse & repeat to strip Castille’s coast blocking them from colonizing. Now just block any other asshole colonizer from the African coast, monopolize Ivory Coast, grab South Africa, grab Indian Ocean Islands pick up CoTs in Zanzibar, Aden nodes, reach India, get Goa for free, colonize Indonesia, profit.

 

[makaramus]

If you take Tangiers (which you should), you will have 3 CoTs/Estuaries to Castille’s one.

You can start by improving relations with France, ally Aragon. If both are not rivaled to Castille, restart. Break alliance with England, pick up France as ally. Then use France and Aragon to smash Castille. Take Canaries & Sevilla. Rinse & repeat to strip Castille’s coast blocking them from colonizing. Now just block any other asshole colonizer from the African coast, monopolize Ivory Coast, grab South Africa, grab Indian Ocean Islands pick up CoTs in Zanzibar, Aden nodes, reach India, get Goa for free, colonize Indonesia, profit.

or... he can just conquer entire africa with snowball?that land has very high production + many uncontested trade node and let spain be?

 

[Lord Zsinj]

Why get sucked into that quagmire other than grab TC land and interior gold mines? All the trade belongs to Portugal.

 

[Jman47]

Ive played quite a bit of portugal, here are some notes-

-You get 200 free admin from a mission to take and core tangiers. I usually take the papal relations mission first then that. Rush mil tech 4 and grab a commandant or army reformer and morocco cant beat you while still at tech 3, even if they get a stupid alliance block set up with tlemcen. After the first war Take tangiers, but also take mellila and fez and release fez as a vassal. Fez will be a useful vassal to eat up most north africa land you want to take until later game. after this take the mission to expand the buffer zone. War again and take gharb and some stuff inland for fez. DONT TAKE OTHER COASTAL PROVINCES FROM MOROCCO YET- you get an event that gives you free claims on the entire moroccan coastline later.

-Ideas push for exploration and expansion ideas fast. Castile almost always takes these as well and will get one more colonist than you total so you want to beat him to the good stuff, unless you plan on just wiping him out. Some people will 'meh' at expansion, and while its not as strong as it once was for portugal its a great idea set. Grab colonies off the coast of Africa and trade centers/estuaries- be sure to grab cayor and benin at some point, add all land here to trade companies. You now control Ivory coast trade by far.

-in the new world you have some minor native tags in brazil now so getting the 5 provinces you need for a colonial nation is EZ. Focus on brazil and carribean first in the new world, then conquer 5 provinces in mexico and peru to claim those Colonial nations. Columbia and la plata are nice as well but you can skip them if you really dont care, same with louisiana and california. Ignore the american east coast entirely, the trade doesnt even feed to sevilla so its wasted effort.

-Take south africa and then use the same strategy in ivory coast for zanzibar. At some point you will get gao for free. after you do have some light ships protect trade in the gulf of aden, you will get an event giving you permanent 25 trade power there once you do. at this point you can start colonizing the spice islands and SE asia area. You will now no longer have to worry about money for the rest of the game.

-Build manufactories EVERYWHERE. Do it as soon as you can afford to. The amount of money they produce is stupid, you will be printing ducats. By 1600 you can easily have the highest income in the world off trade bar none, possibly sooner.

-In europe do as you please. I usually play mostly peaceful and only mess with other colonizers that go protty and take land in my colonial areas. Castile/spain will actually be very weak later on since you are taking all the income from the sevilla node. Mix high mercantalism, buildings, and ideas, you will have no contest controlling the node even if they have sevilla. I use them as a meat shield early then decide their fate later in the game depending on how much they are annoying me. After 1650 or so i screw up the ottos, usually with a strong alliance block. Its just fun to do.

-Develop your home provinces as much as you can afford to, especially manpower- you will need it. Manpower can run out fast as portugal, since you dont have alot to start with and eventually have more money than you can spend to build armies/navies. You also do alot of fighting in high attrition areas so be mindful of it. My old strategy before CoC was to spam merc infantry armies with Regulars for cav and art, but thats less viable now due to army professionalism. I usually take quality and offensive for military ideas, and try to get high discipline/professionalism so you take less damage in battle. Just watch your attrition carefully and try to keep that manpower pool up as much as possible.

-Pop your golden age early, you will want to rush filling out exploration ideas, so you will fall a bit behind in diplo tech early. It will help you catch back up, and golden ages scale better if popped early as opposed to late in general.

-Pump your estates for monarch points every 20 years, and early game remember if you arent loaning you arent trying. This is just general advice for any nation but still should always be included.

Any questions let me know, id be happy to be more specific if you would like.

 

[makaramus]

by the way spain is actually can be your friend
think about it base value of seville trade node is LITERALLY NOTHING
so... he colonizes with you and pulls all good stuff to there Thats why I hate annexing portugal as spain for same reason let him help you colonize new world to incrase value of your poor trade node! if you annex him you lose 3 coloniser at total!

 

[Lord Zsinj]

With no worry about the Treaty of Tordesillas you will have CNs all over creation colonizing for you letting you focus on Africa and the East Indies.

 

[Greene]

I’ve decided to stay friendly to Spain. I’ve managed to get like 45% or so Trade Power in Sevilla compared to their 35%. I took Tangiers and the other province to its South, so I’ve got about three centers of trade in Sevilla now. Also took that edict for trade power in my capital state. I’ve got the mission to colonise Angola, I’ll do that and then hopefully jump to East Africa (with a stop on the Cape of Good Hope if my colonial range is not enough). Then onwards to India and Indonesia.

Thing is, my force limit is about 20. It’s still 1490s but I will probably NOT gain any more European territory. I keep those 20 men home to deal with Morrocan separatists (can’t convert Sunnis. should I take religious ideas btw?). My colonial policy is set on the -100% uprising chance option exactly because I can’t spare troops. I’d like to take the TC coastal land from Mali, Jolof and Kongo but that means moving my 20 regiment army to Africa and essentially have no troops in Europe to deal with rebels should the need arise or a DoW from the Maghreb or a CtA from my ally Castile.

Last thing, how many boats should I have protecting trade? I have 10 light ships in Sevilla, is there any point in keeping more there?

 

[Lord Zsinj]

You need to colonize at least the CoT province in South Africa to get the TC and free merchant.

 

[gia257]

you dont need to keep the troops there, it takes several years to lose the provinces to rebels, and castille may kill them for you, or other war enemies

so you go to africa take the land, and go back to deal with the rebels, then leave for another go and so on, also increase autonomy or opening humanism instead of religious (religious is good though, just giving you ideas)