can someone tell me what is the best strategie to succeed playing as portugal?its so difficult!
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Some day I will return to my AAR I started writing which you can find in my sig.
Take a look at it as it may give you an idea how to start off anyway.
Take Tangiers, then cut your army maintenance to 50% and disband half your army.
Seek alliance with Castile.
Start exploring and try and find Brazil asap. Only colonize the lands where you actually have a good chance of colonizing.
Start creating yourself a trading empire, by investing in all the markets you can. Obviously start locally, then work your way around the mediterranean Centres of Trade.
Go about investing in naval techs rather than military to start off with. Invest in trade and infrastructure too.
Good luck.
Take a look at it as it may give you an idea how to start off anyway.
Take Tangiers, then cut your army maintenance to 50% and disband half your army.
Seek alliance with Castile.
Start exploring and try and find Brazil asap. Only colonize the lands where you actually have a good chance of colonizing.
Start creating yourself a trading empire, by investing in all the markets you can. Obviously start locally, then work your way around the mediterranean Centres of Trade.
Go about investing in naval techs rather than military to start off with. Invest in trade and infrastructure too.
Good luck.
Are you playing vanilla (standard game without any mods) or something like AGCEEP? (IMHO Portugal is far easier in vanilla)
Cus' in vanilla, you can, with some luck, prey on the weakness of Castille early in the game, and get some manpower producing provinces from them. Ally with Aragon, and attack Castile when they are weak. Later, attack Aragon so you will get the whole Iberian peninsular. Just be sure to time your attacks, and keep Castile down, so that when they become Spain, they aren't that big.
Remember that you mainly get manpower from national cultures
In AGCEEP you should try to get around the cape of Africa, and reach India, there are some good events for you when you do that.
You can also try to focus on taking west Africa. There are some really rich provinces there (chinaware and gold), and also a trade center, which will move if you kill off all the countries there.
West Africa ain't that easy to take early, but you will have nearly no competition from other europe nations there. This can be done in both versions.
You can also focus on taking the rich, gold pruducing provinces in the Americas. You can easily get there plenty of time before Castile/Spain does. Just remember to fortify your positions, as they can otherwise just walsh in and take everything.
Also, pagans become your national culture if you convert them. Which brings in more money and manpower.
This can also be done in both versions, but it's far easier and more profitable in vanilla.
Focus on trade. Large countries normally get more benefit from focusing on production, Portugal ain't that large, but can get real rich if you make the right trade decisions.
Warning, these next "hints" will probably lessen your game enjoyment:
Also, use the map that came with the game. Save the game, then use the columbus cheat to spot provinces that are ripe for colonization. Focus on provinces that have good trade goods value.
Cus' in vanilla, you can, with some luck, prey on the weakness of Castille early in the game, and get some manpower producing provinces from them. Ally with Aragon, and attack Castile when they are weak. Later, attack Aragon so you will get the whole Iberian peninsular. Just be sure to time your attacks, and keep Castile down, so that when they become Spain, they aren't that big.
Remember that you mainly get manpower from national cultures
In AGCEEP you should try to get around the cape of Africa, and reach India, there are some good events for you when you do that.
You can also try to focus on taking west Africa. There are some really rich provinces there (chinaware and gold), and also a trade center, which will move if you kill off all the countries there.
West Africa ain't that easy to take early, but you will have nearly no competition from other europe nations there. This can be done in both versions.
You can also focus on taking the rich, gold pruducing provinces in the Americas. You can easily get there plenty of time before Castile/Spain does. Just remember to fortify your positions, as they can otherwise just walsh in and take everything.
Also, pagans become your national culture if you convert them. Which brings in more money and manpower.
This can also be done in both versions, but it's far easier and more profitable in vanilla.
Focus on trade. Large countries normally get more benefit from focusing on production, Portugal ain't that large, but can get real rich if you make the right trade decisions.
Warning, these next "hints" will probably lessen your game enjoyment:
Also, use the map that came with the game. Save the game, then use the columbus cheat to spot provinces that are ripe for colonization. Focus on provinces that have good trade goods value.
noddy102 said:
I don't think Tangiers is really worth it. Wrong culture, wrong religion, no land connection.
Get peace ASAP.
Then either pay Granada to join their alliance and fight Castille, or just stay friendly with Castille and work on colonization/trade.
Oh, BTW, You really shouldn't go for Brazil first. You have plenty of time to take that. Just do it before that certain event fires (which name I cannot remember...)
If a Catholic nations colonize there, just make sure you walk into their colony before they reach 1000 pop. Or 900, if there are natives (Thats when the cultures of the place gets set in stone, before that, any colonist can change it).
A much more urgent place to colonize is the rich provinces of north America. More specificly Roanoke, Chesapeake, Delaware and Manhattan. Very good base tax, and great trade goods. Also very low aggresiveness. These provinces are also outside of the Argh, mind slip, can't remember the name, but it's the agreement that Spain and Portugal have certain colonial rights to certain provinces. All Catholic nations follow it.
If a Catholic nations colonize there, just make sure you walk into their colony before they reach 1000 pop. Or 900, if there are natives (Thats when the cultures of the place gets set in stone, before that, any colonist can change it).
A much more urgent place to colonize is the rich provinces of north America. More specificly Roanoke, Chesapeake, Delaware and Manhattan. Very good base tax, and great trade goods. Also very low aggresiveness. These provinces are also outside of the Argh, mind slip, can't remember the name, but it's the agreement that Spain and Portugal have certain colonial rights to certain provinces. All Catholic nations follow it.
Mork said:
Hehe, I hate when mind-slip happens.
The treaty of tordesailles or however it is spelt.
essucht said:
If you want to take west African, Tangier is okay, if not, avoid like the plague.
It's okay to only get monetary benefits from war.
Early on, Tangiers also gives you one less sea province to deal with when using explorers, and with early naval techs this can be the difference between losing your explorer or not.
noddy102 said:Hehe, I hate when mind-slip happens.
The treaty of tordesailles or however it is spelt.
Right, what the Irishman said.
Oh, and look up on manpower rules. Gold and manpower dertermine you success in war. As you can always get more gold (minting, be careful with this) manpower is the real war winner.
Manpower, only patch 1.6 though, check the patch notes.
noddy102 said:
Right. But one could as easily make a "coaling station" along the way.
Recipe on coaling station:
If the natives are hostile, bring an army and wipe them out. Then plant 1 colonist there.
If the natives are quite freindly (low - very low or not at all), one use the colonist.
Portugal can use this easily.
Also, the two islands on the way to the African cape are great for coaling stations. No natives...
Just remember the limit on colonies (read the colonization FAQ, great read for Portugal players).
Yes Cape Verde and Sao Tome (sp?) are absolutely necessary for colonies.
But the rest of West Africa and further down through Africa isn't necessary for colonization early on since there is no great reason to colonize there anyway:
a) since the only efficient way to do so would be to kill the natives.
b) It will take 100 years before anyone else discovers them.
c) They aren't very rich in resources.
d) You will end up facing war with a border with the African nations there.
Instead build trading posts along the way, as this will give your ships less attrition problems due to being 'in home waters'.
When you get conquistadors, you can then if you want to colonize these African provinces, or as Mork says kill the natives.
But the rest of West Africa and further down through Africa isn't necessary for colonization early on since there is no great reason to colonize there anyway:
a) since the only efficient way to do so would be to kill the natives.
b) It will take 100 years before anyone else discovers them.
c) They aren't very rich in resources.
d) You will end up facing war with a border with the African nations there.
Instead build trading posts along the way, as this will give your ships less attrition problems due to being 'in home waters'.
When you get conquistadors, you can then if you want to colonize these African provinces, or as Mork says kill the natives.
A conquistador in a province also helps with the colonization (around +10% IIRC). And the success of the colonization is determined at the launch, and as such you can move your conquistador around to help in colonizationing. A bit cheesy, but it works.
noddy102 said:
Well, in AGCEEP there is one sea province in west africa that produces gold (Leone), that is a must for Portugal. There are also several other provinces in west Africa that has low aggrsiveness in AGCEEP. A nice starting area for conquest of west Africa.
Also, Senegal has a somewhat high native population with a low aggresiveness. A good place to start a conquest of west Africa if one does not choose to go through Morroco. Just remember to keep an army there (not too big, you don't want the natives to die)
Yes, and you can get road access to Africa. Bloody difficult as Portugal, but posible.
A nation is eligible to receive manpower from any province which is either on the same continent as its capital or has road access to its capital.
That is the reason you might want Tangiers. If you have a strait across from Gibraltar, you may eventually want to go through Morocco to land connect all of West Africa.
Personally, I recommend staying small with Portugal and hyperteching to land 14, naval 10, trade 4, and infra 5. You can war with, loot, and control Castille/Spain over centuries to speed tech. Do not colonize to city size. Make lots of sub-city colonies and keep taking more from Spain. You need a permanent CB against Spain and it is better to be even smaller, so I recommend losing Algarve to Castille in an early war or allowing a declaration of independence there and allowing an allied Castille to annex Algarve. When you are done hyperteching, pop the colonies to cities. Then go for expansion in Iberia, Aztec land, and elsewhere.
That is the reason you might want Tangiers. If you have a strait across from Gibraltar, you may eventually want to go through Morocco to land connect all of West Africa.
Personally, I recommend staying small with Portugal and hyperteching to land 14, naval 10, trade 4, and infra 5. You can war with, loot, and control Castille/Spain over centuries to speed tech. Do not colonize to city size. Make lots of sub-city colonies and keep taking more from Spain. You need a permanent CB against Spain and it is better to be even smaller, so I recommend losing Algarve to Castille in an early war or allowing a declaration of independence there and allowing an allied Castille to annex Algarve. When you are done hyperteching, pop the colonies to cities. Then go for expansion in Iberia, Aztec land, and elsewhere.
Hehe, I never played with that strait thingy. Actually, it's been quite a while since I played Vanilla EUII.
ws2_32 said:
So a strait counts as a road? It turns out that you can block a land connection with a ship. Strange.
ws2_32 said:
But wouldn't it seriously impair ability to establish new colonies?
vin
You do not block the landconnection with respect to manpower and tax purposes. You only block troop movement across the strait.vinthund said:
Yes, lots of sub-city colonies (about 16 or so) makes it difficult to establish new colonies. That's okay, you keep going to war with Spain. Spain plants new colonies and you take the colonies from Spain. Raise the colonies to level seven, eight, or nine, depending on the colony's growth rate and how close you are to popping all the colonies to cities.vinthund said:
noddy102 said:
If I am playing friendly with Castille I usually just get MA and use their colony in the Canary islands. If I am not so friendly I take the Canary islands before they can make them a city.