Let's talk Portugal.

Red Menace said:

dont forget if ALEXANDER is in the game its going to be very hard to ally most city states

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For most civs, ally status is quite important, much much more valuable than friendship status. But there are a couple exceptions, Siam for example. Portugal does not even need friendship for her UA. So Portugal has the strong advantage that she can ignore Alex -- just as long as he does not win by Diplo.

But I don't know that I think much of a UA that only counters one civ out of 43!

Sclb said:

Only way to deal with alex is to convince the world to kill him off. He can't ally your CS when he's at war with them.

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Playing with less city-states seems also work, instead of 16 play with 10.

Btw, has anyone ever seen Portugal building feitoria's in the territory of a city-state?

The other problem with alex is he likes to go autocracy with gunboat diplomacy on deity. It's near impossible to get his CS allies unless you're willing to spend tons of gold. He's definitely near top of the list of leaders that are most annoying to deal with. The problem of course is defending against his diplo victory, where you have to remove his allies. I'm pretty sure even for Siam, allying is better, the bonus is higher for allies.

Yes, I hate seeing Alex on the map, but he does not bother me as much as Austria who does not bother me as much Venice. I really hate seeing CS drop off the map. That said, I don't recall him winning by Diplo almost at all? Of course, he makes your own DiploV quite challenging, but Diplo is a chessy way to win anyway.

Yes, allies are better for every civ, even Siam, but Siam does better than other civs with only friendship. And after fetorias, Portugal does very well just so long as she is not at war.

Of all the civs, I think Portugal is the least effected by Alex. Min/max Portugal play would be fetorias and then no special effort towards CS after that.

That said, stronger play is probably courting CS as usual -- so the Portugal UA encourages weaker play.

No, I don't think I have ever seen the Portugal AI build a fetoria.