Ric Flair
Chieftain
Howdy all,
For the past few weeks, I have been playing each civ in successive order, with random opponents on my usual world type (Demigod, Continents, old warm and huge, corruption fixed, max # of civilizations).
In one game, I was "stuck" with the Portuguese so I had to come up with a plan to overcome the generally accepted suckiness of these guys. I decided on a plan to maximize the advantages rather than pointlessly worrying about weaknesses which I can't fix (short of the editor).
To maximize the advantage, I simply looked at what Portugal has early on which most other civs cannot match; scouts! We all know the general advantages of a scout, but to get the absolute most out the exploration, hut popping etc., it made sense to me that I would need many scouts rather than just one.
This meant early and extreme mass producing of scouts, sacrificing production of settlers (no agri bonus, so why try to outgrow them) , other units (no indust bonus, so why try to build military units faster than China et al), city buildings (no building bonuses so why try to out build guys like Babylon) and terrain improvement (the goal of which is improved food production (to make settlers) and trade (to make money/research techs), neither of which I was going to need; at least not right away.
I set to work immediately building scouts, working only the best shield squares (at the expense of food, using my worker to chop trees if ideal (i.e. more rapid scout production with little or no shield wastage). Any population surplus (when it happened) was diverted into worker production for roads to connect discovered resources and chopping when ideal. Scouts were sent out into the world en masse. Settler production would be achieved only by hut generation at least in the early game.
Within short order, I had a swarm of 12-14 scouts systematically moving down the map like a horde of locusts, sucking up gold, settlers, "skilled" warriors (which were sent back home for future MP duty) and techs.
As the initial hut phase began to wane, I started production of some settlers soon after 2500 BC. I had advanced to the middle ages by 2200 BC, with a completely explored and hut emptied continent and my scouts on their way to galleys to strip the other land mass.
Another objective here with this strategy is also one of hut deprivation, where they are denied to the enemy. In a perfect world (which will never happen) your enemies should be denied ALL huts; no freebies, not even cheap military experience or (Mayan) slaves by popping barbs. Well, I came close as humanly possible.
With opponents which included the Inca, Aztecs, Mongols and Zulu, I was extremely gratified that my plan also largely deprived them of one of their civ advantages; there was scarcely anything left for their scouts (or Jags) worth discovering.
If used with the Inca, I guess the Chasqui (although more expensive) could also be used to indiscriminately liquidate rival scouts to further accentuate this advantage over other Expansionist civs.
It also turns out that, much like the known "Settler: existence or city production = no popped settlers", that I found the same effect when ANY city was producing a scout. Therefore, before popping any hut, I temporarily switched all city productions to at least give a chance of a hut settler. I ultimately received 7 of these, popping over 60 huts on my home continent.
Having discovered it as my free Philosophy tech, I rushed into Republic using luxuries and luxury slider to maintain happiness. The aim was that with Republican growth, my population would soar and my cities would either be able to continue mass producing settlers or, if so desired, even be able to build many wonders uncontested.
Portugal never looked so good. This was miles ahead of what would be a horrible game based on its tier status. Basically, hyper-aggressive production and use of scouts at the opening phase on placed Portugal into an unassailable position.
In my searching on this site, I have never seen this plan mentioned but I will nevertheless ask now; has anyone tried this before and, if so, what were the results?
Constructive comments/criticism/questions/ideas are welcome!
For the past few weeks, I have been playing each civ in successive order, with random opponents on my usual world type (Demigod, Continents, old warm and huge, corruption fixed, max # of civilizations).
In one game, I was "stuck" with the Portuguese so I had to come up with a plan to overcome the generally accepted suckiness of these guys. I decided on a plan to maximize the advantages rather than pointlessly worrying about weaknesses which I can't fix (short of the editor).
To maximize the advantage, I simply looked at what Portugal has early on which most other civs cannot match; scouts! We all know the general advantages of a scout, but to get the absolute most out the exploration, hut popping etc., it made sense to me that I would need many scouts rather than just one.
This meant early and extreme mass producing of scouts, sacrificing production of settlers (no agri bonus, so why try to outgrow them) , other units (no indust bonus, so why try to build military units faster than China et al), city buildings (no building bonuses so why try to out build guys like Babylon) and terrain improvement (the goal of which is improved food production (to make settlers) and trade (to make money/research techs), neither of which I was going to need; at least not right away.
I set to work immediately building scouts, working only the best shield squares (at the expense of food, using my worker to chop trees if ideal (i.e. more rapid scout production with little or no shield wastage). Any population surplus (when it happened) was diverted into worker production for roads to connect discovered resources and chopping when ideal. Scouts were sent out into the world en masse. Settler production would be achieved only by hut generation at least in the early game.
Within short order, I had a swarm of 12-14 scouts systematically moving down the map like a horde of locusts, sucking up gold, settlers, "skilled" warriors (which were sent back home for future MP duty) and techs.
As the initial hut phase began to wane, I started production of some settlers soon after 2500 BC. I had advanced to the middle ages by 2200 BC, with a completely explored and hut emptied continent and my scouts on their way to galleys to strip the other land mass.
Another objective here with this strategy is also one of hut deprivation, where they are denied to the enemy. In a perfect world (which will never happen) your enemies should be denied ALL huts; no freebies, not even cheap military experience or (Mayan) slaves by popping barbs. Well, I came close as humanly possible.
With opponents which included the Inca, Aztecs, Mongols and Zulu, I was extremely gratified that my plan also largely deprived them of one of their civ advantages; there was scarcely anything left for their scouts (or Jags) worth discovering.
If used with the Inca, I guess the Chasqui (although more expensive) could also be used to indiscriminately liquidate rival scouts to further accentuate this advantage over other Expansionist civs.
It also turns out that, much like the known "Settler: existence or city production = no popped settlers", that I found the same effect when ANY city was producing a scout. Therefore, before popping any hut, I temporarily switched all city productions to at least give a chance of a hut settler. I ultimately received 7 of these, popping over 60 huts on my home continent.
Having discovered it as my free Philosophy tech, I rushed into Republic using luxuries and luxury slider to maintain happiness. The aim was that with Republican growth, my population would soar and my cities would either be able to continue mass producing settlers or, if so desired, even be able to build many wonders uncontested.
Portugal never looked so good. This was miles ahead of what would be a horrible game based on its tier status. Basically, hyper-aggressive production and use of scouts at the opening phase on placed Portugal into an unassailable position.
In my searching on this site, I have never seen this plan mentioned but I will nevertheless ask now; has anyone tried this before and, if so, what were the results?
Constructive comments/criticism/questions/ideas are welcome!
