How to properly play Portugal

[Princeofnigeria]

I recently got back into civilization V after a long period away from the game. I did all my usual settings (standard sized standard paced continents on king difficulty with all random terrain and rescource settings) and decided to do random civilization. I got Portugal and thought "well, they were a legitimate world power and I haven't played them yet, so why not?" I spawned on a coast near the north pole with a huge number of crabs and said "Okay, let's do this!" So I went though the game, fought many wars with my warmoungering neighbors Assyria and the Aztecs, and ended up cruising into an Economic... sorry, "diplomatic" victory. After all that I felt... odd. It seemed as though nothing I had gotten was of any real help, and it felt as though I could've done the same thing with ANY civilization with equal effectiveness. My ability was very negligible, at most 2 or 3 extra gold in the earlier eras and 4 in the late game so it barely even registered as an ability. The Nau were of little tactical benefit as the MOST cash I could get out of one after sending him to the opposite side of the world (carthage) was $290, which doesn't even cover the cost of building one, let alone buying one, and you can only use it once! The Feitoria was not all that helpful, as after setting it up in three city states I had all the rescources I could get (city states all had the same handful of rescources) and Friending them had the same effect so I barely saw any happiness boost despite building a feitoria in every coastal city state on the map.
So what am I missing here? I know Portugal is not one of the flashier sides but it seemed as though I was playing with no ability at all, and any civ could have done exactly as well as I did and still have other abilities to boot. What tactics are there to maximize the effectiveness of the Portugese civilization?

 

[jlim201]

Portugal excels on larger maps. On larger maps, resources are more spread out- more use of Feitorias, Nau's get more gold because it calculates based on tiles from city built regardless of map size, and resource diversity is more effective because quite often, civs have different luxuries.

 

[joncnunn]

On the Portugal UI, you don't get much bonus from founding on every single city state in the game. (You can't sell the city states copies of luxuries)
Benefit maxes out by planting enough to cover each type of luxury city states provide, including the Merchicle ones. (Duplicate ones don't provide any benefit except as defense against Venice/Austria being in the game or an AI conquering city states)

Also note that "Nau abuse" [e.g. cash buying a Nau, selling the exotic cargo, and disbanding the Nau] doesn't really work well because the gold you get is less than the cost of (buying one + included per turn maintenance cost sailing it to half way around the world from your capital)
(If you normally have 3 Caravels exploring, it may best to continue doing so as Portugal and not go crazy.)

 

[Princeofnigeria]

On the Portugal UI, you don't get much bonus from founding on every single city state in the game. (You can't sell the city states copies of luxuries)
Benefit maxes out by planting enough to cover each type of luxury city states provide, including the Merchicle ones. (Duplicate ones don't provide any benefit except as defense against Venice/Austria being in the game or an AI conquering city states)

Also note that "Nau abuse" [e.g. cash buying a Nau, and selling the exotic cargo] doesn't really work well because the gold you get is less than the cost of (buying one + included per turn maintenance cost sailing it to half way around the world from your capital)
(If you normally have 3 Caravels exploring, it may best to continue doing so as Portugal and not go crazy.)

I realise it is not cost effective to buy Nau just for the cargo. I did not buy any Nau, I just built two. What I was saying is that the hammer cost of building a Nau makes the gold pay back ignorable as you lose turns you could use on better things. Even devoting to the economy would net more cash in most cases. I normally build two caravel, and I felt no difference building two Nau, so it was like I had no ability or bonus in the first place.

 

[Heretiv]

SOmetimes the problem is that playing feels samey regardless of who you are playing. At this point scenarios help to focus on a different aspect.

 

[Redaxe]

I do agree that to get the most out of Portugal you want to be playing on at least a large sized map with plenty of citystates. If you have a city with high production you can get several Nau's out so you have a bit of an advantage in exploration. The free gold is useful to rush a few buildings like universities, that's about it. It's not real strategy dependent but the extra gold & happiness can help towards whatever victory strategy you choose.

 

[Navelgazer]

Does anyone know whether Militaristic City States ever gift naval units? Because being the Ottomans and having a way to get free Naus could be a lot of fun.

Alternately, Playing as the Dutch against Portugal and simply stealing their Naus with Sea Beggars over and over again (assuming a very stubborn and stupid AI Maria I, of course.)

 

[joncnunn]

Does anyone know whether Militaristic City States ever gift naval units? Because being the Ottomans and having a way to get free Naus could be a lot of fun.

Alternately, Playing as the Dutch against Portugal and simply stealing their Naus with Sea Beggars over and over again (assuming a very stubborn and stupid AI Maria I, of course.)

1. Unfortunately, Military City States only give land units. However, considering how bad the AI is with naval units and how good the human is with them ...

2. Actually, the base unit (Privateer) has the ability to enslave so you can try to do this as anyone.

 

[Crafty Bison]

I think the Nau bonus scales with map sizes. I can get 300-350 gold whether it be a standard or a huge map.

To answer the OP, you want to be on a big map with lots of water (Naus explore faster, there are more resources, and you want as many cargo ship routes as possible), and it sounds like you did a little more war than necessary to make use of the UA as it may limit your route options (and because of their 'diplomatic' focus). Good SPs are patronage for the extra happiness from gifted luxs and cs's are a good use of your money for a diplo win, and exploration for the kind of map you should be on (I realise you do random civs on continents, but you can still focus on building coastal cities etc.). Important WWs are colossus/petra and maybe big ben. Big techs are astronomy and any with additional trade routes.

 

[Winsling]

Does anyone know whether Militaristic City States ever gift naval units? Because being the Ottomans and having a way to get free Naus could be a lot of fun.

Nope. Only land units.

 

[Myth and Legend]

I started a game last night with them. Got a plains forest start wit 4 deer, 2 salt and 1 silver. Going Liberty into 3 or 4 extra cities and combating the extra unhappiness with the featoria.

Will also try to grab colossus. I will play the growth/sciense game and focus on the upper tier of techs until Frigates. Then I will go hunting with nau/frigate combos and try to get more cities. This might not turn out well, but my ultimate goal is to go Liberty>Exploration>Rationalism and get a CV if I can snag some key wonders. My capital will grow huge with salt and deer coupled with a food ship or two, so I will be able to get some GWs for sure.

Not sure if Nau+Frigates will allow me to capture anything worthwhile. I'm playing continents and I have Sweden, Monty, Incas and I can't remember which other civ with me. But every wonder or GW captured with my boats is a step towards CV.

I'm also considerhing that since I'm gunning for Featoria to offset happiness issues, I will be able to get harbours in my expansions and won't really need more than one road, since my first expansion is landlocked to get 3 salt 1 wheat 1 stone (couldn't bring myself to plop it on the coast and miss on 2 salt 1 wheat 1 stone)

 

[TurboJ]

Each extrenal trade route should give a sizable gold bonus compared to any other civ - if it does not, something is wrong. It's twice the gold from resource diversity, so if you do not benefit, then it's a resource issue and not a Portugal issue.

I've played Portugal some, and if possible, I would try to get the Great Lighthouse and go for a diplomatic game. Exploration can come in handy in that it will increase your trade route gold even further, boost your coastal city production (all Portugal's good cities should be coastal anyway) and further improve your naval military strength for those late-game rushes. Louvre + hidden antiquity sites will help culture if you wish to actually choose an ideology you like. Naus with Great Lighthouse + Exploration are quite something for revealing the map, and you can hammer spam them freely while getting useful gold back, which you can use to upgrade them to Ironclads. Even if you need them for war before that, the sheer number of Naus will mean they can at least defend your cities after doing the initial exotic cargo run. When I play Portugal, I build all cities on the coast no matter what, and I don't build roads; just use Harbors for city connections. Then I don't need land units either - a strong navy can defend coastal cities no problem, and also take some from the AI if needs be. The gold bonus from trade routes allows you to 1. Run mostly internal cargo ships for growing the capital - that will boost gold output from the 2. future extrenal trade routes which will make huge amounts of gold once your capital is really big and has all the money buildings.
One time I actually managed to get both the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus AND the Great Lighthouse on deity, and the internal food cargo ships made up for the early lagging. Mid- to late-game those wonders really helped a lot, generating Great Merchants in no time, even without Commerce.

One thing about focusing your military 100% on your Navy is, you rarely lose any cargo ships even if you go to war. You will have so many ships you should be able to protect the important trade routes.

 

[Aenthin]

You don't buy Naus. You build Triremes then upgrade them into Naus. Having a couple of Triremes early on will make quick work of barbarians and invasions and keeping them until Astronomy will generally keep your trade routes safe. The upgrade cost isn't that expensive and is usually covered by the Nau's ability.

That said, the general early game strategy for Portugal is to have trade routes up and securing them. You don't build the Naus because of their special ability. You build them because it serves as a defense for your trade routes, as well as scouting for potentially better trading partners. Their ability is just there to cover the upgrade costs and make a few more gold while they're at it. What's more important is setting up your trade routes as starting really early will eventually net you more gold late game than most civilizations, with the possible exception of a well-positioned Morocco and Venice.

I also like to think Feitorias as an insurance of sorts. Having untradeable luxuries do give you a benefit of keeping your civilization happy and, if you somehow acquire the same resource as the city state, you could sell it all off and still gain the happiness bonus for your civ. Best of all, you don't even need to keep your city-state as your ally, so unless you're going for a Diplomatic victory, you could utilize your gold for something else, like amassing a huge army or buying space ship parts.

 

[Calouste]

Keep in mind that the double resource diversity bonus also applies to trade routes that other civs run to your cities, so you want to make them attract trade routes. Get the Colossus, Markets, East India Company and Banks.

 

[LoneRebel]

First, the Nau is only intended to be a slight upgrade over the Caravel. (the in-game caravel was actually first developed by the Portuguese in any case) It's faster than the regular caravel, speeding up exploration. Instead of looking at it as something that should be completely different from the base unit, see it as a faster caravel that can net you some extra gold. You shouldn't build any more Naus than you would normally build Caravels, or maybe one or two more.

Second, the feitorias allow you to get a city-states luxuries without having to ally them (you said befriend, which is incorrect), allowing you to focus on science or culture victory instead, for example. Unfortunately, city-states all tend to have only the same few luxuries again and again. This appears to be deliberate, since I've seen this pattern in several games. Oh well, guess it'd be OP if you could get 15 different luxuries from city-states.

Third, four gold per turn, per trade route doesn't seem small to me at all. And I suppose it could get even higher.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Perhaps it is my general economic policy, but as Portugal I was making 204 Gold per turn without golden age by the year 1850 (my economic height in most of my games) while trading crabs with literally (not figuritively) every nation. In my normal games I make between 195 and 200 by that time (some exceptions but that is average). I don't know if that is insanely pathetic or average by your standards since I know many of you likely play at a much higher level than I do but that's how I do. So while I made a little more money than normal it wasn't a very large amount. Thoughts on this? I had five cities which is the norm for me, but no puppets this time (whereas I normally have two or three) as I sold off the cities I sacked to either Aztecs or Assyrians (whichever the city wasn't) for more cash and to keep the Aztecs and Assyrians fighting eachother while I licked my wounds between wars.
Also I know that the redundant feitorias are not beneficial happiness wise. My neighbors were the USA (until there death in 1960s by the aztecs), the Aztecs (until literally the very last turn when I decided "screw it" and "misplaced" a handful of nukes) and the Assyrians, (and the arabs but they were wiped out around 1800 by Assyria) so I needed some back ups if the worst came to worst.

 

[TurboJ]

You don't build the Naus because of their special ability

You can though, this way you can get a late-game military navy very cheaply (if you read my post you'll see what I mean). I have found it very strong to build 12-15 Naus which will pay their own upgrade to Ironclads - and you will only have to build ranged naval units after that. I completely agree about protecting your trade routes with the Naus though. Although at the time Naus are available, I'd be running mostly internal trade routes for growing the capital - switch to external when the available gold per trade route has increased enough and the first world leader vote is closing.. It is quite possible to win the vote the first time it comes up with all the money you will be generating late game.