chazzycat
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 2,918
I just finished a game with Portugal and wanted to share. On most of the Portugal threads I've read around here, they aren't really focused on the Nau. I think it really has the power to win games for you single-handedly, if you adapt your strategy.
So in this game, I ended up with only 2 cities, not even great cities. Neither of them had a lot of food...my capital was only size 24 at end game, not good at all by my standards. After the initial settling phase, I was pretty sure I was going to lose. Two mediocre cities is just not usually enough to win.
Diplomacy definitely seemed like the most likely victory option, with my advantages in gold production. So I decided to double down on Naus and see if I could ride that gold train to victory. I started planning ahead in advance, focusing on building up production capacity in my 1 coastal city as much as possible. By the time I hit astronomy, I was able to get them out in 2-3 turns each.
Now that's not even ideal...with a better city it may be possible to get them out in 1-2 turns each. But if you consider that each Nau generates about 330 gold, even if it takes 3 turns, that's over 100 gold per turn. If producing "wealth" generated 110 GPT in one city, you would build that all the time, right??
So basically I beelined astronomy and just started cranking Naus. I tried my best to avoid building other stuff in my coastal city and focus just on Naus. I explored with the first couple until I found the highest return on the map (331 gold for me on that map) and then I just started sending them all straight there.
The biggest thing to consider is that Naus go obsolete at Steam Power. The normal tech path, beelining to plastics, will result in researching steam power pretty quickly. However...in a diplomacy game, it really is NOT that critical to beeline labs ASAP. So what I did was get to public schools pretty quickly, but then detour from plastics, delaying it for quite a while. I researched all the way to radio, refrigeration, and dynamite before I got steam power.
Normally you don't want to delay labs, because the turn you finish labs determines the turn you finish the game. BUT, because of the extra 100-150 GPT (depending on whether the Naus were taking 2 or 3 turns) I was able to ally all of the city states, during that delay. I would rather win on the 1st vote with all CS already allied, rather than trying to be adding allies at the last minute leading up to the vote.
Now of course if you were able to ally all of the CS earlier in the game, it wouldn't be smart to delay labs like this. But in my case with only 2 not-great cities, my income was low and so I really needed those extra turns of Nau gold in order to out-compete the AI for CS influence. It was completely successful - right around the time I got to steam power, I had allied all but 1 or 2 CS.
One thing to watch out for is the supply limit. In my case with 2 low-pop cities, I hit the supply cap several times because of the Naus combined with having a lot of militaristic CS allies. It wasn't a big deal but something to watch out for. You don't want to hit your cities with that production penalty.
The other thing Portugal has going for it is the Feitoria. With my 2 cities and tradition, happiness wasn't a concern at all. But I did get those built ASAP and it really helped get faster golden ages. My happiness was around 60-80 for most of the 2nd half of the game, and with CI and the Freedom Tenet, I was in golden age for much of the game. That extra gold and culture is hugely beneficial.
Towards the end of the game I also switched my trade routes to city states and got the tier 3 freedom tenet for +4 influence per turn. But I could have won without that quite easily. It was really the power of the Nau that won the game.
Naus are fairly useless units after you sell the exotic goods IMO. They cost too much for maintenance and upgrading, so I have started just giving them away to city states for 5 influence right after I sell the goods. If you take my tech path, you will have submarines already, so there's not much reason at all to keep them around.
So in this game, I ended up with only 2 cities, not even great cities. Neither of them had a lot of food...my capital was only size 24 at end game, not good at all by my standards. After the initial settling phase, I was pretty sure I was going to lose. Two mediocre cities is just not usually enough to win.
Diplomacy definitely seemed like the most likely victory option, with my advantages in gold production. So I decided to double down on Naus and see if I could ride that gold train to victory. I started planning ahead in advance, focusing on building up production capacity in my 1 coastal city as much as possible. By the time I hit astronomy, I was able to get them out in 2-3 turns each.
Now that's not even ideal...with a better city it may be possible to get them out in 1-2 turns each. But if you consider that each Nau generates about 330 gold, even if it takes 3 turns, that's over 100 gold per turn. If producing "wealth" generated 110 GPT in one city, you would build that all the time, right??
So basically I beelined astronomy and just started cranking Naus. I tried my best to avoid building other stuff in my coastal city and focus just on Naus. I explored with the first couple until I found the highest return on the map (331 gold for me on that map) and then I just started sending them all straight there.
The biggest thing to consider is that Naus go obsolete at Steam Power. The normal tech path, beelining to plastics, will result in researching steam power pretty quickly. However...in a diplomacy game, it really is NOT that critical to beeline labs ASAP. So what I did was get to public schools pretty quickly, but then detour from plastics, delaying it for quite a while. I researched all the way to radio, refrigeration, and dynamite before I got steam power.
Normally you don't want to delay labs, because the turn you finish labs determines the turn you finish the game. BUT, because of the extra 100-150 GPT (depending on whether the Naus were taking 2 or 3 turns) I was able to ally all of the city states, during that delay. I would rather win on the 1st vote with all CS already allied, rather than trying to be adding allies at the last minute leading up to the vote.
Now of course if you were able to ally all of the CS earlier in the game, it wouldn't be smart to delay labs like this. But in my case with only 2 not-great cities, my income was low and so I really needed those extra turns of Nau gold in order to out-compete the AI for CS influence. It was completely successful - right around the time I got to steam power, I had allied all but 1 or 2 CS.
One thing to watch out for is the supply limit. In my case with 2 low-pop cities, I hit the supply cap several times because of the Naus combined with having a lot of militaristic CS allies. It wasn't a big deal but something to watch out for. You don't want to hit your cities with that production penalty.
The other thing Portugal has going for it is the Feitoria. With my 2 cities and tradition, happiness wasn't a concern at all. But I did get those built ASAP and it really helped get faster golden ages. My happiness was around 60-80 for most of the 2nd half of the game, and with CI and the Freedom Tenet, I was in golden age for much of the game. That extra gold and culture is hugely beneficial.
Towards the end of the game I also switched my trade routes to city states and got the tier 3 freedom tenet for +4 influence per turn. But I could have won without that quite easily. It was really the power of the Nau that won the game.
Naus are fairly useless units after you sell the exotic goods IMO. They cost too much for maintenance and upgrading, so I have started just giving them away to city states for 5 influence right after I sell the goods. If you take my tech path, you will have submarines already, so there's not much reason at all to keep them around.