A Portugal Game

[Fresol]

Yeah, I've heard of this strategy before, but haven't tried it myself. If it works, it will provide a huge advantage since early game.

I have finished the game, and will post the rest of the story/guide next week. Stay tuned for more.

In the meanwhile, I hope others can post their own guides too. Would be interesting to read.

 

[Fresol]

Inquisition againts Vikings, for unknown reasons I voted No. Anyways this kind of "mild" resolution matters very little to the third party.




We have ferried our conquerors troops to the coast of Congo. One last deal with them and the war is on. They are still on one city, so we'll take the city and rule the land of Congo ourselves.



Meanwhile Capo de Boa Esperanca is settled. It's on historical tile, contributes to our economy and the 3rd historical goal.

 

[Fresol]

I have sold maps to anyone that has an adequate amount of cash. 400+ gold earned.



Mongolia has collapsed. It matters very little to us. Although we refused a demand from them years ago, I have never worried they would actually declare war on us and send out an army to invade our land.



Sofala is settle. Why not Durban? Because it's on historical tile, plus settling on resource is no longer prefered since it doesn't give full yield.

Of course to get the sugar 2SW we need another city there.



The Great Engineer Mateus Fernandes is born in Coimbra.
Peru collapses the moment it takes Chan Chan. I'd say it's just unreasonable why they would collapse. We have lost our supply of Stone, as the Stone in Aztec is not connected yet.



The city of Mbanza Congo is ours! We'll keep the city, otherwise our stability will suffer too much.

 

[Fresol]

Hmmm, a random hut pop from city culture expansion gives me Astronomy for free. See, that's the thing I've been talking about: no tech from tribal village on Regent, it's supposed to be the standard difficulty!

Strategy-guide-wise, I'd suggest one save money to research Astronomy with a higher priority than in my game. (I spent a good chunk of them on buying Printing Press.) Astronomy enables Trading Company and settler training on other continents. It's a must-get for UHV purposes.



Recife is settled in 1525. One is advised to check the stability maps in the Maps folder, and be sure to settle your colonies early enough, before competitors get there.

 

[Fresol]

Wrongly timed new world plague for Aztecs. Mateus Fernandes finishes the Trading Company in Lisboa.



An overview of our current 14 cities. After Astronomy, Lisboa gets to grow, instead of training settlers nonstop.

 

[Fresol]

As the Trading Company is finished, we have the TC event. The TC armies consist of a total of 12 musketmen and 6 cannons, so we choose the army option. Plus, I intend to raze Quelimane.



OB with Iran. UHV 1 is already finished, so I wasn't in a hurry to meet them.



Conquering and razing Quelimane.



We don't have enough troops to take Guangzhou though.

Masqat is worthless to take IMO, since the game finishes at 1700, way before oil comes into play.



Our stability is slipping into negative.

 

[Fresol]

Meeting the Ottomans. They appear to be doing pretty well this game.



Our attempt to take Colombo has failed. There're always two barb swordsmen on the island, but this time there's another privateer.

But Military Science is not known to anyone in the world right now. Those must be alien privateers.



"Lagos" is settled for the sugar.



And Spanish Caracas. AIs will settle up there colonies sooner or later.



Trying to buy collapsing Aztecs some stability.



Mombasa conquered and razed.



Resettling Mozambique. Catholicism almost always spread into these cities one turn after they are founded, so I'd say once again, that Fanaticism is best suited for Portugal.



A moderate economic crisis hits us, but it seems we haven't lost anything?



Terrible economic situation. It's because of the -2 pop in each city from the TC event I suppose.



Zanzibar resettled. This is a nice city with Trading Company.



Slaves don't destroy forests now, so they create super improvements on forest plantations.



You can see our economy is starting to boom after the early expansions and the TC spreads.

 

[Fresol]

Catholic Moor has revived.



Rio de Janeiro is settled. It's historical for the French so don't delay the settlement too much.



Our troops are fighting in southern India. There're too few units to actually take the city. We are going to ferry our armies in China back.

 

[Fresol]

Meeting the Dutch. They are the most advanced civilization in the world right now.



Selling slaves to Spain for a fair price.



Bonavista is settled. Interesting historical tile for Portugal.

 

[Fresol]

Our troops near Guangzhou have all boarded.



Peace is made with China. I didn't sign the peace treaty until now because I wasn't sure where my troops would get ejected to. It's better to get them on board before making peace.



China agrees to OB right after peace is made. Well well.



Banking (and Astronomy) unlocks the Portuguese UB: Fetoria, which provides +1 for each water tile. Very powerful.



Malindi is settled for the Sugar.



Portuguese empire on the rise. The earlier expansions are paying off.

 

[Fresol]

We are elected Pope of the Apostolic Palace. Portugal has truly become a world power. Meanwhile Aztec has collapsed. I do not have access to stone most of my game and therefore build no castles at all. (I doubt they are worthy since I'm not using espionage economy.)



Aksum conquerored and kept. I was going for the 2 coffees here, but due to lack of workers Aksum stay unconnected to the rest of the world the whole game.



Due to the collapse of the Aztecs, we have a slight decrease in city maintenance fee.



Madurai Conquered! It counts as an Asian city for our 3rd historical goal.



It has too large of a population to be razed.

 

[Fresol]

Vasco da Gama conducting Trade Misson. I thought 2000 was the highest amount one could get. What is the amount now?



Brasilia settled.



We have virtually finished the 3rd historical goal.

 

[Fresol]

Some random event to test our luck.



After 1600, two bananas appear in Brazil. Improve them and place roads if needed.



The 2nd historical goal is achieved. With virtual victory at hand, there's nothing else we can do but to grow all of our cities for a better score.

It is advised that when you go for Portuguese UHV, make a plan in advance for unprepared events, such as opponent colonizing before you, or culture expansion is slower than you think, or your troops getting delayed by pirates. Aim for 15 resources and you should be on the safe side. (Since there are lots of Afican and Asian islands to settle, there's no need to worry about the 3rd goal.)

 

[Tigranes]

Great Game! Want to try something else?

 

[Fresol]

Thanks. I still have a few screenshots left to post, will do it later when I find the time.

I'm thinking about a Moors game next, since Eric Cartmenez asked. Senior and experienced players don't need guides like this one, they are capable of achieving victories on higher difficulty settings. My target audience is people who have problems achieving UHV on the standard Regent/Normal setting, and people who can't find the time to play a game themselves.

Do you have a specific civilization in mind? I'm open to ideas.

 

[The Diocletian]

Have you ever considered doing domination victories?

 

[Fresol]

Not with the current game version. Maybe England and Russia? It'll be too hard to enjoy the game on my current laptop, and I may not be able to pull it off. I'll play more late-games when I get a new PC.

In the meanwhile, I'm interested in reading a domination guide myself.

 

[The Diocletian]

Maybe I'll write one sometime. I almost exclusively play on Epic however, so my experiences and strategies can sometimes be hard to translate into a shorter game length.

Here is a list of civs I would consider viable for domination, at least theoretically:

China
Greece
Indians (theoretical, core is meh)
Persians
Romans
Tamils (this one is a stretch at best)
Byzantines
Japanese
Vikings (core is ok, rest of stability map is bleh)
Arabs
Indonesians (I've seen it done, don't know if I could do it)
Spanish
French
English
Germans (pretty much have to win before Prussian spawn, very iffy)
Russians (easymode)
Polish (rely on golden age UP)
Portuguese (did it on Marathon once, don't know if viable on slower settings)
Italians (iffy)
Turks (did on Marathon, not sure)
Dutch (maaayyyybbbe)
Prussians (random shrinking core is irritating, BTW)
Americans (easymode)
Brazilians

If you'd like to request one. go ahead, though I request you pick one that I'm at least half confident is viable.

 

[Pavel Chichikov]

Babylon

 

[Eric Cartmenez]

Thank you, dear Fresol, for considering the Moors game, I'm already curious

Btw, I like your alternative approach with city settlement, especially Santiago de Cuba and Buenos Aires, what a sweet little spanish robbery