anyone like portugal?

[secon]

just did my first portugal game yesterday (won on first try yay!) and i really liked them. i benefitted from a pretty sweet starting location (my second city had 3 crab and 3 fish that i got to quick) and i went with the goddess of the sea. after awhile i was making stupid amounts of gold and just bought off all the city states. not sure if the nice start skewed things but they were fun. forget what it's called but the workers can build something in city states territory that gives you copies of their lux items which was sweet and the unique ship was cool too. haven't really seen anyone talking about them though.

 

[katfish]

just did my first portugal game yesterday (won on first try yay!) and i really liked them. i benefitted from a pretty sweet starting location (my second city had 3 crab and 3 fish that i got to quick) and i went with the goddess of the sea. after awhile i was making stupid amounts of gold and just bought off all the city states. not sure if the nice start skewed things but they were fun. forget what it's called but the workers can build something in city states territory that gives you copies of their lux items which was sweet and the unique ship was cool too. haven't really seen anyone talking about them though.

Why would you buy city states when you have failtoria?
And their UA seems weak, unless legendary start.
Like i get 3 resources in city, each gives 0.5 and with their UA its +1.5 for trade route?

 

[JSMCAG]

Why would you buy city states when you have failtoriaFeitoria?

Allies also give you culture/units/food/votes/whatever, so they're still useful! Also, fixed it for you!

And their UA seems weak, unless legendary start.
Like i get 3 resources in city, each gives 0.5 and with their UA its +1.5 for trade route?

1. The UA applies to all trade routes, starting from the capital or otherwise
2. Different resources from BOTH cities in a trade route contribute to the Trade Route's value - you're not only getting double for your resources, you're getting double from THEIR resources too! Including the special ones from Mercantile City-States or Indonesia!
3. The value get's doubled AGAIN with sea trade routes! While other civilizations get 0.5 * 2 = 1 per different resource in a sea trade route, you get 1 * 2 = 2 - that's +1 than anyone else, per turn, per resource, in every single one of your Trade Routes. Doesn't seem like much, but it is a really big change! You WILL be swimming in money!

And don't forget the Nau for even more gold!

I've told this story many times before, but in my game as Portugal, I literally stopped building things with production because I just had more money than I could ever spend! Later in the game, I controlled the world with an Iron Fist because I had enough money to bribe EVERYONE to vote how I WANT THEM TO! The amount of gold you produce as Portugal is simply crazy!

 

[katfish]

[*]Different resources from BOTH cities in a trade route contribute to the Trade

Sorry my mistake. But i still find Morocco more reliable.
And i don't like Nau, would be much better if it was ranged like Byzantium one.

 

[SolDelta]

I think Portugal might actually be my favorite BNW civ. Naus are very cheap to produce, and with a solid amount of hammers in say, 3-4 cities, you can churn them out every couple of turns and send them straight to the other side of the world to sell their goods, before exploring the map. You'll be likely to found the World Congress, and come the Industrial Era, you're going to be able to buy yourself a nice city state with Coal and get first Ideology too. Personally, I'd recommend going Freedom, for Arsenal of Democracy, and just keep crapping out Naus, selling their goods, then gifting them to city states for the influence. You can maintain control of every city state with absolute ease and just, run away. Last game I played, I went for the Diplo victory because uh, why the hell not, but I could've quite easily turned that advantage into a Science Victory or a Domination Victory with all the extra beakers I was getting from my allies, and the absolutely insane size my capital got to with all the Maritime city states and the internal trade routes I was directing to it (50+!). Hell, my culture wasn't doing too bad either, by the time I was waiting for the timer to run out on the World Leader vote, I had a bunch of the dirty communist cities of Germany and America flip to me.

So yeah, summed up: I love Portugal and you should too.

 

[JSMCAG]

But i still find Morocco more reliable.

Morocco gets + 3 for every trade route it has with a different civilization (or city-state).
This does NOT get doubled with a Sea Route!

This means that, as Portugal, you only need three unique resources and a sea trade route (which you should have anyway!) to gain more gold than Morocco, AND you can still send other trade routes to the same city-state and still get that bonus!

Morocco's gold might be more useful early game, but it doesn't evolve from there, while Portugal will have increasingly more profitable trade routes as the game goes on!

 

[kamikazees]

I think of Venice, Portugal and Morocco as the "trade" civs, in that order from most from trade to least.

Portugal is a great civ. It's UA and UI are really interesting. On the one hand, the UA is especially suited for buying and keeping alliances with city states. On the other hand, you don't really need to ally city states for resource purposes because you can just use the Feitoria.

With Portugal, I typically spend money on maritime or cultural city states, but use the Feitoria on city states if I just want their luxury. With the amount of money Portugal gets, however, you can end up allying all the city states in short order.

 

[Scarpa]

I love Portugal, but then again I aready loved naval civs.

I don't know why everyone hates on the Nau either, you always want at least a few caravels for exploration purposes and the nice chunk of change they give you once on the other side of the map is pretty helpful. Plus they have extra sight! I don't know about anyone else but I consider that a huge bonus.

The feitoria is cool in theory but the way the game distributes resources to CSes means that you'll only be able to snag a few unique luxuries with them. That said, I tend to build them anywhere I can because it hedges against the AI stealing an ally from you. Haven't had the pleasure of using one as a fort during an active war yet.

 

[Alziel]

I don't know why everyone hates on the Nau either, you always want at least a few caravels for exploration purposes and the nice chunk of change they give you once on the other side of the map is pretty helpful. Plus they have extra sight! I don't know about anyone else but I consider that a huge bonus.

Not only this but the XP gained from trading the exotic goods always provides an extra promotion for the unit. So look at a Nau as a Caravel that gives you a lump sum of money, with extra line of sight and with an extra promotion! Not too shabby at all.

Also agree with the 'swimming in gold' comments. You really do end up buried under a pile of gold when you play Portugal, particularly if you go Commerce and/or Exploration.

 

[redwings1340]

Portugal is awesome! You get happiness from city states with no charge! You get tons of additional money upon reaching the renaissance, and spend it on either a massive military conquest, or to create some super developed cities. You get this money earlier than other civs because the Nau has +1 movement and +1 sight, so you can establish cross ocean trade routes that much faster. Portugal isn't so super before the renaissance, but when you reach this era, they become really awesome! This is definitely an underrated civ, and one of the best designed ones in my opinion.

 

[secon]

i bought off the city states because i had so much gold coming in and because hiawatha was trying to screw me in the world congress i thought they were very fun. when i hit the modern era some of my sea routes were taking in close to 50g a turn. i was trying for a cultural win but hiawatha had taken over most of the world by then and was blasting me in culture so i just bought my win when the world leader vote came around. definitely a fun civ. i still have to try venice, poland and morocco but so far this one might be my fav

 

[MisterSaturnine]

Building naus is also a way of building wealth extremely efficiently. Rather than getting 25% production value in gold, you can just crank out naus for 120 production, send them towards the nearest borders, and get about 200 gold for your trouble. You can even sell the nau once you're done.

It's like the Portuguese UU is a unique Wealth option that turns over 100% production into gold every turn, and creates a navy while you're at it.

 

[JSMCAG]

send them towards the nearest borders

Psst... Send them towards the farthest borders instead... Believe me, you will not regret it...

 

[MisterSaturnine]

Psst... Send them towards the farthest borders instead... Believe me, you will not regret it...

I know it gives *more* gold the farther away it is, but if you're building naus purely because you have nothing to build besides wealth or, for some reason, you're desperate for cash, it behooves you to send them off quickly, make 200 gold, then scrap them in your own borders. Minimal maintenance costs that way.

Also, it seems like the bonus for faraway borders is a little less than I would hope. It seems like a 15 turn voyage only nets about 100 more gold tops and +5xp than a 3-turn one.

 

[Cedbird]

My first game with Portugal so this post is right on time for me . Everything from the music to the UA UB is really fun. Maybe the most fun I have had so far with BNW. I am making my firs Nau now so have not tried them yet. I was so focused on other things I did not expand too much so my cash flow has been low. But I just got my first city with access to ocean so I have two sea trades routes so my economy is doing pretty good now but not doing great. I do have a pretty large military so that is apart of my economy issue. ( I am not a fan of building tradepost) But I plan to settle a couple more cities . Love the Feitora too cool

 

[sendos]

As Portugal, I managed to get one trade route producing up to 40 gpt.

 

[Alziel]

If you can make your main trade city coastal with as many resources as you can and if you manage to snag Colossus and get all the trade buildings and East India Company in there you really won't know what to do with all the money that comes pouring in. You might not notice it at first but as the game progresses you will see just how strong Portugal can be.

By the end of my last Portugal game I was making 700+ gold per turn (Emperor level) and I wasn't in a Golden Age either.

As mentioned above, Morocco starts out stronger and is more consistent but around the Renaissance era Portugal should pull ahead and will eventually eclipse them totally.