Help - Playing with Portugal

[Felix953]

What are the social policies you suggest me to addopt for a strategy using Portugal. Tradition, Liberty, Piety, Patronage, Aesthetics, Commerce, Exploration?
I don't know if I should choose aesthetics to give me a high boost on culture which will be able to carry more social policies quickly, if I should take Liberty instead of Tradition, if Patronage will be absolutely necessary or huge menace...

 

[Stellarnight]

Not sure if i will be of any help but i have a recent Portugal game on Emperor, Continents.

I went with Tradition because i have 2 fishes and 3 pearls for Lisbon so i wanted a powerful capital. I started sea trading pretty early and i raked in gold easily, enabling me to purchase 3 settlers pretty quickly to snag the luxuries around which further boosted my income.

Patronage is pretty decent to open because Forbidden Palace is a good wonder to have. In my case i have like 8 CS on my continent so it is a no brainer to at least get Consulates and the extra influence for cash gifts (good synergy with Portugal $$!)

Only open Aesthetics if you are gunning for CV if not, you are better off with Commerce/exploration or better still, Rationalism. I don't think it is prudent to open Aesthetics just to gain more culture for policies.

So my general recommendation. Full Tradition> Half Patronage(get the 25% Science at least)> Half Exploration (if Rationalism is not available yet) > Full Rationalism if possible

 

[Felix953]

ok, thx for the explanation, I really don't know if it is better to take aesthetics to reduce the culture costs of future policies and use the happiness to generate more culture and taking after this the essential: commerce and exploration; or by the time wasted choosing aesthetics you can instantly go for both. In the end of the game this can make a huge difference, and maybe you will have more social policies and more quickly, without waiting lots of turns, following aesthetics, maybe. As for patronage, I think that Feitoria is designed to avoid paying for city states, to steal the resources without spend munny to push them to your side, so if I am paying for them probably I am wasting the logic bonus of this amazing improvement, don't you think?