How to play as Portugal?

Stewie0416

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So, I just finished a game was Wilhelm, and wanted to try out a leader I never really used a lot. That's why I made this thread, to get some advice on Portugal. How should I play as Portugal, how should I use the UU and UB. And most importantly, What should be my long-term plan as Portugal?

Since the UU and UB are both Sea-based, how should I use them to their full potential?

Also, one last thing, I CAN post my game here if you guys want but I will only be able to update it on Saturday so I'm not sure if that is fast enough. Also, if I post a game here, I am a Noble player that is trying to move to Prince so I think I will make it a Prince game ( I still haven't won a game on prince yet)

Any feedback is appreciated!!!:goodjob:
 
Expansion is key with joao, you get faster settlers and workers, leverage more and faster cities(than you would otherwise have) into whatever you are aiming to do. Obviously you still need to know how to manage your cities, manage happiness and manage economy. The UU can be used to invade oversea / do surprise naval attacks(not best against AI obviously) and settle new continents. It can be solid sometimes, otherwise totally useless(don't try to force it to do anything when it doesn't though). The UB is never going to be amazing, but it might be ok in some cities. Build it where apropriate, but you shouldn't force yourself to build cities where you otherwise wouldn't to get extra out of it...
 
Portugal?

Glad you asked.

Play a Snaky Continents at Huge with only 7 civs. REX like hell. Game won.
 
The question isn't how to cook the settings so you win with portugal... but what to do with portugal given whatever settings... Obviously portugal is going to be better off the more land per player there is though...
 
My problem with the Portuguese UU is that while it can carry settlers to start far off colonies...the colonies aren't connected to the mainland until Astronomy - which is a very expensive tech.

The UB is good, though. Just utilize them like normal Custom Houses.
 
Gooblah what I have actually done w/ regards to that issue is I have landed settlers on spots to save them until I get to astronomy, if an AI comes and tries to steal my fun I will settle and suck up the maintenance, and if not I wait until astronomy to settle. Basically it lets me get first dibs on the choice spots.

Also it is very possible to do nice and early intercontinental invasions if you spot a helpless AI just waiting for some tips on how to properly manage their land :mischief:
 
Also, one last thing, I CAN post my game here if you guys want but I will only be able to update it on Saturday so I'm not sure if that is fast enough.
Certainly. Post saves, screenshots, descriptions, whatever. It's OK if they are only on saturdays. Without knowing your real situation people woun't be able to give you good advices.

Generally, Joao strength lies not in Unique unit & building, it lies in his trait combo: expansive for cheaper workers and imperialistic for cheaper settlers. Which means you can expand really fast AND improve you new cities so they become profitable earlier. But really, this is not a real advice, you can see that much from just reading trait description. Start the game, post initial situation here, hear advices. Play for one thousand year, post description with screenshots and save here, hear advices and criticism. Repeat. That way you are gonna learn really fast, trust me :)

You might also want to check this thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=271393

this is by no means a typical play with Joao. It has self imposed additional rules to make it more fun. Nevertheless, you might find it useful. And interesing :)
 
Since I'm EXTREMELY impatient, I don't want to waste anymore time and start the game. Please note I have NEVER won on Prince before, I'm relying on CFCs help here:p

So, here is the settings
Since I really don't think that the UU or UB is going to be too game breaking, I'm going to use my favorite map setting, Continents. It allows me to take on one half of the AI before making contact. Nothing is really different, just Epic time speed. Now to the game


This really made me think, Joao starts with Mining so I could easily go BW and whip out a few settlers, with a high food coastal start my capital could be a monster! Well, when I saw my start, I was a little shocked.


:drool:
I was a little awed by the start ( I DID NOT RELOAD ONCE!!!!) I think I see coastline 2 tiles West, warrior is not moved so I'll probably move him 1NW.
Settle my Capital 1NW, hopefully that's Coastline with maybe a seafood. I've never seen 2 marble right next to each other!!! ( Although I recall seeing a Screenshot somewhere in this forum) With Mining, I can go BW->Agri->AH-> then
finally Masonry.

My overall plan for right now is to farm the FPs first to pump out a few settlers and workers, then following Dave's great article Cottages!!!! I will replace them later with a few cottages. This will be my first real REX so I will need all the help I can get!
 

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2 Marble? Yuck. One for the empire is fine, 2 in the capital's BFC is not...

It's a ton of hammers though, especially the one on the hill. Even before you bother with masonry you can just mine it for a 0f 5H tile ---> pretty powerful.

Quarried marble gives decent commerce.
 
2 Marble? Yuck. One for the empire is fine, 2 in the capital's BFC is not...

That Marble on the plains tile will be 1f/3f/4c IIRC. Thats a Grassland Hill with 4 extra commerce!
 
this game is already won. He has way, way, way too much commerce in the capitol to loose. He'll rex settler, workers etc and be producing massive research all game.

That's about as good as a start as you can get. GO for oracle, ToA and GL after you've gotten out 1 cheap settler and 2 cheap workers (plus 1 stolen). You can settle your second city right near those Flood PLains that you wont get in your capitol's BFC and have a second high pop settler farm (followed by a wonder farm for 3rd city?)

Also explore, explore, explore

Starting with mining is really powerful when it comes to luck because the chances of popping Bronze Working early is pretty high. That way you can chop a settler right quick and take Metal casting with your free tech. (combine with colossus and you've got some commerce)
 
It's a ton of hammers though, especially the one on the hill. Even before you bother with masonry you can just mine it for a 0f 5H tile ---> pretty powerful.

Quarried marble gives decent commerce.

I agree, He has a ton of food and hammers, which is a powerful opening. The only thing lacking is a lot of trees to chop. Expansive trait should help to offset a little the unhealthiness from the FP's. I might even delay chopping the trees to fight the unhealthiness. This start in combo with Joao's traits probably begs for REXing.
 
That's going to be one helluva a Bureaucracy capitol. Move the Warrior 1NE. The west is most likely coastline. Settle 1NE unless the warrior spots gold or silver to the west.
 
That Marble on the plains tile will be 1f/3h/4c IIRC. Thats a Grassland Hill with 4 extra commerce!

No.
4c would be on river and Financial, you have neither so you get 2c, 1 more than an ivory camp.
Still extra ressources are nice, giving you options like mining the hill-marble or later trading if you want to "encourage" some guys to build certain wonders for you.

And 1NW indeed looks like a promising place.
 
I'm down with 1NW. Even if there's no seafood it's still a great spot, and making the capital coastal is good for a "let's learn Portugal on Prince" game.

My default plan would be pretty different from yours. I say default because information gathered from exploration could easily make me reconsider.
Masonry -> Wheel -> Pottery -> Mysticism -> Poly -> Priesthood. *Then* Bronze Working.
Build something like Worker [Expansive], Warrior, Great Wall, Granary [Exp], Warrior, Settler [Imp], Oracle [Marble] (to Monarchy).

Then you'll need to catch up on expansion, but you'll have two cities, Exp/Imp, and no barb pressure.

Reasons:
* Farming flood plains that you're going to cottage in your capital is not a complete waste of time, but it is a bit of a waste. You will grow a little slowly on 3F floods, but the stupid farms take so long to build on flood plains that they would only help a little. That said, you can optionally replace Pottery and Cottages in my plan with Agriculture and Farms. My plan doesn't need Pottery except for the Granary (which is cheap with Exp) and to get a head start on the cottages. The cottages would help a little with getting the Oracle in time, since my proposal has you diverting to Masonry and going through Poly instead of Med in order to unlock Marble wonders, but I suspect that wouldn't make much difference on Prince.
* You don't have many forests to chop. The plains hill forest is almost as good as a mine. An in spite of your Exp trait you might want to save a couple forests for health - it depends what resources you find.
* The Great Wall is a little bit more barb protection than you probably need, but it buys you peace and quiet to build the Oracle and then expand - even with Warriors if necessary. Masonry is a good first good tech for you and you have a strong production capital (you can even mine the pigs for a while, prior to AH), so you can definitely get it if you build it right away.
* Oracle to Monarchy is conservative. You probably could do better (Metal Casting or Code of Laws, or even a better tech) on Prince with this start. But Oracling to Monarchy is a safe tactic that's worth getting used to, and it fits for this start. Monarchy would let you stuff your capital with an Academy and Archers and easily get it to size 11 (6 flood cottages, pigs, 2 marble, 2 scientists) with 4 food left over.

After the Oracle, besides expansion I'd be looking at the Great Library and *maybe* the Temple of Artemis if you get bored. I don't mean "get bored" literally, but if for example you saw that your third and forth city blocked off some land with no AI competition, then you might go for it (if it hadn't been built already). I advise against going for the Great Lighthouse. It's a little meh on the Continents map script, and you don't have any bonuses for building it, and I am proposing that you build two other early wonders instead.

I have no special advice for what to do with the Spy and/or Prophet you'd get from the early wonders I proposed. By default I would plan on settling a prophet and using a spy to explore and then saving it for a tech-stealing bomb.
 
Spoiler :
I decided to go W because of desert. That looks like jackpot. Litte production though
 
Ok, I just have 1 question. Can barbs kill Great People? Also, I'm probably going to play the next 10 turns soon.
 
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