Where to go from here

[jackelgull]

I am currently playing Portugal as Darius thanks to some feedback I got about the best leader for colonial Portugal on terra. I understand this is a rather broad question so I'll get more specific.
Here is my empire in 820 b.c

So my first question is, looking at this map, where should I expand next? Should I expand more overseas? I am sure I am sitting at the bottom of the continent with a bunch of islands below me and I am fairly certain they should be inhabitable. I just have move my galley over to see. Or maybe I should try to make a land grab further west?
Then there is my tech situation


After I finish currency where should I go next? I definitely want optics for overseas settling, but that is a long way from now. Should I trade my way down the religious line? Then get monarchy for heditary rule? Or is going to metal casting first for the Colossus and forges a better idea?
Finally there are some specific cities
First up is Opporto

I am building the great Lighthouse in it because I literally have no better cities. I have good commerce and lots of food but my production is piss poor which is why slavery is so useful in this case. Should I continue building the Great Light House and chop for it, or just abandon it as a failed pipe dream and take the consolation prize.
Then there is Evora

After I build a lighthouse I'll need a monument because once this baby's borders expand I'll have three seafood resources and lot of commerce . I wonder what to do with this city though. With three seafood I can turn this into a GP farm. But maybe if I don't, if I use the sea food to accelerate growth then turn to regular coastal tiles and build the Maoi statues I'll have a decent production city. Of course I'll need to wait for a border pop first.

 

[Izuul]

If you can attach a save it makes it a lot easier to see what's going on, and also what you did to reach this point.

 

[dutchfire]

What is your overall plan? The choices that your present here depend strongly on that.

 

[jackelgull]

Well I have no clue how to attach an save and as for my overall plan, I hope to get a domination victory on terra by using Portugal's ability to settle overseas early but first I need to grab a decent amount of land on the old continent first.

 

[dutchfire]

If you really want the Great Lighthouse, you can mine the Grassland hill in Oporto, and make your scientists work high hammer tiles to speed up the completion.

How is your defensive situation? Are there dangerous AIs near? With your low production, that could be a problem.

Getting Evora productive will take a long time. You can speed it up by building the necessary workboats in other cities.

 

[MegaLurker]

You need to chop and mine that hill and assign one of your scientists to it. Probably chop all the forests into the Great Lighthouse. Once it's done you should settle as many island cities as possible, they'll all be instantly profitable. Evora really should have been settled 1S to get the clams without a border pop, leaving the second clams to another island city.

 

[mattie_p]

In addition to chopping out The Great Lighthouse as others recommended above, you have Alphabet, do start investigating AI techs and start trading.

I'm surprised you haven't researched at least to priesthood already, as most here would strongly recommend attempting to get The Oracle for the free technology. It is almost certainly too late to attempt that at this point, though.

Then there is Moscow directly north of your empire. Grab that desert iron and go a-conquering. It's not really a rush at this point, seems to late in the game and your military seems under-developed. You may want to go for construction to get catapults before going to war with them.

 

[traius]

Now that you have already settled that for clam city, you should go monument before lighthouse. But then like others have said, chop out the GLH, and get 4 island cities. Then keep expanding until you get down to ~30% on the slider is cash neutral, and build some cottages so you recover. Then optics and expand to the new world and get an island in the new world too. With first crack at the new world and the GLH, you could win this peacefully pretty easily. But don't. Peaceful victories are lame, lol

 

[jackelgull]

I'm planning to wait until I tech currency to fish out what I can get for that. As for the AI situation, after I finish the great light house I'll switch to Hinduism. That way I'll share a religion with my most powerful neighbor Russia. That will earn me some brownie points and if it becomes desperate, some gold in the right hands could work. And if someone does come calling I have one big advantage- my land is easily defensible. I don't plan on fighting until I absolutely have to or if it is for some diplomatic points with my new Hindu buddies in a war I likely won't have to contribute to. Finally I didn't bother with the oracle. I had other priorities and it didn't seem worth it. The only two wonders I felt I have to get is the Great Light House and the Colossus.

 

[sinimusta]

What game speed (or mod?) is this? T269 and only 810BC

 

[jackelgull]

Game speed is marathon- Normal goes too fast for me.

 

[Izuul]

I can't help with marathon. I've hardly even completed a game on epic. lol

 

[dutchfire]

Game speed is marathon- Normal goes too fast for me.

Ah, that also explains why it will take so long to build the lighthouse in Evora. I'm really not used to Marathon time scales.

 

[jackelgull]

I have an update. Though this isn't so much a help me as it is what did I do wrong.
First of all, my overseas colonies.


As you can see right now they aren't all that impressive but they have two food sources and one other resource in their fat cross. They are really just jumping points to aid in my colonization of the new world. But I'm wondering if I shouldn't have been so hasty and explored a little more before plopping these cities down?

Next is the tech situation

I won the liberalism race and took gunpowder. I am deliberately delaying astronomy for two reasons.
1. I don't need it, I have the carracks.
2. The Colossus goes obsolete with astronomy.
I was planning until the AI's researched it for me and I could trade it for them because by then I wouldn't have monopoly of the sea anymore and I would need a better navy. And I am gunning for steel because it gives me cannons!!!! And better siege is never a bad thing. I figure since I can't have a larger military like these AI's can, I can at least have a better one. Was that the right move? I know I said I have bad production but slavery plus the Maoi statues plus bureaucracy in my capital will help with that. Did I make the right move? Or would other techs have been better researched?

Speaking of my capital

Here it is, the apple of my eye. It has got the best production and commerce out of all my cities. I am wondering if I should build my iron works city here, or save it for a colonial city which I can better plan out though it will take longer to get up and running.

Here is my empire in 1350 ad.


Have you noticed the new continental additions? It seems that Portugal was not as military pathetic as I thought. There was one civilization more pathetic than us and that was the English. I took two coastal cities from them recently and sued for peace. See my stack on the border? I was thinking perhaps more additions to the Portugese Empire are necessary. But the diplomacy situation isn't as good as it was the first time I invaded.

Before none of the powers that be liked the English. Now Monty and Peter are pleased with England and I actually give a damn about their opinion. Should I have continued the war when England was an outcast. I didn't because I got two coastal cities and I was afraid of the AI's counter attack. It is some kind of rule that, assuming the same amount of land, the AI will roughly have a SoD three times the size of your military:for any type of counter attack If it is more than the ratio can go way up.
Now should I see if I can bribe Monty in attacking the English to gain a plus 2 modifier with him for mutual military struggle? I don't want Russia to join in, it actually has a chance at taking land, though if it sends a stack I can sneak in and steal a city from the Russians. And should I wait for a new war until I have cannons, or is my technology advanced enough that I can scoff at those?

And finally I will share some thoughts. Though I am far from winning this game I enjoyed trying this strategy and it opened my eyes to a new type of economy. The GL + the Colossus economy. The extra trade routes from the light house plus the extra commerce yield from oceans synergizes well with financial and makes my little nation a true tech monster out teching even the largest of empires. And since I have delayed Astronomy and I have economics, once I build feitora's a coastal tile will be 2 food 5 commerce. I'm not saying it isn't situational but if you find yourself near water and a food source with a nation that starts with fishing and a financial leader- you may want to consider it. And while it isn't necessarily stronger than a CE it doesn't have to be. The plus side is that it can be run with a CE or SE and I think Portugal is the civ best suited to such a type of strategy.

Wow this was a long post. I hope you guys can help me reflect on what I should have done so that next time I can do better because I am pretty sure there was a litany of mistakes in my play style.

 

[dutchfire]

Make sure you have enough workers on the new continent. Chopping can greatly help your new cities, and you want to make sure that you're always working improved tiles.

 

[Lennier]

Well I have no clue how to attach an save

Use the "Go Advanced" button, scroll down to the "Additional Options" section, click the "Manage Attachments" button. A screen will pop up letting you select and upload files to attach to the post. (Only certain kinds are allowed, but all Civ save files are allowed.)