|
Winning
with Portugal
by Mike
Montgomery (mmontgomery@slb.com)
Here is a
short tutorial on how to win with Portugal on the Normal setting with
the standard old world map. (In case you are not aware, Portugal has
a very bad starting position, with only 4 provinces. If you can win
with Portugal, you can win with anybody.)
Research priorities
Saw Mill $300
-> Printing press $200
(rush saw mill
to get printing press 5 turns sooner)
Merchant
Companies -> Money Lending -> University
Mine
Engineering -> Copper & Tin Mining
[Sugar Cane]
->Sugar Refining -> Apprentice -> University
[Spices] ->
Improve Sea Routes -> Convey
Organized
Regiments -> Weapon Craftmanship
The main point
here is to try win the technology race by first developing those
techs that help with future research, i.e. printing press and
university. Also, keep a base level of funding in each research area
each turn. I rarely accelerate until I have a good source of revenue
coming in (except saw mill, which I consider a must.) Taking capitols
early can help supply money to keep research funded until you get
some riches developed. Also, I avoid researching techs that other
countries have until I have a spy ready to help. I try to build one
offensive and one defensive spy as early as I can manage. (Being the
technolgy leader means that you will often have a lot of people
spying on you, so the defensive spy is really more important than the
offensive spy. And when you don't need an offensive spy, put him to
help with defense. [I am not really sure if the effect of defensive
spies is cumulative. Multiple offensive spies do not seem to help,
even when they are spying in different countries that both have the
relevant tech. Does anyone know for sure?]
I want
Convoying for Galleons, which you need lots of to transport fish and
other goods.
I want Weapon
Craftmanship to get Musketeers, which are the mainstay of my army in
this phase. I really don't care if I get any other level 2 unit
except Lancers (which you get on the way to Musketeers anyway).
Then get roads
and head toward Crucible process. If possible, try to get Heavy
Artillery before all of the other countries get Heavy Emplaced
Artillery. If you succeed, declare war on the best country without
Heavy Emplaced Artillery and decimate them. (Your artillery can
destroy their forts taking no damage in return.)
In the
meantime, defend yourself primarily with Musketeers (Weapon
Craftmanship). I don't worry about Horse Artillery. I generally am
not ready to attack a major power until later in the game. But the AI
always quickly goes for this. So you can often get most techs related
to this by spying.
Early Development
Turn 1.
Build 2 extra citizens. Don't worry that you can't feed them yet. You
have 30 turns before they will starve. Build 1 paper and 1 lumber.
Develop the nearest sheep farm (NE), and build a road toward it. Send
all 3 ships exploring. You don't need to trade right now anyway.
Successive turns:
Continue exploring with ships. Each turn primarily build cloth,
lumber, or iron.
Turn 2.
Build 2 extra explorers. Continue the road toward the iron ore.
Turn 3.
Develop the wood next to your road. Continue the road over the next
several turns to pick up the copper and the two livestock fars.
Hopefully you have found the next world by now. If so, unleash all 3
explorers. Desert should be first priority, then Mountains. Explore
other areas only as needed to move inland.
As soon as you
discover an enemy capital, put the ship to make a beachhead on an
ADJACENT province (don't attack directly). Also, send the next
closest ship back to your port. You are going to have some stuff
coming in soon. Now use 2 cloth stockpiled to build 2 knights. Next
turn, attack with 3 Knights. Following turn, move your other two
units to the province. Next turn, use all 5 units to attack the
capital. Even if the capitol does not have anything else of value, it
provide $3000 (which is a very needed early in the game) and some
fish. For this reason, I try to take every capitol I can find. Of
course, seizing a province with diamonds or gems takes precedence
over taking a capitol.
Subsequent development
Once you have
2 lumber, 2 iron, 2 cloth, I nickle, and 1 copper coming in per turn,
make developing food and expanding your population as fast as
possible your highest development priority. Also, you should be
learning Convoying by now, so you will need to build a lot of extra
lumber, cloth, and bronze to make Galleons, which will bring in the
necessary fish (and other goodies) from all of the capitols you have taken.
Diplomacy
I personally
avoid any overtures toward diplomacy at all until later
in the game. I
refuse alliances (because they usually try to drag me into wars) and
I make no contact with the minor nations. Only after I am
sufficiently advanced in my economy and have enough excess cargo
capacity to begin trading do I begin diplomacy. Then I generally
build Trade Consulates and Embassies in every minor nation, and buy
one piece of land in every nation so that I could be asked to
intervene in case of war. Afterwards, I give generous trade subsidies
to all of the minor nations and try to trade like crazy to make up
for lost time. I buy stuff I don't need just to make lots of deals,
and build lots of cargo capacity, and generally offer a lot of stuff
like lumber for sale.
Avoid war
absolutely as long as possible. The only reasons I see to go to war
early is to defend a minor nation who will join you, or to take
advantage of an artillery tech lead. I do NOT go to war for riches. I
can usually get enough on my own to fund the early game, and later
when my economy is rolling I can make plenty of money selling excess
lumber, etc.
Eventually you
hit a point where your economy cannot grow any more because of lack
of wheat (all wheat supplies have been upgraded to level 2 already).
[If you are short of fish, you should have taken more capitols, so
suppliment by building more ports.] So you really need to attack
someone to get their wheat. The best candidate is your only neighbor,
Spain, since those wheat supplies can be brought in by road, while
any other country would have to bring in supplies by boat. Try to
pick a time when Spain is at war with someone else, and then offer an
Alliance to them, which as a side affect puts you at war with Spain.
Obviously before this, build up your army for the attack. If you
don't have an artillery advantage, may want to researcha and build
some mobile artillery, although fixed artillery (staying out of range
and breaching a wall) , lancers, and musketeeers can usually suffice
against most defenses. Always include a general in every battle so
that you can build his experience. A 4* general can make a HUGE
difference in bringing in extra units to attack heavily fortified capitols.
I can win
nearly 100% of the time with this strategy without ever reverting to
an earlier save. So I wish you good luck in trying it and expanding
on it for yourself.
 |
