Introduction

I have been playing with Portugal lately and I like to think I am decent with them. The following is a way of playing the Portuguese.
Some points and opnions about them that I have gathered through games to start off:

-Fast fortress isnīt the way to go. You have to make a commitment to stay in colonial for a while. You need a plan.

-Their economy starts off slowly.Some people try to "fix" this by shipping resources in the first age. I think this is a mistake, You should go up early and send 2 shipments in a row. This also has strategic value, since the opponent canīt see your deck before he makes his first moves, and you can see his deck before you choose yours -though I donīt do it.

-Tier 2 dragoons suck, not only do they cost a shipment, but they have a measly 200 hit points for such an expensive unit. I would advise against taking this route.

-Ports are made to counter the enemy. This stems from the fact that they start behind economically. You have to adapt to the enemy, and you shouldnīt go on the offensive early on. This means youīll use towers. This means you should get culverins upon reaching fortress age to counter falconets. This means you need all 5 senses in your economy. This means you somehow have to place your economy above that of the enemy: it is like having to make a comeback from the start of the game. This means you need to raid the enemy. This is where I think players fail with Portugal: most are content masing xbows for defense. You canīt raid well with xbows, and chances are the opponent will have more troops and kill the army out in the wilderness without the aid of your buildings. I think hussars serve Portugal very well in colonial.

Pre-fortress plan

With that in mind I have come up with my own little Portuguese strategy. Itīs nothing fancy, but works well vs people of your own skill level, which is something worth mentioning with Portugal. I donīt think it beats better players, but I am still working on that lol. Oh, another thing, you are bound to have long games with this strat, sorry...but thatīs the civilizationīs nature.

So hereīs the first dilemma you are faced with: how to stay in colonial for a while if your economy is worse than that of the enemy, resulting in worse military and no map-control? You wonīt be allowed to hunt all over the map...and yet you have to field military and make villies from 2 TCs? This is when I realized I needed a plan: I need to start milling early. You canīt support constant villy flow from 2 TCs with a livestock pen, and you canīt hunt that much, so mills are the only solution.
You need to be extremely efficient managing your economy at this point. Youīll be pushed and your villies will be garrisoned many times. Ungarrison them as soon as there is no danger. Youīll get proficient at this with time.

Age of Empires games are all about economy, everyone knows that, so much so that it is the number one reason Blizzard fans hate the series. With this strat this is more true than ever. Try to always have those 2 TCs pumping...

Step-by-step plan

-Just hunt in age 1 and go up asap without sending shipments, usually with something like 12-13 vills. Choose 500 food politician.

-As you click colonial age button, send 6 vills to wood and 4 to gold.

-Colonial comes, build TC fast and close, a stable somewhere hidden if possible, and send the 700 food card.

-Vills now go to wood and crates, train a hussar when the stable is up, and add 4 more to the queue at the last minute. 5 hussars can go along way at this point; they can raid and take the pressure off your base, and kill troops in small groups as you see them walking. You canīt hunt, so make sure the enemy canīt either without investing on it. Donīt fight head-on with them unless supported by TC or tower fire. They also help scout the enemy to see what he is up to.
Note: before training the hussars I normally check the enemyīs main gold mine with the explorerīs ability to see if he is going fast fortress. If this is the case donīt train hussars, and ship 700 gold later to go fortress yourself.

-The second shipment should be 700 wood. Try to set up 2 mills asap, but at least build one now. The reason is, save Ottoman, the enemy wonīt have such an overwhelming army at that point, so the shipment is safe. Donīt build a market just yet.

-The third shipment should be ready soon. Man the mill with 10 vills, and send 2 towers to protect your TCs and mill/s. If the enemy reacted defensively with pikes, send the 8 xbows card instead.

-Try to build a second mill sometime now, and upgrade the mill gathering upgrade. Donīt worry if you have like 20 vills on food and 2-3 on wood at some point: newly created vills go to wood. It is now that you build a market and research both wood upgrades and the first gold up. All vills now go to wood.

-Mid-late colonial you should build a barracks for xbows if you predict there will be troubles. So there you are...you donīt have much, but you can train 5 hussars and 5 xbows, and fight under TC+tower fire. You are weak, but can survive. Luckily it starts to get better.

-You could send the mill gathering upgrade card, which would help a ton, but you know better than that. Send the advanced church card instead, and build the church. As soon as you reasearch the "+20% mill gathering up but -5% for other res", you can start thinking about going to fortress.

-Remember! You donīt build anymore mills and have only 20 vills on food. Hereīs when you start playing catch-up economically. In late colonial send more vills to gold -beforehand you had like 5 max-, and try to sneak in and build a tower near a second gold mine.

-We already have the church, and we are going to fortress...what to do? Research mercantilism. Politician to fortress should be 7 cassadors, unless the opponent reached fortress before you clicked on the upgrade, in which case you should choose the fast-aging politician.

Fortress age and the flow of the game

In fortress you will arrive with 2-3 shipments ready-sometimes even 4. Depending on the opponent, and the amount of resources in stock, you should choose what to ship. The possibilities are:

-3 organ guns - 1000 wood - 10 xbows: if low on wood, against mostly infantry. Research bestieros at the church.
-3 organ guns - 9 cassadors - 10 xbows: great vs infantry if you can afford 2000 wood -thatīs why you need 2 wood upgrades- for bestieros.
-9 halberdiers - 1000 gold -ronin: if versing mostly cavalry or pushed with buildings.
-3 organ guns - 9 halberdiers - ronin: great if you have the gold in stock for the ronin.

Donīt forget to build an artillery foundry for 2-3 culverins. I canīt stress this enough. Trade food for gold if needed. Yes, hussars could kill the falconets, but sometimes they are not enough and early fortress is black riders and manchu cav archersī heaven. I would suggest relying on culverins to get the job done. One thing you are sure of: the enemy himself will struggle to destroy your culverins with a wall of bestieros around.
Train some halbs if you need to take out buildings.
Oh ya, I forgot, I never get the fort card lol. If you can kill 2-3 falconets in fortress and have the 3 TCīs pumping, you can have the game won already.
You actually want the enemy to go forward in fortress and try to kill you. After all, you are always getting 2-3 culverins, and a fort would only discourage the enemy. I also find the bestieros very effective at this point.
About the enemyīs fort...if he places it forward, well, you canīt destroy it in fortress with Portugal, so you might as well go to the industrial age for mortars.
You were going industrial anyway.

Ship the textile mill card soemtime now that you probably have a couple plantations running. Get a third one later on. Choose the gold politician. Advanced arsenal card should have been shipped already...

Industrial age: name cassador

Once in industrial we switch gears. All of a sudden you start massing guard cassadors, and get all of their arsenal upgrades, which are quite a few. Their damage can get up to 50, which is pretty nasty for a 1-pop-unit, and that is without the HC cards that improve cassadors and muskets.
Thereīs 2 problems: cannons and cavalry. Upgrade culverins and get artillery ups at the arsenal. Use mortars only when you are on the offense or to take down the annoying fort: you canīt take out buildings with cassadors and culverins.
Now to counter the cavalry we could use dragoons, but this is too...ordinary -and we arenīt upgrading dragoons whatsoever. Instead, ship those black riders from the church in Lisbon, as well as those asian mercenaries!

Some tricks

-If you can send the advanced arsenal card in early fortress all the better, especially for the infantry speed upgrade -really useful for ronin and halbs.

-It is very easy to lose the ronin, but they wreak havoc if unnoticed. Sometimes I send them together with a bunch of hussars, so these can absorb some ranged damage, allowing the ronin to get close. On the same line, always send the ronin with some halbs, so the enemy canīt just focus fire them easily.
If not, just keep them near bestieros, helping vs buildings and cavalry.

-With many cassadors, divide them into 2-3 groups to focus fire since they do great damage, especially vs cavalry.

The deck

It would look something like this:

Age 1: Adv. Plantation, Colonial Militia
Age 2: 700 wood, 700 food, 700 gold, 8 xbows, 2 towers, adv. church, adv. arsenal
Age 3: 1000 wood, 1000 gold, 9 cassadors, 3 organ guns, 9 halberdiers, ronin, 10 xbows, textile mill
Age 4: 1600 gold, asian mercs, attack and hit points for cassadors

-Colonial militia is used vs Ottoman, and vs aggresive players in colonial age.
-Adv. plantations is included in case the enemy tries to deny you of gold.
-Textile mill and 1600 gold cards to better afford cassadors+siege.

Alternative cards which would go well with the strat: 1600 wood, 4 organ guns, 20 pikes, 16 muskets, 2 culverins, free organ+mortar ups, pioneers, 600 food, 600 wood, faster-creating infantry.

Closing comments

I donīt include comments about trading posts and native posts because I am still not much into them. You wonīt have map-control so simply grab the 1 -or 2- trade posts which are closest to your base.

I donīt have all those cards yet, but the stratin colonial and fortress is exactly how I play it now, and I believe itīs the basis of the strat. The fianl deck will look something like the one above, give or take 1-2 cards depending on my experiences.
It probably isnīt the best way to play with the Portuguese, and I doubt it can compete with fairly good players, but it still has some good points. The trick with the 2 mills+church and then forgetting all game about food is pretty effective as far as I can tell, and allows for comebacks when it starts to pay off in fortress. This, combined with the free TCs can go a long way, and I invite players to try it out.

In industrial age, it is probably better to go Ceresī way with factories, heavy cannons, and dragoons, but thatīs is just uncool for me -ie. too good hehe.

Hope you enjoyed reading this strategy and look forward to playing some Portuguese.

[This message has been edited by unjugon (edited 12-13-2005 @ 01:24 PM).]