Help! Portugal is just so poor! What can i do?

[irmanyadi]

Im trying to play as Portugal. I just cant seem to get money and get the economy going. Is there some event or mission that I need to trigger?

FYI, im a newbie in this game (obviously), and I only have plain vanilla EU4 (no DLC), my understanding is limited for now. Only Campaign ive successfully played was with Ottoman.

Any advise would be most welcome. Thanks!

[irmanyadi]

Which DLC grants you Golden Age? Im intrigued.

[glock30owner]

Originally posted by Québecball:

Fourth, sell your Portuguese province in Morocco, it's not worth spending a lot of administrative power to get all of Morocco.

Absolutely do not do this. You want to take Tangiers (later the rest of the coastal provinces) with the help of Castile (and Tlemcen) to expand your influence in the Sevellia trade node.

Your way to a huge economy is trade dominance. Trade companies and colonial colonies (at least 10 provinces) in any area you can steer trade to your home node (this can be changed later in the game).

[Damphair]

I agree, Ceuta is too valueful to be sold for a measly >100 ducats. If you manage to take a few provinces from Morocco early, it will be worth it in the long run. But you don't need to blob over all north africa, that's way too expensive at the start.

And as Portugal you are gonna suffer alot of hits in the economy, especially if you are colonizing very rapidly. But remember that colonizing is an investment which will pay off big time starting after 1550 usually. Colonize trade ports in which you can steer trade to Sevilla.

My prioritites for Portugal is as follows:
1. Carribean
2. Ivory Coast (Trade power provinces only)
3. Brazil
4. South Africa
5. East Africa (Kill of the african tribes there)

And the rest you can just colonize how you want them, south/north africa, malacca or even australia.

[Scott]

As others have said: it's a tough start, but colonize. Seriously. Colonize, colonize, colonize. Once your first colony gets going you'll pretty much be set (especially if you get lucky and find gold in one of those early provinces) because then you'll have a steady source of income coming in from your colony(s). If you can manage, get over to the west coast of South America ASAP 'cause there's a ton of gold provinces over there and the locals have pretty much zero tech. If you can't manage that, Mexico's a good place to head for a start (I say second become Castile/Spain generally show up there pretty quickly, so you'll be up against a fellow European power eventually... not a major problem if they're your ally, but it's certainly going to make things a bit more difficult - also, the Central American powers tend to have slightly better tech levels than the South Americans).

Edit: Also, although a colony forms after only 5 provinces are cored, you may want to keep colonizing until there are 10 in a province, so you get the extra merchant. That's also around the time the your colonies can start colonizing for themselves.

[Tulduil Iphukiir]

Originally posted by irmanyadi:

Which DLC grants you Golden Age? Im intrigued.

Mandate of Heaven

[Despiser]

The problem with holding Cuerte is you need to build 5 armies to start the exploration mission and the cost of even the cheapest units puts you in the red. You have little means of getting to the exploration idea due to negative cash flow no matter how you cut corners.

[irmanyadi]

I tried both methods, which was trying to conquer Tangiers and then Morocco, or sell Cueta and avoid conflict. I failed utterly with first methods,

but by selling Cueta i managed to become a superpower a century later, and Spain went on a rampage (took all north africa except mamluks area), with my help.

[priamossz]

i like to add to the conversation that if you have a colonial nation that has gold then gold fleets start to arrive to your nation carrying like 100 gold a trip. for this the trade node do have to travel into your trade.

[bri]

Originally posted by Despiser:

The problem with holding Cuerte is you need to build 5 armies to start the exploration mission and the cost of even the cheapest units puts you in the red. You have little means of getting to the exploration idea due to negative cash flow no matter how you cut corners.

Ditch the Iberian forts, you really shouldn't ever need them (unless you are trying some conquer Iberia campaign and no newbie should be thinking that way).

Take Tangier and Melila for yourself (every bit of TP in Sevilla matters). Feed the rest of Morocco to a march (the whole Ifni node if you want to really put the brakes on raids). You'll have a hard time winning the first war alone but with Castile's help it's pretty easy, especially after they get the IW.

[Despiser]

Originally posted by bri:

Originally posted by Despiser:

The problem with holding Cuerte is you need to build 5 armies to start the exploration mission and the cost of even the cheapest units puts you in the red. You have little means of getting to the exploration idea due to negative cash flow no matter how you cut corners.

Ditch the Iberian forts, you really shouldn't ever need them (unless you are trying some conquer Iberia campaign and no newbie should be thinking that way).

Take Tangier and Melila for yourself (every bit of TP in Sevilla matters). Feed the rest of Morocco to a march (the whole Ifni node if you want to really put the brakes on raids). You'll have a hard time winning the first war alone but with Castile's help it's pretty easy, especially after they get the IW.

I did get rid of the fort in Iberia on the coast, but being an ally to Castille I guess I don’t need those either. I thought Morrocco would be easy to beat given their weaker navy and army, even without Castille. Many thanks.

[bri]

Originally posted by Despiser:

Originally posted by bri:

Ditch the Iberian forts, you really shouldn't ever need them (unless you are trying some conquer Iberia campaign and no newbie should be thinking that way).

Take Tangier and Melila for yourself (every bit of TP in Sevilla matters). Feed the rest of Morocco to a march (the whole Ifni node if you want to really put the brakes on raids). You'll have a hard time winning the first war alone but with Castile's help it's pretty easy, especially after they get the IW.

I did get rid of the fort in Iberia on the coast, but being an ally to Castille I guess I don’t need those either. I thought Morrocco would be easy to beat given their weaker navy and army, even without Castille. Many thanks.

The problem is they aren't so much weaker that you can get away with trying to siege down forts on mountains and they have two of them. You're highly unlikely to stack-wipe their army and in any case they can rebuild. As soon as you try to siege down Fez or Marrakech you're likely to get thrashed and then wiped yourself.

[irmanyadi]

Perhaps it is much easier to quickly conquer Morocco with additional DLC rather than plain vanilla EU4?

Either way, since some did mention here it is a viable strategy to conquer Morocco early on i might give it a try soon, now that I understand the game better.

Also, might be getting Mandate of Heaven as suggested here. But now im trying to play Wealth of Nation first, just bought it

[bri]

Originally posted by irmanyadi:

Perhaps it is much easier to quickly conquer Morocco with additional DLC rather than plain vanilla EU4?

Either way, since some did mention here it is a viable strategy to conquer Morocco early on i might give it a try soon, now that I understand the game better.

Also, might be getting Mandate of Heaven as suggested here. But now im trying to play Wealth of Nation first, just bought it

Not really, the only DLC thing that could help soloing them is condotierre and you can't afford them (plus someone has to offer them to you). To beat down Morocco you need enough men to win a fight on a mountain, likely several times. That's actually a little bit easier in vanilla than with all the DLC because of how the favor system affects allies joining your war.

[Neutrino Bomb]

Portugal is a trade giant, trade, and steal trade power from castile by using light ships

[CyPunk]

Just to add my voice, I am with the "don't sell Ceuta" camp. Tangiers is too valuable later so Spain does not dominate the Sevilla trade node and steal all the money your colonies are making. Just do not rush into it... wait until Castile is strong (e.g. manpower and money are okay) and get them to do the heavy lifting, ideally when Morroco is having a hard time. I often play smaller countries with big buddies and you get really good at managing allies and guaging weaknesses of enemies or prey ... my favourite part of the game.

Also in the dump England camp. You can actually help them win the France war, and get some ships out the deal yourself, but by their second war they are a drain and distraction...especially if you have to fight any natives.

On Mandate DLC, naturally get it on Sale, but I would say Portugal really gets allot out of the first Age and can really leverage this to steam ahead.