Does Portugal have good potential for a good military

[JLHartsock]

I heard they get a crud ton of revenue via trade. Can they use this to fund a powerful military or do they not have the manpower?

[AlwaysRM]

Well ya gonna need some mil idea groups for it.
Also: Mercs

[Vladimiś]

Depends on what do you mean by powerful. They dont bring fighting capability from their ideas so you will have to rely on idea groups. In singe it will be good enough but you probably will have to bring more troops if you plan on fighting somebody who is naturally better at it, like French or Spaniards

[Radene]

In EU4, you can go for colonial/trade or try to conquer Europe. Not both tho. You stretch yourself too thin.

[Gnolfus]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Radene:

In EU4, you can go for colonial/trade or try to conquer Europe.

Why not both? The AI is retarded, and with some clever diplomacy and a military idea group or two you can blob and outgrow easily. Colonies give force limit as well.

[Kago™².]

Not really, even if you pick defensive and ofensive France will always be superior to you.

[JLHartsock]

So too match Castille and France I should hire mercs?

[Kago™².]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von firestar587:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Cago™².:

Not really, even if you pick defensive and ofensive France will always be superior to you.

mercs op

Even if you spam tons of mercs their morale will be the same as your troops, lets say 5-6 with ofensive and defensive ideas. France will probaly have 8 morale. The frenchies will just send their army to Portugal and siege all the provinces before you can even create mercs. WIth all your local provinces taken you wont be able to hire mercs.

[Kago™².]

Where did I say that you said it?

[Kago™².]

No,no. I just dont see how mercs are overpowered at all. If your military is bad compared to a major power such as France, it doesnt matter the amount of mercs you hire because even if you send 60kvs30k the french military ideas+ their national ideas will be enough to crush the portuguse army. After that defeat they will head towards Portugals provinces in the Iberian Peninsula. It doesnt matter if you are fast enough to create more mercs, the result will be similar.
Im just trying to say that Portugal vs France (for example) is very very difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

[JLHartsock]

Does having tons of colonies increase man power.

[Kago™².]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von firestar587:

ok if your fighting france with only 30k troops your doing something way wrong ibera gives about 45k troops northen africa about 20-35k west africa can give get anywhere from 20-50k and say 10k for other colonys thats way more then 30k and thats not even counting allies (of which you should have many)

Numbers doesnt matter at all. Its all about army tradition, discipline, morale and generals.
If those parameters are superior to yours, the chances of loosing the battle are very high. Ofc, you may stay in the mountains to get the -2 penalty and things like that, that can definitely help, but Im just assuming a "normal" scenario.

[Kago™².]

I dont fully understand what do you mean :/ ?

A simple example of what I said is when you discover the New World. The natives there have horrible military tech. Even if they send 20k against your 5k european stack you'll destroy them. Why? Because you have better military tech/morale/discipline/army tradition.
The generals are more random...you may have 70 army tradition and get 1star general...

[JLHartsock]

So avoid conflict with France or Castille as Portugal unless I have allies. Just going around getting info before my first play through.

[Kago™².]

The different between both is zero, both are europeans... But their national ideas are completely different and focused into different directions. While one is more focused into trade and colonization (Portugal) the other is focused towards war (France)
It was an example to show you that numbers doenst matter when the morale/discipline are way too different between both sides.

So the question was: Does Portugal have good potential for a good military? The simple and easy answer would be: no, it doesnt.
You can turn it into a major power but not a military one (ofc you can conquer half of Europe and you will be strong enough to take down anyone but that requires a lot of work)
If you want to be a be a major military power you will always have a disadvantage against countries with a military national idea that increase moreale, discipline, etc. You will have to be agressive: conquer all the iberian peninsula, the north of africa (even tho that land is poor) and expand as much as possible. Colonies will provide money and force limit but colonies dont really help in european wars (they tend to stay in America, except for the ships)

[JLHartsock]

So basically a trade nation that has an inferior army that if used right can get the job done. I can use colonies to help fund wars but not to rely on them to win them?