I’ve started a new one as Portugal. I feel like I’m struggling just the same amount as I was with Sweden, but I think it’s because I’ve pushed my fledgling empire (much closer) to its limit, and that’s where the struggle is coming from, rather than a combination of being a junior partner and not knowing how the game works.
I leaned pretty hard into colonization; I almost immediately got the idea to give a colonist (ok, you have to unlock your first idea group first, but you get the idea). The colonization range is much more limited, early on, which poses some interesting/annoying challenges (wasting time on that single province so I could reach the ivory coast, for example).
I learned the hard way about naval attrition and supply ranges, let me tell you that. I’m decently good at guessing when I need to turn back now, but I suspect I’m being overly conservative.
I’m definitely leading the colonization game (at least I think so, I don’t have full visibility of the new world, of course). But I still take it as a personal affront any time anyone gets a colony anywhere in the world, heh. I’ve got maybe 7 provinces in Brazil, soon to be four in Colombia (where the British have four or five; if I’d realized it was a separate region I probably would have just stayed on the other side of that imaginary line), and maybe 10-12 scattered around the Ivory Coast (a mixture of colonization and conquest).
I also have one in South Africa (which netted me a merchant because the Portuguese South African Trading Company controls literally the only province in the entire trade node) and some formerly uninhabited island Indian Ocean. The plan is to springboard into the East Indies, because I feel like I’m not strong enough to take on anything in India.
I’ve also pushed Morocco back into (and almost past) the Atlas mountains. I’d have made faster progress there but I was hoarding my admin points for colonization techs and ideas. I did make Moroccan into an accepted culture, though, which is helpful. For a while I had a pretty good thing going where I’d** repeatedly humiliate first Morocco, then Tunis or Tlemcen–that was great at keeping my power projection above 50 for those sweet, sweet bonus points. Those days are gone as they allied with the Mamluks and Ottomans, respectively. Well, until they didn’t, but you know how it goes.
** There’s an argument to be made that Castile was doing the humiliating at my bidding, but we don’t need to get into that.
I’m pretty overextended because I only barely have enough troops to fight off the natives and put down the uprisings in the Ivory Coast and Morocco. I’ve got three colonists, and the plan was to send one to each region (South America, Central/West Africa, South Africa / Indian Ocean) but that would necessitate three army stacks to put down uprisings. I could handle that, but I get occasional 12k - 18k stacks of revolts in Morocco and Africa, and my force limit is only 20 or 25 or so. With just a couple more force limit I could do it, I think, though I’ve had some pretty embarrassing defeats in battle against West African armies that are only slightly bigger than mine.
I’ve managed to hang on to my alliances with both England (now UK) and Castile (now Spain). Spain somehow managed to make the Papal States a vassal (I wasn’t paying attention but I guess Austria was unable to stop them), and then foolishly went to war with Tunis and brought the Ottomans down on us. They completely occupied Morocco, but then for some reason withdrew (they weren’t in any other wars that I could see) and in the end the Spanish somehow eked out a win, or at least a white peace, not sure how.
I’ve got a crap ton of Pope Points (I think I’m up to 4 cardinals now), and while I keep 100 around for a stability boost when needed, I don’t really know what to do with the rest of them. I got the tax bonus, which is always nice. I took the mercantilism once; mercantilism seems kind of marginal but I guess it lasts for the whole game (until you need to reduce it later, I suppose). Prestige also seems kind of marginal for me at this point, but maybe I’m underappreciating it. I suppose I’d do legitimacy if it becomes a problem.
I could pretty easily cash in my ~175 or so Pope Points to be the next papal controller, I think, but the bonuses there also seem kind of marginal. What do you think?
A couple general questions:
- Should I go for the West Indies or focus more on existing South Africa / Central-West Africa / Brazil? Or somewhere else?
- I usually run at +2 stability (thanks again to the Pope Points), because I figure I’d hate to miss out on an event that gives a free +1 stability, rare as they are. What do other people do?
Oh yeah, Kongo also got this event that converted them to Catholic, so I allied with them as it was my religious duty. I even got a Royal Marriage, as ahistorical as that seems. I figured I could make them my vassal, but I ended up conquering a couple of their cores (from a rival) so they refuse. Oh well, at least they’re willing to give me some of their trade power.