Having a blast with Portugal

[zerothreat]

I have tried several other factions previous to my recent endeavor with Portugal and I can honestly say I love absolutely everything about playing with these guys.

The starting location is excellent. I have found it extremely easy to manage, comparatively as secure as The English territories and very accommodating to expansion.

The units, wow. Lusitanian Javelinmen and Almughavars are amazing! They have been the backbone of my armies so far. Paired up with a couple Spear Militia and some Mercenary Spearmen really makes up for the lack of heavy infantry in the early period. They aren't just missile troops, they can hold their own on the front lines if you disable skirmish mode. They inflict great damage to anyone bearing down on them and then make them pay once the fight gets up close and personal. Good cavalry units available from the start and of course the Jinetes, who lack the ammo of horse archers, but their javelins are armor piercing and also compliment the other javelin troops extremely well by crippling the opposing army before they fully engage. I can't wait for the Adventuros (Phalanx Pikes are my favorite), awesome gun powder units and Pavise Crossbowmen.

I think I am close to turn 50 right now. I conquered both rebel settlements on the peninsula rather quickly and then took my time to build up all my four of my cities/castles with strong garrisons and established trade with everyone possible and made alliances with England, Hungary, HRE and the Papal States. It took a while but pretty soon all my controlled regions had the exact same garrison strength. Enough to where no one wanted to attack me, so I turtled.

As I set out to first conquer the Spanish, I would prepare my sieging army and then an army to occupy the settlement once it was taken. I was able to have two offensive armies and two armies ready to garrison at one point. So first I took Bordeaux and gave it to the French as I have no plans to expand into that region, so I didn't need a garrison. So then simultaneously I took Toledo and Leon, wiping out the faction leader and his full stack standing army on the way, leaving them completely defenseless. I was able to take both settlements without having to fight, leaving me with two amazing armies unscathed.

I then began to repeat this process with the two Moorish settlements on the peninsula. I again wiped out their standing army on the way to Granada, leaving them nearly defenseless as I simultaneously sieged both settlements. And with these being Islamic regions I took the liberty of exterminating the populace, justifying the cost of this lightning war.

So there I stand, about 10-15 turns away from the Mongol invasion as I get set to head into northern Africa and look to expand east where I hope to meet the Mongols head on.

[Magic Man]

Sounds pretty good mate

Portugal are the only faction ive managed to stick with late into the campaign, and they are unashamedly good.

The Almughavaers are similar in use to the Portugese Arquebusiers you get later on, just you wait and see. These lads kick arse

[Soltaro]

How do you use your Almughavaers and vs what unit type?
I thought they kinda sucked 1vs1.

Are we talking 1.2 patch btw?

[zerothreat]

How do you use your Almughavaers and vs what unit type?
I thought they kinda sucked 1vs1.

Are we talking 1.2 patch btw?

Yeah, its 1.2 vanilla. I put them behind my spearmen and disable skirmish mode. I let them volley until my spears get engaged with the enemy and then I charge them in as they have a decent charge bonus. Basically at the moment they have only seen action against the early/high period units of Spain and Moors. I plan on using them for a long time to come, mixing them in with my heavy infantry as I progress.

[zerathule]

The javelinemen are probably among the best defenders, they have good attack/defense values, and their range attacks can kill anything.
Portugal has probably the best troop roster in the game, but need a lot of micromanagement to form great armies and retrain them as they are splited between city and fortress.
Note that you can build jinettes in both types of settlements, and spamming them is never a bad idea.
Jinettes are way better than mailed knights.

[elcid123]

I agree Jinetes are great. javeline armed infantry kicks a hell of a punch too.(when you know how to use them, they are deadly)

[zerothreat]

You know, I think the Lusitanian Javelinmen might be better than Almughavaers once you get some armor on them. Lusitanian's fight with a sword and shield, while the Almughavaers still use their javelin in melee fights.

The french tried to take my Zaragoza castle and I had two Lusitanians on the wall and they sent in their heavy dismounted fuedal knights. They took out a bunch of them from range of course and when they finally got up close, they completely decimated them with only suffering 40% losses. All this under the command of a single star general.

[coffebean]

Portugal is great.
In my campaign I'm right in the middle a massive war with Milan, France and the Papal States (and the papal states aren't staying in Rome like they normally do, they've taken Genoa, Milan and Marselle from me)

So yeah very exiting campaign

what are good armies to counter these forces.
Milan are mainly Genose Crossbowman and Italian Spear militia

France either weak town militia and peasant crossbowman or big mounted and dismounted knight armies

and The Papal State hoard stack upon stack of Papal Guard and Swiss Pike men.

so any tips?

[Saibot]

Well since it sounds like you've been excommunicated I would first try to get a better relationship with the Papal States and get reconciled. Because unless you're playing on Easy or Medium difficulty you don't want the late period armies of all Christendom against you once they start calling crusades on you. The Genoese Crossbowmen are good but they seem to rout quickly if you just bash into their line fomr the flank or rear with some heavy cavalry. This works the same during sieges. Just keep charging them till they rout and let your infantry take care of the Spear Militia. But France, well I don't know they seem to get really strong at the end of the game so I don't know if there is a certain tactic specifically against France's armies. Just try all sorts of stuff I guess.

[Xenomorph]

I think I am close to turn 50 right now. I conquered both rebel settlements on the peninsula rather quickly and then took my time to build up all my four of my cities/castles with strong garrisons...

Arent you a bit late? 4 settlements after 50 turns seems little... by now you should probably have all the peninsula, maybe the moorish cities to the south and somewhat into france.
i also tried that and it didnt work too well, when i pushed further i met some serious resistance...

[timmy1992]

Arent you a bit late? 4 settlements after 50 turns seems little... by now you should probably have all the peninsula, maybe the moorish cities to the south and somewhat into france.
i also tried that and it didnt work too well, when i pushed further i met some serious resistance...

Some people, like me, play slowly and build up than stead of rushing right off the bat.

Ai can't handle rushes like a human can...

[Xenomorph]

i mean, with 4 settlements you are probably attacked all the time (surely the ai will try to expand sooner or later, what means that, after building something and getting troops to full strength again, there wont probably be nothing left to add new units. and when it comes to add more expensive buildings, it should be a big hit in your budget. anyways, im interested in your progress, as you have the patience to do what i dont

[mbchudno]

Order of business with Portugal for me:

Spain (rush to destroy faction before they form too many alliances)
Zaragoza (great defensive location)
Crusade (at this point, set your cities under 4k population to low tax, need to force-grow some of them a bit)
Sack as many middle eastern cities, sell off their buildings and present them to Pope and other allies as presents or sell them to France just as they start rioting
Moors (destroying faction with army after it comes back from crusade)
Start pushing east against France after they attack you (they will attack Zaragoza eventually)

Convert everything to cities except Toledo (castle already) and set tax of all cities to low until they can build ports. With 9 rich coastal cities with ports, you will forget about money problems.

By this point (40-50 turns) you are very very rich, many steps ahead of everyone thanks for generous contributions of crusade, very rich cities of Iberia and African trade.

PS. Do not move into Tunis and Tripoli until you prepared to fight Sicilians. They are very interested in those. Both Regions are great trade income though so definitely worth attention.