A 4UC Vox Populi Guide: Portugal

These are an updated set of guides for the Vox Populi mod meant to help players learn the details and how to play each civ in the game. Whether new to civ entirely, experienced in civ but new to Vox Populi, or even well experienced with the mod and just looking for a refresher, these guides are designed to be useful to all. These guides were inspired by Zigzagzigal's guides, as they helped me learn a lot about the game when I first started playing it over a decade ago, and I wanted to provide a similar experience for the Vox Populi mod, which has become my go to way to play civ v, and is my favorite strategy game. For those looking for the download for the mod, it can be found here[forums.civfanatics.com]

With that out of the way, onto the Portuguese!

Before getting into the specifics of the civ, a few terms that I may be using during this guide will be defined here

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. All Naval and Air units gaining a promotion increasing their strength as they take damage from Imperialism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% GWAM generation, +10% culture generation during golden ages and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Scaling with Era - Any trait scaling with era will double in the medieval era, then increase by the same amount every era afterwards (For example, a +1 bonus scaling with era would increase to +2 in the medieval, +3 in the renaissance, etc. until a max of +7 in the information era)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
UGP - Unique Great Person - A replacement for a great person that only one civilization can generate
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
WLTKD - We love the king day.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.
ZOC - Stands for "Zone of Control" which is the effect that causes units to use all their movement if they move from a space adjacent to an enemy unit to another space still adjacent to that same unit

Portugal has a coastal start bias. Considering they are trade focused, with a naval UU and a UI that needs to be built on the coast, this is of great benefit to them
For each active trade route, gain +4 & and either great general points (for land routes) or great admiral points (for sea routes), scaling with era

A naval melee unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (30 instead of 25)
  
• 3 sight (up from 2)
  
• May sell exotic cargo to gain xp and gold scaling from distance to capital when adjacent to foreign territory, and place a Feitoria when adjacent to city state lands. Each unit can do so twice(Exotic Cargo)
  
• Obsoletes at Industrialization rather than Navigation

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• Withdraws from melee once per turn if there is an open tile behind the unit

A ranged unit

*Base movement, actual movement is 3 due to promotion Positive One-Off Changes

• Obsoletes at Mobile Tactics rather than Ballistics

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +1% combat strength for every 3 hp below maximum health. Eliminates combat penalties attacking or defending against melee attacks while wounded (Fighting C o c k)
  
• +1 movement and embarked movement (Scouting II)

Positive Changes

• Has no population requirements
  
• Does not require a university to be built
  
• +5& (Up from 3 each)
  
• Gain free university upon completion
  
• +200% towards trade units in all cities
  
• All universities gain +3
  
• All military units gain gold and xp from revealing tiles, and can claim ruins(Age of Discovery)

*Only capable of being built in city state territory by the Nau's "Exotic Cargo" ability **Yes I am aware this looks not great:tm: but there's too much text in the misc bonuses and the final yields is blocked by the sidebar if I do it the normal way, so the final yields are down here, sad and alone.

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Portuguese uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking


Portugal gets more generals and admirals then anyone else, which on it's own isn't huge, but can contribute to a decently strong army, especially upon the arrival of the Caçador
Portugal lacks any bonuses to culture or tourism
Portugal has very strong science mainly due to their UA. The Feitoria gives Portugal a solid amount of production and food
Portugal gets a massive amount of gold from their every one of their uniques except the Caçador. While they don't get any bonuses to diplomacy, they are a trade based civ, meaning they usually take statecraft, which is an automatic bump to your diplomatic ability
Portugal lacks any bonuses to religion

As trade flows, so too does knowledge. Also military strategists. Yeah, definitely that too

For every trade route Portugal has, they gain 4 science, gold and either general or admiral points for land and sea routes respectively per turn, scaling with era. This shows as instant yields rather than per turn yields, so for example in the screenshot above I actually have 13 science not 9 per turn, or just about a third of my science from trade. The reason it is instant yields instead of per turn by just making all trade routes give the extra yields, is so that they cannot be increased by any boosts to trade route yields. Still, this generates Portugal a massive amount of gold, science, admirals and generals. Do note that all trade routes give these yields, whether internal or international, so it may be preferable to do safer routes over more profitable ones, especially in the early game. Now Portugal is a largely peaceful civ, but that isn't to say they can't get good use out of those generals and admirals. While you should always keep one or two for defense, don't be afraid to pop some citadels around if you have a neighbor who already doesn't like you. With the sheer amount you'll likely generate, you can use some admirals on voyage's of discovery for some extra luxuries, but I'd spend admirals more sparingly then generals. If you get an early game admiral or two it could be beneficial to explore with them, admirals can cross deep ocean without astronomy, however I would keep this to a minimum. Not only are they vulnerable to being killed by barbs but you have other uniques that encourage you to wait to explore until they're online

Brought along our trade routes to the great northern port of Lisbon, this general will serve us well
Yields from around the late medieval. If you don't get either Petra or Colossus(I did manage to get one of them I just didn't have every trade route out during this screenshot) you can expect 4 trade routes, giving 32 science, which will probably be roughly a fourth of your science

The modern education system, about 1400 years early! Also damnit I didn't build this in Coimbra. Hmm, consider it an inter-city project

The University of Coimbra gives 2 smaller benefits and one fairly large one. Firstly it gives all universities, including the free one in the city the University of Coimbra is in, 3 gold. This makes universities a bit easier to justify building, although Portugal isn't exactly light on gold. Secondly it gives a 200% production boost to all trade units in all cities. Having all your trade units out at all times is important, and inevitably they will be pillaged and need to be replaced, so this is helpful, but once you have your caravansaries and harbors up there is little reason to build a trade unit over just purchasing it, in my opinion at least.

Antiquated as it may be, the army, nay, the nation, is ready to explore the future

Most importantly though, the University of Coimbra gives all military units the Age of Discovery promotion, making all units gain xp and gold from exploring. This does stack with scout line units own ability giving xp from exploring, meaning they effectively gain double xp from exploring. Get to Compass as soon as you can after building the University of Coimbra, and you'll get a massive amount of money as you explore the world.

What did the angry city state say to the Portuguese ship in its borders? Oh heck Nau

The Nau adds even more gold to Portugal's mid game. Twice per Nau, whenever it is adjacent to foreign territory, it can gain gold and xp based on how far it is from your capital. This can be some nice yields not to mention between this and the University of Coimbra can actually give you some fairly highly promoted Nau's without ever fighting a battle. This however, isn't even the most important part of their trade missions

What is this? A factory in my city state? It's more likely then you think

Whenever a Nau trades with a city state, it will build a Feitoria in the city state if possible. The specifics of why you want that will be covered in the next section, but this is the real reason to get up a fleet of Naus. If at all possible you want a Feitoria in every single city state, so as you start discovering city states, build new Naus to trade with them.

• Withdraws from melee once per turn if there is an open tile behind the unit

The main purpose of the Nau is not for combat, however it should be noted that the Nau has a significant strength bonus over the standard caravel. If the opportunity presents itself, don't be afraid to slam your potentially highly upgraded Naus into someone, especially given they will almost certainly have great admiral support it can be surprisingly effective in the right circumstance.

Feitorias; not just for city states anymore

Feitorias give some pretty solid yields, starting off with good production and gold, eventually gaining more of both plus some science. With not horribly strict placement requirements of adjacent to coast and not each other, you should be able to place a fair few of these across your cities, giving some decent defenses and maybe even a canal or two for naval passage. This, while solid, is not the main purpose of the Feitoria

That's a lot of yields

Feitorias placed in city states by the Nau give 3 notable bonuses. The first, and technically not unique to being placed in city states bonus is that it gives vision within two tiles. This may seem small, but can give you some decent map vision in city states you aren't allied to. The second thing is that it gives you a non tradable copy of all the city state's luxuries. Good, but not relevant if you are allied to the city state. The final, and most important thing however, is that the Feitoria causes your trade routes with the city state it is in to give extra food, production, and gold, scaling higher with your relationship with the city state. This is massive. It allows you to get most of the benefit of internal trade, while also having top tier trade routes in terms of gold. You still get some benefit from a neutral city, but try your best to get city states friended and preferably allied.

While not having participated in the conquest of the southern Polynesians, the Caçador stands ready against all future foes

The Caçador is a simple to understand but fairly effective unit. It has 1 extra movement, and fights stronger as it gets damaged. As a replacement for the gatling gun though, it comes at an interesting time for warfare, as a lot of unit lines, including its own, change their role. Gatling guns, and therefore Caçadors, are fairly ineffective at attacking cities and armored units. However, they weaken all enemy units within 2 tiles by 15%. This is a pretty big deal, and with the Caçador's increased movement, it can more easily spread this effect around the battlefield.

• +1% combat strength for every 3 hp below maximum health. Eliminates combat penalties attacking or defending against melee attacks while wounded (Fighting C o c k)
  
• +1 movement and embarked movement (Scouting II)

It wasn't until I wrote this section of the guide that I noticed steam censors Fighting ♥♥♥♥. It's understandable that they do, but that's very funny, arguably even funnier that you can get around it simply by spacing out the word, like C o c k.

Portugal takes a pretty standard peaceful trading civ policy route of Progress into Statecraft finishing with Industry

Opener: A solid bit of science and culture. Should get you to your second policy almost immediately

Liberty: Getting a worker online to get your better luxuries improved quickly

Organization: Should help you get your early trade routes online a decent bit faster

Expertise: Even more production to get your cities online fast

Equality: If you've been expanding fast happiness might be getting close to negative, this will stop that. If happiness isn't close to becoming a problem then take this last

Fraternity: Some solid food and science. Make sure to connect your cities.

Finisher: More gold. Because that's what Portugal is lacking

Opener: Hey you know what would go great with all that gold your generating? More gold!

Trade Confederacy: A solid bit of influence to help keep your city states loyal for better Feitoria trade

Foreign Service: Spies are neat, having more of them is good

Shadow Networks: Hopefully by this point you've gotten a fair few city states on your side. This gives you some bonus benefits from them

Exchange Markets: Not only is this an extra trade route for you UA to benefit from, it also will give you quite a few monopolies thanks to your Feitorias

Consulates: A nice little boost to your potential in the World Congress

Finisher: The Portuguese aren't the most wonder dependent civ, but given they are a civ with high science and low culture, they could easily reach a wonder they could want and not be able to build it. This makes that a non issue.

Opener: Helps your gold go a good bit farther

Subsidies: A decent boost to your science and gold, can't complain

Mercantilism: The real reason you're here in industry. 2 trade routes is a massive deal, translating to a ton more gold and science

Division of Labor: A nice boost to culture and production, both of which useful to Portugal

Gold Standard: Lets your mass gold translate even better into production

Entrepreneurship: A good boost to many of your tiles

Finisher: Can't complain about more happiness and better tile yields

No points for guessing that the peaceful, trade based civ benefits most from going Freedom

Economic Union: More trade routes to get more of all the good stuff you're getting as Portugal

Civil Society: Makes your Feitorias give a bunch more food, very nice

Covert Action: Helps you keep and flip more city states, nice since you lack any unique influence bonuses

Transnationalism: You're doing a ton of trading, may as well get better and faster benefits for your corporation

Capitalism: You're probably working a decent few specialists, this makes them betterr

Space Procurements(Science): This allows you to directly convert your massive treasury into spaceship parts for your victory

Containment(Diplomacy): A huge boost to your control of city states and the congress

Terrain/resource specific pantheons are not listed here unless they have some other synergy with a civ's uniques, however they can often be a great choice if the terrain/resources you start with favors them

God of Commerce: You are going to be trading a lot, and earlier then most, so this gives some solid benefits to that

Tutelary Gods: Trade routes aren't cheap to build in the early game, so this gives you a reliable production boost to get them up faster.

Revelation: You've got a lot of science, you're unlocking techs quickly, so this can give some good yields

Council of Elders: If you want to more directly aid your science, this is the belief to go with

Transcendent Thoughts: An alternative to Revelation, arguably better if you don't have as much religious competition

Indulgences: Portugal makes a ton of money, this generates it into faith

Pagoda: Given the amount of trade you're doing it's likely your cities get some foreign religious pressure. This turns that into an advantage

Synagogue: Some extra production and science. Good for any science based game

Orthodoxy: Allows you to give out a ton of pressure from all your trade

Abode of Peace: Makes it a lot easier to hold onto city states if you can manage to convert them.

Divine Teachings: The best reformation belief for any science civ

Holy Land: A good backup, especially if you aren't confident in a science victory

Petra: High priority wonder, an extra trade route is massive, especially this early
Colossus: Same as Petra, but less terrain dependent.

Great Wall: Early game all that's protecting you is a good economy and good science. This should make invasion a nigh impossibility, for a while anyways

Great Library: Free tech. Why are you still reading what else do you want?

Oracle: Just about a free tech and policy. Once again, literally nothing else could be desired

Great Lighthouse: Makes your mid game Nau trading expeditions just that little bit faster

Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): Makes your gold go even farther. Nice
Himeji Castle: A great boost to your defense, to help push off jealous neighbors

Porcelain Tower: A nice increase to your base science output. Can't let the trade routes do all the work

Summer Palace: Makes it much easier to keep your city states for better Feitoria trading

Palace of Westminster(Statecraft only): Makes it much easier to control the congress, or at least prevent it from being weaponized against you
Broadway(Industry Only): A solid bit of extra culture, something you do definitely need

Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): A nice bit of extra production plus a free policy. Awesome

Ain't much for wonders in the atomic era, especially for an industry civ
Hubble Space Telescope: Gives a massive boost to building your spaceship parts, and therefore, winning the game

Great Firewall: Makes it much harder for anyone to mooch off of your tech lead

CERN: Two free techs to clean up the tech tree, 100 influence with all city states to sweep them all to your side

Portugal is a really straightforward civ. That isn't to say you can't make a mistake however

You'll want to get your trade routes up and running as soon as possible as Portugal, but if they get destroyed you aren't benefiting from them. Early game especially they aren't cheap to replace, so either protect them well, or send them on safe, usually internal, routes.
For many civs, it is often tempting to beeline straight for compass to start exploring as soon as possible. This would be a huge waste for Portugal however. While I wouldn't stifle your early exploration just to benefit from the University of Coimbra more, I would still make sure you get it online before the deep sea exploration of Naus and explorers.
There is no downside to having a Feitoria in a city state. Even if it has no luxuries or you're never gonna trade with it. You should send a Nau to every coastal city state every game, without fail.
Portugal actually has solid defensive potential due to all the generals and admirals they generate, but that won't help if they don't have a military to boost.

Portugal has an almost unrivaled economy paired with very strong science, giving them not only a clear victory condition but a surprisingly flexible nation. As a civ reliant on trade however, there are obvious weaknesses to exploit

Portugal gets tons of gold, science, generals and admirals from trade routes. If Portugal is your biggest worry, then the solution is relatively simple. Pillage their trade routes. If Portugal can't keep their trade up they lose their strongest bonus. As for the generals and admirals they generate, the generals are usually the bigger problem, as Portugal can put down more citadels then almost anyone, making them an annoying neighbor, at least if you are on their bad side. There isn't a lot you can do to stop this, other then conquering the territory back. Portugal has no real land military bonuses outside of generals, so just do your best to overwhelm their force, especially by bringing your own general to counteract that small advantage. Seriously, this place isn't even the oldest university in western europe, it ain't that special. Go to Oxford

The most relevant part of the University of Coimbra is the gold and xp from revealing tiles. This gives Portugal a frankly stupid amount of money from the late medieval to the end of the renaissance. Portugal will have more money then everyone during this time, period. It will also give them a fairly solid navy even without having to fight. There isn't much you can do to stop this short of killing them. Once that time has gone though, Portugal will be back to their normal pace.

The Nau is the other major part of Portugal's late medieval power spike, and like the University of Coimbra there isn't a lot that can be done to stop them. Naus are much stronger then a caravel, so unless you are Denmark or England, it is going to be almost impossible to fight them while they're in their prime. Even in those few cases, due to withdraw from melee they are very difficult to pin down even if you have the strength to fight them. But just like the University of Coimbra, the Nau doesn't give a huge amount to Portugal long term. Once higher tier naval units come around, the Nau doesn't give much on upgrade, and you can once again destroy Portugal on the seas What? I already got one censored word from Caçadors, might as well go for two

Feitorias are sorta more like two improvements rather then one. In Portugal's lands they serves as a solid production and gold boost that also serve as solid defenses on both land and sea. If you can prevent Portugal from settling much on the coast however, they will be unable to build many of these domestically. City state Feitorias however, can be a bit tougher to deal with. The best bonus from a city state Feitoria is the extra yields on trade routes, so if you can keep Portugal from allying as many city states as you can, it denies them quite a lot of yields.

As an uncultured American, that little dangly bit on the second c of Caçador deeply terrifies me

Caçadors can be a surprisingly effective unit. They're faster, and aren't weakened by damage, making them fully effective until killed, and more difficult to do so. However, they still mostly fulfill the same role as a gatling gun, just a bit better. Even with the enhanced movement they are extremely vulnerable to armor units. Get enough of those past the Portuguese front line and they'll crumble.

Early Game Warmongers: Portugal is probably at their weakest at this point. Their trade routes are the most vulnerable and hardest to replace, and they won't have a ton of generals. They are fairly likely to have one though, so take that out, and you're golden

Mid-Game Warmongers: Probably the hardest time to fight Portugal, but they still aren't the toughest civ ever. Don't engage them on the water until you get Navigation, but on land they shouldn't be too tough, just make sure you have a general or two of your own to cancel out their one combat advantage at this point

Late-Game Warmongers: Caçadors can be a bit of a pain, but if you can field enough armor units, or even just a large enough force in general, Portugal is beatable

Scientific Players: Portugal has a lot of science, and can supplement their average infrastructure with tons of gold. If Portugal is seriously competing you may need to be aggressive and take them down a peg.

Diplomatic Players: Compared to most trade/gold based civs a sanction doesn't hamper Portugal that much. A city state embargo however, is devastating to them as long as you can afford it. Otherwise, stealing their city states is also a solid blow

Cultural Players: Portugal should prove little direct competition, use the tips above as needed.

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