Europa Universalis IV

To Discover a World... a Portugal AAR

Portugal is in an interesting position in 1444. Situated on the Western tip of Europe, and already holding island territories deep into the Atlantic Ocean, she, along with her Iberian neighbour Castile, is perfectly placed to explore and exploit the unknown lands to the south and west.

Portugal also starts with a major advantage - 3 explorers! Explorers, and their land based counterparts, Conquistadors, are the leaders used to explore the Terra Incognita, the great swathes of the world unknown to Europeans in the mid 15th century. They are not available at game start, and require the unlocking of several 'Exploration Ideas' before they can be recruited. Portugal starts with three of them in her employ.

What we don't have, however, are any colonists. So whilst we can explore, we can't yet colonise.

Portugal's non-mainland territories; from l to r: The Azores, Madeira, Ceuta

Before we go exploring, though, we need to secure our position in Europe. Fortunately, we get access to a mission to form an alliance with our neighbour, Castile. Fulfilling the mission will give us Prestige, which will be useful in building our relations with other nations.



In order to increase our friendliness with Castile, we enter into a Royal Marriage between our Royal houses.



Talking of which, it is probably as good a time as any to introduce our great and noble Monarch, King Infante Pedro de Avis, glory to his name. As you can see, Portugal is a Feudal Monarchy, and our King has a high Administrative stat (4), and low Diplomacy (2) and military (1) stats. This is fine for our starting position, as we need lots of administrative power in the first few years.



Whilst we are waiting for the outcome of our Castilian marriage proposal to play out, we turn to the English question. Henry VI has landed England in a heap of trouble. Fighting a European land war against France, and with enemies all around, Portugal is their only ally. But not for long! If our dream of exploring and colonising the world is to bear fruit, we cannot afford to become embroiled in the petty squabbling outside Iberia, so we do the only thing we can in the circumstances...




If an alliance with Castile is one leg of the stool of security, and breaking off relations with England a second leg, then the third stabilising leg is getting rid of our province in North Africa. On the one hand it would provide a nice jumping off point for conquest of Morocco, but in reality it is a Berber province, with Sunni religion, and has a much higher revolt risk than I would like. We will return to North Africa in the future, but for now the Moroccans can have it back, for a bit of cash.

That's all for the opening salvo of this AAR. Join us next time when we get to see if our alliance with Castile comes good, and we cosy up to the Pope!