AOE3 Forums

i usually play with the ottomans, but i decided i wanted to try the portugese for a while. any good tips i should know?

I'd stay with playing Ottos if I were you. They're better and have more diverse strategies then the ports.

i only play portuguese... and my way of playing them was.. get to fortress age fast... have colonial militia card so that you can beat rushes, then get to industrial and BOOM BOOM BOOM.

thats basically it

Only viable strategy for ports in 1vs1 imo is their semi-ff or ff. For their semi-ff and ff, your going to need the colonial militia card and both tcs in a defensive position. Herd as much as possible, and send in the 700g card when ready. You might need to send in the 700f or 600g card to provide minutemen and/or more eco. 40 minutemen (I think it's 40, 20 from each tc) should be enough to protect you. Upon reaching fortress, get your rax up, send in organ guns, and go murder some infantry

Arcane Ranger:

Only viable strategy for ports in 1vs1 imo is their semi-ff or ff. For their semi-ff and ff, your going to need the colonial militia card and both tcs in a defensive position. Herd as much as possible, and send in the 700g card when ready. You might need to send in the 700f or 600g card to provide minutemen and/or more eco. 40 minutemen (I think it's 40, 20 from each tc) should be enough to protect you. Upon reaching fortress, get your rax up, send in organ guns, and go murder some infantry

But that's what everyone expects you to do. If you're not fighting a musket based civ (Eg, french or germans go crossbows early on etc) then the xbow rush with your 2nd tc is also viable

i always try to get to age 3 as soon as possible so i can take advantage of the 3 TCs.  Never stop making villies.  The portuguese are also a pretty defensive civ b/c all their best units are heavy hitting, low hp, low siege, ranged units.  So you need to make sure you can keep your units protected with the right counters.  If you ever want to me show you how to play with the ports effectively PM me in the game my user name is Angus_Khan.

Phoenixwi:

Arcane Ranger:

Only viable strategy for ports in 1vs1 imo is their semi-ff or ff. For their semi-ff and ff, your going to need the colonial militia card and both tcs in a defensive position. Herd as much as possible, and send in the 700g card when ready. You might need to send in the 700f or 600g card to provide minutemen and/or more eco. 40 minutemen (I think it's 40, 20 from each tc) should be enough to protect you. Upon reaching fortress, get your rax up, send in organ guns, and go murder some infantry

But that's what everyone expects you to do. If you're not fighting a musket based civ (Eg, french or germans go crossbows early on etc) then the xbow rush with your 2nd tc is also viable

ports don't have pikes so if you want to go colonial rush then you will have to rely only on musks or gather all resources to make musk/xbow.  Thats why i usually go fortress and go for the higher tier units that portugal has.  And i say portugals units have low hp because when compared to skirmishers cassadores don't have very much hp and organs have a very low hp for a cannon. But dagoons have a pretty good hp.  Low isn't to much of a big deal you just have to micro your units well so that you don't loose to many.

Angus Khan:

ports don't have pikes so if you want to go colonial rush then you will have to rely only on musks or gather all resources to make musk/xbow.  Thats why i usually go fortress and go for the higher tier units that portugal has.  And i say portugals units have low hp because when compared to skirmishers cassadores don't have very much hp and organs have a very low hp for a cannon. But dagoons have a pretty good hp.  Low isn't to much of a big deal you just have to micro your units well so that you don't loose to many.

WTF WTF WTF ZOMG ZOMG TWO PEOPLE THINK THE PORTS DONT HAVE PIKES WTF

ports do have pikes, I can't believe you're giving advice on how to play them and you don't even know what units they have 

Ah yes this would explain it: You have an elorating on vanilla of 1800 but you play nearly all your games against people with an elo less than 1500. You once played a team game with someone of a similar elo vs two 1300s. Ivan why aren't you here?

Lol if ports didn't have pikes they would be so UP they would be unplayable.

lol i dont even make pikes..

All you got to do is defend all the rushes with colonial militia minute men and once you get to fortress age, just put up a fortress. this prevents the enemy from rushing you so they will try to build a stronger army.

what i do in fortress age is build a good economy by making lots of settlers and getting to industrial age, spam heavy cannons. make lots of dragoons/musketeers/cassadors. then rush. 

also have mamlukes or culverins to destroy enemy cannons.

culvrins are good to have while youre booming cause the fort can tank most infantry but can recieve heavy dmg from cannons. culvrin for killing the cannons.