Portugal, constantly underrated. Def one of the more fun factions to play and with aswome units unlike what some think. Its just a bit unorthodox but if U embrace it you will do well.
Thanks for the guide. Never played as Portugal, but they've definitely always been more interesting than the other Iberian factions, probably because their starting position seems more challenging to me.
This was my 2nd ever Medieval 2 campaign. Loved the Almughavars. I actually used them primarily as melee infantry, and only used the javelins when it felt like there was a good time. Also, the unit description hinted at this, but their melee attack is actually a "light spear", which means they get +4 attack against cavalry. Plus, only 150 upkeep. Foot javelins also seem to be somewhat bugged in Medieval 2 compared to Rome 1. Fairly often, only (roughly) half the unit will actually throw their javelins, so that's just another reason to use them as melee troops. I think the only cav _without_ good morale are light cav. Things like Mounted Sergeants, Scouts, and Jinetes. Jinetes were also fantastic. Used them all the way through the campaign. Viable melee cav, and their javelins can tear general's bodyguards in particular to shreds. I think I went for the Moors first to keep the Pope on my side a little longer. While forces from Lisbon went to Cordoba, my forces from Pamplona went for Zaragoza and Valencia. The Moors do have more settlements, but they're really spread out, so they can't get reinforcements to Spain very easily, and early Moorish units are trash. Once I had the rebel and Moorish settlements, I started going for Spain, and then I think I started pushing towards France and North Africa around the same time.
Yeah I enjoy the Portugal campaign a lot, and there's certainly a viable argument for going at the Moors first. The light infantry is certainly a high point for the faction
Lugotorix is surprised at javelins piercing armour, when the main selling point for javelins through history was *exactly* their armour piercing ability. There's a lot of weight in a javelin, far more than in an arrow. That things' just going to punch straight through most early forms of armour.
Good one! Good tactic to focus to get spain down and then take north africa. Once you got north africa, you can expand from there onto the entire mediteranian, it's a good position. I personally take both armies from both Pamplona and Lisbon and go for Toledo and Leon at the same time, killing spain in one blow, then I can solely focus on the moors, the iberian peninsula and north africa.
You take those little starting armies and are able to get rid of Spain immediately? Or do you take a turn or 2 to build them up a bit? I suck so im just essentially asking if it can be done?
for portugal rush for any and all rebel settlements. incluting toulouse. then focus down spain. declaring war and attacking both settlements on the same turn with overwhelming firepower, complete with mercenaries. then next turn win seige and extinct them. then take a sea voyage to some islands while you position to kill the moors.
The best pike and shot faction in the game, so do end up feeling pretty dominate late game or high period, unless you consider Turks janissary play style pike and shot. They aren’t as well rounded as Spain though so they kind of feel weaker mid to late game and they just can’t keep up in Calvary as well. Spain is still the strongest on the Iberian peninsula because of this.
Ahh one of my favourite factions in base Medieval II. They have a really well-rounded roster. Pikes, crossbowmen, javelineers, decent cavalry, really good gunpowder and naval units.. lots to choose from.
I think the only other faction that's fragmented the same way as Portugal is the Holy Roman Empire. It has that one settlement in Italy south of Venice and Milan.
But that’s historical at least. It reflects the fact that northern Italy was part of the Holy Roman Empire and , although many towns were fairly autonomous , the emperor still was their nominal overlord and the exercised some authority there. But Portugal never controlled the region of Navarre , where Pamplona is located. That’s just historical fantasy.
HRE did claim Northern Italy as part of itself with varying degrees of success, but then the HRE was not really a one black blob like here, but more like a kindergarten full of Prince-Electors, one King-Elector (Bohemia), Bishops and Free Cities with Emperor who tried to exercise some authority over that squabbling bunch. Same could be said for factions, but let's be fair - game is mainly about fighting, if somebody wants deep politics, then hit Paradox games.
To take out Spain/Moors and control Iberia ASAP: Move Lisbon army to Cordoba and merge the Faction heir army with it. Send spy to Cordoba. Have Pamplona forces siege Zaragoza while training extra cav there. Make sure you move your ships to block the landbridge at Gibraltar. Next turn, attack Cordoba, if spy doesn't let you in, restart campaign and follow steps until he does. Moors have 2 desert archers, 1 spear milita and sultan bodyguard. Use your two generals to rush the archers and kill them, then use your spear milita only to kill the remaining troops as they can be replenished here. Then Pamplona can be sieged, move extra cav you recruited to the army, the rebel AI always runs back to the centre so wait 20 seconds before moving ram up. Swarm from all side of the square with your cavalry and the enemy will die quickly, as there is no spearmen in this town. Now move faction heir and mailed knights to Granada, the rest of army in Cordoba can be moved next turn towards Toledo, and the army at Zaragoza can be sent to siege Leon. In the following turns, siege Toledo, Leon and Granada. I managed to siege on turn 5 and take them all on turn 6. The moors never really become anything again once you have Granada and Cordoba. Without fail, Sicily always sends their entire starting army towards Cordoba so be ready to defend it around turn 10. Milanese will poke around near Zaragoza but I haven't seen them attack yet. Scotland and England will land near Leon to attack you there often. France will walk down to Pamplona and Zaragoza sometimes too.
To be honest in medieval you don't even want to use peasants as garrison because a number of troops don't pay upkeep inside a castle. So why have 0 upkeep peasants if u can have a better unit that is capable of actually defending the settlement? Unless you're really desperate for a garrison, the castle is about to rebel or something and there are no other troops available
I actually have an idea for the Pikemen, do what I do in Empire are Napoleon Total War and improvise a square formation with 4 units. You can impenetrable will all bases defended. I wouldn't call them useless.
Get as much alliance as you can then Moors will recognize your power. Then start crusade with Moors, get Cordoba. They will approach you for ceasefire then you can ask Timbuktu as exchange. Then you can start from there. This game is actually more on politics, not warfare.
Why does Portugal have Pamplona? I don't think any Portuguese king was ever king of Navarra at any point. Also, why does Portugal have almugavars? Weren't they from catalonia? I think we should have a sort of Spear Sergeant or medium light sword infantry instead.
technically portugal didn't exist at the start date of the grand campaign. but iirc the dynasty that founded portugal did have links to the rulers of navarra a century or two before the campaign start date.
@@Pedro_Alcantara I think there are better ways for Portugal expansion and keep it historical. 1. Have Pamplona either a rebel territory or under Castille control 2. Add more settlements in Iberia. For instance Lisbon region is now broken up into 5 provinces. The new provinces are Porto, Beja, Silves and Santa Maria. 3. Make it so that Portugal starts only with Porto. Lisbon, Beja, Silves and Santa Maria should be either controlled by rebels or under Moors 4. Portugal is a vassal of Castille at the start 5. Add more settlements in Morroco
Just for gameplay reasons. If Portugal only started with Lisbon, then it will be the only faction not bordering rebel territory to expand. A better option would be to split the Lisbon region in 2, with a northern region owned by Portugal and Lisbon in the south as a rebel settlement.
When playing as a Catholic faction, I tend to establish diplomatic ties with the Pope before attacking other Catholic factions as the higher my rating with the Pope, the less he's likely to do about me attacking Catholics.
Started to play as Portugal. Connected my territory by conquering rebel and moorish settlements along the coast. Will try to consolidate economy, get a hold in Africa, prepare for inevitable sicilian attack and invasion of Jerusalem. Got allied with Spain, got attacked by France for no reason but the spanish homie got my back and declared war on them. This post was made by Iberian gang.
i sell pamplona or outright give it to the spaniards for free , just so i dont have to bother with it , and as a bonus spain leaves me alone as i gobble up cordoba and granada
Bordeaux is the 1st quest so it sound good but there is many reasons to not get baited. it "increase" the gap between your territories when you really need to reduce it. it's a castle with a fairly large garrison and it take like 3 turns to get to it (thus 3 to come back). you "block" france from taking it but france isn't a threat to you this early. by taking bordeaux you actualy get a border on france and this increase a potential war between you two. It's really safe to take saragosa, village with only a small garrison. it prevent spain from taking it and spain is really the one you want to out to get your territories so interact more smoothly. you don't want spain one of the 2 biggest threat for you to get a settlement 1 turn away from pamplona. Valencia got a big garrison with El Cid as the general. found it not worth to waste my time on it as nobody can rush it and it doesn't close the gap between your settlements. get your merchant and spy to both toledo and leon to have vision then storm the weakest one. get rid of spain and pray for sicily or the like to not mess up everything. going against more after spain help fix your relation with pope. big plus with going spain is, it's christian ! you won't have too much religious trouble meaning you don't have to keep too many units in (less idle money), you don't have to build churchs and priest right away (saving money for better stuffs) and it's easier to fix morale to start taxing more (more money).
Hmm. What I'd say is this: it depends on how the reconquista goes. In my campaign I started fighting the Moors and not Spain. Spain was also very passive for some reason and the Moors in Iberia proved fairly easy to defeat. I may also have gotten lucky and found France hadn't bothered with Bordeaux yet when I managed to save up enough troops. What may have helped (but I honestly can't recall) is that I made peace with the Moors after taking their Iberian holdings. So.. basically, take it whenever you feel safe enough to do so.
I'm getting extremely frustrated in my Stainless Steel Portugal playthrough. Its 1377 and I have no answer to heavy cav. Sure I can throw my own knights against there's but my stables don't do anything but help me make more Jinettes which are AWFUL. I'm essentially throwing urban spearmen and handgunners to die by the hundreds against French knights and Crusader orders of every color of the rainbow. Pikes when??? lol
Try to put portuguese knights vs English knights, the Portuguese ones will always win on any 1×1 match for some reason, I believe it's bc they use maces while the English knights use swords.
Honestly there's nothing historical in portugal owning vasconia/navarra. They treated portugal as a generic "independent kingdoms of iberia" faction. By the way, I think they were not playable in the original release, they are like the numidia of m2tw
Just a question, have you actually played as every faction in this game? I can't seem to understand, how you see yourself fit to actually guide somebody. It's funny, and I enjoy watching it, however not for the content tho'. Another thing, Merchants suck. Don't train them people, do not! :D
Merchants are nice if you can get them to Africa and Egypt. Best to transport them with ship as close as you can, then they have to walk all these turns on their own. Once they get, they start to pay for themselves in pretty much one turn due to far distance. If you play in Eastern Europe, you can also get some decent money by capturing slaves around Kiev and Crimea - AI doesn't really walk there. Don't bother with Western Europe.
Portugal, constantly underrated. Def one of the more fun factions to play and with aswome units unlike what some think. Its just a bit unorthodox but if U embrace it you will do well.
Sword and Buckler...GOAT
Thanks for the guide. Never played as Portugal, but they've definitely always been more interesting than the other Iberian factions, probably because their starting position seems more challenging to me.
Yeah I think that Portugal is an interesting faction as well, glad you enjoyed!
Lugotorix I hope you do Poland next, my favourite faction. Great cavalry.
We have been challenged since we made this small place a country
This was my 2nd ever Medieval 2 campaign. Loved the Almughavars. I actually used them primarily as melee infantry, and only used the javelins when it felt like there was a good time. Also, the unit description hinted at this, but their melee attack is actually a "light spear", which means they get +4 attack against cavalry. Plus, only 150 upkeep. Foot javelins also seem to be somewhat bugged in Medieval 2 compared to Rome 1. Fairly often, only (roughly) half the unit will actually throw their javelins, so that's just another reason to use them as melee troops.
I think the only cav _without_ good morale are light cav. Things like Mounted Sergeants, Scouts, and Jinetes.
Jinetes were also fantastic. Used them all the way through the campaign. Viable melee cav, and their javelins can tear general's bodyguards in particular to shreds.
I think I went for the Moors first to keep the Pope on my side a little longer. While forces from Lisbon went to Cordoba, my forces from Pamplona went for Zaragoza and Valencia. The Moors do have more settlements, but they're really spread out, so they can't get reinforcements to Spain very easily, and early Moorish units are trash. Once I had the rebel and Moorish settlements, I started going for Spain, and then I think I started pushing towards France and North Africa around the same time.
Yeah I enjoy the Portugal campaign a lot, and there's certainly a viable argument for going at the Moors first. The light infantry is certainly a high point for the faction
Very good description and judgement on how to play with the Portuguese
throwing half their ammo means it won't run out ridiculously fast and are less likely waste a volley on a whiff.
Lugotorix is surprised at javelins piercing armour, when the main selling point for javelins through history was *exactly* their armour piercing ability. There's a lot of weight in a javelin, far more than in an arrow. That things' just going to punch straight through most early forms of armour.
And even if it doesn't still hurt or get caught up in the chainmail.
Conquistadores are - in my opinion - the best infantry in this game. But beeing new world only kinda sucks.
It’s not just opinion they are the best in the game
Good one! Good tactic to focus to get spain down and then take north africa. Once you got north africa, you can expand from there onto the entire mediteranian, it's a good position.
I personally take both armies from both Pamplona and Lisbon and go for Toledo and Leon at the same time, killing spain in one blow, then I can solely focus on the moors, the iberian peninsula and north africa.
Yeah I agree with that strategy tbh, It's good to get Spain out of the way early
You take those little starting armies and are able to get rid of Spain immediately? Or do you take a turn or 2 to build them up a bit?
I suck so im just essentially asking if it can be done?
@@dam11232 starting armies alone should suffice, but I also train some jinetes and other troops that are available as backup.
for portugal rush for any and all rebel settlements. incluting toulouse. then focus down spain. declaring war and attacking both settlements on the same turn with overwhelming firepower, complete with mercenaries. then next turn win seige and extinct them. then take a sea voyage to some islands while you position to kill the moors.
bordeaux not toulouse.
The best pike and shot faction in the game, so do end up feeling pretty dominate late game or high period, unless you consider Turks janissary play style pike and shot. They aren’t as well rounded as Spain though so they kind of feel weaker mid to late game and they just can’t keep up in Calvary as well. Spain is still the strongest on the Iberian peninsula because of this.
Ahh one of my favourite factions in base Medieval II. They have a really well-rounded roster. Pikes, crossbowmen, javelineers, decent cavalry, really good gunpowder and naval units.. lots to choose from.
I think the only other faction that's fragmented the same way as Portugal is the Holy Roman Empire. It has that one settlement in Italy south of Venice and Milan.
Yeah that's true actually I'd forgotten that
Bologna
But that’s historical at least. It reflects the fact that northern Italy was part of the Holy Roman Empire and , although many towns were fairly autonomous , the emperor still was their nominal overlord and the exercised some authority there. But Portugal never controlled the region of Navarre , where Pamplona is located. That’s just historical fantasy.
HRE did claim Northern Italy as part of itself with varying degrees of success, but then the HRE was not really a one black blob like here, but more like a kindergarten full of Prince-Electors, one King-Elector (Bohemia), Bishops and Free Cities with Emperor who tried to exercise some authority over that squabbling bunch.
Same could be said for factions, but let's be fair - game is mainly about fighting, if somebody wants deep politics, then hit Paradox games.
Nice guide. Im playing a HS as portugal so some stuff from here might be useful
Thanks man, hope you enjoyed the video!
Did you win YTWM?
@@thomash8596 no
To take out Spain/Moors and control Iberia ASAP: Move Lisbon army to Cordoba and merge the Faction heir army with it. Send spy to Cordoba. Have Pamplona forces siege Zaragoza while training extra cav there. Make sure you move your ships to block the landbridge at Gibraltar. Next turn, attack Cordoba, if spy doesn't let you in, restart campaign and follow steps until he does. Moors have 2 desert archers, 1 spear milita and sultan bodyguard. Use your two generals to rush the archers and kill them, then use your spear milita only to kill the remaining troops as they can be replenished here. Then Pamplona can be sieged, move extra cav you recruited to the army, the rebel AI always runs back to the centre so wait 20 seconds before moving ram up. Swarm from all side of the square with your cavalry and the enemy will die quickly, as there is no spearmen in this town. Now move faction heir and mailed knights to Granada, the rest of army in Cordoba can be moved next turn towards Toledo, and the army at Zaragoza can be sent to siege Leon. In the following turns, siege Toledo, Leon and Granada. I managed to siege on turn 5 and take them all on turn 6. The moors never really become anything again once you have Granada and Cordoba. Without fail, Sicily always sends their entire starting army towards Cordoba so be ready to defend it around turn 10. Milanese will poke around near Zaragoza but I haven't seen them attack yet. Scotland and England will land near Leon to attack you there often. France will walk down to Pamplona and Zaragoza sometimes too.
To be honest in medieval you don't even want to use peasants as garrison because a number of troops don't pay upkeep inside a castle. So why have 0 upkeep peasants if u can have a better unit that is capable of actually defending the settlement? Unless you're really desperate for a garrison, the castle is about to rebel or something and there are no other troops available
fodder can be useful for keeping towers activated, or being diligent little arrow sponges.
Not sure if it was mentioned elsewhere, but the dismounted Polish knights also have armor piercing
I am a modern day Knight of San Diego
I actually have an idea for the Pikemen, do what I do in Empire are Napoleon Total War and improvise a square formation with 4 units. You can impenetrable will all bases defended. I wouldn't call them useless.
Go for the Moors first, get Timbuktu, make money, expand into North Africa, then Egypt, then The Holy Land
Get as much alliance as you can then Moors will recognize your power. Then start crusade with Moors, get Cordoba. They will approach you for ceasefire then you can ask Timbuktu as exchange. Then you can start from there. This game is actually more on politics, not warfare.
I managed to conquer France and HRE with only mailed knights and Jinetes (with help of the Pope, to point of managing pull Crusade to Paris).
Why does Portugal have Pamplona? I don't think any Portuguese king was ever king of
Navarra at any point.
Also, why does Portugal have almugavars? Weren't they from catalonia? I think we should have a sort of Spear Sergeant or medium light sword infantry instead.
It seems the game developers had to give portugal a way to expand without having to treat an aliance with castile
technically portugal didn't exist at the start date of the grand campaign.
but iirc the dynasty that founded portugal did have links to the rulers of navarra a century or two before the campaign start date.
@@Pedro_Alcantara I think there are better ways for Portugal expansion and keep it historical.
1. Have Pamplona either a rebel territory or under Castille control
2. Add more settlements in Iberia. For instance Lisbon region is now broken up into 5 provinces. The new provinces are Porto, Beja, Silves and Santa Maria.
3. Make it so that Portugal starts only with Porto. Lisbon, Beja, Silves and Santa Maria should be either controlled by rebels or under Moors
4. Portugal is a vassal of Castille at the start
5. Add more settlements in Morroco
Just for gameplay reasons. If Portugal only started with Lisbon, then it will be the only faction not bordering rebel territory to expand. A better option would be to split the Lisbon region in 2, with a northern region owned by Portugal and Lisbon in the south as a rebel settlement.
When playing as a Catholic faction, I tend to establish diplomatic ties with the Pope before attacking other Catholic factions as the higher my rating with the Pope, the less he's likely to do about me attacking Catholics.
"Poor morale is very rare for cavalry". When literally 8 out of the 11 cavarly units in the roster have good morale.
Started to play as Portugal. Connected my territory by conquering rebel and moorish settlements along the coast. Will try to consolidate economy, get a hold in Africa, prepare for inevitable sicilian attack and invasion of Jerusalem. Got allied with Spain, got attacked by France for no reason but the spanish homie got my back and declared war on them.
This post was made by Iberian gang.
i sell pamplona or outright give it to the spaniards for free , just so i dont have to bother with it , and as a bonus spain leaves me alone as i gobble up cordoba and granada
Why not take Bordeaux in the early game?
Id say Venice is somewhat fragmented as well
Bordeaux is the 1st quest so it sound good but there is many reasons to not get baited. it "increase" the gap between your territories when you really need to reduce it. it's a castle with a fairly large garrison and it take like 3 turns to get to it (thus 3 to come back). you "block" france from taking it but france isn't a threat to you this early. by taking bordeaux you actualy get a border on france and this increase a potential war between you two.
It's really safe to take saragosa, village with only a small garrison. it prevent spain from taking it and spain is really the one you want to out to get your territories so interact more smoothly. you don't want spain one of the 2 biggest threat for you to get a settlement 1 turn away from pamplona.
Valencia got a big garrison with El Cid as the general. found it not worth to waste my time on it as nobody can rush it and it doesn't close the gap between your settlements.
get your merchant and spy to both toledo and leon to have vision then storm the weakest one. get rid of spain and pray for sicily or the like to not mess up everything. going against more after spain help fix your relation with pope. big plus with going spain is, it's christian ! you won't have too much religious trouble meaning you don't have to keep too many units in (less idle money), you don't have to build churchs and priest right away (saving money for better stuffs) and it's easier to fix morale to start taxing more (more money).
Hmm. What I'd say is this: it depends on how the reconquista goes. In my campaign I started fighting the Moors and not Spain. Spain was also very passive for some reason and the Moors in Iberia proved fairly easy to defeat. I may also have gotten lucky and found France hadn't bothered with Bordeaux yet when I managed to save up enough troops. What may have helped (but I honestly can't recall) is that I made peace with the Moors after taking their Iberian holdings.
So.. basically, take it whenever you feel safe enough to do so.
Lutesenos? Lusitânia! It was an area between Douro and Tejo rivers and reached from the sea till nowadays Madrid
Like the ship. 🙁
Con-KEYS-ta-dor
I played portugal and whoped the spain and french then had trouble with england.
I'm getting extremely frustrated in my Stainless Steel Portugal playthrough. Its 1377 and I have no answer to heavy cav. Sure I can throw my own knights against there's but my stables don't do anything but help me make more Jinettes which are AWFUL. I'm essentially throwing urban spearmen and handgunners to die by the hundreds against French knights and Crusader orders of every color of the rainbow. Pikes when??? lol
Try to put portuguese knights vs English knights, the Portuguese ones will always win on any 1×1 match for some reason, I believe it's bc they use maces while the English knights use swords.
Portuguese knights are AP in melee
Why dont you ever do Napoleonic Total War
Best country in the world. Our leader is Cristiano Ronaldo
Honestly there's nothing historical in portugal owning vasconia/navarra. They treated portugal as a generic "independent kingdoms of iberia" faction. By the way, I think they were not playable in the original release, they are like the numidia of m2tw
Just a question, have you actually played as every faction in this game? I can't seem to understand, how you see yourself fit to actually guide somebody. It's funny, and I enjoy watching it, however not for the content tho'.
Another thing, Merchants suck. Don't train them people, do not! :D
Merchants can make good money in the Americas or in places where the IA can't easily get their own merchants (e.g. timbuktu, Dongola).
Merchants are nice if you can get them to Africa and Egypt. Best to transport them with ship as close as you can, then they have to walk all these turns on their own. Once they get, they start to pay for themselves in pretty much one turn due to far distance. If you play in Eastern Europe, you can also get some decent money by capturing slaves around Kiev and Crimea - AI doesn't really walk there. Don't bother with Western Europe.
Can I get a "PORTUGAL CARALHO" ?
brasil caralho
OK... Con KEES ta dors