Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

The trade of Portugal is the envy of the world - and of ambitious men who serve neither God nor the nation, but their own self interests. For too long incompetent governors who would rather fight than work with their successors have threatened the flow of valuable goods, and so we shall not give them nations to conquer, but fortresses to hold. Let the Feitorias line the seas so that all of the world's trade shall flow through Portugal.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Portugal has a tier 1 start bias to coastal tiles. This makes it extremely likely - but not guaranteed - that Portugal will start next to the sea, which is important as nearly all of Portugal's unique bonuses rely on it.

• International trade routes may only be sent to cities on the coast or with a Harbour district.
  
• International trade routes have a +50% bonus to all yields.
  
• Trader units may cross water even without the classical-era Celestial Navigation technology and have +50% range over water (45 tiles, up from 30).

• All units receive +1 sight.
  
• Every time you meet a full civ, gain +1 trade route capacity.
  
• Always have open borders with all city-states.

A renaissance-era naval melee unit which replaces the Caravel

*If you have insufficient coal, you may continue to build Naus beyond the Steam Power technology.

• 2 gold per turn maintenance cost, down from 4 (-50%)
  
• Starts with a free promotion
  
  • Upgrading a Galley to a Nau will provide you with enough experience for its next promotion.
• Has 2 charges to build a Feitoria improvement
  
  • If the unit has at least one build charge remaining, it may repair improvements and clear nuclear fallout.

A medieval-era Campus building which replaces the University

*Purchasing this building with faith requires the city to follow a religion with the Jesuit Education follower belief.

• Provides +1 science per every two coast or lake tiles in this city
  
  • These tiles do not have to be worked.
    
  • This bonus is not considered adjacency nor a direct building yield, and hence cannot be boosted by policy cards.
• Provides +1 Great Admiral Point per turn.
  
• +25% production towards naval units in this city.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Cultural victory is a fine path for Portugal. Having plenty of early international trade routes with great range makes it easier to gain the 25% tourism bonus from them, though civs that don't have a coastal city or Harbour will be impossible to trade with. Strong gold output can help with purchasing Theatre Square buildings and Archaeologists, and once enough Feitorias are built, international trade can be a powerful source of production for wonders. The catch is that Portugal has little in the way of faith generation for Naturalists and Rock Bands.

Diplomatic victory is a good option. As with Mali, Portugal's extreme wealth allows the purchasing of diplomatic favours from other civs and you can reliably achieve a good placement in aid emergencies. Furthermore, Portugal's surprisingly strong production output once Feitorias are available can help you secure key diplomatic wonders and rush through carbon recapture projects later on.

Portugal can perform well at domination victories - a huge gold output allows the purchasing of units in captured cities to keep pressure up, and covers unit maintenance. The Navigation School also offers bonus Great Admiral Points and helps you train a navy faster. That being said, warfare can make it difficult to make the most of Portugal's international trade bonuses and the civ has nothing in the way of amenity or strength bonuses.

Religion is Portugal's weakest path, though receiving a lot of early international trade routes can aid with religious spread.

Science is Portugal's best path. The Navigation School can provide a healthy bump to science generation in every city, and high gold outputs mean even new cities can rush the building and purchase lots of tiles. International trade routes will provide additional science - particularly effective early in the game - and Portugal's strong production output once Feitorias are available really helps out in the space race.

Explore, and Portugal may reap the rewards.

João III's leader ability offers two extremely useful bonuses: +1 sight for all units, and free trade route capacity merely for meeting other civs. It also has a smaller, but still meaningful, advantage of always giving you open borders with city-states.


Extra sight for all units is a versatile bonus with many applications. Right from the start, your Settler will see a 4-tile radius around them - though resist the temptation to explore with them. Just settle, preferably by a coastal or lake tile. Your starting Warrior will still have a sight radius of 3, which is still excellent.

It's a good idea to train a Scout first in your capital. With three movement points, and the potential for promotions to increase their mobility or sight, Scouts can rapidly uncover tiles and discover city-states and tribal villages before anyone else can.

Extra sight also helps you to keep your civilian units safe. Settlers, with a sight range of 4, can see Barbarians before the Barbarians can see them, allowing you to send them out unescorted if need be. Embarked units similarly have a better chance of spotting enemy units before they can retaliate.


Another excellent application of bonus sight is spawnbusting. Simply put, Barbarian Encampments only appear in tiles which are out of sight of all civs. With a few well-positioned units, Barbarians won't spawn near you allowing you to focus on other things. This also provides a good view of would-be invading armies from other civs.

Long-distance Trader units can be protected with a small number of naval units, as they'll see would-be pillager units coming. This is particularly powerful with Nau units, which with this leader ability have a sight range of 4, and with a second promotion can get up to 5. If you can secure the medieval-era Great Admiral Leif Erikson, that's another point of sight making a massive sight radius of 6.

You can use your sight bonus to spy on civs if you lack open borders with them. Simply position a unit on a hill by their border, and you'll be able to see if they're moving in any military units.

In warfare, units with an attack range of 3 (such as Battleships and siege units with an Observation Balloon/Drone supporting them) will be able to hit their targets without requiring another unit to provide line-of-sight.


Every time you meet another full civ, your trade route capacity increases by 1. In other words, you'll receive a free trade route for every civ in the game, minus one. The following table shows how many full civs there are in various map sizes:


A huge map could potentially be worth a massive 19 trade routes! Even on smaller map sizes, getting bonus trade route capacity for free is a huge incentive to explore early on. It also helps to get to the renaissance-era Cartography technology quickly to cross oceans, but that's something Portugal should be aiming for anyway thanks to the Nau UU.

A challenge of using these trade routes early on is that you might have a lack of targets to send them to. Look out for coastal city-states, or civs with a major incentive to settle the coast (e.g. Australia, Indonesia). Be sure to settle enough cities yourself so you can make use of that expanded trade route capacity - if there's only one foreign coastal city, you'll need a city of your own for every single point of trade route capacity you have to get the best yields.


It's a pain to have your exploration attempts stopped because a random city-state is blocking off the coast. Portugal doesn't have to worry about that issue, and can pass through city-state land freely.

Note that city-state land isn't considered friendly territory just because you have open borders, and as such your units won't heal any faster there. In fact, they'll heal at a mere 5HP per turn, making it a poor choice of location to retreat into.

However, moving your own units into city-state land can be useful for stopping an enemy civ from capturing the city. Surround the city centre with units of your own, and the foe will be forced to retreat or declare war on you, with an associated grievance penalty.

Finally, and most importantly, this bonus allows you to build the Feitoria improvement in city-state waters, which ensures even if your diplomatic position is poor, you can usually find a good trading partner.

• Train a Scout first in your capital so you can explore faster.
  
• Spreading out units near your lands can stop Barbarians spawning.
  
• Be sure to settle plenty of cities early on so you can use your trade route capacity.
  
• City-state waters are a reliable location for the Feitoria improvement.

The riches of the seas shall find their way home to Portugal.

Portugal's civ ability creates incredibly strong international trade routes - especially in conjunction with the Feitoria improvement and João III's leader ability - with the catch that you can only send international routes to cities on the coast or with a Harbour district. That catch can make it difficult to connect your cities up with roads, complicated further by the fact the technology that makes railroads available - Steam Power - makes Naus obsolete. As such, rely on your sight bonuses to see enemies coming, because unless you use some trade routes for less effective internal routes, you'll struggle to get roads built.


Coastal trade routes gain +50% range for Portugal, and the classical-era Celestial Navigation technology isn't needed to establish them.

The first of these two bonuses gives Portuguese naval routes a massive range of 45 tiles - triple that of a land trade route! This means you can send trade routes to virtually any city on your home continent and many beyond. Completing a trade route in a city establishes a trading post, which extends the range of your trade routes from there - it won't be long until the entire world is in reach of your routes.

The second bonus is more powerful than it at first appears. Trade routes gain transportation efficiency for crossing over water tiles. With full transportation efficiency, you'll receive a +100% bonus to all the district-based gold yields from an international trade route - routes crossing water can reliably achieve this. This won't affect gold bonuses from policy cards and the like, but it will make Portuguese trade routes significantly more lucrative in the earliest turns of the game.


This incredibly powerful bonus makes Portugal extremely rich, and also can aid the civ in many other helpful ways.

The gold you receive from international trade routes is largely based on which districts are present at the target city:

Note: Other districts do not affect trade route yields - even Aerodromes and Preserves, which count towards the district cap.

Portugal's civ ability affects all of these yields - 3 gold becomes 4.5; 1 science becomes 1.5, and so forth. The science yield in particular can be rather powerful if you can exploit your high early trade route capacity to send lots of trade routes to the same city.

And that's not all - there's a huge number of modifiers to international trade yields, which will be listed in the Administration section of this guide. Some of particular note include:

• Hunza (Trade city-state) -The suzerain bonus adds +1 gold per five tiles the trade route travels.
  Samarkand (Trade city-state) - The suzerain bonus allows you to build Trading Dome improvements in cities, adding +1 gold to the city's outgoing international trade routes.
  
• Trade Confederation (Economic policy card, requires the medieval-era Mercenaries civic) - +1 culture and +1 science from international trade routes.
  
• Reform the Coinage (Golden Age dedication, renaissance to modern eras) - Trade routes cannot be pillaged, and international routes add +3 gold per speciality district in the target city.
  
• Great Zimbabwe (Wonder, requires the renaissance-era Banking technology) - Trade routes from this city grant +2 gold for every bonus resource in this city's territory.
  
• Torre de Belém (Wonder, requires the renaissance-era Mercantilism civic) - Trade routes from this city grant +2 gold for every luxury resource in the targeted city's territory.
  
• Democracy (Tier 3 government, requires the modern-era Suffrage civic) - Trade routes to allies and city-states you are suzerain over provide +4 food and +4 production. The same bonus is also offered by its legacy card.
  
• Ecommerce (Economic policy card, requires the information-era Globalisation civic) - Trade routes yield +2 production and +5 gold.
  
• Being culturally dominant over another civ (having sufficient tourism against them) adds +4 gold to trade routes to their cities.

If you want to take an unconventional route to maximising trade route gold, conquer city-states to initiate City-State Emergencies against you, as winning one as the target gives you a permanent +2 gold for every trade route sent to city-states (+3 as Portugal).

The Feitoria unique improvement built in another civ's city, stacked with lots of trade route-boosting bonuses, will provide you with masses of gold and some great production yields as well. Consider recruiting Governor Reyna (the Financier) and giving her the Contractor promotion so you can purchase districts with gold, helping you set up a city quickly.

• Explore lots early on to find coastal cities.
  
• Look for any bonus to international trade route yields you can get to expand this ability further.
  
• If you can't reach a foreign coastal city to trade with them, trade with a closer city so you can get a trading post there.
  
• Recruit Governor Reyna with the Contractor promotion to purchase districts with gold.

Show me the sea, and I shall show you the stars.

The Navigation School has two distinct functionalities: It complements the Nau UU with faster naval unit production and a Great Admiral Point, and it also steers Portugal towards the scientific game with a science yield bonus that can be particularly high in island cities.


As a University replacement, Navigation Schools require the medieval-era Education technology. This is a slight deviation off the path for the renaissance-era Cartography technology needed for Naus and Feitorias, so consider carefully which one to aim for first. If in doubt, Education is a bit faster to get to than Cartography, and the science boost from Navigation Schools will help you finish Cartography sooner.

It's a good idea to build a few Campuses ahead of time. In coastal cities, the best spots for Campuses typically are adjacent to reef tiles. If you can't achieve that or other good terrain like mountains, consider building your city centre, Campus and Harbour in a triangle so the latter two districts receive +1 adjacency each.


Navigation Schools provide +4 science as a baseline, and an extra +1 for every two lake or coast tiles in the city's limits. This bonus isn't considered to be part of the building or the district, so it isn't affected by any policy cards. However, the bonus doesn't require you to work those tiles - only to own them.

This bonus is most effective in small island cities surrounded by lots of coastal tiles, but can also perform reasonably well in areas with multiple large lakes or peninsulas. Every city on the coast should get some kind of benefit. To maximise the yield as soon as possible, use your trade route gold to rapidly purchase coast and/or lake tiles. Ignore ocean tiles, as they don't provide any science bonus. The Land Surveyors or Expropriation economic policy cards (requires the ancient-era Early Empire civic and industrial-era Scorched Earth civic respectively) reduce tile purchasing costs by 20%, helping you get more science sooner.

Even new cities can generate a lot of science quickly if your gold output is strong enough. Move Governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to the city, buy a Campus, Library and Navigation school, and purchase coastal or lake tiles until you can't any more.


Navigation Schools offer +1 Great Admiral Point - equivalent to a Harbour district with no buildings - and a +25% production bonus towards naval units.

The first of these bonuses combines nicely with all the Harbours you're likely to have in your cities for a huge advantage in Great Admiral generation. Some notably offer trade route capacity, like the medieval-era Zheng He, while all of them can boost the mobility and strength of your naval units of appropriate eras. That being said, Great Admirals tend to be bad for supporting exploration as naval units move faster than them, so that extra mobility is most useful for flanking enemies.

A particularly important Great Admiral to secure if you are able is Leif Erikson. He's a medieval-era Great Admiral with two key benefits - he allows your naval units to cross oceans early helping you maximise trade route capacity by meeting more civs, and he provides all naval units with +1 sight - stacking nicely with João III's leader ability.

The production bonus can really come in handy if you're lacking appropriate policy cards for boosting naval unit production, and can be somewhat useful if you do have them. Use your gold for purchasing other things to maximise efficiency while you train Naus or other such units.


The key advantage of the Navigation School is its science bonus, which is easy enough to maximise even in new cities. The science bonus can really help carry you on to a scientific victory, or secure a technological advantage for a cultural or domination one.

I shall return from my voyages forever changed, or I shall not return at all.

The Nau is not built for combat, but is ideal for exploration and strengthening your trade routes via the Feitoria unique improvement. Its low maintenance cost means you can afford to keep plenty to keep your trade routes safe from pillagers.

To reach Naus, you need the renaissance-era Cartography technology. Here's all the prerequisites:

• Sailing (Boost: Settle a city on the coast. You should do this on your second city if your capital wasn't already there).
  
• Pottery
  
• Writing (Boost: Meet another civ. This should be easy.)
  
• Shipbuilding (Boost: Build two Galleys. Use the Maritime Industries policy card to help.)
  
• Currency (Boost: Make a trade route. Again, should be easy.)
  
• Mathematics (Boost: Have three different speciality districts. A good combination is Campus, Government Plaza and Harbour.)
  
• Buttress (Boost: Have a classical-era or later wonder. May be hard to achieve in time so don't be afraid to ignore this one.)
  
• Cartography (Boost: Build two Harbours. It's a good idea to take a detour to Celestial Navigation before Shipbuilding so you can build these.)

Naus immediately start with a free promotion, which is nice for new units but even better for old promoted ones. By fighting Barbarians with Galleys (let them take a few hits from Archers if you can't find any Quadriremes to fight) you can secure the Helmsman promotion. With an extra promotion on top, you'll be up to Rutter for +1 sight. A Nau with the Rutter promotion has a massive sight range of 5.

A Nau with at least one build charge remaining can repair pillaged improvements or even clear up nuclear fallout. This is useful if Barbarians have been raiding your coasts, or hurricanes have been damaging improvements.

If you have any coal, unlocking the industrial-era Steam Power technology will prevent you building additional Naus, and hence getting extra build charges for Feitorias. As such, you'll either need to hold off researching the technology, or else deliberately use up all your coal. Building Coal Power Plants is effective, but you can even just trade coal to other civs. If you have both Steam Power and the atomic-era Combined Arms technology, you won't be able to train Naus whatsoever, regardless of the resources you have.


Naus make excellent explorers, and their huge sight range is great for spying on rival civs and keeping long-distance trade routes safe. Their real advantage comes in the form of the Feitoria improvement, so try to train plenty for that purpose.

The wealth of the lands and seas begin their journey here.

The Feitoria is distinct among unique improvements in that it can only be built in other civs' territory. Furthermore, it's a rare unique improvement not constructed by a Builder, and not based on a land tile. Nonetheless, it can bring in enormous amounts of wealth and considerable amounts of production for Portugal.


Feitorias have rather specific placement requirements, but the more you can stack in the same city's territory, the bigger rewards you'll get. Feitorias must be:

• In foreign territory, and you must have open borders with the civ (city-states are reliable targets). You can get open borders by being a common member of betrayal, city-state, military or nuclear emergency.
  
• On a water tile adjacent to land and a bonus or luxury resource (this resource doesn't have to be improved).
  
• Not adjacent to each other.

If you're having trouble keeping track of all those requirements, you can use map pins to mark out valid locations for Feitorias.

While cities can only purchase tiles within a 3-tile radius of their city centre, they can expand up to a 5-tile radius via culture. This can allow you to squeeze in even more Feitoria improvements in a single city's area, though this isn't especially common.

The best cities for Feitoria locations are on small, but not tiny, islands and peninsulas, where there's enough resources and land-adjacent coastal tiles for a high number of Feitoria improvements. Remember, however, that you can't build Feitorias in neutral territory - if the city can't expand its borders, the best placement in the world still won't allow many of those improvements.

Avoid building Feitorias in cities you have no interest in trading with, unless it is a deliberate plan to block their placement of a water-based improvement (e.g. Dutch Polders, Indonesia's Kampungs). Doing so will only give the targeted civ gold and production, while wasting build charges for your Naus.



Relying on other civs to make the perfect city is a pain - but why not make your own?

Find a spot with plenty of potential Feitoria locations in range, and settle a city there. Ignore the loyalty pressure - if there isn't any, you can sell the city to another civ, and if there's lots, the city will flip to their control soon enough. Use your gold to purchase lots of valid Feitoria tiles, and if you like, move in Governor Reyna with the Contractor promotion to buy a district. Using up the city's district capacity will stop the city's future owner from breaking your Feitoria placement with a Harbour or Water Park.

Once that's done, sell the city to another civ or wait for it to flip to their control, then build the Feitorias in the best locations. Note that you can't build Feitorias in free cities as you are always considered at war with them.

While in the short-term this costs quite a lot of gold and also gives the other civ an extra city, it will pay off with a huge gold and production yield for any trade routes you send there. Extra production in particular is key for space projects as you can't rush them with gold.


The Feitoria improvement can make specific cities even more amazing targets for trade than they would already be, but be careful of how you position the improvements. As you can't remove them, poor placement could cost you key gold and production. Be prepared to settle your own sacrificial city to produce optimum Feitoria locations.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.



Classical Republic is a safe choice. Portugal's incentive to build up Campuses and Harbours makes all its attributes useful. Oligarchy may offer a strength bonus to Naus, but Naus aren't particularly well-equipped for warfare and the distribution of policy cards in the government is less than ideal.

Take the Ancestral Hall building - founding plenty of cities early on is crucial for maximising the number of trade routes you can establish.


Merchant Republic helps you build Campuses and Harbours alongside other districts, builds on your gold advantage and has an excellent spread of policy cards.

For a scientific game, the extra Spy from the Intelligence Agency will help you defend against sabotage attempts and eureka theft. For a diplomatic game, the diplomatic favour bonus of the Foreign Ministry will be more useful.


Democracy is ideal. Trading to an ally or city-state you are suzerain over will provide +6 food and production per turn thanks to Portugal's civ ability, and the arrangement of policy card slots is ideal for maximising trade route bonuses.

The Royal Society will help you rush space race and carbon capture projects, ideal for the diplomatic and scientific games alike.


Synthetic Technocracy works well for diplomatic and scientific games alike with a bonus to city project production.



Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - Portugal's civ ability makes this add +3 gold to every international trade route.

Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - Training plenty of Settlers early on is important for ensuring you can actually make enough trade routes to meet your high capacity.

Land Surveyors (Economic, requires Early Empire) - Useful later on when you've got Navigation Schools constructed. Cutting the cost of purchasing tiles allows you to get your maximum science boost sooner.

Maritime Industries (Military, requires Foreign Trade) - Directly useful for securing the eureka for Shipbuilding (which requires two Galleys to be built). You can also produce a few Galleys, train them up at Barbarians for a promotion, and upgrade them to Naus later for a second promotion.


Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - The boost to production for Harbours and their buildings helps you maximise your trade route capacity sooner.


Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Been building and training lots of Galleys in anticipation of the Cartography technology? This policy card halves the cost of upgrading them to Naus.

Trade Confederation (Economic, requires Mercenaries) - Grant your international trade routes +1.5 science and +1.5 culture each!


Press Gangs (Military, requires Exploration) - Allows you to build Naus faster.

Triangular Trade (Economic, requires Mercantilism) - Bonus gold and faith for all trade routes.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Trading with an ally or suzerain city-state now provides +3 food and +3 production for Portugal!


Colonial Taxes (Diplomatic, requires Colonialism) - The gold bonus helps Portugal to become even richer.

Expropriation (Economic, requires Scorched Earth) - Need to make a sacrificial city to maximise Feitoria yields? This policy card helps both with Settler training and cutting tile purchase costs.

Military Research (Military, requires Urbanisation) - Fully developing your Harbour districts now produces science, allowing your Campuses and Harbours to complement each other even more.

Raj (Diplomatic, requires Colonialism) - Provides a little more gold for trading with suzerain city-states.


Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) - Makes Naus free to maintain, allowing you to keep the seas monitored.

Market Economy (Economic, requires Capitalism) - Boosts the gold, science and culture yields of your international trade routes.

Science Foundations (Wildcard, requires Nuclear Programme) - Rewards you for building lots of Navigation Schools with extra Great Scientist Points.


Integrated Space Cell (Military, requires Space Race) - Ideal for scientific games, as you'll probably have plenty of Seaports built by the time you get space race projects started.


Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - For Portugal, this policy card grants +3 production and +7.5 gold to all international trade routes.

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

Free Inquiry (Dedication, Classical to Medieval eras) - Rewards you for developing Campuses, something you should be doing in anticipation of the Navigation School building anyway.

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Developing lots of Harbours for trade route capacity will now offer plenty of science.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Allows you to purchase Traders with faith for a low cost, saving gold or production for other uses.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - While Reform the Coinage is a better option for Portugal, this is still good for a heroic age. Faster naval units helps with establishing Feitorias, while cities starting at size 4 allows you to make a more powerful sacrificial city - you can purchase two districts there in order to maximise the trade route yields you'd receive from it later.

Reform the Coinage (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Portugal's huge number of trade routes makes this an easy source of era score.

Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - A massive increase to gold yields, and prevents your trade routes being pillaged. A reliably strong choice.

Robber Barons (Dark Age, Industrial to Information eras) - If you can handle the amenity loss, the gold bonus nicely builds on Portugal's existing gold bonuses.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key relevant votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Aid Request - Vote in favour

Portugal's very strong economy makes it easy to win these emergencies.

Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) for Steal Tech Boost

You'll probably end up with a lot of Campus districts, and keeping them all safe from enemy Spies is difficult without this resolution.

International Space Station - Vote in favour if you're going for a scientific victory.

Portugal's incentive to have lots of Campuses gives a slight advantage.

Mercenary Companies - Effect A (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type costs 100% more until the next World Congress) for production OR Effect B (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type is -50% of the cost until the next World Congress) for gold.

Extend your advantages in gold over civs that rely on production to raise a military. If you're not actively training units, effect A is better. If you're training naval units in cities with Navigation Schools, effect B is better.

Military Aid- Vote in favour.

Portugal's strong economy makes winning this easy.

Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) for Great Admirals or Scientists

Only England can rival Portugal's generation of Great Admirals, and doubling their generation can allow you to get even more. Scientists are good as well thanks to Portugal's incentive to build lots of Campuses.

Sovereignity - Effect A (+100% of the city-states' yield type when sending trade routes to a city-state of this type) on Trade or Scientific city-states.

Applying the bonus to trade city-states can make for some extremely strong trade routes fairly early on.

Trade Policy - Effect A (Trade routes sent to the chosen player provide +4 gold to the sender. The chosen player receives +1 trade route capacity) on yourself or a key target of your trade routes.

If you use this effect on another civ, you can get an extra +6 gold per trade route to them. Given the large number of trade routes you're likely to have by that point, that's normally - though not always - a better option than getting +1 trade route capacity for yourself.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on Campus or Harbour districts.

Applying the bonus to Harbours helps you get more trade route capacity sooner, but applying it to Campuses will allow you to get through Libraries and then follow up with Navigation Schools.

Divine Spark - Portugal needs to build plenty of Libraries to make the most of Navigation Schools, so you can get a fair amount of Great Scientist Points here.

God of the Sea - An ideal choice for any maritime-focused civ to boost production.

Religious Settlements - Both bonuses are great for Portugal! Faster border expansion helps maximise the number of coastal tiles you own by the time Navigation Schools come available. The bonus Settler aids in maximising the number of trade routes you can use early on.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - Allows you to buy Navigation Schools with faith, saving production and/or gold for other uses.

Religious Community (Follower) - Extra gold for international trade routes.


Antananarivo (Cultural) - Portugal's edge at Great Admiral generation can make this city-state a slightly better source of culture.

Auckland (Industrial) - A powerful boost to production in coastal cities.

Bandar Brunei (Trade) - Get some extra gold for setting up trading posts in foreign cities.

Bologna (Scientific) - Expand your advantages in Great Admiral and Scientist generation.

Cardiff (Industrial) - Allows your Harbours to power your Research Labs without the need for any more districts or strategic resources - particularly nice for smaller cities.

Chinguetti (Religious) - Extra faith from international trade routes.

Hunza (Trade) - Very powerful in Portugal's hands, as you already have a minimum coastal trade route range of 45 tiles, and with trading posts, you can extend that much further for an even better gold bonus.

Kumasi (Cultural) - A strong culture and gold bonus for trading with city-states, especially if your own city has a lot of districts.

Mogadishu (Trade) - Keeps your Traders safe from pillaging, ensuring they can bring in lots of gold.

Nan Madol (Cultural) - Helps boost a maritime civ's culture output.

Samarkand (Trade) - The Trading Dome improvement is kind of like the Feitoria, but for origin rather than destination cities. Every one present in a city's limits adds +1 gold to the value of the city's international trade routes (+1.5 for Portugal) - stacking a lot of them and sending routes to Feitoria-heavy cities can produce amazing bonuses.

Singapore (Industrial) - Gives you production for trading with a range of civs.

Venice (Trade) - Extra gold from international trading.

Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - A point of trade route capacity, and a free Trader on top so you can use it immediately! This wonder often isn't that competitive, and building it boosts the Buttress technology, so it's a good choice.

Great Lighthouse (Classical era, Celestial Navigation technology) - Save time building Feitorias, and uncover more tiles every turn with faster naval units.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - Excellent in a coastal city with plenty of sea resources. Basically, a city which is great for the Navigation School building will also get strong yields with this wonder.

Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - Find a city with lots of bonus resources (e.g. fish) for this wonder to reach its full potential, as international trade routes from here will produce huge amounts of gold.

Torre de Belém (Renaissance era, Mercantilism civic) - Target cities with lots of luxuries for trade routes from this city, and secure lots of gold.

Venetian Arsenal (Renaissance era, Mass Production technology) - Allows you to double your Nau output, and therefore double your Feitoria charges.

Big Ben (Industrial era, Economics technology) - Save up your gold for a few turns and enjoy a 50% increase in treasury which you can spend however you like. Also, you'll get a really useful economic policy card slot, which can be filled with a variety of trade route bonuses.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.


Hypatia (Great Scientist) - A free Library, and permanently boosts the science yield of all Libraries - quite powerful as you work your way to Navigation Schools.

Zhang Qian (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity.


Ibn Fadlan (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity, and bonus faith for trading with city-states.

Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - A very powerful Great Admiral for Portugal! You can cross oceans early to discover more civs and get trade route capacity, and the extra sight stacks well with João III's leader ability.

Marco Polo (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity and a free Trader.

Zheng He (Great Admiral) - Extra trade route capacity and a free Trader.


Isaac Newton (Great Scientist) - A free Library and Navigation School, and bonus science for all Navigation Schools.


Albert Einstein (Great Scientist) - All those Navigation School cities will also be able to build Research Labs later - Albert Einstein will boost all their science outputs.

John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - Extra gold for trade routes.

Shah Jahān (Great Engineer) - Portugal's strong economy allows you to essentially purchase a wonder with Shah Jahān's help.


Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity.

Portugal is a very rich maritime civ with a decent science output from the medieval era. However, they have a relatively weak navy by the standards of maritime-focused civs, and have an even worse army.


Portugal is extremely reliant on maritime trade routes which often have to travel long distances to get to a small number of target cities. This makes their trade routes predictable, and easy to pillage. Pillaging trade routes will both weaken them and provide you with gold. Portugal's strong economy also makes them potentially rather generous in peace offers, so you can get extra gold that way.

As Portugal can only send international trade routes to cities which are either coastal or have a Harbour district, you can deliberately choose districts for your own coastal cities with less useful trade route yield bonuses. Aerodromes and Preserves notably do not boost trade route yields, while Holy Sites add faith, which is typically of low priority for Portugal.


Aside from cutting off Portugal's access to parts of a continent or the coast, it's hard to stop Portugal amassing a huge trade route capacity. However, there are ways of stopping them from using it. If there's a lack of coastal cities not owned by Portugal, Portugal will have to settle many cities just to establish those routes, or else rely on less effective internal routes. With a few military units parked near their border and a declaration of war, you can pressure Portugal to focus on their defence and not expansion.

Portugal's sight bonus gives them a slight tactical advantage in war, but remember that rough terrain (hills, woods, etc.) can still block line of sight. As such, retreating over such tiles can still be a good option for your injured military units.


A computer-controlled João III loves exploration, and loves civs that do the same. He hates civs that haven't uncovered many tiles. He will never have the Explorer hidden agenda as it conflicts with this.

This agenda is easy to meet for civs with advantages to exploration like the Cree. the Māori or Norway, but given the inherent advantages of early exploration (knowing where the good city spots are, meeting city-states so you can get more city-state quests completed and so forth) this is an agenda that any civ can make a good attempt at meeting.

The civs most likely to fail to meet this agenda are scientific civs, as their victory route requires the least interaction with other civs.

Things can get tricky in higher singleplayer difficulties where computer opponents start with a large number of units, and hence can explore rapidly. While eventually you'll be able to catch up, expect relations with Portugal to be poor in the early stages of the game.


In itself, the Nau is not especially powerful. The Navigation School unique building allows it to be built a bit faster and will mean Portugal will usually have Great Admirals ready, while the free promotion could mean they get combat advantages sooner, but this unit largely plays a support role. Frigates are excellent against them, but if you lack nitre, promoted Caravels of your own will do.


The real power of the Nau UU comes in this unique improvement, which it can build in seas (or even lakes) foreign to Portugal. If you're playing a civ with a unique coastal improvement like Indonesia or the Netherlands, do not give Portugal open borders. Feitorias cannot be removed once placed, which can ruin your plans for your own improvements.

If you have a city location with plenty of resources and plenty of coast, Portugal may be incentivised to build Feitorias there. That gives you a choice: either deny open borders to deny Portugal the potential gold and production, or stack bonuses in the city which give you gold for incoming trade routes.

The improvement itself adds +4 gold and +1 production to its tile. You can build on that with extra Harbour buildings:


That's not a bad yield, and can be rather good if you're playing as a civ that needs lots of gold (like many domination civs). You can let Portugal build some Feitorias in your seas, and then declare war on them so you can start pillaging their trade routes.


Navigation Schools have three different benefits, but aside from a +1 Great Admiral Point bonus, these are only useful to cities which have coast or lake access. As such, constraining Portugal's coastal expansion will be useful here. Alternatively, settling near Portugal and buying/culture bombing their coastal tiles can deny them science generation.

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• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.