Rhye's and Fall of Civilization - Portuguese strategy
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UHV Strategy on monarch/emperor level
by Pacifist
Second to the Netherlands, the Portuguese UHV is one of the most easily won. If you play nice with almost everybody (and sometimes be really, really obsequious), you'll achieve UHV in 1650.
Goals:
1. Have the most revealed map in 1500
2. Have open borders with 12 other civilizations by 1650
3. Found 15 extra-European cities
Starting moves
You start out in Lisboa, which has reasonable resources (wine, horses, fish). You have an extra settler and about 6 troops. Switch to hereditary rule and slavery (like usual). Immediately contact Spain and gift them your least expensive tech (or if they have paper, trade their map with a tech). They will like you and open borders with you. The trick of this civ is NEVER to piss off Spain (one wrong move and they'll annihilate your capital). (In Emperor you may have to adopt Theocracy, Bureaucracy and Slavery to cozy up to Isabella, and convert to Christianity ASAP). Then send 2 of your pikemen eastward to explore and as soon as you contact other civs (France, England, Germany, Russia), give them something or trade map/tech and open borders. Netherlands will usually open borders with you no matter what. Russia is especially important because you will never get enough exploration with your ships alone, and you need to get to Mongolia, China and Khmer to get the 10 civs. Your second settler should found a city in Casablanca, protected by 2 crossbowmen (the impi and rarely barbarian camels will come). The computer usually founds Ponta Delgada which has whale and fish, but Casablanca has horse, wine and sheep, and counts as an extra-European city, and also you get to contact Mali earlier (who wants open borders even without gifts). You can always settle Ponta Delgada later.
Science
Your unique unit is the Carrack which, unlike usual caravels, can contain 2 regular cargo and has more sight across water. So you need to get optics ASAP. Next to that, civil service is probably the second most important due to your lack of space initially. Astronomy is good to get but not as essential as for the other European civs. Liberalism is actually quite important later as you need to switch to free religion to open civs with the eastern civs. Japan usually gets to liberalism first, but you may need 4-5 techs to trade for it. Otherwise you'll have to switch to no state religion which sucks, or save a great engineer to build the Shwedagon Paya (which allows all religion civics). (Unfortunately in the 600 AD start it's always in Pagan so you may just have to use the open borders/war trick described below with non-Christian civs).
Civics
When you get Christianity, organized religion is good to switch to. Spain will occasionally ask you to switch to Theocracy (all the more better for your relationship with Spain). Switch to resettlement when you're ready to found your colonies (doing it with civil service/bureaucracy saves you a move of anarchy).
Exploration
As soon as you get optics, build 2-3 carracks and send them to America, Africa and Asia. You need to get to the Aztecs and Incas first (usually by 1300). Declare war on them and vassalize them. If you don't you may not get the chance to open borders with them later. Buy some maps from your contacts, but explore some open ocean, just in case you don't have the most extended map. Do not trade your map until 1505 (then sell it to other civs for about 1000 gold). On the other hand, if you play in Emperor, most of the time Inca and Aztecs will either be dead (being destroyed by an Old World civ who got there before you) or about to die. Take advantage to declare war on them and open borders with the conquerors. :]
Founding colonies
This is really up to you, but in order not to piss of the other civs and destroy my stability, I left North America alone. Concentrating on South America and southern Africa will drive your maintenance costs down. The cities in Australia and Madagascar and your 2nd Moroccan city (Arguin) you can found right around 1650 (just about the time of your 2nd criteria) so that they don't drag down your economy: unprotected settlers on St. Helena and the Falklands can be founded just around 1650 also. You don't necessarily need to keep all your colonies (it's OK if you lose them because you have "founded" the city), losing them by congress or giving them to other civs is really up to you; however, those cities must not be razed by anybody. Important thing is not to defy a world congress and risk war.
Opening borders
This is actually the tricky part. The European civs are usually easy. Be careful though about the order you open borders with them. In my game, England was a mortal enemy of the Vikings and never opened borders with me (the -4 "you've traded with our enemies" never went away even after I gave them 2 techs). You should have 6-7 civs with borders open without going elsewhere (France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Vikings, Russia, England). In my game the Netherlands collapsed. The Aztecs and Incas were my vassals so I needed 3 more civs. The Islamic nations are a pain (they will not open borders with anybody, even if Egypt is Christian). So I was left with the eastern civs. Japan never opens borders so forget about it. Khmer is easy once you switch to free religion. Mongolia usually will be at war with China, so you need to convince the former to make peace with the latter before it collapses (which usually means 4-5 techs plus map) and then open borders with them. Do not delay this too long (usually do your switch to free religion by 1635) as China doesn't last a long time once they hit collapsing. Another good trick is to declare war on the losing side and open borders with the winners. E.g. I sided with Japan against China and got the former to open borders with me, even though they hated my religion. Make sure you're not dealing with a civ who can tangibly attack you (China is half a world away and even with their galleons they can't mount a good attack on me). Turkey was another prime example; even though I got +7 relationship with them, they won't open borders. Since I'm already open with Arabia who just vassalized Inca, I declared war on Turkey and got Inca the vassal to open with me too.
Concluding comments
Too bad this UHV is so easy; I never got to use my golden age in 1650 since I won at that turn. Your score will not be the greatest (around 5000-6000 max) but if you delay your victory a little, and give your colonies to your friends, you may be able to get more science points. The 3000BC start is definitely easier than 600AD since usually Rome, Greece and sometimes Ethiopia will still be alive and usually they are Christian. By far the most humiliating UHV victory (I was last in score other than Inca) if you're playing Emperor.:p
