Portugal Map by
Gimil Guide by
jricart Introduction Portugal is the westernmost European country and may be the oldest European nation-state. The land within the borders of today's Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times by a variety of people. Gallaeci and the Lusitanians occupied the area in 29 B.C., then integrated into the Roman Empire until the 5th century; then several Germanic peoples took over until the 8th century when Muslim Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula.
The Portugal map, released in September, 2007, is a simple map with no special features. With 36 regions broken up into 6 different bonus zones, the map makes excellent play, especially for 3 to 5 players and two-team doubles games.
show: Classification
Size: Small (36 regions)Features
show: STARTING REGIONS
2 or 3 players = 12 regions each
show: BONUS ZONES
Six Bonus Zones:Douro: 4 Beiras: 7 Litoral: 5 Anlentejo: 6 Algarve: 3 Ilhas: 4
How to play Portugal show: Two Player
This map is not best suited for a two-player game as each player starts with 12 regions (i.e. leaving 12 neutral regions). By starting with 12 regions, the player who receives the first turn will receive 4 troops to deploy at the start of the turn, which is a big advantage. It is easy to conquer 1 of the opponent's regions to bring their next-turn deployment from 4 to 3. Your goal is to keep your opponent below 12 regions in the early rounds to reduce the deployment troops to 3 per turn.
show: Escalating
A large escalating game (6, 7, or 8 players) is not recommended on this map, as each player starts with very few regions (see the chart above). The only bonus zone to attempt to acquire in multiplayer games should be Algarve, since it has only 3 regions. However, only attempt this if you start with 2 out of those 3 regions. The Douro bonus zone can be another option, but only if you start with at least 2 of those regions as well.
show: Flat Rate, Nuclear and No Spoils
The only 2 bonus zones that a player should attempt to get are Algarve and Douro, but only of you start with at least 2 regions on any of those zones, otherwise, if you try to get it without having more than 50% of the bonus regions, you might weak yourself trying to control the bonus and end up having small amount of troops to hold the bonus.Flat Rate: No Spoils - Nuclear:
show: Team Games
Central Regions like Tomar and Coimbra become extremely important choke points in team games. Also, Madeira and Acores Occidental are important regions to hold because they are interconnecting regions between different areas in the map.
show: MANUAL DEPLOYMENT
Manual Deployment is not recommended for this map. When playing 2 or 3 players games, the first player to go will get a nice and unbalanced advantage over his opponent(s) with 24 troops on the manual deploy plus 4 more troops for the first turn deployment. With the typical assaulter's advantage and a strategic placement of troops, the player who gets the first turn can wipe out a lot of the other player singles, or annihilate the opponent's stack pretty easy.
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:41 pm