Minor Natives Guide

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Basic overview

The Portuguese are the civilization I currently play the most, because of the synergy they have with minor natives. I get asked a lot: "Why not play France and use their native cards?" There are three main reasons.

1. The French cannot afford to ship advanced trading post instead of 3 Coureur De Bois, as 3 Coureur De bois is a much stronger card. That is especially the case when you compare it to the standard 3 villager card most other civilizations have, and 3 villagers is the card usually sent first. Portugal does not have a 3 villager card or any close equivalent, and because of this Portuguese players are often at a loss of which card to send first, particularly on land maps. Advanced trading post (provided there is a trade route) can make this problem easier to deal with.

2. The Portuguese can use their extra town center they get to protect a native trade post (or a standard trade post). This makes it far easier to protect it from enemy attacks - and you won’t suddenly get cut off from your supply of units.

3. The French need to actually send the cards to see any benefit in their minor natives; whereas Portugal always gets the first two benefits. The Native Treaties card and Native American Warriors card is open to both civilizations, and whether I was playing France or Portugal I would likely be shipping these cards first before any of the cards that improve the natives themselves. Although in the long run the French are obviously the better choice, the Portuguese allow much more frequent use of the minor natives in the early game, and they can support them strongly in middle and latter parts of the game.

With all that said, here are a just a few of the combinations that can be used. Portugal is also the last crossbow civilization, so standard ranged infantry rules apply.

The Jesuit themselves are not particularly strong - especially when compared to Portuguese Dragoons - but their technology can be useful for the Portuguese (most notably the ability to improve the hit points of buildings). On top of that, they can also allow the Portuguese town centers to produce villagers faster, and can improve the siege ability of musketeers. If you add all those benefits up they can help significantly.

As Portugal these minor natives are very useful, because they are cavalry minor natives - and all standard Cheyenne maps have a trade route. I know when using my Portuguese early native strategy these natives are ones I particularly like, because I don’t have to build a stable until much later on in the game, and in most cases the game is over before I have to. They can also offer extra hunt should you run short, which can you give an edge over your opponent if Cheyenne raiding and your town center placement has already left them hunt-deprived.

The Huron themselves aren’t particularly useful in the early game to the Portuguese, but you can play a different game instead. The Huron have a technology which improves the gather rate of fishing boats. The Portuguese can use their town center to protect the water, and they can get the schooners card (makes fishing boats 40 wood) to allow them an even more effective water boom. Once the game has played out a bit you can add Huron to your armies, and the Huron Trade Dominance technology can give you even more cost efficiency.