Winning their hearts and minds

[Shrinkwrap]

As the Almohids, I bribed my way into Portugal. There was an immediate massive revolt, and I was kicked out. I went back in loaded for bear and defeated the rebels. There followed another massive revolt and I just withdrew as I can't afford to keep sending huge armies in at this stage. Would it have ben better to first have sent in religious special units, spies, etc., to soften up the Portugese? How much time would such a plan take?

[youssof_Toda]

Usually some spies and a nice occupation force will do the trick for you. Maybe they got a different religion than you have? If so send some priests.

[TheRat]

Use portugal to improve the command rating of your generals. Just pull out once the battle is finished.

[malkuth]

Ive read so far that Portugal has a real bad habbit for Revolts. Which is bad since I just took it from some rebels in my game. Doh. We will see what happens.

[Ii Naomasa]

"You fell victim to one of the most classic blunders, the most famous of which is to never get involved in a land war in Portugal..."

Portugal is notorious for not taking to being conquered in MTW. As TheRat has said, Portugal is a great place to give your generals and troops training during peacetime, but it will be a pain to hold on to...probably the hardest province to hold on to, no matter what religion you are.

As the Egyptians, I watched Portugal rebel against the Almohads over and over...often the next turn after being taken again by them. When I eventually decided that they weren't handling Spain well enough and I moved in, Spain was very happy to have me. Even with a full army garrisoning it, low taxes, and the vast majority of the populace worshipping Allah, I still had problems.

But, like some of the Russia-area provinces, you can overcome by attacking it from multiple angles. Throw some priests into the mix, add some spies, try to build a church/mosque, keep a set garrison there, and top it off with a general who has some pro-happiness virtues.

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Naomasa Ii
Vices & Virtues:
Verbal Diarrhea: This general can't ever say or write anything in less than three paragraphs. Can't even yell 'Charge!' without a soliloquy. -3 to command.