It is my intention with this suggestion to make some gameplay changes to the Portuguese Explorer, to make playing as Portugal a bit more unique, while maintaining an historical aspect that the Portuguese civ lacks on AoE 3 DE.
But who were the Portuguese Explorers?
First and foremost they were men of war.
Looking at the most famous names, like
Vasco da Gama
Duarte Pacheco Pereira
Antonio Abreu
Lourenco de Almeida
Rafael Perestrello
Afonso de Albuquerque
Francisco de Almeida
They were all experienced soldiers and leaders, which commanded fleets, fortresses, and armies.
Yet the Portuguese explorer depiction on AoE3 does not make them justice.
So how should they be depicted, and what skills should they have?
Looking at cronichles from the 16 and 17th century,
"Fidalgos who were nobles, clad head to toe in an expensive full set of armour, always at the top commanding positions, and also formed the veritable “spearhead” of assaults. Most notably, they wielded some scary two-handed swords the Portuguese called montante which in the right hands was capable of cutting an un-armoured person (arguably the most common kind of foe the Portuguese faced in the east) in half, if the chronicles are to be trusted. But because they were nobles, they weren’t bound to any kind of uniformity when it came to arms or armour, so it varied; they also used shields, broad swords and halberds.
Source: Conquista de Malaca 1511 by Vitor Luos Gaspar Rodrigues and Joao Paulo Oliveira e Costa.
Transferring this to game having the Portuguese Explorer armed with a Montante, and a breastplate as shown in the images would be fitting with their modus operandi, since for a Portuguese Explorer, a nobleman, as the historian João de Barros summarized about captains and commanders: ‘that in decisions about whether to fight … so that honorable deeds may be done, even if dangerous, they must not raise objections based on the personal safety of their lives.’ Henceforward prudence was impossible. No one felt able to refuse an engagement, however rash, without accusations of cowardice. Only bravery of the most explicit kind would suffice. The honor code of the fidalgos was accentuated to the extent of an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat over the distant destruction of cannon fire."
(Disclaimer: the numbers shown are just for example purpose)
Skill wise to clear treasure Guardian a skill similar to Heavy Strike could be used.
Explorer lands a powerful blow with the sword that does 30 (600 against Treasure Guardians) melee damage to the target enemy. 30 seconds cooldown.
A sweep attack with bonus vs Infantry and Cavalry could be added.
x3.0 vs. Cavalry
x2.0 vs. Shock infantry
An aura buff of 5% attack and 5% siege (due to early lack of proper artillery unit vs buildings)
And finally instead of being able to build a town center, he should be able to build a small fortified extension to a trade post like a small feitoria of some sort.
Between the 15th and 16th centuries, a chain of about 50 Portuguese forts either housed or protected feitorias along the coasts of West and East Africa, the Indian Ocean, China, Japan, and South America. The main factories of the Portuguese East Indies, were in Goa, Malacca, Ormuz, Ternate, Macao, and the richest possession of Bassein that went on become the financial centre of India as Bombay (Mumbai).
This would be a small step to make Portugal more interesting and historically accurate, as it stands it’s a very plain civ with bonus, cards and depiction that has nothing to do with Portugal.
