Both of these are trade focused empires so I think it's good to compare them. I'm going to run what I think of a side by side comparison of them is fair because they have a lot of spots where they seem to be similar.
I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on how the two empires compare to each other.
-- START BIAS --
-Morocco
Desert bias automatically makes you good at religion if you lock in desert folklore before the AI you will found a religion first and will get first pick of their religious attributes you want so you will take a reformation belief for Charitable missions for that diplomatic victory. If the AI gets desert folklore before you do then you cry in a corner because you picked piety and now you are sad because it isn't going to help you.
-Portugal
Portugal is just coast bias. They could get a desert they could get a jungle they could get tundra. I hit restart a whole bunch of times to test it it's very interestingly random. If you get all tundra around you are in trouble but it would be difficult to compare each individual land type to the desert.
-Comparison
Morocco is just better at religion. Portugal on the other hand varies based on what they get. Jungle means a slow start followed by huge science late game, grasslands means more food throughout the game it goes on. Portugal does vary a lot more in start conditions though if you reroll the map a lot. I'd say Morocco is better at consistency but desert requires a lot to go well.
-- UNIQUE ABILITY --
Before we look at the UA we should remember what the formula is for trade.
I'm stealing this formula from ToodleElNoodos's thread
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=500636
(
Gold Base
+ Sender City Gold-per-turn based amount
+ Receiver City Gold-per-turn based amount
+ Gold bonus from buildings in Sender City
+ Gold bonus from buildings in Receiver City (Destination Bonus)
+ Different resources: Luxury and Strategic Resources. (.5 per unique type between the cities)
)
x Route type (1 for land, 1.25 for land with river, and 2 for sea)
= Total Revenue
It's both important to have good gold return for people who send routes to you so you get the most routes and to make the most gold on your own routes.
-Morocco
Gateway to Africa:
Receives +3 Gold and +1 Culture for each International Trade Route with a different Civilization or City-State.
The Trade Route owners receive +2 Gold for each Trade Route sent to Morocco.
The +3 gold is only for a unique city state or civilization. If you have 2 routes going to 2 cities of the same civilization the bonus doesn't apply again. Also the +3 gold doesn't show up on the route but on your gold per turn menu and therefore is not subject to river or coastal multipliers. If you have 8-10 routes (10 if you get extremely lucky with wonders) and have them all running to a different civ or city state it will being in 24-30 GPT more then you would gain otherwise.
The +2 gold works the same and does bring the AI in more often which means more gold from incoming trade routes for you. Portugal does not get a bonus for incoming trade routes so this is important. It's benefit is harder to measure because it depends on how many cities are in range that are sending trade routes to you.
I consider the culture gain of Morocco from trade routes to be insignificant at max you will get 8-10 culture per a turn. Does anyone care about that?
-Portugal
Mare Clausum:
Resource diversity grants twice as much Gold for Portugal in International Trade Routes
Basically, while other civs gets 0.5 gold per unique resource while you get 1. This number is subject to multipliers and your trade routes will be coastal. This means you get 1 more gold per unique resource. Worthwhile trades tend to have 3-6 unique resources between the cities assuming you built your trade city smart and have at least 3 trade worthy resources on it. If you have 8-10 routes each making 3-6 more bonus gold you will be making 24-60 more GPT in trade end game. The lowest amount expected is tied with morocco but it doesn't require you use a different civ or city state for each one so you can focus on total gold gained instead.
Portugal gains no benefit for incoming trade routes. How you build the trade city is the only thing you control for why people would bring everything to you.
-Comparison
Portugal has a good sized advantage for outgoing routes but only Morocco makes themselves more attractive to the AI for trade.
Morocco is better at getting routes to go to his cities. This is important for getting the science and gold from everyone else and it starts adding up when every civilization sends you it's boat to play with. I think because you'll probably have every boat in the world handing you money and beakers Morocco has an edge especially in a larger map with a whole lot of cities and civilizations to throw boats at you.
Morocco also has a culture gain for their boats but it's tiny so nobody cares.
-- UNIQUE UNIT --
-Morocco
Berber cavalry are just like regular cavalry but cheaper and they have a combat bonus in deserts and your own territory. If you get into a fight as morocco the enemy will try to plunder your trade routes so you don't want to be in a lot of fights if you can play diplomacy right to avoid them.
The Berber Cavalry itself is in an odd spot. They are quicker to build and can take out the enemy artillery very effectively but your land is covered in forts so it leans more to defensive turtling with ranged behind melee instead of offensive tearing apart. The enemy will get a 50% bonus defending himself against your cavalry until he randomly decides to plunder your Kasbah because he is missing 2 health.
-Portugal
The Nau is one of the the weirdest UU in civ 5. It's better at exploration and making sure you find all the other civs first but it won't be useful at all in combat. with economics you can often get it cheaper then the cost of it's trade mission so you will spam these like there is no tomorrow. It feels more like a second UA that gives you extra cash then it feels like a UU because it isn't combat focused at all, but instead it gives you a tool to be a money flowing machine.
-Comparison
They serve such different purposes it can be hard compare the two. I feel the Nau is the better better one for the civilization because of the synergy they have with your UA vs the Cavalry and how they conflict with your UA and your UI.
When you have a lot of trade going as Portugal, Morocco, or Venice the last thing you want is someone warring you and plundering your boats, so you generally want to put a lot of money into keeping the AI at war with the rest of the AI with part of your cash so you can send trade routes to both sides. The Nau also has that extra movement to help make it even more likely that start off as the one who heads the world congress and not another civilization that you don't like as much.
-- Unique Improvement --
-Morocco
The kasbah gives +1 food, hammer, and gold per desert tile. The kasbah has a great synergy with Petra as does your trade bonus and gives you reason to rush it while hoping the AI didn't start off on the desert also to beat you to the petra. You have a desert bias so it's very likely you'll be able to use it. The kasbahs also acts as forts for a 50% defensive bonus. The petra is only for one city though and if you don't get it you are screwed. The % of your cities that get a bonus petra is a motivation to go tall instead of wide and cry if you have an another AI in the desert that beats you to it.
Kasbah compares well to most other other improvements.
Kasbah - Chivalry - Medieval era +1 food +1 Hammer +1 Gold
On flat desert this means 1 food, 1 hammer, and 1 gold.
Farm +1 food / +1 food with Civil Service/Fertilizer which are Medieval/Industrial
On flat desert this means 2 food.
Trading Post Currency Classical Era +1 gold / +1 gold with economics Renaissance era / +1 gold with commerce Finisher / +1 science with free though. (you will want commerce)
On flat desert this means +3 gold and possibly +1 science.
Desert hills +2 production from hills
Kasbah on desert hills 1 food, 3 hammers, 1 coin
Mine Mining Ancient Era +1 hammer / +1 hammers Chemistry Renaissance era
On hill desert this is 4 Hammers
Kasbah's take longer to build then other improvements and the defense is a double edged sword because if their artillery reaches your city it gets a defensive bonus but the melee guy in front of the artillery zoning him away from your city also has a 50% defense bonus. Defense with a bunch of kasbahs is going to be about being a turtle.
If you want a bunch of resources like the kasbah gives without the kasbah you would compare them to one of each of the other improvements.
1 mine + 1 farm + 1 trading post vs 3 Kasbah
mine + farm + trading post
2 hammers, 2 food, 3 gold, and possibly 1 science
3 Kasbah
3 hammers, 3 food, 3 gold.
Kasbahs are therefore very strong in the desert but the flat desert without river is very weak without a Petra because most other types of land give you 2 resources even before improvements and people who aren't on deserts don't deal with that.
-Portugal
The feitoria doesn't compare or take the place of any other improvement instead gives you an extra resource from any CS's resource that is on the next to the coast. It's more like another UA that starts when you get Navigation in the Renaissance era then a UI in that weird Portugal way. It means you'll have at least one of everything the city state has on it's coast and double the resources from allied city states.
The extra luxury resources are good for your economy because you can sell them to people who don't have the resource and it is also good for your happiness so you can expand wider then Morocco.
-Comparison
Both are solid but to make the desert which provide a base hammer/food/coin of none great you want to stack on the petra which is only going to help one city.
Feitoria doesn't give you any city hammers/food/coin but gives you luxury which I feel synergies better with the trade country Portugal is. You need resources so you can trade them with the AI to keep them warring with each other and handing you every penny they have and feitorias help that process along. It also want to finish commerce to get the extra happy per luxury which you want to do anyway because of the money boost to trade posts helping your trade city make money.
I feel because of synergy I would also give this to Portugal, but it's notable that the feitoria comes in much later in the game so it doesn't make as early an impact as the power of the kasbah while kasbah helps build a tall empire and comes an era earlier.
-- OVERALL --
I think Portugal is a better trade empire all around because of the synergy. They build wide while Morocco goes tall so it also depends heavily on how you build. Morocco loses ALOT if someone beats you to the petra while Portugal isn't as reliant on any specific wonder. The UU and UI I feel have more synergy with the UA while Morocco likes to visit a lot of different things.
On the other hand Morocco does well for tall players who like religion. "charitable missions" is nothing to sneeze at when you want a diplo win. Money translates to a dilo win very easily.
Morocco is far more likely to make you cry. if the AI gets the Petra then you can cry. if the AI gets desert folklore then you can cry. If the AI gets both you should begin swearing and never stop. If you get both you can dance the happy dance of joy. Obviously Morocco work better if the other AI players are not in the desert.
Morocco also does better on a pangea map then Portugal because their UA never cares about sea or river modifers anyway. If you can't get any sea routes Portugal's UA is only half as good while Morocco still runs at full strength.
I think the most important thing to learn from these comparisons is to play as Venice.
I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on how the two empires compare to each other.
-- START BIAS --
-Morocco
Desert bias automatically makes you good at religion if you lock in desert folklore before the AI you will found a religion first and will get first pick of their religious attributes you want so you will take a reformation belief for Charitable missions for that diplomatic victory. If the AI gets desert folklore before you do then you cry in a corner because you picked piety and now you are sad because it isn't going to help you.
-Portugal
Portugal is just coast bias. They could get a desert they could get a jungle they could get tundra. I hit restart a whole bunch of times to test it it's very interestingly random. If you get all tundra around you are in trouble but it would be difficult to compare each individual land type to the desert.
-Comparison
Morocco is just better at religion. Portugal on the other hand varies based on what they get. Jungle means a slow start followed by huge science late game, grasslands means more food throughout the game it goes on. Portugal does vary a lot more in start conditions though if you reroll the map a lot. I'd say Morocco is better at consistency but desert requires a lot to go well.
-- UNIQUE ABILITY --
Before we look at the UA we should remember what the formula is for trade.
I'm stealing this formula from ToodleElNoodos's thread
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=500636
(
Gold Base
+ Sender City Gold-per-turn based amount
+ Receiver City Gold-per-turn based amount
+ Gold bonus from buildings in Sender City
+ Gold bonus from buildings in Receiver City (Destination Bonus)
+ Different resources: Luxury and Strategic Resources. (.5 per unique type between the cities)
)
x Route type (1 for land, 1.25 for land with river, and 2 for sea)
= Total Revenue
It's both important to have good gold return for people who send routes to you so you get the most routes and to make the most gold on your own routes.
-Morocco
Gateway to Africa:
Receives +3 Gold and +1 Culture for each International Trade Route with a different Civilization or City-State.
The Trade Route owners receive +2 Gold for each Trade Route sent to Morocco.
The +3 gold is only for a unique city state or civilization. If you have 2 routes going to 2 cities of the same civilization the bonus doesn't apply again. Also the +3 gold doesn't show up on the route but on your gold per turn menu and therefore is not subject to river or coastal multipliers. If you have 8-10 routes (10 if you get extremely lucky with wonders) and have them all running to a different civ or city state it will being in 24-30 GPT more then you would gain otherwise.
The +2 gold works the same and does bring the AI in more often which means more gold from incoming trade routes for you. Portugal does not get a bonus for incoming trade routes so this is important. It's benefit is harder to measure because it depends on how many cities are in range that are sending trade routes to you.
I consider the culture gain of Morocco from trade routes to be insignificant at max you will get 8-10 culture per a turn. Does anyone care about that?
-Portugal
Mare Clausum:
Resource diversity grants twice as much Gold for Portugal in International Trade Routes
Basically, while other civs gets 0.5 gold per unique resource while you get 1. This number is subject to multipliers and your trade routes will be coastal. This means you get 1 more gold per unique resource. Worthwhile trades tend to have 3-6 unique resources between the cities assuming you built your trade city smart and have at least 3 trade worthy resources on it. If you have 8-10 routes each making 3-6 more bonus gold you will be making 24-60 more GPT in trade end game. The lowest amount expected is tied with morocco but it doesn't require you use a different civ or city state for each one so you can focus on total gold gained instead.
Portugal gains no benefit for incoming trade routes. How you build the trade city is the only thing you control for why people would bring everything to you.
-Comparison
Portugal has a good sized advantage for outgoing routes but only Morocco makes themselves more attractive to the AI for trade.
Morocco is better at getting routes to go to his cities. This is important for getting the science and gold from everyone else and it starts adding up when every civilization sends you it's boat to play with. I think because you'll probably have every boat in the world handing you money and beakers Morocco has an edge especially in a larger map with a whole lot of cities and civilizations to throw boats at you.
Morocco also has a culture gain for their boats but it's tiny so nobody cares.
-- UNIQUE UNIT --
-Morocco
Berber cavalry are just like regular cavalry but cheaper and they have a combat bonus in deserts and your own territory. If you get into a fight as morocco the enemy will try to plunder your trade routes so you don't want to be in a lot of fights if you can play diplomacy right to avoid them.
The Berber Cavalry itself is in an odd spot. They are quicker to build and can take out the enemy artillery very effectively but your land is covered in forts so it leans more to defensive turtling with ranged behind melee instead of offensive tearing apart. The enemy will get a 50% bonus defending himself against your cavalry until he randomly decides to plunder your Kasbah because he is missing 2 health.
-Portugal
The Nau is one of the the weirdest UU in civ 5. It's better at exploration and making sure you find all the other civs first but it won't be useful at all in combat. with economics you can often get it cheaper then the cost of it's trade mission so you will spam these like there is no tomorrow. It feels more like a second UA that gives you extra cash then it feels like a UU because it isn't combat focused at all, but instead it gives you a tool to be a money flowing machine.
-Comparison
They serve such different purposes it can be hard compare the two. I feel the Nau is the better better one for the civilization because of the synergy they have with your UA vs the Cavalry and how they conflict with your UA and your UI.
When you have a lot of trade going as Portugal, Morocco, or Venice the last thing you want is someone warring you and plundering your boats, so you generally want to put a lot of money into keeping the AI at war with the rest of the AI with part of your cash so you can send trade routes to both sides. The Nau also has that extra movement to help make it even more likely that start off as the one who heads the world congress and not another civilization that you don't like as much.
-- Unique Improvement --
-Morocco
The kasbah gives +1 food, hammer, and gold per desert tile. The kasbah has a great synergy with Petra as does your trade bonus and gives you reason to rush it while hoping the AI didn't start off on the desert also to beat you to the petra. You have a desert bias so it's very likely you'll be able to use it. The kasbahs also acts as forts for a 50% defensive bonus. The petra is only for one city though and if you don't get it you are screwed. The % of your cities that get a bonus petra is a motivation to go tall instead of wide and cry if you have an another AI in the desert that beats you to it.
Kasbah compares well to most other other improvements.
Kasbah - Chivalry - Medieval era +1 food +1 Hammer +1 Gold
On flat desert this means 1 food, 1 hammer, and 1 gold.
Farm +1 food / +1 food with Civil Service/Fertilizer which are Medieval/Industrial
On flat desert this means 2 food.
Trading Post Currency Classical Era +1 gold / +1 gold with economics Renaissance era / +1 gold with commerce Finisher / +1 science with free though. (you will want commerce)
On flat desert this means +3 gold and possibly +1 science.
Desert hills +2 production from hills
Kasbah on desert hills 1 food, 3 hammers, 1 coin
Mine Mining Ancient Era +1 hammer / +1 hammers Chemistry Renaissance era
On hill desert this is 4 Hammers
Kasbah's take longer to build then other improvements and the defense is a double edged sword because if their artillery reaches your city it gets a defensive bonus but the melee guy in front of the artillery zoning him away from your city also has a 50% defense bonus. Defense with a bunch of kasbahs is going to be about being a turtle.
If you want a bunch of resources like the kasbah gives without the kasbah you would compare them to one of each of the other improvements.
1 mine + 1 farm + 1 trading post vs 3 Kasbah
mine + farm + trading post
2 hammers, 2 food, 3 gold, and possibly 1 science
3 Kasbah
3 hammers, 3 food, 3 gold.
Kasbahs are therefore very strong in the desert but the flat desert without river is very weak without a Petra because most other types of land give you 2 resources even before improvements and people who aren't on deserts don't deal with that.
-Portugal
The feitoria doesn't compare or take the place of any other improvement instead gives you an extra resource from any CS's resource that is on the next to the coast. It's more like another UA that starts when you get Navigation in the Renaissance era then a UI in that weird Portugal way. It means you'll have at least one of everything the city state has on it's coast and double the resources from allied city states.
The extra luxury resources are good for your economy because you can sell them to people who don't have the resource and it is also good for your happiness so you can expand wider then Morocco.
-Comparison
Both are solid but to make the desert which provide a base hammer/food/coin of none great you want to stack on the petra which is only going to help one city.
Feitoria doesn't give you any city hammers/food/coin but gives you luxury which I feel synergies better with the trade country Portugal is. You need resources so you can trade them with the AI to keep them warring with each other and handing you every penny they have and feitorias help that process along. It also want to finish commerce to get the extra happy per luxury which you want to do anyway because of the money boost to trade posts helping your trade city make money.
I feel because of synergy I would also give this to Portugal, but it's notable that the feitoria comes in much later in the game so it doesn't make as early an impact as the power of the kasbah while kasbah helps build a tall empire and comes an era earlier.
-- OVERALL --
I think Portugal is a better trade empire all around because of the synergy. They build wide while Morocco goes tall so it also depends heavily on how you build. Morocco loses ALOT if someone beats you to the petra while Portugal isn't as reliant on any specific wonder. The UU and UI I feel have more synergy with the UA while Morocco likes to visit a lot of different things.
On the other hand Morocco does well for tall players who like religion. "charitable missions" is nothing to sneeze at when you want a diplo win. Money translates to a dilo win very easily.
Morocco is far more likely to make you cry. if the AI gets the Petra then you can cry. if the AI gets desert folklore then you can cry. If the AI gets both you should begin swearing and never stop. If you get both you can dance the happy dance of joy. Obviously Morocco work better if the other AI players are not in the desert.
Morocco also does better on a pangea map then Portugal because their UA never cares about sea or river modifers anyway. If you can't get any sea routes Portugal's UA is only half as good while Morocco still runs at full strength.
I think the most important thing to learn from these comparisons is to play as Venice.