How are you supposed to form Italy?

Dragon9770 · Dec 16, 2012

I am not entirely inadequate at this game (I am more of an EU3 guy), but the odds either Sardinia or Sicily face in actually unifying Italy seem insurmountable. Playing through to about 1870 as sicily, it was impossible to grab a single Italian country into my sphere, even when I concentrated on one. I even boosted by commerce tree for the diplomatic bonus, but that wasnt enough. I just dont seen what I am supposed to do. Advice?

Gwax23 · Dec 16, 2012

download PDM

grimkm · Dec 16, 2012

Last attempt at forming Italy, I played as Two Sicilies..it took awhile, but I noticed after awhile that Asutria and France eventuelly just lost interest..possibly got tied up somewhere else.

Ayetach · Dec 16, 2012

Gwax23 said:
download PDM

That doesn't have to be the answer to everything Gwax. In any case if you're playing as an Italian state there will come a point when militancy in one of the nations reaches a point where open rebellion breaks out; Garibaldi's Redshirts, which act as a sort of pan-nationalist rebel group, will storm one of the states of italy and hand over soveriegnty to Sardinia-Piedmont unless one of the Italian states is a great power, in that case the decision to inherit the kingdom is offered to them.

Closet Skeleton · Dec 16, 2012

Playing the sphere of influence game is pointless unless you have Lombardy. If you can beat Austria to get that you can assert hegemony on them as well.

grommile · Dec 16, 2012

Closet Skeleton said:
Playing the sphere of influence game is pointless unless you have Lombardy. If you can beat Austria to get that you can assert hegemony on them as well.

You can only assert hegemony against a member of your own culture group who is (a) a GP (b) not a culture union. From the unification_humiliate_cb casus belli:

Code:

	can_use = {
		NOT = { is_our_vassal = THIS }
		culture_has_union_tag = yes
		THIS = {
			is_greater_power = yes
		}
		is_greater_power = yes
		[B]is_culture_group = THIS[/B]
		NOT = { is_cultural_union = THIS }
	}

ODaly · Dec 17, 2012

A nice way to increase the odds of the Redshirts rising up early is to start up a long war against one of your Italian brothers, raising their militancy. The Papal States is nice for this, since they start in France's sphere and can call them in to do most of the heavy fighting. Take Sardinia from S-P and Sicily from 2Sicilies (for the primary culture POPs in those states), and you should be good to go. I've never had to wait longer than 1850, and then after the Redshirts give you all of Italy, taking Lombardy and Venetia are easy.

If you don't want to form via Redshirts, then research high-prestige techs to boost you into GP status, then wage "Add to Sphere" wars on all the free minors until you've got a big enough team of spherelings to take on Austria. Then, if necessary wage humiliation and Cut-Down-to-Size wars on any Italian state too high up to sphere. Granted, this will take longer (and will probably use up a lot of infamy), but without a bit of luck you'd otherwise end up waiting most of the game for the other GPs to be distracted long enough for you to peacefully sphere all of Italy.

Kalpa · Dec 17, 2012

In my games it seems that AI Italy usually seems to get formed around 1880, give or take a decade... maybe it is not supposed to be an early game thing? Never bothered playing with mediterranean countries yet, so don't really know about player control

AliV · Feb 4, 2013

Ayetach said:
That doesn't have to be the answer to everything Gwax. In any case if you're playing as an Italian state there will come a point when militancy in one of the nations reaches a point where open rebellion breaks out; Garibaldi's Redshirts, which act as a sort of pan-nationalist rebel group, will storm one of the states of italy and hand over soveriegnty to Sardinia-Piedmont unless one of the Italian states is a great power, in that case the decision to inherit the kingdom is offered to them.

So, does this mean that if AI forms Italy and I am playing as Two Sicillies, there is no way that I can uniform Italy again?

grimkm · Feb 4, 2013

AliV said:
So, does this mean that if AI forms Italy and I am playing as Two Sicillies, there is no way that I can uniform Italy again?

You can always make them cease to exist. I had to annex Italy ones to form Italy as Two Sicilies..as I was already a GP and they would be unable to sphere me. But a revolt to return to their previous state is always possible as well..

Drue · Feb 6, 2013

Don't forget to build factories and railroads in the countries you're trying to influence. That will sometimes triple your influence gain.

grimkm · Feb 6, 2013

Kalpa said:
In my games it seems that AI Italy usually seems to get formed around 1880, give or take a decade... maybe it is not supposed to be an early game thing? Never bothered playing with mediterranean countries yet, so don't really know about player control

I've noticed this as well, but also when playing one of the Italian states..it also seems this sort of seems like some sort of cut off date for France And austria to bother trying to control any of the Italian states.

Werson · Feb 7, 2013

After some conquests it can be quite easy.

-First on your list should be Tunis, which is quite easy to beat and provides territory close to home which makes it easier to defend.
-Go for Johore after this. After this you should be able to have a positive income quite easily in the early game.
-Attack Egypt for the Aegean Islands and Asmara, which would give you a good base in the eastern Mediterranean and access to...
-Ethiopia, which after conquering it should provide lots of troops to beat Austria and take Lombardia so that you can unify Italy.

Meanwhile you should be researching Industry and Prestige techs so that you can build a few factories and rise to great power through prestige, after that is easy peasy. Once you're Italy you're just another generic blob.

Unless you're Modena, this should not be too hard.

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How are you supposed to form Italy?

Dragon9770

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Gwax23

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grimkm

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Ayetach

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Closet Skeleton

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grommile

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ODaly

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Kalpa

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AliV

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grimkm

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Drue

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grimkm

Colonel

Werson

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