As MOST SERENE Republic of Venice need advice...

[kgmi]

should I bother holding counties? I started in 700 and had to get a 2nd Duchy to create the MOST Serene Republic of Venice title, now its sitting there with useless Baronies giving me -40 penalties if I give them away for "desires duchy" and "wrong gvt. type"

worst thing is i like gambling for the construction cost reduction modifier to go crazy with upgrades and saving lots of cash, which is wasted in like Istria. But if I dont hold this clay the Pope was right, Lombards are just a blight and love to declare embargo war on me which I really dont feel like investing so much dough yet in defeating their 5-10k armies.

Now i am basically considering releasing the duchy of Friuli to independence or just destroying it, giving ALL the counties away, but i havent yet revoked all cities in venezia for myself so I thought if i am not at demsne cap might as well keep them for now, but they giving me more headache than I like since i have to constantly ship my dudes over defeat saxon raiders uugh.

I just wanna do MOST SERENE trading in peace honestly.

 

[WJS]

Since you're the King of Venice, you can give the Duchy of Friuli to a vassal (even a Feudal one) and just keep rolling forward as a Merchant Republic in Venice without issue.

 

[kgmi]

I am really well established now, I have lost the Doge election a couple times but just rolled with it, it just annoys me when I have to clean up the mess the AI Doge creates. Also we had a crusade whilst I was just a Duchy under an AI Doge and the Kingdom fell to me, kicking me out of Venice and making a new Merchant Republic somwhere in Spain, which sucked because I had Venezia all build up, my Mansion, hospital, 10k Pike Retinue almost all cities controlled. Now I managed to travel back in time and pick my sister as beneficiary, I didnt even get the special bloodline or coronation by Pope when I was king of Whatquitaine but my sister did, what a joke.

The Capital holding in Istria and Friuli changed to cities now after I have build them. Can i now still give the duchy away to a vassal and will the Cities remain the capital holding or can I make it so the Barony is the capital?

Also when I am not the Doge, my capial moves to the Duchy of Friuly ofc. which sucks because I lose all the tech and laws I upgraded in Venezia, so I am trying to get over my greediness and just give all outside holdings away, but the dough is nice and I invested already in them, but idk if its possible to lock down the Dogeship for my family Erbkaisertum style.

 

[RobbieAB]

Start wiping out the other houses? After a couple of cycles, you should be so far ahead of the new houses that you can simply buy the doge elections.

Regarding the moving of your capital to Friuli: my advice is roll with it. As a duke you can still have count vassals, which is a nice little booster if the dogs decides to do something you really don't like. It also boosts your demesne limit slightly, and you get some tech spread and generation as a duke.

 

[kgmi]

Because I tend to dislike to such acts of cruelty, but I realized the rival houses are so weak "they all went extinct" that I coud lockdown Dogeship with a couple hundred bucks for my family. Its just that my last ruleers died while I was busy doing Embargo wars so other families got elected because I forgot to fund the election. Also I think its only possible to wage embargo wars on other families if you are not Doge yourself so I kinda tried to let someone else become doge so I can connect the gulf of Venice with my posts, but I just realized you inherit their TPs anyway when they die out.

 

[RobbieAB]

My solution to expanding my trade post network was indeed "let families reach 4 trade posts" before wiping them out. This is pretty easy as if you are cycling them, you only have to wait for a family to build its first before you eliminate the other families.

 

[jonjowett]

When I play as an MR with a "maximise my power" playstyle, I usually try to own all of the holdings in the MR capital and nothing outside. This way, if you lose the election (eg. genius child heir), you keep all of your tech (ie. tradepost limit). Under this playstyle, if I conquer counties/duchies outside the capital county, I grant them to vassals (not patricians). (Patrician houses suffer mysterious plagues of arrow wounds once they get 6ish trade posts, especially if 2-3 are in a region I want...)

When I play as an MR with a more historical playstyle, I try to share all of the land between the 5 patrician houses. Once I have a duchy, I'll give the next 4 duchies to the other 4 houses. (And I won't deliberately wipe them out to get more tradeposts.)