I need a "Survival Guide for Venice"

[Alech]

Does anybody have any handy "Survival Guide for Venice"-tips?

Opening moves? How to make money? Not getting killed by HRE/Ottomans? How to break out of the med? Colonies or European expansion?

That sort of thing... o

 

[kfijatass]

Usually Balkans, the greek small states(anything that doesn't neighbour or is a core of Ottomans basically) and Cyprus is the best start. Make sure you keep Austria friendly.
Then you may either focus on south Italy and expand northward to unite Italy or buy fleet basing rights from Portugal and go colonizing

 

[Pryderi]

You can also try breaking the Ottomans then invading Egypt/Aden to control those trade nodes.

 

[stilgarpl]

Be nice to Austria, join the HRE, get ellectors on your side, become Emperor.
It should be easier from there.

 

[Tijean]

I would recommand to get navie tradition, build a strong fleet and beat the ottoman. Once you control the see you would be able to beat the ottoman by isolating their army. Once it done, it would be really easier.
Trade ideas is not really usefull at least, as long you don't have land in asia.

Don't forget, to bring the trade from asia into venice you need to send it by the strait of aden. Invading the mameluk and the oman is probably a good a ideas.

 

[Gunburned]

I've played one game until the end as Venice and one for about 200 years or soo until i resigned because Austria went into a personal Union with France . Heres what I learnt.
- HRE Is your most hated foe, they will always ask for their land back.... Do yourself a favour and as soon as you start remove all territory that belongs to them. They will hate you for it but oh well they hate you an ways.
- Easy 1st target is the Ragusa, Croatia areas
- You should get some missions, to take most of the gerneral areas.
- Pick Naval Ideas first Venice is on an island and if they cannot beat your navy they cannot take your capital which can drag most wars into stalemates.
- Use your navy to conquer Cyprus when you get that mission, just make shure your navy surpasses Mamalukes, then they cannot touch you.
- Build a tone of Trade ships, a TON. Use them to fight if need be. Grab some galleys to they will be particulary usefull especial as Venice in the Mediteranian.
- What I did was ally with Hungary because they create a natural border to most of your rich lands. If the Ottomans cannot beat your navy they cannot win the war.
- Try and get rid of those 2 Vassals you have they are taking away from your diplomatic relations ALLIANCES!, You already have cores there if they separate by chance, maybe by rebelions perfect declare war and take them.
- Join a Collation against the Ottomans if their power hasn't receded, beat them till their bloody.
- If your rebulic tradition drops below 1 you will switch to a monarchy, should you hate the republic system. They will also be a decision to switch back if you like.
- A good thing to know about they election system is to save up close to 100 tradition and wait until a young person is elected, younger than 40. They younger the more times you will be able to re-elect for +1 to all stats. When your tradtion drops to around 30 you will get many event popups for -1 stability and +10 tradition, or the other wat around and you become a kingdom. save up admin points so you can spend them to inrease sability when these events hit you.

I hope these pointers give you a hand I had restarted my Venice games many many times to learn all these tricks. I really Enjoy republics just a bit sad merchant republics can't switch government types.
Cheers

 

[amanis]

Very Very Easy - give up 1 province -> be nice to Austria -> join HRE
Very Easy - wait until Austria starts war with Burgundy and Hungary(or France, just wait) then join and release Styria.

 

[delra]

Here's an alternative guide: Always pick military rulers in elections, go Offensive/Quality/Defensive/Quantity/Plutocracy with NIs. Always use rulers as military leaders. Watch Austria, France, Ottomans fear going to war against you or attacking provinces where your troops are stationed.

 

[unmerged(618261)]

- You can ally Poland and Hungary from day one. Do it.
- Take Ragusa
- Build your fleet and attack the Ottomans when their army is on the other side of the strait. You may need to pick Naval Ideas to do so.
- Look for alliances to keep Austria away from any funny ideas. You can stay on the good side of Hungary and Poland for quite a time and they scare Austria a lot. Depending on the development in Europe you can ally Bavaria or Bohemia. Hit Austria hard when their down.
- Keep your aggressive expansion low and alternate between grabing regions in Europe and the Balkans/Asia to spread your AE points.
- It's hard to keep France in check, especially as you are weakening the HRE. Prepare for the inevitable clash. I found the Netherlands a very valuable ally against France. Try to stay on the good side of Spain/Portugal/Great Britain.

 

[El Jojo]

As usual it depends what you want to achieve. I've played 3 games with Venice and here's my experience.
Indeed the navy idea is essential as a first idea. To avoid having your capitol taken or simply to avoid a blockade in the gulf of Venice, such a blockade kills your income and makes it impossible to keep a war going. Second idea ploutocracy, nice bonuses, -10 tech cost.

Opening moves, Ragusa, Zeta, Athens (Ragusa and Zeta you should get missions, to get Athens declare war on Albania after they get allied to Athens and while they're still at war with Ottomans, this way you avoid the ottoman guarantee and get a foothold in Greece).
Don't mess with the HRE italian states, it will bring you agressive expansion and the wrath of Austria. Try to be nice with Austria, it's possible to get an alliance with them in the very beginning so try to do that. At some point they will break the alliance.
Always keep an eye on Austria, and hit them when they're losing a war. Getting an alliance with Bohemia can be useful. You have to devastate Austria and your only chance is when they're busy elsewhere with their armies depleted. Take Gorz to unite your lands and force a release of Tirol or Styria and get ready for a second round to make sure they're down.

Do not take Chyprus early, you'll get a lot of revolts and your army is not strong enough to fight long wars and regular rebels.
Taking on the Ottoman Empire is not that hard, build as big a navy as you can, wait for them to be at war with a country in the east and block the bosphorus. Now you can invade all of Greece and Balkans. There's an event where you can get claims on morea and achea, so taking them is nice, making Athens less isolated, then Albania and Epirus to connect your land. A long war with the Ottomans usually means they'll have nationalist rebels, all the better.
I keep hitting the Ottomans until they're out of Europe.
So you have to juggle between taking care of Ottomans and taking care of Austria. Then you're all set. Then you can either start annexing, vassalizing italian states or free Syria for future vassalization, attack the mamluks and take the Alexandria area, SinaI is great, it gives you a much needed port on the red sea where you can build (slowly) an eastern fleet. Then creep down to Aden.
Remember to use vassalization to get huge cored areas, it saves a ton of admin points and generates much less agressive expansion.

 

[Beagá]

Is it really that bad to become a monarchy?

 

[El Jojo]

Is it really that bad to become a monarchy?

Why play a republic to turn into a monarchy ? Being a monarchy is not that worse, but there's already plenty of monarchies available.

 

[Beagá]

For PUs, obviously specially as it´s tough to expand in Italy, ar least initially.

 

[anomalacaris]

Is it really that bad to become a monarchy?

It's just so thematically wrong as Venice... :rofl:

 

[El Jojo]

For PUs, obviously specially as it´s tough to expand in Italy, ar least initially.

PUs are not that strong, you need to wait a lot and have a low agressive expansion modifiers. Vassals are better and you can have them as a republic! You can vassalize one of the lombard catholic state in northern italy and then feed them all the other lombard provinces and in the end you diplo-annex a fat northern italian state and voilà! fully cored north Italy. No overextension. no emperor trouble.

 

[Zardnaar]

What I done was took diplo as 1st NIO followed by naval and pushed up through southern Italy. Diplomats kept Milan and Austria happy. If you can gank Ottomans Mamelukes and push down through Aden. early though but it is really hard. Only managed to get my trade up to 150 ducats a month through Alexandria.

 

[anomalacaris]

PUs are not that strong, you need to wait a lot and have a low agressive expansion modifiers. Vassals are better and you can have them as a republic! You can vassalize one of the lombard catholic state in northern italy and then feed them all the other lombard provinces and in the end you diplo-annex a fat northern italian state and voilà! fully cored north Italy. No overextension. no emperor trouble.

PUs are the most war efficient way to expand. In one war you can obtain the entire colonial empire of Spain or Russia. How can you best that?
And the normal strategy of feeding don't really work in HRE, try gave them provinces they have no cores and you will see.

 

[xnao]

Possible to culture shift to greek and create byzantium? IIRC it was possible in EU3 or EU2.

 

[El Jojo]

PUs are the most war efficient way to expand. In one war you can obtain the entire colonial empire of Spain or Russia. How can you best that?
And the normal strategy of feeding don't really work in HRE, try gave them provinces they have no cores and you will see.

Indeed I did not think of colonial empires and was more focussed on the small neigboring italian nations. And also yes you have to leave the empire for the feeding to happen. After my first wars with Austria I have no problems leaving the empire, so the steps are conquer a lombard province, take it out of the HRE then feed it to your vassal. A bit longer and costly, but the whole HRE mechanism is there to make expansion slower anyway.

 

[White Gecko]

One of the first things I do when playing venice is declare war on Albania, if you are lucky Athens or some other ally joins the war on their side. Occupy their small land so you get 100% warscore, and then offer to give away your two useless worthless vassals to end the war. After loosing that vital war you have two more diplomatic relations to play with.