So you have chosen to play the most Serene Republic of Venice? Perosnally I have found Venice a lot of fun in EUIV. One has to work at it to avoid being annihilated and it is not as roll face on keyboard easy like the Ottomans or Austria for example. Anyway I will do a small pro/con list.
Pros.
Good starting navy
Expansion location
Somewhat wealthy
Merchant Republic
Level 3 docks in Venice
Has a variety of options for play style
Super galleys (cheap)
Cons
Neighbors (Austria/France/usually Ottomans)
Manpower can be an issue
Not the best location for colonial growth
Ottomans
France
BBB
Wild Turks
Bourbon dynasty
Central Asian horsemen
Franks
Big Green Blob
The cons can be ignored 93% of the time. Anyway some national ideas. Venice can go in multiple directions for the most part you can chose where you want to focus. Naval and trade seem obvious but Venice is not that good at a colonial empire. In theory one could go and colonize Indonesia and direct trade back to Venice via Alexandria the reality is the Ottomans/Mameluks make that a pipe dream at east early in the game. In any event one can make more than enough money from Venice as you do not need thousands of ducats a month. One can't spend them fast enough anyway. In general I think Venice has 3 no brainer options for national ideas.
1. Diplomatic
2. Naval
3. Defensive.
I normally take diplomatic 1st just so I can have decent relations with Austria/and Milan. Other early picks perhaps worth taking are economic and innovative as the earlier you take those ones the better they are. Mid game plutocratic and religious are not to bad. For religion protestant is excellent for Venice just difficult to convert and it helps to have the religious ideas. Religion helps anyway with stability and converting high value provinces like Austrian ones and Constantinople. Also gives you a holy war CB which can be useful early.
Early Expansion.
It can be difficult to expand as Venice early on due to being stuck between overlapping alliances and having Austria on your back. Send a diplomat to improve relations with Austria and Milan if you have a spare one. You can probably afford to hire an admin advisor as well. You do get a starting mission to take Ragusa which is a great choice for an immediate DoW as soon as the game starts, Its a freebie and after that one should try acquire Bosnia/Serbia as vassals which can be difficult if Hungary is getting involved. This is important for later in the game to have as much of the Ragusa trade node as you can. One wants to keep your aggressive expansion low at the start of the game. An early trick you can do very early is the old block the straits/DoW on the Ottomans once they have taken Albania and moved there forces into Anatolia. Similar to the Byzantine trick you will not gain any provinces just try and slow Ottoman expansion down. Ideally you will be able to make a peace deal with the Ottomans flipping a few provinces over to the Byzantines/Bulgaria.
You do not want to overdo the early wars with the Ottomans but you may be able to distract them enough to get Serbia/Bosnia area. After annoying the Ottomans be very careful in the future with them as your naval advantage is a temporary one unless you take the naval idea as your 1st or 2nd choice and can afford to build a large number of galleys. Barques are a bit pricey early on and you do not have that much trade power in Venice anyway. Once the balkens are semi secure move a merchant there and forward trade to Venice. You have 3 merchants and the one in Wien is probably wasting his time.
The other area one can expand early is southern Italy. Naples usually blows up and sooner or later you can fabricate a claim on Abruzzi or another province. Your Venetian army + maybe a few mercs should be able to deal with Naples or any Italian minor in southern Italy. Just be careful of whoever is the HRE if Mantua or another member of the HRE has expanded into southern Italy. Sicily is also nice but not required and Aragorn or Spain will likely be there at some points. Austria usually self destructs and allying with France can be a good idea. As long as you have a fleet they can't actually invade Venice itself. Only the Ottomans or France are likely to be able to match your fleet and actually try to do anything about it. Slowly expand into central and northern Italy. By 1580 or so you should have most of Italy under your control. You may even be able to form Italy! You generally want Italy anyway just because it is rich and you get more trade power in Venice once you eliminate some of the competition. It gives you resources to face the true enemy- the Ottomans!!!
To Italy or not.
I generally avoid forming Italy but if you want to form Italy you get a decent infantry modifier and reconquest CBs on what you do not already have. I'm assuming you want to do the naval/trade Venetian game though. One could focus on land and take some different national ideas perhaps and focus on expansion into Austria and ultimately France. You are still probably to weak vs France though and forming Italy you become a monarchy and lose a merchant and a diplomat. One could do that but it is probably to early IMHO.
The Sultans Neck. Wall of Text viva Venice.
In most games the Ottomans seem to blob like mad throughout the eastern Balkans and middle east. Do not count on any allies or help from the west as this is not EUIII with Britain/Castile/France thinking of having a middle east empire. In the early and mid game the Ottomans are usually worse than France (better units) and they have lots of them and rich provinces. To really take them on though you are going to need the naval national idea assuming you have not already taken it I normally take it as my 3rd or 4th idea. You are going to need a fleet to be able to block the Dardanelles and to keep the ottoman fleets out of the Adriatic Sea. You may even have the holy war CB for low AE penalties but the Ottomans can likely chop up any army Venice can field. Basically you have to destroy the Ottoman fleet, blockade the straits and siege out every province they have west of Constantinople. Rather than try and beat to many provinces out of them try and get key ones like Macedon which cuts them off in Greece. Each time you win a war make them release a nation in Anatolia as part of the peace deal. Helps if you have counter revolution idea and religion to convert the Sunni provinces. It is probably around 1580-1650 for the 1st major counter offensives vs the Ottomans. I generally try and make them release Anatolian minors around the coast of modern Turkey. War number 2-3-4 should try and cut them off in eastern Anatolia by making them release Syria/Irag and various Turkish minors. One can pick them off via fabricating claims, Greek and Bulgarian patriots should take care of the European side of things. Keep constant pressure on the Ottomans as they can recover and bounce back easily enough.
Trade.
Once you are expanding east and have the naval ideas and can have a large navy (spam level 3 shipyards in every coastal province) Venice can make around 100 gold per month via forwarding trade from Ragusa and Constantinople. The ottomans will usually forward trade from Alexandria. If you get a 4th merchant he can make decent bank by forwarding trade from the Crimea to Constantinople just have a fleet to transfer around 75% of that trade forward with no relevant provinces. You do not really need the trade idea as Venace unless you manage to punch through to Aden and beyond which would probably require a very aggressive player/ottoman collapse. 4-5 merchants will make you enough money. The extra merchants can come from plutocracy or Indian trade routes.
Late Game (18th century+)
By now Venice can probably mop up the Ottomans/ go crazy with rapid expansion in the east. Innovative and Administration lets you field very large mercenary armies. 50-60k mercenaries+10-20k of your own men and they can assault level 5 forts. Pure mercs are good enough vs level 2 an 3 forts in the east. France may invade you every now and then with 80k+ troops so your army+mercs can throw them back and wipe out the stacks in Italy proper. Once they have lost a few go rampaging through France itself with pure merc armies and assault out all the level 2 and 3 fort provinces. This causes you no war weariness and wrecks the French. Make them release Guyanne and other provinces in much the same way you dismantled the Ottomans.
That is basically it. Do not expand to fast early on and do not expect to be controlling Alexandria by 1600 (great if you can. 3 games of Venice played so I am getting better each time. Last games techs in order.
Diplomatic
Innovative
Defensive
Religious
Naval
Plutocratic
Administrative
Trade
Pros.
Good starting navy
Expansion location
Somewhat wealthy
Merchant Republic
Level 3 docks in Venice
Has a variety of options for play style
Super galleys (cheap)
Cons
Neighbors (Austria/France/usually Ottomans)
Manpower can be an issue
Not the best location for colonial growth
Ottomans
France
BBB
Wild Turks
Bourbon dynasty
Central Asian horsemen
Franks
Big Green Blob
The cons can be ignored 93% of the time. Anyway some national ideas. Venice can go in multiple directions for the most part you can chose where you want to focus. Naval and trade seem obvious but Venice is not that good at a colonial empire. In theory one could go and colonize Indonesia and direct trade back to Venice via Alexandria the reality is the Ottomans/Mameluks make that a pipe dream at east early in the game. In any event one can make more than enough money from Venice as you do not need thousands of ducats a month. One can't spend them fast enough anyway. In general I think Venice has 3 no brainer options for national ideas.
1. Diplomatic
2. Naval
3. Defensive.
I normally take diplomatic 1st just so I can have decent relations with Austria/and Milan. Other early picks perhaps worth taking are economic and innovative as the earlier you take those ones the better they are. Mid game plutocratic and religious are not to bad. For religion protestant is excellent for Venice just difficult to convert and it helps to have the religious ideas. Religion helps anyway with stability and converting high value provinces like Austrian ones and Constantinople. Also gives you a holy war CB which can be useful early.
Early Expansion.
It can be difficult to expand as Venice early on due to being stuck between overlapping alliances and having Austria on your back. Send a diplomat to improve relations with Austria and Milan if you have a spare one. You can probably afford to hire an admin advisor as well. You do get a starting mission to take Ragusa which is a great choice for an immediate DoW as soon as the game starts, Its a freebie and after that one should try acquire Bosnia/Serbia as vassals which can be difficult if Hungary is getting involved. This is important for later in the game to have as much of the Ragusa trade node as you can. One wants to keep your aggressive expansion low at the start of the game. An early trick you can do very early is the old block the straits/DoW on the Ottomans once they have taken Albania and moved there forces into Anatolia. Similar to the Byzantine trick you will not gain any provinces just try and slow Ottoman expansion down. Ideally you will be able to make a peace deal with the Ottomans flipping a few provinces over to the Byzantines/Bulgaria.
You do not want to overdo the early wars with the Ottomans but you may be able to distract them enough to get Serbia/Bosnia area. After annoying the Ottomans be very careful in the future with them as your naval advantage is a temporary one unless you take the naval idea as your 1st or 2nd choice and can afford to build a large number of galleys. Barques are a bit pricey early on and you do not have that much trade power in Venice anyway. Once the balkens are semi secure move a merchant there and forward trade to Venice. You have 3 merchants and the one in Wien is probably wasting his time.
The other area one can expand early is southern Italy. Naples usually blows up and sooner or later you can fabricate a claim on Abruzzi or another province. Your Venetian army + maybe a few mercs should be able to deal with Naples or any Italian minor in southern Italy. Just be careful of whoever is the HRE if Mantua or another member of the HRE has expanded into southern Italy. Sicily is also nice but not required and Aragorn or Spain will likely be there at some points. Austria usually self destructs and allying with France can be a good idea. As long as you have a fleet they can't actually invade Venice itself. Only the Ottomans or France are likely to be able to match your fleet and actually try to do anything about it. Slowly expand into central and northern Italy. By 1580 or so you should have most of Italy under your control. You may even be able to form Italy! You generally want Italy anyway just because it is rich and you get more trade power in Venice once you eliminate some of the competition. It gives you resources to face the true enemy- the Ottomans!!!
To Italy or not.
I generally avoid forming Italy but if you want to form Italy you get a decent infantry modifier and reconquest CBs on what you do not already have. I'm assuming you want to do the naval/trade Venetian game though. One could focus on land and take some different national ideas perhaps and focus on expansion into Austria and ultimately France. You are still probably to weak vs France though and forming Italy you become a monarchy and lose a merchant and a diplomat. One could do that but it is probably to early IMHO.
The Sultans Neck. Wall of Text viva Venice.
In most games the Ottomans seem to blob like mad throughout the eastern Balkans and middle east. Do not count on any allies or help from the west as this is not EUIII with Britain/Castile/France thinking of having a middle east empire. In the early and mid game the Ottomans are usually worse than France (better units) and they have lots of them and rich provinces. To really take them on though you are going to need the naval national idea assuming you have not already taken it I normally take it as my 3rd or 4th idea. You are going to need a fleet to be able to block the Dardanelles and to keep the ottoman fleets out of the Adriatic Sea. You may even have the holy war CB for low AE penalties but the Ottomans can likely chop up any army Venice can field. Basically you have to destroy the Ottoman fleet, blockade the straits and siege out every province they have west of Constantinople. Rather than try and beat to many provinces out of them try and get key ones like Macedon which cuts them off in Greece. Each time you win a war make them release a nation in Anatolia as part of the peace deal. Helps if you have counter revolution idea and religion to convert the Sunni provinces. It is probably around 1580-1650 for the 1st major counter offensives vs the Ottomans. I generally try and make them release Anatolian minors around the coast of modern Turkey. War number 2-3-4 should try and cut them off in eastern Anatolia by making them release Syria/Irag and various Turkish minors. One can pick them off via fabricating claims, Greek and Bulgarian patriots should take care of the European side of things. Keep constant pressure on the Ottomans as they can recover and bounce back easily enough.
Trade.
Once you are expanding east and have the naval ideas and can have a large navy (spam level 3 shipyards in every coastal province) Venice can make around 100 gold per month via forwarding trade from Ragusa and Constantinople. The ottomans will usually forward trade from Alexandria. If you get a 4th merchant he can make decent bank by forwarding trade from the Crimea to Constantinople just have a fleet to transfer around 75% of that trade forward with no relevant provinces. You do not really need the trade idea as Venace unless you manage to punch through to Aden and beyond which would probably require a very aggressive player/ottoman collapse. 4-5 merchants will make you enough money. The extra merchants can come from plutocracy or Indian trade routes.
Late Game (18th century+)
By now Venice can probably mop up the Ottomans/ go crazy with rapid expansion in the east. Innovative and Administration lets you field very large mercenary armies. 50-60k mercenaries+10-20k of your own men and they can assault level 5 forts. Pure mercs are good enough vs level 2 an 3 forts in the east. France may invade you every now and then with 80k+ troops so your army+mercs can throw them back and wipe out the stacks in Italy proper. Once they have lost a few go rampaging through France itself with pure merc armies and assault out all the level 2 and 3 fort provinces. This causes you no war weariness and wrecks the French. Make them release Guyanne and other provinces in much the same way you dismantled the Ottomans.
That is basically it. Do not expand to fast early on and do not expect to be controlling Alexandria by 1600 (great if you can. 3 games of Venice played so I am getting better each time. Last games techs in order.
Diplomatic
Innovative
Defensive
Religious
Naval
Plutocratic
Administrative
Trade
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