A Venice Divine Wind 5.1 AAR

[diegoami]

1504-1506 : Wars with the Mameluks, Shawnee and Novgorod

I have 2 loans outstanding.

I take another loan - to pay back a smaller one which I will have to pay soon.

My economy can take it, but still...

Many european countries trade through Venice, Liguria and Athens.

And most of America trades through Tarasco.

To be able to attack the Mameluks, we claim the title of defender of the Faith

And we declare war on the Mameluks.

And also on the Shawnee, hoping that they, at least, have some money.

The Mameluks did have some friends. We end up being in a crusade as well.

Being defender of the Faith means I end up getting called to arms against everybody and their cousins. But luckily I end up being at war only with Novgorod and Riga.

The Mameluks are not hard to defeat. We still have military access to Castille.

And the war against the Muslim coalitions ends soon later.

And our goal is reached. With Judea, we gain 0.5 missionaries more every year, for a grand total of 1.35. The war with the Shawnee goes on.

We peace the Shawnee too. They have no money.

And Novgorod as well. White Peace. Venice is at peace again.

 

[Malurous]

Neatly done using DotF to get the CB. It really isn't worth it in the long run but that was a good use for it.

Judea looks a bit alone, but I guess that's okay as long as you're allied with Syria.

Your interest expenses are a tad high...

 

[diegoami]

1506-1510 : Croatia annexed and loans repaid

In March 1506, I can finally annex Croatia, which I do. This way I get a core on Croatia (the province).

Even the game thinks I have too many loans. Next mission will be to repay them. The prize will be -1 inflation.

Our doge is reconfirmed while I look at my balance sheet.

But God helps us and we get an event which brings our stability back to max.

So let's see the loans we have to pay back

We notice all of Croatia's provinces are in the HRE. The uncored ones have to leave.

Since our infamy is pretty high as well we hire an advisor to reduce it.

Through an event we improve relations with vassals.

After some routine revolts and conversions, we decide to mint some more to make sure we repay those loans.

Through a boundary dispute we get a core on Loango, Kongo.

Meanwhile, the Azores and the Canarias core.
Most of the small Caribbic islands are colonized by now.

A new doge is elected and we pay back a loan.

A new one is coming. Time for some hard-core minting.

The last loan can be paid back.

I lose 1 inflation.

 

[diegoami]

Your interest expenses are a tad high...

Yeah, even the game saw that ...

 

[diegoami]

1510-1511: Maya annexed. Wars against Hesse, Bavaria and Inca begin.

Next mission : Incorporate Urbino

I check Croatia to see when it was annexed : 5 March 1506. Which means it can be done on 5 March 1516

After replacing my banker with a master of mint....

I check my balance sheet. 1.8 inflation. Let's try to keep it there.

Income is still pretty good.

Regrettably, Portugal pops up in America as well and colonizes Barahonas.

The truce with the Maya has run out and my infamy constraints allow me to take the last Maya provinces. War is declared on them.

Meanhwile, Saint Martin and Antigua become cities. In June 1510 we can at last annex the Mayas, who disappear from the map.

In August 1510, a great event hits us and we gain 1024 ducats.

Nav Tech 12 is researched and we decide we can afford building an embassy in Osjek. There will be always be borders there.

To counter Portuguese colonization we send colonists to the two other provinces on Hispaniola.

Belize is converted, and as Defender of the Faith we are called to arms again. This time Burgundy is attacked.

As if this wasn't enough, Bavaria attacks our ally Würzburg for the n-th time, I guess.

So this is the diplomatic map on January 1511. We make sure we call our German allies to our war against Hesse as well.

Since our armies are at high maintenance, we might as well attack the Incas.

 

[Ricardo Rolo]

Well, it looks that your game heard me about integrations And Urbino is better for that than croatia ( 100% provinces cored after integration + fresh borders south to allow new vassaling missions in Italy proper )

BTW, as others suggested already, you should start sabotaging the Portuguese and Castilian colonies in the Carib area.... especially the Portuguese one, because you have borders with it. The last thing you need is a colonial war vs Portugal that drags Castille/Spain or England behind via cascading alliances....

 

[blsteen]

I agreed with Malurous, Judea looks awful alone. DOTF is good to have sometimes but it can definitely be a pain especially in a highly diversified religious environment. But then that works both ways

 

[diegoami]

Well, it looks that your game heard me about integrations And Urbino is better for that than croatia ( 100% provinces cored after integration + fresh borders south to allow new vassaling missions in Italy proper )

BTW, as others suggested already, you should start sabotaging the Portuguese and Castilian colonies in the Carib area.... especially the Portuguese one, because you have borders with it. The last thing you need is a colonial war vs Portugal that drags Castille/Spain or England behind via cascading alliances....

Well, Naples and the Papal State are already vassalized. I am not sure about sabotaging colonies, that would worsen relationships and would be likelier to lead to war. What makes you think I will not be the one who will start a colonial war ?

 

[diegoami]

I agreed with Malurous, Judea looks awful alone. DOTF is good to have sometimes but it can definitely be a pain especially in a highly diversified religious environment. But then that works both ways

Not sure what is wrong with Judea being alone :mellow: I own the Mediterranean sea and I can bring there reinforcements if needed. Syria is allied and I still have military access to Castille.

 

[diegoami]

1511-1512 : Wars with Hesse, Bavaria and Inca (2)

Wo go help Ansbach deal with the Palatinate

and we help our allies deal with the Bavarians.

We rout the Bavarians in München, and we get some bad news : Protestantism is spreading in Venice.

We own Bavaria and we have saved Ansbach, but now we have to help Würzburg deal with Hesse.
With help from our allies Hesse's troops are thrown out of Würzburg.

Burgundy is having some trouble, I am not sure if I can white peace and keep my title as defender of the faith. I am not sure if I actually want to keep it.
Anyway we bring the war to the Palatinate and Hessen. Some of them have Landsknechte while we still have Galloghian infantry or whatever it is called.

Well, a milestone is reached on August 1511 : Land Tech 13 and Landsknechte. Maybe Venice should recruit Condotta Infantry for RP, but I guess Condotta Infantry belongs to a fragmented Italy and not to one dominated by Venice.

Why am I in this war anyway ? Because I like beating the crap out of German minors, who always have better technology.

And I like moving little stacks in support of my German allies - Styria, Tirol, Würzburg, Augsburg, Württemberg and Ansbach.
A couple of minors are defeated, I think Franfurkt and Mainz ?

We are fighting an easy war against the Inca as well.
And we get a couple of good provinces out of the peace deal.

Meanwhile Burgundy peaces Hesse. So we start peacing the minors as well. We peace Frankurt...
We are still romping in Hesse and the Palatinate.

We peace Bavaria, regrettably there is nothing really good out of this peace deal.

The Palatinate is routed.

And the Turk islands are colonized.

We win another battle against Köln, I think.

But I guess I have enough of this war as well. I let Hesse off the hook, while the Reformation branches out.

Since we are at peace it is a good time to change our unit type to Landsknechte, who is probably the better unit.

 

[diegoami]

1511-1514 : Castille (Spain) expands in North America

Can't they leave us alone ? Another call to arms, this time it is Netherlands who is attacked by Novgorod. At least we are in control of the war.

Defender of the faith has some bonuses, but it is also a pain...

We never lose hope, this time I feel the Shawnee may have some money...

Meanwhile Protestantism keeps spreading in our provinces...
and also to the colonies. Stability hits and revolts will be a nightmare.

The Shawnee give us 71 ducats.

and slowly disappear from the map.

We peace Novgorod. We are at peace again.

Nav Tech 13 is researched. Infamy is going down at 1.55. Because of a saint we gain one narrowminded.
We reelect our average doge.

And we found a colony in Jamaica.

Trade and Land Technology 14 are researched. Conversions go on. But regrettably Castilla founds two new colonies in the new world, Havana and Magdalena.

Not only that, there are three new Castillian colonies in North America, Delaware, Connecticut and Narraganset, I think.

We instead found a colony in southern America, Banda Oriental.

Castille steals the title of defender of the faith as well. Castille wants to provoke us. Well, Venice is not afraid.

But as Nav Tech 14 is researched, we can now build Flytes. Let me check how many soldiers Castille has.

Gov Tech 16 is researched and now I can build Universities. Which means I will get the crappy missions "Build University" as well from now on.
So, Castille, do you think I will just leave North America to you ? Manhattan is founded.

Just let me build some more ships. Regrettably Spain+Portugal have still more big ships than Venice. Spain and Portugal are in a Personal Union. But our vassals Byzantium, Naples and Sicily have decent navies as well.

 

[unmerged(239095)]

I Smell an Epic War-a-brewing
Great updates, can't wait for the next update :3

 

[MrQwerty]

And the bad part is that computer colonization is so spotty that one can hardly predict where the next one can be. Your best bet would just have to be to colonize entire coastlines: a costly expenditure :sad: .

So, are you planning colonial conquest against Castille and Portugal?

 

[vasziljevics]

Novgorod attacked the Dutch with 'Reconquest' CB? silly drunken Dutch explorers must have gone some unusually strange direction (I apologize for this, I have nothing against Dutch people)

Spanish colonization was more than expected by now - in a recent game as the Hansa I had Portuguese colonies in the Caribbean in the 1460s... now let's see if the Spaniards have the will to hold on to their colonies!

 

[Ricardo Rolo]

Oh, now I see what you meant yesterday about you wanting a colonial war I agree that is more than time to give a proper beating to Spain before things go out of hand .

You are also getting in the sure path of having religious issues , with all those provinces going protestant ( 4 in the old world + at least one in the new from what I can deduce from the last update ). Are you going to stick with Catholic or are you planning to go Protestant or ( later ) Reformed ? There would be many opportunities ( and risks ) for a Protestant/Reformed Venetian Republic

P.S Spain has land 16 and naval 15 ( I assume that Portugal is similar or maybe with some unluck naval 16 ), 1/2 more levels than you. I suggest you start cranking up the naval building, and/or getting some naval tradition and pray for a nice admiral

 

[diegoami]

Hi everybody, thank you for the feedback.

zcar94 : Thank you and welcome!.

MrQwerty : I will have to deal with Spain and Portugal sooner or later, but probably not now. I will wait till there are more colonies to grab. I want also to cover my back first and maybe wait until they are already in a war and have high WE, which shouldn't be a problem since Spain (no more Castille) is now DoTF.

vasziljevics: Netherland has grabbed some provinces in Eastern Europe and is expanding there. Actually Spain and Portugal have been pretty slow colonizing so far.

Ricardo Rolo : Thank you for reminding about the techology gap, I will try to close it. I am not going Protestant unless most of the Italian provinces and / or Venice convert. The Papal State is our vassal and our influence with him is very high, so I would prefer staying Catholic

 

[diegoami]

1515 : The conquest of Mecca along with 4 minor wars

I am an opportunist and I have been notified that our ally Syria is at war with Yemen, who owns the Mecca. I read that the Mecca also gives a missionary bonus, so I will try and grab it.
A Holy war is declared against Yemen.

Prod tech 14 is researched. Regrettably the Mecca is already being sieged by Adal.
But we go on and land in Yemen, to try and grab some provinces which will be useful when sitting at the peace table.

Regrettably we lose 1 stability. We have a core on Loango and we declare war on Congo and at the same time on their ally Mupata.

Meanwhile we found a new colony in North America, Unami.

The cost for stability is outrageous, so we hire an artist. We will have to lose another stability soon when annexing Urbino (my current mission), which will be possible in 1516.

Think three wars at the same time are enough ? What about a fourth one? The Creek dishonored our call to arms (not sure which one, but who cares?) and deserve a beating. A colonial conquest is started.

There is a very significant conversion, Judea.
In June 1515, we can move one slider. This time we go centralization, if we lose stability I have already hired an artist. Instead a small pretender army rises up in revolt.
You can see my sphere of influence in the background.

We will get a lot of prestige out of the wars so we expand our influence. We include our ally Würzburg as well.

I had a border with Yemen, that is the reason we had a casus belli against them. We attack their provinces in Africa, which are next to the Musape provinces.

Meanwhile, the first peace deal is signed. The Creek have to cede two provinces. Might have asked for more, but I will get more provinces out of the other wars.

But in December 1515, the stability is back to normal. We keep our artist, we will annex Urbino soon.

In December 1515, the Counterreformation begins. Which is good news for us Catholics. Maybe that will stop the spreading of Protestantism. Maybe.

We immediately establish the Counterreformation in Venice.

In February 1516, we peace the Mutapa. They also have to cede two provinces. They could not be annexed because of an unoccupied province (Zanzibar) but I will get their unconnected capital in the next war.
Zimbabwe is trading gold.

Our doge dies and we elect a military candidate.

Ah right, that's one of the reasons I cannot grab too many provinces. I have not enough ships to cover them all. Even if am ways over the force limit.
Caravels and Barques are being produced all the time. Barques usually have patrol duties against pirates.

Meanwhile, a new colony is founded in Rio de la Plata.

In May 1516, Mecca falls and a peace treaty with Yemen can be signed. Mecca belongs to Venice. This is the worst game ever, it is too ahistorical !

In June 1516, the effect of the conquest of Mecca kicks in. 0.5 missionaries more every year. I won't ever be without missionaries again. Unless, of course, I lose Mecca and Judea.

 

[Malurous]

This is the worst game ever, it is too ahistorical !

:rofl: I can guess where this complaint came from!

Good choice with Creek, taking coastal provinces from the natives certainly limits American expansion by other Europeans.

It seems that you got to the Counter-Reformation phase without too much damage, nice!

 

[diegoami]

:rofl: I can guess where this complaint came from!

Good choice with Creek, taking coastal provinces from the natives certainly limits American expansion by other Europeans.

It seems that you got to the Counter-Reformation phase without too much damage, nice!

I just noticed that I forgot one coastal province, though

 

[diegoami]

1516-1521 : Urbino diploannexed and more provinces in America.

In August 1516, the war with Congo is over as well. We get Loango, which is a core province.

An event makes us lose one stability. And the annexation of Urbino make us lose another 1 stability. But the mission is accomplished and we gain another core province, Ancona.

The next mission will be the annexation of Pisa. We will have to wait 10 years for that. This game is too slow !

On September 1516, we colonize Moron and we get another border with Spain. But we were the first to colonize Cuba.... what is Spain's business in Cuba ?

We will probably have to consolidate. So many provinces with high revolt risk.

We are Papal Controller again. Hungary joins our trade league.
Spain is getting cockier by the day. They found other colonies, even in South America which I consider to be my sphere of influence. Right between my colonies. They are playing with fire.

Land Tech 15 is researched and stability increases.

Spain is expanding also in North America.

Meanwhile our provinces in America keep coring.

Another event makes us lose 1 stability ! But I can change national focus to Treviso.
There is a long overdue decision to take: Formalize Scales, Weights and Measures.

Even Portugal is founding colonies in South America....

The Cherokee calls us to arms against the Shawnee. Whatever. We decide it is high time we take the Zapotec provinces. And we declare war on the Huron as well.

Nav Tech 15 is researched. And at last Stability is back to 3.

In April 1520, Zapotec is annexed. All of Mexico is cyan.

We declare war on Oman since they are at war with Syria and just for the heck of it. And we peace the Huron for a couple of provinces, one of which contains a COT.
We will have to colonize Mahican as soon as possible.

Oman is whitepeaced. The Anti Piracy Act is passed and Mecca is converted to the Catholic faith. Ridicolous. Isn't EU3 the worst game ever ?