Best way to Colonize as Tuscany?

[Olligarchy]

So, I figured I'd roll for a Tuscany -> Italy -> HRE game and started considering my strategy for expansion... the initial moves for consolidating Italy and such are clear enough and quite easy with the Shadow Kingdom event, but what about the rest of the world? Getting some colonies going is an easy way to get some ducats and real power outside of Europe, but Tuscany isn't exactly in an optimal position to make that choice... or is it?

How would you guys say I should proceed? Should I roll out Exploration/Expansion as first idea and try for... what? North Africa? Mamluks for a jump spot to Asia? Head for North America or what?

Or should I wait for a longer time to head out... or ignore the idea entirely?

 

[Sian]

You should probably get yourself a good way of getting access to an early'ish province to plant your first colony in, either by having the colony range to west Africa (not sure you'd actually have this early on), or stealing one of the Altantic Islands from Iberia

 

[Castrolol]

You can go through the Mamadudes and transfer Indian trade from there but the Iberian scum will start to out-compete you when they get some trade companies up.

For optimal trade you'll have to take Sevilla and play a typical trade company game.

The other option is taking all of the Cape and transferring and collecting in Zanzibar. This will stop the Iberian scum stealing trade but still allow decent Indian trade income.
Stealing Portuguese African colonies is an easy way to slingshot you into this position.
With this method you can even "work backwards" by using the Indian trade income to conquer Sevilla.

EDIT: I would completely forget about the New World as an Italian, too much hassle to get income out of it unless you're in a favourable trade node.

 

[Olligarchy]

So would Expansion or Exploration work better as first idea? Or should I wait till the third idea and go Diplomatic/Influence - > Something -> Exploration/Expansion?

 

[Sian]

I'd consider Administative -> Exploration -> Influence, if you want to go that route to start with. would be somewhat concerned if you'll have enough time to grab the range needed to colonize if you grab Exploration first, and Expansion doesn't really do much, if anything for you early on as you have no access to empty provinces which you can use the Colonist on

 

[Pigeoncount]

The Unincorporated Ottoman Territory of Egypt, or Mamluks for short, is super easy to annex, especially if you get the mission for taking Jerusalem. I did this in my current Papal States game, and while the land itself is pretty garbage, it is the easiest launching point to go into Asia for Italy, it would seem. Retaking Jerusalem as the HRE is extremely valuable, since it can avoid the Religious Warfare (unless you wanted to go protestant or reformed, of course). You can also use Sicily to fabricate on Tunis, and work your way across the coast, but this method will take longer, and requires taking Berber lands.

While I would take this land, mostly to just mess with the Ottomans and to avoid the League War, you still will need to deal with the Iberians. The better option is to make sure the Iberian Wedding doesn't work out, take what you can off of Aragon in Iberia, and start eating Spain, France, and Portugal. As a bonus, you can add all of this land to the Empire, to boost Imperial Authority through the roof. At this point, colonization should be a breeze, just do it at your leisure.

 

[Castrolol]

Really depends on how heavy you want to go with colonising.

If you want to get in early and focus on trade income; exploration will allow you to get QftNW, steal Portuguese colonies and lock down The Cape.

If you want to consolidate your kingdom befor getting late into the colonial game then influence is great.

Expansion trends to be a mid game idea as the "Get a foothold into India" mission will get you by easily in the early game.

 

[Olligarchy]

Potentially not related, but I just realized that with the new changes to Rankings if I form the Kingdom of Italy, even should I choose to stay in the HRE at 1490 I'll still leave HRE as Italy... ideas on how to get past this to rejoin and kick Austria to the curb to claim Emperorship? Same as ever? Attack an elector that calls in Austria, wreck Austria and vassalize electors?

 

[Adrian Gaming]

As a Milan player, I took lots of North African territory, including Granada (which has no Castillian cores), took Exploration, and colonized along the coast of West Africa and steered trade back to Italy. Works well. North Africa + West Africa + a strong navy = Italian colonial superpower.

Don't imagine it'd be too much different for Tuscany. Make sure to take Sardinia! Have fun!

 

[Olligarchy]

Well here's what I've done so far:

Everything is going swimmingly. Most Italian minors have medium opinion of me, even though I'm rivalled to Genoa and the Papal States who hate my guts. Speeding ahead in tech and ahead in everything so far. Allied to France and Hungary for now. Unlocked the first two Administrative ideas to get cheaper coring and now sort of considering where to strike... Genoa would be a pretty easy win and would allow me to dominate the Node rather easily, but it's easier to get land south from the Papal States; though that would make me the #1 enemy of most Catholics.

So so far my plan is pretty much so... (?)'s are things I'd like commentary on. Are they smart moves or should I go with an alternative?:
-Stay in HRE after 1490 for Emperor security. (?)
-Capture the Provinces required to form Italy = form Italy and expand more.
-Take Exploration or Expansion as second idea (?) to head off to either West Africa or go gobble on Mamluks and take east africa -> India route.
-Post forming Italy I've the headache of trying to become a HRE member again... should I vassalize Electors or what?

Ideas (?)
1. Administrative
2. Exploration/Expansion
3. Defensive
4. Expansion
5. Influence
6. ????

So thoughts?

 

[Dnote]

You want to control the Genoa trade node, make sure you take Aragon before Castile does. Then you're in a good position to pull trade from the Seville node as well Alexandria in the other direction.

Colonies... with the latest patch the AI takes a long time to get going. You'll want a province on the west of Iberia or north/west Africa, then get your colonial range up enough to get to the new world. I found in my game that Portugal, Castile and England all went South America first, so I took the Caribbean, which gives me the best trade power in the region. Up to you though, you need to get land on the Atlantic though.

 

[Chiro]

I wouldn't focus on the Americas if I were you. Just make sure you take Tangiers and have a big tradefleet to steer that money into Genoa. This way you can focus on expanding into the East with Alexandria, Gulf of Aden and India (you could even go for Indonesia and China).

 

[Olligarchy]

You want to control the Genoa trade node, make sure you take Aragon before Castile does. Then you're in a good position to pull trade from the Seville node as well Alexandria in the other direction.

Colonies... with the latest patch the AI takes a long time to get going. You'll want a province on the west of Iberia or north/west Africa, then get your colonial range up enough to get to the new world. I found in my game that Portugal, Castile and England all went South America first, so I took the Caribbean, which gives me the best trade power in the region. Up to you though, you need to get land on the Atlantic though.

I wouldn't focus on the Americas if I were you. Just make sure you take Tangiers and have a big tradefleet to steer that money into Genoa. This way you can focus on expanding into the East with Alexandria, Gulf of Aden and India (you could even go for Indonesia and China).

Seems like I can somewhat combine these.

Ignore the Carribean, but take Tangiers/Ceuta to pull Sevilla trade towards Genoa whilst getting a jump start on the Mamlukes. With those priorities ideas will probably change somewhat, but that's good enough.

 

[Zak Preston]

As Italy I think you should concentrate on Africa, Brazil and India => China. You are not in that good position to colonize NA.
Your most valuable trade nodes are Tunis, maybe Alexandria, Ivory Coast and Zanzibar

 

[Dnote]

You don't really need to worry about pulling trade from the West, the only reason I went for the Caribbean was to ensure the trade went to Seville and not the English Channel. Getting a percentage of that Seville trade sent on to Genoa is easy when you control the Genoa trade node. If you have a presence in Ivory Coast that will help as well.

Alexandria is much harder to get a strong trade presence in. I've not gone East yet, but I was planning to push most of the Ceylon/Malacca trade around Africa, rather than through Alexandria, to further increase my take from Seville. I'm not playing a traditional Italy game though, my campaign goal was to control the Genoa trade note completely and be the biggest trade power in the med, so I've taken land from France and Castile to achieve this. If you're not planning to do that, then something closer to how you'd play Venice might be more appropriate.

Also, once you start taking land from Aragon, Castile is going to turn against you, they will want that land (which for me was the excuse I needed to take their land).

 

[Baron Tanks]

Well here's what I've done so far:

So thoughts?

I'm playing the same game basically. I'm not planning on colonising, but also playing Tuscany. I'm pushing alternately North and South. Milan was an early ally, but they are just as expansionist as me. They got seperate peaced with annul treaties to me in a war we were in and they have been gobbling up targets I was after and just a general pain in the ass. I also dealt with the Papal States, thankfully, they have 3 provinces left. I have an alliance with France, which I'll have to use soon because the Iberian wedding happened with the Aragonese PU intact over Naples. I intend to use France to break Castille and Aragon to set Naples free. Milan just snatched Genoa's Center of Trade from me, although I couldn't take it right now without triggering a coalition.

Anyway, I advise you to keep an eye on Castille and Aragon, you want Naples to be independent so you can take it. Also I see your power projection is 15, pick some rivals you can eat or humiliate. I had Genoa at some point and when my agressive expansion was high, I warred versus them and humiliated+transfer trade power. That got me some sweet money and power projection. I've done the same with Mantua and Ferrara at points, Siena has been a rival. I've been above 50 PP for 10-15 years. It's a great MP boost and I've been sinking excess points in the development of Florence and Ferrara as it's an estuary in Venice trade node. I decided to stay in the Empire for now when the decision came up, just so I can abuse the Emperors protection a little longer. I fully intend to form Italy and I'll leave at that point.