I am the Byz and Venice is my allied vassal. It is 1503 and I just got the mission where if I annex Venice I get cores on Venice and Treviso. Austria owns Treviso and is the HRE and a massive blob superpower. She is currently attacking, successfully another major blob, Bohemia. I am the third major European blob, bigger than either but Austria has better tech and a ton of vassals. France was destroyed by a Burgundy/Denmark/England alliance 50 years ago and is now a middling 7 province power. The question is whether to annex Venice or not. I am 3 points on the free trade side of the slider and own Alexandria, Astrakhan and built a COT on Thrace. I belong to the Venice trade league and have a pile of trade stations formed. If I annex Venice I lose the trade league bonuses and all the trade stations as well as Venice's 35 ships and 15,000 troops. I could join the Lubeck trade league and I would gain the Venice province income and a CB on Austria from Treviso. But my relations with Austria are +142 so the CB won't do me much good without eating the good relations declaration penalty. So is it better to annex Venice or leave her as my vassal? I am currently heading east toward India, mostly as I am not sure I can win a fight with Austria.
Byz, Venice, Austria and Trade Leagues
- Thread starter DABegley
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Roll a dice :rofl:
I would keep them and concentrate expanding in other directions, or exploit the Austria-Bohemia situation.
I would keep them and concentrate expanding in other directions, or exploit the Austria-Bohemia situation.
While the trade league bonuses are nice, owning your own CoT in Venice (with a core) has a lot of benefits too (incl. 10 base tax) and keep in mind that in a few years most of the trade leagues will probably be dissolving anyway when Admin Republic govt becomes available at govt tech 19 (expected year 1540).
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Good point on dissolving trade leagues, I'll check when Gov Tech 19 looks likely for Venice. I don't want to annex Venice too quickly as that would start the 50 year clock on the core in Treviso but when the trade league dissolves I may as well. I want to be able to beat Austria in a war before I lose the core. That will be tough as she has 150,000 troops (I think it is the HRE effect and tons of vassals) to my 100,000 and has the tech advantage as well. It will take a while to get into a war situation for me as I have a royal marriage with Austria and relations of +156. The stab hit for declaring war would be epic. I also want to westernize first and that will take at least 30 more years, I spent a bunch of slider moves on Free Trade which slowed me down but I am a trade monster because of it. I need 3 innovative moves, I am already centralized enough. I should be able to annex almost to India by then. I'll try and cultivate relations with Bohemia and Milan to see if they will help me in fighting Austria.
I did notice something in my first war with Austria, which had Bohemia on it's side then. During the war Austria had most of it's army trying to get to Venice by land and left me free to ravage the Balkans until Bohemia and all Austria's vassals (10 countries then, more now) showed up. If I declare on Austria is that a common behavior for her? If so I can rip her Balkan provinces up with impunity as I don't think Bohemia will join the next war on Austria's side.
I did notice something in my first war with Austria, which had Bohemia on it's side then. During the war Austria had most of it's army trying to get to Venice by land and left me free to ravage the Balkans until Bohemia and all Austria's vassals (10 countries then, more now) showed up. If I declare on Austria is that a common behavior for her? If so I can rip her Balkan provinces up with impunity as I don't think Bohemia will join the next war on Austria's side.
Treviso isn't really that great of land. You can just ignore the core. I'd say annex Venice for the amazing CoT you'd get