In my Republic of Amalfi play-through, I just created the Empire (Principality) of Italia. So now there are some things I need to know that I hope someone here can tell me.
1. Can a merchant republic have a vassal merchant republic? If, for example, I as empire-tier Amalfi press a claim on Venice or Genoa, what happens to their patricians and trade posts? Business as usual except under me, they're destroyed, I take over all their property, some other option?
2. I currently hold the Grand City of Rome, and a couple other cities in the county. If I vassalize the Pope and/or reinstate the Papacy in Rome, how much of that would I lose?
3. I'm itching to declare bigger wars than those endless "seize trade post, seize city, seize county" rotations, and I miss the days when I could holy war the Ummayyads. All of the Mediterranean coast is Christian now, all Catholic except for the BE, which is the biggest power in the region (not counting me). If I were to change religion to an Orthodox heresy, this would allow me to declare holy wars against the BE without giving all the Catholics an excuse to gang up on me, correct? Or would I potentially get a crusade called on me because I hold Rome? (I'm playing with LoR, but no SoA, MM, or HF, out of the ones that seem applicable here.) Which would you recommend, vassalizing the Pope or going heretical Orthodox?
For background: I have the biggest army by far, around 60K - mostly retinue, a big part of it light skirmishers - with all the other big ones coming in at 20-30K each. Catholics and Orthodox both have their MA at 100. I own lots of coastal territory around the Mediterranean, from Granada and Maghreb to the Most Serene Republic of Jerusalem. My goals are to A) control all the trade zones in the Med, and possibly B) own all the Mediterranean coastal counties. Trade zone-wise I'm maybe 80% of the way there, for coastal counties more like half, and the year is 1075.