Dev Diary 77: Venetian missions
Salvete!
Today derekmark, one of our new devs, will present a new large mission tree for Veneto that will arrive in the 1.7 update and as such i'll hand you over to him.
Hi! derekmark here. Today we’ll be seeing some of the flavour that will be coming to Italy soon in the next update.
First off, a little bit of context. The Veneti were an Indo-European people (very likely Italic) living in the North-Eastern coast of the Italian Peninsula, with their lands partially overlapping with the modern day region of Veneto in Italy.
In the timeframe of Imperator, the Veneti were under heavy pressure from many of the Gallic tribes of Cisalpine Gaul, being one of the only areas of the Padan plains that had not yet come under Celtic control, with constant assaults leading the Venetic cities to develop a society with a strong martial culture (heavily focused on their cavalry). In real life, when the Roman Republic reached the borders of Venetic territory, they allied with the Romans for protection and quickly accepted Roman dominion over their lands, with the Veneti also sharing their experience in fighting the Gauls and serving as Auxillia for the Roman Army for several centuries before gaining Roman citizenship in 49BC.
Playing the Veneti in Imperator, you therefore find yourself straddled in between the Lepontic Celts of Cisalpine Gaul to the west, the ancient Raeti to the north, and the aggressive Carni to the east (who in real life invaded Veneto, making a settlement in what would become Aquileia, before being beaten back by the Romans). But while in our timeline the Veneti sought the protection of Rome for security, you may want to secure the borders of Veneto through more expansionist means.
The new mission tree for Veneto is therefore divided into two mutually exclusive paths, one focused on a more diplomatic play, and the other more bellicose. I’ll talk about the more diplomatic path first.
This path starts off with Veneto first finding allies amongst the Celtic tribes of Cisalpine Gaul. While many tribes regularly attacked the Veneti, others had close relations with them, like the Cenomanni. If Veneto is to protect itself, it is important that it strengthens these good relations with alliances.
As you can see, being allied to Cenomannia, while not strictly necessary, means that they may break their alliance with the Lingoni, for reasons that we will get into later. Taking this route will also give you a modifier to discourage expanding aggressively.
In addition to this, forging good relations with the Cenomanni will also allow you to encourage them to create settlements in Veneto (as they did in real life), and (upon integrating the Lepontic culture) have the Veneti adopt many aspects of Celtic warfare, allowing them to develop tactics to better fight against hostile Gallic tribes.
Next, it is up to the Veneto to decide what to do about the powers rising out of central Italy. Now, while the Veneti historically decided to ally the Romans against the Gauls (and will be more inclined to do so under ai) , the Etruscans present another option for a strong alliance, in case you wish to partner with them against the Roman war machine.
After having secured a strong alliance, it will then be necessary to consider your role in relation to your newfound ally, for if the power balance is significant, they will likely simply toss you aside once your mutual enemies are defeated. Here you are presented with the option to appease you ally, and submit to their greater power (becoming a tribal vassal), as the Veneti did, or choose to declare your sovereignty non negotiable (beware, for this option will give you a bit of aggressive expansion and damage your relation with your ally).
Once done, the player may then receive Diplomatic Reputation for having successfully established a stable diplomatic position, although if you had selected the ‘Venetic Supremacy’ task you will first have to repair your damaged relations with your ally.
In addition to diplomatic reputation, Veneto and its ally will also permanently increase their opinions of each other by 50 (though losing said alliance for a protracted period of time will remove this opinion buff).
Once your diplomatic position is secured, you will have options to increase your population through foreign settlement or urbanisation (according to what path you have chosen diplomatically), though having submitted to the Romans will also give you the option to adopt Roman culture, along with the Hellenic faith.
You likely won’t remain tribal for long under the Romans, for they will eventually pressure you to become a more ingrained vassal as a feudatory.
Accepting will reform your government into an Aristocratic Republic, as well as changing your name and flag (to Venetia et Histria if you have conquered the Histri, and Venetia if you haven’t), also making you a feudatory of Rome.
Having chosen to preserve your own sovereignty however, while endangering you to either Roman or Etruscan expansion, presents many more opportunities.
Having taken a path of superiority over your neighbours, it will be the ambition of Veneto to incorporate as many key cities or countries as possible into your domain. Having just emerged from a precarious geopolitical position itself, this will be done through the guise of extending the protection of your Venetic state over those city states and tribes unable to do so themselves.
The two first steps will be to try to gain control over your (perhaps former) ally of Cenomannia, and over the Greek city-state of Chersos. In the case of Cenomannia, it is clear that a power imbalance will have arisen between you, and of course, being in a position to better protect your neighbour then they could hope to do so themselves, is it not selfless to offer even greater protection?
Should they accept, they will become your feudatory. And though there is a chance they refuse, you will still gain claims over their lands to take them the old fashioned way.
For Chersos on the other hand, this Greek state at your end of the Adriatic is an annoying competitor to Venetic trade. The Veneti, like their later Venetian descendants, were a very trade oriented culture, being situated in the perfect position to mediate trade from in between the amber routes of Northern Europe, and the Mediterranean world. A competitor to this trade on Veneto’s doorstep is therefore unacceptable, and you will be able to send Chersos an ultimatum for them to submit to your rule, rectifying the situation.
If they accept, they will become a league city subject of yours. If they refuse, war will break out.
After handling Chersos, Veneto must turn their attention to the Western side of the Adriatic, where the port of Spina lies. A valuable export hub, Spina was historically one of the principal Adriatic ports through which goods from Northern Europe travelled to the rich states of the Mediterranean. You may have already taken Spina during your war with the Lingoni, but if this isn’t the case you need not worry! For you will now have the opportunity to purchase Spina from it current owner, providing you have good relations with them.
Further along the Adriatic coast lies another important city for local trade. The Greek city of Ancona may have a proud history, but with the rise of powerful local states, the Anconans now find themselves on the short end of the stick. This is the perfect situation for Veneto to take advantage of, and with a small monetary incentive you may convince Ancona (or the state controlling Ancona) to cede the city to you as a league city subject, for the sake of Anconan protection.
In parallel to your actions in the West, Veneto also has tasks to expand in the East coast of the Adriatic, starting off with a task to procure lands along the coast for which to create mercantile colonies (emulating the success of the Greeks and Phonecians).
Here, Veneto must improve relations with the Illyrian tribes that currently possess the land, and shore up funds to purchase it. Once the task is completed, Veneto will send offers to purchase land across the Illyrian coast. Supposing that all possible territories are controlled by tribes with a high opinion of you (though there is no guarantee of this happening), and that they all accept to sell you land, the coast of Northern Illyria should now look like this (though beware, each territory will cost 65 gold to purchase so you may go into debt if you haven’t accumulated enough funds):
Once you have colonies in the Illyrian coast, Veneto will seek well guarded ports closer to the markets of Greece, from which they can build a base of operations for their Eastern trade, with the area of Illyria Graeca, being defended by the surrounding Albanian Alps and choking any trade into the Adriatic, being an ideal area to take control of.
As such, if you are to accumulate sufficient funds, you may send a payment to the principal controller of Illyria Graeca, in exchange for control over the entirety of their lands in the region.
In addition, Veneto also has the option to bring the Raeti up north into their sphere of protection (after having allied them in a previous task).
Finally, for this path of the tree, you will have greatly expanded your Venetic state, bringing numerous peoples under your wing for the sake of mutual protection and economic prosperity. Having reformed your government (an option also present in the tree, that I’ll get into later) you are in a position to declare a trans-Adriatic league under your Venetian Control, and form the Venetic League.
Upon doing so, any subjects of yours that are not League Cities will become so (and yes, that includes tributaries, so getting as many as possible is a good idea), and any existing League City subjects will become directly integrated into your League.
One final aspect of this ‘diplomatic’ path of Veneto’s tree are three colonisation tasks. While you may not expand your borders greatly through war down this path, it does allow Veneto to focus on stimulating internal population growth. This can be done depending on if or not you decided to submit to your large Italic ally, with two options for inviting settlers from either Rome or Etruria.
However if you had decided to remain independent, you will instead be able to implement policies of increasing urbanisation, remodelling the Venetic style of urban centres after the larger Italic cities of your ally.
But as you have seen earlier, this isn’t the only option for Veneto to take in this tree, and you may instead decide to secure Veneto’s position primarily through force.
But before I dive into the bellicose path of the tree, I’ll first talk about a small event chain that will trigger for Veneto in the first few years of the game, involving the Spartans.
Around 303.bc (one year after the game start), the Spartan prince Kleonymos (or Cleonymus to the Romans), the first son of the former Spartan king who had been passed over for the throne on account of his aggressive nature, participated in a large expedition against the Lucani in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy) and Corcyra, though he was forced to turn back. However the following year he would launch another expedition in the peninsula that would put him into contact with the Veneti.
Once again in 302.bc, Kleonymos would return to the peninsula at the helm of a massive army, on a final grand expedition to Italia, and maybe even visioning conquest of the Italic lands. His first stop was Apulia, where he took the city of Thuriae, before being driven out by the threat of the Romans.
Leaving Magna Graecia for the second time, he would then try his luck in Veneto, where he sailed up the river Adige in an attempt to seize Patavium. While he burned many local settlements, his army was ultimately defeated by the Venetic Patavii after having split in two, with his fleet being almost entirely sunk upon his attempt to escape (though he would manage to return to Sparta to influence politics there for years to come).
Ingame, Kleonymos will launch his second expedition around 2 years after the game start, and will land in Patavium with 9.5k troops in an attempt to seize it from Veneto.
Playing as Veneto, you should have enough levies to crush his army. Forcing him to retreat to Sparta with his tail in between his legs as the Veneti did to him in our timeline.
Beware not to enter wars where your levies will be occupied elsewhere during this time though, for if Kleonymos holds Patavium for 3 years you will be forced to either pay him off with an exorbitant amount of gold, or cede Patavium to him as a Spartan Colony. An unthinkable option for such an ancient Venetic city.
Now onto the Bellicose path of the Veneto tree!
If you want Veneto to head on a more expansionist route, you will need to break with several centuries of primarily defensive methods undertaken by the Veneti in relation to their neighbours, a societal shift that will lead to short term instability.
Your next step will be to break relations with the Cenomanni tribe, and rival them. While Veneto may have had good relations with them in the past, they hold key centres in the region, such as Verona, that would serve you well under Venetic control.
After having conquered the Cenomanni, Veneto will be able to both redirect its forces into Northwestern Illyria and Chersos (though this will require completing a task in another branch of the Veneto tree first), and into the old Etruscan cities of the Padan Valley in the West. Focusing first on western expansion, Veneto’s targets will be primarily focused on opportunities to further Venetic commerce through war. In the case of the Etruscan cities of the region, these are the principal commercial hubs of the amber route into Italy. It is therefore of great interest to Veneto to seize these hubs to further monopolise the amber trade into the region, and increase Venetian profits.
Next, Veneto will turn to seek greater controls of the import routes of amber into the country, leading it to carve a path through Raetia in order to better access the trade directly through the Alps.
Doing so will result in an increase short term in profits for Veneto.
However the Rhaetians and other alpine people's won't take this incursion lightly, and the threat of raids will continue to endanger your Alpine imports of amber. The only way to counter this will be to push your border from the edges of the Alpine path that you've carved out.
But this won't be the end of your actions in the region, for the northern feet of the Alps, Noricum Ripense, is also a valuable target for the Venetic realm. With rivers flowing through the area, it holds many prime trading hubs for the amber trade before the route enters the Alps and is readily accessible for foreign merchants, meaning greater commercial reach into Northern Europe for whoever controls it.
Turning back to the east, Veneto will first have to conquer the area of Histria not yet under its control, along with the city of Chersos that, as we've said before, is an unacceptable commercial competitor.
Next the question of Illyrian piracy will have to be dealt with. The Illyrians made the Adriatic waterways a dangerous place with their insistence on piratical lifestyles, greatly reducing the safety of Adriatic trade. As a mercantile oriented country, you'll want to take care of the situation as soon as possible by conquering swathes of the Illyrian coastline from which the pirates emerge. Doing so will, as well as better secure the sea for your merchants, increase the popularity of your ruler (as he will be responsible for the reduction of piracy in the region).
In addition you have two extra tasks related to further conquering the lands of the Illyrians, and making Illyria a core extension of the Veneti lands.
Going further down south, it would definitely be in the interests of Veneto to secure trading hubs in the region of Illyria Graeca, from which to expand trade further into the Mediterranean. Doing so would cement your hold over all trade into the Adriatic, as well as allow you to make a move on Greece.
Next you must make a move on Epirus. This kingdom was once high and mighty under Pyrrhus, but it now pales in comparison to your burgeoning empire. If you play your cards right, you can exploit the new power imbalance to pressure for colonies in Epirus.
Now Veneto has made it to the edges of Greece itself. The Greeks have long been the centre of the Mediterranean world, but since the Peloponnesian wars, and the conquest of the Macedonians, the majority of Greek city states have played second fiddle to stronger outside powers. But now Macedonian control is waning, and as a rising newcomer, Veneto is in a perfect position to become the new hegemon of the region, provided they establish a small foothold.
Success in convincing the Greeks to swear fealty to you over their current/former overlords will depend on both how powerful you've become, and how weak/disunited Greece is.
(an example of very successfully pressuring the Greeks, with all of the Greek states having their starting borders)
Your final target for expansion (in this path of the tree) will be the advantageous island of Crete.
Situated south of mainland Greece, and not too far from the Markets of Egypt and the NearEast, setting up commercial ports in Crete would greatly extend Veneto's commercial reach, and allow all sorts of goods from the East to enter the country. And you will receive a temporary modifier to reflect this.
Finally, having expanded your state from a disunited group of towns and cities, on the brink of destruction by surrounding tribes, to a vast mercantile realm, stretching from the northern lands of Noricum, to the far off Island of Crete, you will be in the perfect position to declare your state a Venetian Empire (also doable by decision if you fail to do so in the tree).
While we're done looking at our two main paths, this isn't the end of Veneto's new tree. For, as you might have noticed from some of the above images or mentions, the tree also contains more minor side branches (4 in total), for you to complete in parallel to your main path of external policy.
The first of these branches is focused on both expanding your immediate borders and building key fortifications, both for the sake of defending your core Venetic lands.
I have already indirectly referred to two of these tasks while explaining other parts of the tree. Remember when I mentioned that allying with the Cenomanni has a chance to break their alliance with Lingonia? Well, the reason for that is that your first task down this side branch will be to retake one of the Venetic cities that the Lingoni hold, Adria.
Founded by the Veneti, Adria rose to prominence as a result of Greek settlement in order to compete with Spina, before falling to the invading Cisalpine Gauls. As a key Venetic city right on your border, it is of the utmost importance that it is reincorporated into your lands.
You might have already noticed, but to this end, both starting tasks of the 'diplomatic' and 'bellicose' expansion paths result in claims over the rest of the Olena region not already under your control, including Adria.
(Olena claims effect in the Ally the Celtic Tribes task)
(Olena claims effect in the Preemptive Expansion task)
Next you must handle your Histrian cousins to the southwest. The Histri were a Venetic group under the helm of a kingdom of Istria in 304 bc. While in many ways similar to the inhabitants of Veneto, they were much more influenced by the Illyrians, often engaging in piracy themselves. It will be up to you as Veneto to bring them back into the fold, and turn them away from their piratical ways.
(The conquer Chersos task in the 'bellicose' path requires you to have completed this task)
While handling the Histri, you should also fortify your core lands by building defences in Ateste, as well as pushing into Carnia to build a key fortification there.
And after having greatly increased your number of fortifications:
Moving onto the second side branch, we will look at Veneto’s options at governmental reform. As I’ve already mentioned, forming either the Venetic League or Venetian Empire will require Veneto to have transitioned to a non-tribal government, but how can this be done without a separate mission tree? Well fear not, for Veneto has a path for centralising its autonomous urban centres into a single centralised state.
In this path, you will have to bring your country together, gathering the support of the nobles and populace in your country, to reform your administration into a mercantile oriented system of governance. Here, you may choose to either form into a plutocratic republic, empowering your merchant class, or give power to your Rakos* (possibly the Venetic equivalent of Rex or King/leader) and become a plutocratic monarchy.
Having centralised the cities into a single, efficient, administration will also have the benefit of improving conscription for the Veneto, giving you a much needed boost to manpower that will help you in your external endeavours.
Finally in this branch, provided you have formed either the Venetic League or Venetian Empire, you will have a chance to overshadow the power of Carthage as the imperial master of Mediterranean trade, which will result in a large boost to your naval capabilities as a result of your new thalassocracy.
Once you have consolidated the Venetic cities together (doable in the first task of the above branch) another side branch will be available to complete. Here, you will focus on building up Veneto’s urban centres, and investing in local growth and infrastructure.
You will first be required to invest in turning at least one Venetic settlement in your core lands back into a city. In real life, Venetia held various Venetic urban centres, principal of which were Ateste, Patavium, Opitergium, Altinum, Akelum and Belodunum, with Patavium being one of the oldest cities in western Europe!
Next, you must invest in local production in both key cities of Patavium and Ateste. For Ateste, investment into expanding the production of their famous situlae (highly decorated bronze buckets) will result in a boost to local goods production.
Patavium, on the other hand, will have a focus for cloth production. In real life, Patavium was unimportant for the production of cloth in 304 BC and was greatly overshadowed in this aspect by centres such as Adria, however that would change as time progressed and the city made use of the abundance of nearby wool production to specialise in the trade. By the time of Augustus, Patavium was the principal producer of cloth in northern Italy. Here, you will be responsible for heading this shift.
Next, you will want to expand an outpost around Belodunum that was heavily used by Venetic merchants on their way up the Amber route towards the Alps, where they would pray to a local god called Trumusiate before making their way over the Alps.
You will then need to invest in increasing Veneto’s existing infrastructure to allow for a greater amount of exports and trade through the country. With the few existing ports, it is clear that any expansion in Venetian trade will only be faced with bottlenecks in the transport of goods. Rectifying this situation through the construction of ports will also lead to the construction of roads throughout Venetia and Olena, connecting the key trading cities with the new ports for easier export of goods.
You will also have to make investments in building a grand temple for Altinum’s patron god, Altino, and establishing more facilities for local representation in Patavium.
In addition, having allied the Romans earlier though the diplomatic path will allow you to call their help in investing in what will be Aquileia. In our timeline the Romans founded the city on top of the former Carnian settlement of Akileja, in order to protect the Veneti from eastern incursions.
Here, you will be able to convince the Romans to settle the region, and build Aquileia as a fortified city for your own protection.
Finally, building many marketplaces throughout Venetia will allow Veneto to become a centre of trade for merchants all over Europe and the Mediterranean, making the region the true core of the now extensive Amber trade routes.
Now we have one final side branch for Veneto, this time focused on both growing the Venetian navy and improving your army.
With Venetic trade routes extended across the Adriatic, part of the wealth that keeps Veneto afloat stretches across the sea. As such, maintaining a well sized fleet will be key to secure Venetian commerce.
Of course to house a large fleet one needs sufficient naval facilities to hold all those Venetic ships. You will therefore need to expand the existing harbour in Atria to accommodate expanding Veneto’s navy (obviously you will need to have taken Atria first), as well as building a harbour in Altinum.
Once you have done so, you will be able to expand Veneto’s navy into a truly formidable force.
Next Veneto must focus on its army. As I have previously mentioned, one of the main notable aspects of Veneto’s military force was its cavalry, with the Veneti having a long tradition of breeding horses to such excellence that they were widely sought after by both the Greeks and Romans, especially for racing. You will therefore have the opportunity to further bolster the quality of Venetian horses by investing in a breeding program to increase the speed and durability of your famed horses. This will of course come at the cost of upkeep.
Finally, you can reform the Venetian Ekupetars*. The Venetic cavalry class, or Ekupetars* (Horse-Lords), were the most notable aspect of ancient Venetian warfare, with the Veneti being an important source of cavalry-based Auxilla for the Romans during many of their conflicts. While this tradition of having a horseback social class is likely to be behind many Venetic military successes (such as against Cleonymus, as we’ve already seen), that’s not to say that it can’t be improved.
The final task of this part of the tree is therefore to invest in procuring heavier equipment for the Ekupetars, so that they may form into well armoured shock-cavalry, comparable with the Macedonian Companions or Persian Cataphracts.
Although such a change to an aristocratic military tradition will mean that you will need to have your nobles on board with the change.
And with the final sidebrach covered, that’s finally about it for the new Veneto tree. I hope that you’ve enjoyed seeing the possibilities that you will have playing this small, yet hardly insignificant, tribal nation, though it’s just a small fraction of the flavour that will be coming to the region in the new update, and there’s still much much more to come! I’ll be off to have a well-deserved cup of coffee, but before I go I’ll just reintroduce some flags made for Veneto shown off by Zorgoball a couple of Dev Diarys back:
- Flag for Venetia/Venetia et Histria:
- Flag of the Venetian Empire (slightly redesigned since last showed):
