Venice! Home of great merchants, navies and Doge Antonio Veniero, seemingly a jack of all trades, and a master of none with only a slight inclination to military skill. Ah well………
It was considered a national long term aim to create the second Roman Empire and it was decided that this would be done in a number of stages:
• Take control of the Italian peninsular and possibly form the nation of Italy
• Expand westwards and northwards towards France, the HRE and Iberia
• Expand Eastwards, the main threat being the Ottoman Empire or whatever exists there
• Take the coast of N. Africa whilst doing one of the other 2
• Doing whatever happens next – expanding all the way to India?
Venice starts in the autumn of 1399, somewhat far flung and difficult to defend with two provinces on the italian mainland, Corfu (our Ottoman Empire protest outpost), the island of Crete and a province in or near Athens which i cant remember. On the plus side though, this may give us the footholds we need for later expansion.
Behold the mighty Venetian Empire!!(*patriotic cheers*)
Lets zoom in to see just how mighty it is!
Veniero’s first task was to alter the policies of the country (no stability hit!!!) which he did rather competently. He set about increasing Venice’s ethos of free trade (although it was rather into the whole mercantilism thing) as he was cleaver enough to realise if Venice’s trading power was to be capitalised on, it would have to be more open to the outside, and not so protectionist.
With the aim of taking the Italian peninsular, Veniero realised that Venice’s main threat would most likely be an invasion by Austria, a seemingly powerful Milan or possibly Hungary or Naples or just about anybody thanks to our small size. I feel threatened!
The first step would be to negotiate a favourable political climate, so Venice's back was covered. Veniero thus sent out invitations of alliances to Austria, Aquileia and Naples. Austria and Aquileia essentially made sure that we would not have to fight a war on two fronts, that is, if they agreed.
Unpausing the game, Veniero was instantly spammed with about 3,000 new messages. Despite almost suffocating him, these gave Veniero a better feel of the European political situation and who else was fighting who which was to be discussed later.
Sifting through them with a fine toothed comb, it was found that both Austria and Aquileia had accepted his offers of alliance, but Naples had not. A slight disappointment, for Naples may have forced Milan (our most likely adversary) into a war on two fronts if it ever happened. Interestingly, Bohemia had offered us an alliance, although this was carefully thought of before response. It may drag our attention too far north too soon if we get tangled into their affairs, and they may be too far away to be of any assistance but then, what the hell Veniero thought as he accepted the offer. Bohemia may help us out if Austria turns nasty.
No sooner than had Veniero agreed to what he had thought beneficial alliances, Venice was dragged into a war with Hungary with Austria. The period of relative calm for which to prepare for war was over already!
Hungary at this time seems to be a great regional power (which I fear) due to its size. But fortunately, Austria’s war could not have come at a better time for Venice’s alliance as it seemed Hungary was now fighting wars on separate fronts, with Bosnia to the south, Austria to the north and now Bohemia (Bohemia is in a separate war due to their own rather timely, but random declaration of war)
Well, that was my first AAR post ever, hope you like it and i will be exploring all the new IN features over the course of playing the game!
o
