Venice Reloaded - a 1453 Venice DW 5.2 AAR

[diegoami]

@captainktainer : Thank you !
@bleakie : I know if I am at war I wouldn't get those missions. In my last game I just removed that kind of mission from the mission file altogether. But as you said, it would be immersion-breaking now.

 

[diegoami]

1594-1596 : First World War - sort of


In 1594, we get down to business and declare war on Sweden to get Wolof, on which we have a core, calling our allies to arms. England joins the war too. But it is shocking how pathetic their fleet is.

England immediately peaces the Ottomans and gets two African provinces from them, while also kicking them out of Ireland.

First, we see action in North America, where we can seize the English colony of Lenape and move on to siege the English colonies there, with help from the Aragonese.

We grab two English colonies in South America as well -one of which is a core of Venice.

By December 1594, France, England and Sweden have colonized Southern Africa - but still have a lot of undeveloped colonies there.

France is excommunicated and already at war. We therefore have a casus belli on them, and we want to use the opportunity to grab colonies from them as well. Therefore we declare war on France.

By July 1595, we have grabbed several colonies in Southern Africa.

In Lousiana, though, we have to fall back, as the Swedes manage to land a pretty big stack.

In Africa we outnumber the Swedes, and manage to wipe their stack in Whidah.

Our troops fight in Iberia as well, helping the ally Aragon and the cobelligerent Castille.

But in the meantime, Genua and Cherokee have declared war on us as well. The situation in Europe is under control, although we can't really defend Champagne and Aragon from the French.
Meanwhile, Brittany has ceded a province to France.

By October 1595, we grabbed other England, France and Sweden's undeveloped colonies in Southern Africa.

By 1596, we have seized Terra del Fuego from the Swedes.

In May 1569, we are at war also with Burgundy - which puts us under strain, as we have very few troops in Europe. We already retreated the few troops we had from France and we are about to do the same in Iberia, as Castille isn't a cobelligerent any longer and Aragon is hopelessly outnumbered by the French.

France has made peace with Guyenne, ceding the province Auvergne, and with England, ceding another province in Ireland.

By August 1596, we grabbed the last undeveloped colony we wanted from the French - Chipewyan.

There is a lot of action in North America. We occupied Hispaniola, while the French occupied Guantanamo. We got defeated from the Swedes in Lousiana and had to fall back, while Aragon is active in English North America.

In Europe the situation is unconclusive - it doesn't seem likely we are going to win the war against the French anytime soon.
And a huge French stack is sitting in Valencia, Aragon's capital. France has also got back the province Berry from Champagne.

In October 1596, the Ottomans declare war on us. Immediately we make peace with the French - luckily they accept a white peace.

The Burgundians would accept a white peace. I am not even sure why I am at war with them, I think they attacked a sphereling, Dauphin.
But neither the Swedes nor the English want to give me what I want - Wolof. Bummer. But as I occupied it, I have still 50 years time to get it.

We certainly don't want 160k Turks to invade Europe and we have to block the Bosphorus. Luckily, after defeating the English in several sea battles, Venice is uncontested on the sea. But our ships are all over the place. Will they come back in time ?
The French, by the way, have still a pretty big army - didn't anybody tell them they are supposed to be done for ?

 

[Ricardo Rolo]

It looks that you are again getting some kind of challenge in your wars. Ok, it took 3 of them to give you some challenge, but even then, that was enough to the Ottomans to smell blood.

Now, the real question is the one you made ( no, not about the French knowing they are done for ) : will your fleet get in time to the Bosphorus ? Not that the idea of a epic fight against the bulk of the Ottoman army would not be entertaining ...

 

[captainktainer]

Although you are increasingly dominating the New World, you still have significant threats back in Europe. Exciting!

Now that Venice has become an expansionist power, it may be time to consider turning the Med into a truly Venetian lake. Italia Irredenta!

 

[diegoami]

Thank you for the feedback, Ricardo Rolo and captainktainer

Hopefully there are going to be challenges to the end... otherwise my house rules make creating a big empire not likely. Now let's see how the fight with the Ottomans turns out...

 

[diegoami]

1597-1599 : The Ottoman Jihad against Venice


Meanwhile, the manufactory in Brescia had been built. After fulfilling a blockade mission during the war, I get the mission to force-convert Styria, who is a vassal. I hate this kind of mission.

But let's take care of the Ottomans first. We conceded defeat to the English, white peace the Burgundians and we will concentrate on the Turks.

In April 1597, 56 ships are enough to close the Bosphorus, and there are enough to spare to blockade the Mediterranean. The few troops who have managed to cross into the Balkans we can easily manage. Bohemia has sent troops too and doesn't hesitate to engage the Ottomans.

A big Turkish stack is sitting in frustration across the Bosphorus while we pretty effortless occupy the Balcans.

In March 1599, our war score is good enough to get a good peace deal. What shall we ask ?

Taking into account the provinces we are occupying, this time we decide to punish the Ottomans and acquire two uncored provinces from them : Kosovo and Nis. We make them enter the trade league and make them pay 1300 ducats.

To fulfill the mission, or rather to fail it, we choose the easy way out. We diplo-annex Styria. We can keep Görz, since we have a core on it, and we could sell Krain to Croatia. But only Styria had a core on Lienz, and since we have too good relationships with the Emperor we can't just make the province leave the HRE. Will I have to deal with the unlawful flag ?

All of three provinces have gold and are pretty rich - isn't there a way to keep them ?

We ask God for advice, and he shows us a very clear path. He wants us to declare war on Austria - isn't that an invitation to get the province Graz from them, that would connect our Italian provinces with the Balkan provinces ? And Bohemia, the emperor, now has 0 troops - he disbanded them all after the war with the Ottomans.

We need a casus belli to declare war on the heretics - it is fitting that we pick the Unam Sanctam NI. We drop National Bank, which causes a temporary loss in stability.
We are about to burn our bridges with Bohemia - but everything seems to point towards that direction.

In May 1599, Venice's income is more than twice the income of the most direct competitor, Muscowy.

World map in May 1599.

Spoiler

 

[Harpsichord]

Excellent AAR! About halfway through and just wanted to congratulate you

 

[Rendap]

Just get it over with and dismantle the Empire... You know you want to....

 

[diegoami]

Excellent AAR! About halfway through and just wanted to congratulate you

Thank you, very appreciated !

Just get it over with and dismantle the Empire... You know you want to....

I know I want to. But is the world ready for that ?

 

[Sirce]

I know I want to. But is the world ready for that ?

If you need the world on your side, then thats a valid point. However, if you are ready and the world is not, well... too bad for them!

 

[Rendap]

I know I want to. But is the world ready for that ?

Yes, The world is ready. Specifically those who are waiting to eat the Empire.

Besides, you can never dismantle the empire too fast!

 

[diegoami]

I have a couple of problems though. First it would be hard to make it fit into the story and then I probably don't have a casus belli on all of the electors, who are mainly catholic like myself. I think it's too early for that.

 

[diegoami]

1599-1605 : The Purge of Austrian Heresy



Well, there's something I forgot telling you about. We made the Ottomans release Morocco and Syria as well, who were now Venice's allies. One of the most curious things is Madeira defecting to ... Alsace !

That can be better seen in the diplomatic map.

In June 1599, The King of Bohemia Jindrich III Fridrich was very nervous. He was mad at his general Alois Plzen, who had disbanded all of Bohemia's regiments after the war with the Ottomans. The Empire had now no standing army.
It was already more than a month since Venice had diploannexed Styria and it wasn't clear what they would be doing with the uncored provinces. He knew he had to talk to the Doge Alvise Contarini about that, but he was putting off the confrontation until some troops would be available again. Venice was an allied, but still. They had met in Sopron in March, and he had felt some hostility.

Meanwhile, in Venice, the Council of the Ten couldn't stop laughing since they heard how Bohemia had disbanded all of his troops. They were toasting to the annexation of Styria and to the new gold mines, drinking Bohemian beer. The irony. The councillor Ludovico Dolfin then quipped "Do we need to be allied with idiots ?".
Venice was the Papal Controller, and they felt they had the duty to fight the heresy. Too long Austria had be following the Protestant faith, and the Emperor had been uncapable of converting them. It was decided that they would force-convert them, and would not care how the Emperor would react. Bohemia was a useless country anyway and without Venice it would have probably been annexed a long time ago, they thought.

On the 8th of June 1599, Venice declared war on Austria. It was the Venetian Purge of Austrian Heresy. As Austria was in the Empire, and Venice and Bohemia weren't allied in any war, the Emperor had no choice but intervene.

The war was so easy for Venice, it wasn't even fun. Bohemia had no standing army. In March 1600, Venice was siegeing most of Austria and was advancing deep into Bohemia.

By December 1600 Bohemia had managed to recruit some troops, who were actually just a nuisance. It wasn't in doubt how the war would turn out.

Still, that hadn't stopped the Emperor from enacting the Reichsreform. That had to be repealed. The electors at this time were Augsburg, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Bremen, Saxony, Trier and Modena.

The war lasted until September 1601, the month when Wien fell. Venice didn't engage Bohemia's stacks and rather tried to provoke them into attack, while outsieging the rival. That's what a defensive-oriented country is supposed to do.

Bohemian diplomats had been spreading rumours as to how Venice had backstabbed a loyal ally and attacked them while they had no standing army. An Army they had disbanded after fighting at Venice's side against the Ottomans. Venice was concerned that taking advantage of Bohemia might have been seen in the world as unhonorable. We would give them an opportunity to recover, and if necessary defeat them again. It is obvious they weren't aware of the far-reaching consequences of that decision at that time.

We don't have the full details of the peace treaty, as most of the records between the year 1601 and 1605 have been lost. But we do know that Austria had to cede the province Graz, therefore connecting Venice's provinces in Italy and in the Balkans. Of course they were force-converted to catholicism. Bohemia had to repeal the Reichsreform. Both countries had to pay war reparations.

Therefore, this was the new map of Europe in 1605.

And since now our relations with the Emperor were poor, we were able to make the uncored provinces leave the HRE. So this is how the Empire looked after this operation.

As for the religious map, the Catholic faith was now dominant. Burgundy and Lithuania were Reformed, while the Protestant faith was to be found in small countries like Alsace and the Palatinate.

The heretic faiths, particularly the Reformed, were making inroads into the Venice's elite, and started becoming fashionable. The sentence "we should go Reformed, and force-convert the rest of Europe just for the heck of it" was often half-jokingly told in the corridors of Venice's Senate. Were people in Venice starting to become arrogant ?

There were two new cores for Venice : Oltenia, in Moldavia, and Macedonia, in the Ottomans Empire. Venice was bulding a manufactory in Bosnia - to fulfill a new mission.

One added benefit of connecting Italy with the Balkans was the much higher force limit - 200 while trading in Grain.

We were satisfied with our income - but we hadn't kicked the bad habit of taking loans yet. Often we were taking them accidentally and you can only pay them back after 5 years. I was actually paying more for interests than for military maintenance.

And... I need to build more ships for tariffs. I have disbanded Barque and Caravels since they were obsolete.

I so much like better how in Victoria 2 you can pay them back all the time.

Meanwhile we were using the colonists to culture-switch the colonies we conquered in the wars against the English, the French and the Swedes. But we had to deal with the occasional revolts.

Ludovico Dolfin was now Doge, after Contarini's death. He wasn't as good as his predecessor, and the advisor team was also unsatisfying. But soon we would have better ones, as we were Patrons of the Arts and our cultural tradition was about to go over 80%.

World and Venice map in September 1605.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Ricardo Rolo]

Well, Bohemia was pretty much asking for someone to jump on them , wasn't it ? And let's be honest, the utility of your alliance with them is pretty much in the deep past ( what was the last time you actually needed their help in a war where they didn't dragged you into ? :/ )

On the cores issue, I assume that the first one to go will be the Romanian one ... are you going to eat them whole or just grab the core ? TBH I don't see any reason to let them as a OPM. And OFC there is another slotted war with the Ottomans

 

[diegoami]

Well, Bohemia was pretty much asking for someone to jump on them , wasn't it ? And let's be honest, the utility of your alliance with them is pretty much in the deep past ( what was the last time you actually needed their help in a war where they didn't dragged you into ? :/ )

On the cores issue, I assume that the first one to go will be the Romanian one ... are you going to eat them whole or just grab the core ? TBH I don't see any reason to let them as a OPM. And OFC there is another slotted war with the Ottomans

They did help me against the Ottomans ... but for some reason they disbanded their troops. Sometimes the AI does it, when it does not know how to come back home...

I will have to claim the cores together, as Wallachia is a vassal of the Ottomans. Won't eat them whole - they haven't done anything to me.

 

[Danking]

Now Venice is going to battle the ottomans alone ? Or will the mighty Syrian army come?

 

[diegoami]

Now Venice is going to battle the ottomans alone ? Or will the mighty Syrian army come?

Venice will find new allies ... but not the ones you think...

 

[diegoami]

1606-1611 : Something shocking.


Europe in 1606. Münster had been dismembered after losing a war, the Polish Reconquest of Poznan. Another state was blobbing in the HRE, Hessen.

Through a border dispute, Venice had got a core on Parthium, Hungary. Hungary was really unlucky.

You might have never guessed it, but by 1609 Partium belonged to Venice. Meanwhile, Burgundy was trying very hard to reconquer Nevers, but seemed pretty unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, in 1609, the manufactory in Bosnia had been built. The next mission was to conquer Cape, from France.

In 1610, we were at war with France. We had an easy time in France and in the colonies, only in Iberia Aragon was taking some heat.

In 1611, Cape belonged to Venice.

The next mission was to build a Fine Arts Academy in Cremona - but we would build a Textile Manufactory instead. It would be ready in April 1816.

Meanwhile, we had managed to create a good advisor team. Our Doge was also a God. And we had probably gone overboard with culture - 14.5 % a year !

We had a Fine Arts Academy in Tirol, which we got through an event.

It was a golden age for Venice. It might even become boring. Our income was still well over twice our next competitor.

But something shocking was about to happen.

The Doge Modigliano had great skills, but he belonged to a new generation. A generation which wanted to break with the past, change things. A generation which wanted to shake up the Merchant Republic, Europe and the world. He had put his men in key positions. And in June 1611, he changed Venice's state religion to Reformed. Luckily, because of the Declaration of Indulgence, Venice would be still tolerating Catholics.

Venice would have a new mission - color the world Reformed. As virtually every merchant and leading administrator in Venice had become Reformed, somehow seduced by the 10% trade bonus, the course was set. But the Reformed Religion would be a handicap when colonizing and recovering stability. Not to mention the atrocious missionary costs, as the populace was still Catholic, including in the capital. And would Venice find the missionaries in the first place ?
In fact, the world, including Venice, was still mainly yellow.

Venice had lost all of her allies. It would be easy to re-ally with all vassals. But there were now two natural allies for Venice : Burgundy and Lithuania, who shared the same religion, and were allied with each other. Venice allied with them. The Reformed Tripartite Alliance was born. There were no conflicts of interest, and the three countries pledged to help each other in every possible way.

In fact, Venice immediately joined Burgundy in the Burgundian Reconquest of Nevers.

Diplomatic map of Europe ein March 1612.

World map in March 1612

Spoiler

 

[blsteen]

Ah a religious switch
Now to depose the Pope from his palace and get some extra missionaries to spread the faith

 

[unmerged(477166)]

Ah a religious switch
Now to depose the Pope from his palace and get some extra missionaries to spread the faith

Which raises the question, where are you going to get the missionaries?
I checked back the last few updates, and you only seem to have one at a time, at the most! Are your next 5 slider changes going to be towards narrowminded?