Venice v Mamlukes

[Heretic]

Oh well after a few tries, it is time to ask for input.

As Venice I am doign fine.
I own the Adriatic and indeed the Agean seas.
Ottomans thoroughly put down (with help from a monster commonwealth)
However every time i try to take on the Mamelukes, it goes wrong.
I bring a stack of 40, I siege in a mountain, then some bunch of other Sunni armies turns up to wreck the party.
I tried to make friends with Tripoli, but they wouldn't war.

I forced Karaman out of Ottos, and allied with them, but they wouldn't war either.

if I save up 2000 ducats, hire a giant merc army and try again, will it work?

I have Mil tech parity, Naval ideas but no Mil ones.
Their shock 5 General didnt help, I hope he is gone next time I try.

 

[Heretic]

Sheesh.. no replies.

Well, I found if I keep pressing the 'raise mercenary army' about 50 times that helps.

 

[Denjell]

Wait for tech difference, ensure your dominace in turkey, dont rush things.

 

[Heretic]

Yeah it worked out ok, now for a new question.

I thought I would work on teh spice trade, so I went to india and then indonesia.
Colonised the small islands, also took Ceylon and the trade node to the north-west.

Do I need to update my trade fleets to current light ship tech to dominate the trade?
I find that my income has gone down a lot from say 1520 to 1610.

Also what can I do to keep Spain, Austria & Great Britain off my back?
It is expensive to keep my army over the force limit but if I cut it then they declare war on me.

I tried allying with Commonwealth, but that only went so far.
All 3 od GB, Spain, Austria hate me & it is not so fun as it was.

Also , do I need to put all my fleet together into a giant death star in order to win the naval battles?
I find a stomp fleet from GB pops up out of nowhere and creams my navy.

 

[penco]

Regarding army, maybe try having a smaller standing army and then hire mercs when you go to war. Go for some of the merc-boosting ideas.

The navy shouldn't be a big problem. Just spam galleys, but stick to the Mediterranean. Lure them in and own them with the inland sea galley buff plus your Venice galley buff ideas. I find that once you crush GB's navy once, it never recovers to its massive, overpowered status. Obviously put all non-galley ships into port during war with GB.

Regarding Austria and Spain, no real suggestions. Having a big navy in the Med should mostly take care of Spain. Allying France would go a long way for fighting both. Venice has good potential for cheesing Austria. Scorch Corfu and Naxos, lure a doomstack onto one, and then block it with ships so they are stuck. In addition to losing the doomstack, they will get massive attrition and war exhaustion. You can try luring them into Venice instead of Corfu/Naxos, but it's obviously a lot riskier with that being your capital. Still could work though.

 

[kente]

normally when i play Venice i ally with France, i find a win-win situation because France generally doesn't expand where Venice expand (at least if venice don't go in Savoy direction) and france is happy to come to any wars vs Austria. Further Ottoman will think 3 times before attack Venice+France alliance (same with Spain, but Spain sometime ally with Austria)

 

[Wildcat_PL]

Venice is my favourite country to play. Mind you I modified my game a lot for the purpuse of more fun. I can give lots of fedback.

When waging war in mediterean the navy is way more important then the army. Who cares if they got more troops then you if you can block their armies in island and gain war score for blockading. Use you ideas to you advantage. Before the war start you can mothball all you trading navy and double or tripple your FL with galleys. You will disband them/mothball them after the war anyways. Use a good cassus belli - you want a ticking war score for an island province they can't reach or for blockades. Destroy their navy at the very begining - shadow it using superior numbers with a good admiral. make an invasion in asia, watch their army march trough bosphorus, run away and block the strait - voila.

With mamlucks you can't use this tactic. I was bleeding their manpower with defensive battles in mountains. Bring in reinforcements with naval dropoff 1 day after the battle begins. With the map changes its not that easy now - I used a Cyprus-Adal trick before. Dow cyprus at the same day mamlucks, avoid guarantee and be there first. (Dont know if AI can DOW guaranteed county in 1.8??)

After a while I managed to get direct land conection to Aden. I've built Suez, but thats not necesary. Cultures accepted: austrian, occitan, umbrian, sicilian, greek, turkish, syrian, egyptian, beduin.

At tech 10 I used 770 DIP points to get 1 explorer (360+360+50) and abandoned exploration idea. I went for expansion, but as 5th idea. that explorer revealed entire world I desired (zanzibar, india, indonesia, china) in less then 15 years.

I actually like having France and Spain as Rivals later on. I cant send privateers against austria, and I want to keep PP over 50. With humiliation for PP, national focus and republic mechanism I'm swiming in Monarch Points - and the good sort I actual want at the moment.