I guess I'll speak for myself in saying that insulting rivals is something I almost never remember is even a thing in the game. It's just more "button bloat" as far as I am concerned. I don't have the patience to keep track of the timers on insults and I prefer to get my Power Projection through simply being a great power, embargoes, privateering, etc - stuff I can just set and forget.
I think especially if you compare it to its neighbors, Gelre comes off as pretty weak. I guess it's okay . . . *if* you want to always take Influence ideas and play a game focused on efficient diplo-vassalization. That's a less kinetic type of game than I think most players want to spend their time playing. (At least me.)
It certainly depends on what kind of game you want to play. If you want to play a tall game Gelre's ideas obviously won't be very useful. But for blobbing game they are quite good.
The defense I will offer for Venice's NIs is that they give you exactly the ideas you need to attain permanent Galley supremacy in the Med - which is important since the Med is basically your highway. And once you obtain naval supremacy (killing fleets from Ottos, Mamluks, Genoa, etc), you can use your upgraded Navy Force Limits and Sailors to pump up your trade fleet without needing Maritime. That way you can use your selected Idea groups for other things.
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In my most recent Venice game it was easy to keep Ottos in check. First war I roped in allies, took Constantinople myself, and vassalized Byzantines. In subsequent wars I took all of Greece for Byz. As usual, the first war is always the hardest war, especially when it comes to a navy. As long as you spam more galleys than Ottos for that first war and stick an admiral on it, you're in the clear from then on, especially when you take away big sections of their coastline
Navarra's even worse that way. 20% Light ship cost and 20% Naval force limit for traditions, while being a landlocked OPM.
As a tradition that is simply insulting.
The Arabian ideas are pretty good actually. Are they A tier? no, but I would not be mad having those bonuses.
Not sure if it changed over the years (or if my memory just sucks), but playing as Mamluks I recall losing their ideas and government bonuses when forming Arabia. The only benefits were a bunch of claims on crappy land and an arguably better flag color.
I don’t know about ideas, but for quite a while there was a bug where Mameluks would lose their government on forming Arabia. I believe that was fixed at one point.
Throwup between
