What to do and where to go as Venice?

[hitchens]

I feel the the sword of Damocles hanging above me, I dont know what to do. I love the strong income but I mostly play land based (infantry) nations so
I have no idea how to expand further.

I'm allied with France and Poland but so far AI France loves to just sit still in Ile De France so I know I will get steamrolled by the Otto's.
What NI should I get and what to do next?

I'm currently sieging Hungary so maybe make them a march?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Venice can beat the Ottomans trivially even early in the game if you nail their fleet at the proper time before they get maritime and spam 100 galleys. Venice has good navy too so you can probably still do it. Normally I'd vassal feed BYZ though and you seem committed to not doing that for some reason .

 

[hitchens]

Venice can beat the Ottomans trivially even early in the game if you nail their fleet at the proper time before they get maritime and spam 100 galleys. Venice has good navy too so you can probably still do it.

So I should put my money on destroying their fleet and blocking the strait and then take the Balkans?

Normally I'd vassal feed BYZ though and you seem committed to not doing that for some reason .

Its the curse of want. I'm hoplessly stuck in old ways.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

So I should put my money on destroying their fleet and blocking the strait and then take the Balkans?






Its the curse of want. I'm hoplessly stuck in old ways.

Well, there's not much tax in those provinces you have of BYZ (Crete no longer starts w/ BYZ core) so if you can convert them to Catholic you can feed a Catholic BYZ its cores and it'll convert them along with anything that's Sunni pretty fast.

As for your first question, I'd need to see the naval ledger, but I'm pretty sure it's possible for you to win at sea (I can reliably do so with the BYZ start unless Ottos hit me right after Albania), and Lith + Moldavia are unlikely to give Ottos land access.

 

[Korburss]

Have the Otto's gotten started on the Mamluks? If not, you might consider attacking them to cut off Otto expansion and work on getting trade power for Indian trade, maybe even colonizing. I've been toying with the idea of getting Trade Hegemon with Venice for a bit now but haven't actually put much thought into it.

 

[AP85]

Conquering Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica should be relatively easy if you have a naval advantage on Aragon (assuming they arent PU w Castile). It's really just a matter of picking your moment, preferably when France will jump in with you and Aragon is fighting Castile. The Balkan provinces aren't that useful really, I'd blob all of Italy first, then start alternating wars between OE (target Greek lands first) and HRE (take Milan & Savoy then work north into Germany).

 

[hitchens]

Have the Otto's gotten started on the Mamluks? .

They have Rosetta and Antioch.

 

[hitchens]

Conquering Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica should be relatively easy if you have a naval advantage on Aragon (assuming they arent PU w Castile). It's really just a matter of picking your moment, preferably when France will jump in with you and Aragon is fighting Castile. The Balkan provinces aren't that useful really, I'd blob all of Italy first, then start alternating wars between OE (target Greek lands first) and HRE (take Milan & Savoy then work north into Germany).

Aragon is allied with France

 

[AP85]

Aragon is allied with France

Not a major problem, just join a separate war with France before you DOW Aragon, or DOW one of Aragon's allies. Can you ally Castile? They'll pretty much always accept a CTA against Aragon, so joining a meaningless war with France (and not contributing at all), and then DOWing Aragon with Castile on board should be a pretty easy war. Let the Spaniards duke it out in Iberia while you occupy the islands and get your ticking warscore.

While you're at it, curbstomp the Papal state and get that nice Roman BT.

 

[zerosius]

I normally go for Egypt - Into Asia. Try take Cyprus and Claim The Mamelkus Land.

 

[Jack45]

Make the Med a Venetian lake

 

[hauptman]

Turn on the trade map mode. Look at where the arrows come from. Conquer all of that

Super galleys will win you any war against the turks, if used en-masse and correctly.

 

[lemonsquid]

what mod is that?

 

[Dorevai]

MAM + VEN = lame turk. Release vassals and feed them is how I did it. I took most of the historic ottoman empire (hungary isn't useful) by releasing OPM vassals and feeding them their own cores in wars. I also went reformed for the sexy trade/war bonuses and the ability to holy war virtually anyone. With big vassals you can keep your rival selection very useful, and keep that power projection up.

I released BYZ, and when MAM was fighting TUR I went for BYZ cores. Rinse repeat all the way to India. Don't form Italy unless you want to make less $$$ in exchange for a slight improvement to land troops and potential HRE benefits. All you have to do is win at sea most of the time with Venice if you play it right. I used TUR and a horde of mercs to beat MAM/AKK and steamrolled from there.

 

[haltabush]

I released BYZ, and when MAM was fighting TUR I went for BYZ cores. Rinse repeat all the way to India. Don't form Italy unless you want to make less $$$ in exchange for a slight improvement to land troops and potential HRE benefits.

I played Venice in 1.7 only, but I think this didn't change: you can vassalize BYZ right at the beggining of the game Just forge a claim declare war and Constantinople is yours
Ally someone if you wish to go against the OE, or wait until they declare against Mamelouk and declare while their army is in Anatolia, block the strait and return cores.
I think in my game they eventually annexed Mamelook, it actually helped me as I could get a conquest CB on them easily, then I annexed some Mam land, released as a (reformed) vassal and again returned cores.

I didn't form Italy but I probably should have; the -core creation cost in their NI is grand You'll loose merchant republic, but at this point you'll be swimming in gold anyway.

Spoiler

 

[hitchens]

what mod is that?

TBARW EXTRA: Transparent political mapmode. Ironman compitable, of course!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=310638421

 

[hitchens]

MAM + VEN = lame turk. Release vassals and feed them is how I did it. I took most of the historic ottoman empire (hungary isn't useful) by releasing OPM vassals and feeding them their own cores in wars. I also went reformed for the sexy trade/war bonuses and the ability to holy war virtually anyone. With big vassals you can keep your rival selection very useful, and keep that power projection up.

I guess I would have to wait for Mam to lose core on Cyprys!
edit : Anyhow I'm considering starting from scratch again, do the Byz vassal feed thing.
I'm just going to make one try to go over my naval and land limit and beat the Ottos the old fashion way

 

[Selvas]

I had most fun establishing India trade as Venice, i ignored turks at first and went straight for Alexandria trade node