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Tinto Flavour #21 - 26th of May 2025

Hello, and welcome one more week to Tinto Flavour, the happy Mondays (some), Tuesdays & Fridays in which we take a look at the flavour content of Europa Universalis V!

Today, we will take a look at the two most powerful Merchant Republics of Europe, Venice and Genoa!


Let’s start taking a look at Venice:

The Most Serene Republic of Venice is the most important and powerful of the merchant republics in the Mediterranean Sea. It controls important trade ports and islands in the Eastern Mediterranean, which form the Stado do Mar, and many inland territories in the North of Italy, which form the Domini di Terraferma.

Nonetheless, the lagoon city cannot lower its guard, as new threats arise around it. In the East, the once great Byzantine Empire will not easily forget the Fourth Crusade and the Venetian involvement in it. In the West, the Superb Republic of Genoa and the Crown of Aragon are continuing to expand their influence, conquering more territory and dominating trade routes. And at last, the Signoria of Verona have grown to be a noticeable threat to the Domini di Terraferma.

What will the future hold for the Most Serene Republic? Will it fall under the pressure of its enemies, or will it rise to the top and become the indisputable ruler of the Mare Nostrum?
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Venice Country Selection.png

The 3 subjects of Venice are Candia, Ragusa, and Trieste. As usual, take any UI, 2D and 3D art as WIP.

Venice1.png

Venice2.png

As you may have seen in one of my forum posts or Reddit, Venice is now an island! Here you also have the full extension of its Stado de Mar, with all its subjects (which, at the highest zoom levels, have their name replaced by that of the overlord, as it happens here with Candia).​

Venice is a very unique Republic, which starts with some unique reforms and privileges at the start of the game:
Venice Reform Concil of Forty.png

Venice Reform Council of Ten.png


Venice Privilege Zonta.png

Venice Privilege Avogadoria do Comun.png

Venice Privilege Libro dOro.png

Venice Privilege Libro d'Argento.png

It also hosts some works of art, some of them sacked from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade:
Venice Works of Art.png

Here is a selection of the advances available for Venice:
Venice Advance Arsenal.png

Venice Building Arsenal.png

Venice Advance Thalassocracy.png

Venice Advance Stato do Mar.png

Venice Advance Venetian Palaces.png

Venice Building Venetian Palaces.png

Venice Advance Magistrato alla Sanita.png

Venice Advance Heavy Naval Tactics.png

And a few of its flavour events:
Venice Event Piazza San Marco.png

Venice Building Piazza San Marco.png


Event Promissione Ducale.png

Venice Reform Promissione Ducale.png


Venice Event Tizziano.png


Let’s now take a look at Genoa:

The city of Genoa stands out as the most important commercial port in the Western Mediterranean, its Republic having expanded its influence overseas through trade and war.

After defeating the Republic of Pisa, it gained the island of Corsica and established a foothold in Sardinia. However, this might have been a poisonous gift, as it may now face not only the opposition of its inhabitants, but also that of King Pere IV the Ceremonious de Barcelona, self-proclaimed sovereign of both islands.

Another challenge may arise from the east, as a network of possessions has created the conditions for a commercial dominance over the Black Sea, centered around the port of Kaffa; although dangerous neighbors such as Venice, Byzantium, or the Golden Horde might be a threat.

Relying on our numerous Fondaco and wealthy bankers, will Genoa overcome these challenges?
Click to expand...

Genoa Country Selection.png



Genoa1.png

Genoa2.png

The Genoese ‘mainlad’, plus its Mediterranean possessions.​

Genoa also starts with a couple of unique reforms:
Genoa Refomr Diarchy Republic.png

Genoa Reform compagna Comunis.png

Since we’re not able to have two or more rulers for a country in the game, we’re portraying the Genoese Diarchy by having Galeotto Spinola and Raffaello Doria present as characters at start, and the bonuses you see in the reform.​

Genoa also starts with some Works of Art:
Genoa Works of Art.png

It also has a quite important unique building:
Genoa Building Fondaco.png

And here you have some of the unique advances:
Genoa Advance Banking Traditions.png

Genoa Advance Slave Galleys.png

Genoa Building Slave Barracks.png

Genoa Advance Genoese Galley.png

Genoa Unit Genoese Galley.png

Genoa Advance Genoese Crossbowmen.png

Genoa Advance 28 Alberghi.png

Genoa Reform 28 Alberghi.png

Genoa Advance The Age of the Genoese.png

Here you have some of the flavour events of Genoa:
Genoa Event Merchant Republic.png

Genoa Event Merchant Republic2.png

Genoa Event Merchant Republic3.png

Genoa Event Merchant Republic4.png


Genoa Event Monaco.png

Genoa Building Rock of Monaco.png


Genoa Event Andrea Doria.png

Event Doge Andrea Doria.png

Genoa Reform Great and Minor Councils.png

An old EU4 friend, coming back in a revisited form!​

Oh, and last, but not least, and related to the Byzantine content that we’ll take a look at on Friday, both countries have some unique foreign buildings in Constantinople:
Venice Building Venetian Quarter.png

Genoa Building Galata.png

… And much more, but that’s all for today! And tomorrow, there will be a Tinto Flavour devoted to Serbia and Georgia!

And also remember, you can wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Cheers!
 
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funnyfritz said:
Seems really solid. I am very curious about late game anyway, 18th century, to see if the emergence of nation-states is physiologically implemented in a way that makes playing tall without colonies impossible (I'm talking about this here because Venice was, among other things, dwarfed by bigger neighbours).
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Dwarfed is a really curious thing, Venice turned to complex manufacturing in much more specific ways probably in a way that the fondaco would represent quite well despite it being a Genoese building. The Republic of Venice was still firmly a strong secondary power similar to the power of sweden that history seems to pretend it wasn't in the 18th century.

Genoa however spent more time exploring the new world and found itself building itself mini colonising towns as well as providing very distinct international financial services particularly within the Spanish Empire.
 
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Pavía said:
This is what you can see at the start with a Mediterranean Christian country (we considered that the knowledge was kind of common by the mid 14th century, as the 'Catalan Atlas' and other portulans show:
View attachment 1306889
As usual, this isn't final, neither the map itself, nor the terra incognita background.
Click to expand...
Balliol's got a pretty colour now!

Also - why are the Tatar Yoke countries not vassals of the Golden Horde now?
 
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Can you change the Ligurian culture's colour to yellow(Genoa's colour) please? Right now it's to similar to Tuscan and Provencal
 
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we have so many options already; why not one more? Start the game with historical wars and truces or a clean slate.
 
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Pavía said:
We have a couple of open tickets to review the starting wars, like this one and the Polish-Teuton one, as we're not 100% sold on how they should be portrayed at start, so take it as non-final.
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Thanks for answering :) I personally hope that the Scaliger war would be an open war at the start date, while the latter Polish Teutonic one should be an event chain that can lead to the war restarting
 
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GeneralNoob said:
Historically speaking both nations didnt require to form large empires. Trading was the aim and both nations prospered through the means of trade. Will I (as the player) be incentified to expand less and trade a lot or how exactly (if at all) is trade intertwined with Venice/Genoa gameplay?

E.g. Genoa was in Crimea for the slave trade. There was not much of a reason to control let's say eastern/western Ukraine. However in EU4 doing so would yield more trade with very little downside. Will it be the same in EU5?
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1. Genoa is the country I personally pick when I want to playtest a run about trading, developing a capital economy, making tons of money, and loaning it to other countries, sowould say that yes.
2. I personally see no reason to get into the Pontic Steppes playing as Genoa, far away from your maritime presence, hordes roaming, and wrong cultures and religions. It's just more efficient to try to expand your Fondaco buildings, while keeping and/or potentially expanding your existing outposts in the Black Sea.
 
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Will there be minor flavour content for other italian communes, like Mantua and Bologna, or will we have to wait for a future DLC? I'm thinking about small stuff, such as a couple of special advances, iconic buildings and relevant events.
 
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Kotyk-durkotyk said:
Could you please post those nice new screenshots with country info on Venice and Genoa?
Click to expand...
Had to cut them because of the image limit, here you are:
Venice Country Tooltip.png

Genoa Country Tooltip.png
 
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Pavía said:
This is what you can see at the start with a Mediterranean Christian country (we considered that the knowledge was kind of common by the mid 14th century, as the 'Catalan Atlas' and other portulans show:
View attachment 1306889
As usual, this isn't final, neither the map itself, nor the terra incognita background.
Click to expand...
I would strongly prefer that the world map not be ghosted on the terra incognita background. Like this, it is more terra partim cognita. Make it properly unknown again :)
 
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The effects of the starting priviledge seem quite harsh for a "I want to centralise" gameplay, hopefully the "worse" priviledge aren't easy to remove/ may risk triggering a bad reaction from your estates.

Also the "change cabinet member" I fear won't see much use, but it was also the case in EU4... Maybe by default your cabinet could be filled with members of your estate (with presumably poor stats / not ideals), and changing them would become more attractive. Though your estates should here also have their word to say.
 
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