Strategy for MP Venice?

[Martinus]

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if you guys could offer some useful hints for the strategy of playing Venice in a MP (which I am to play soon). We are playing in a "vanilla" 1492 scenario.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Aladar]

Make sure you get all the italian provinses, they are very rich and will give you a good income. Secure Liguria as a vassel and diploannex them later.

You'll be close to Austria and France, so good relations with is a must, unless you wanna be in a constant fight for the Genoa CoT. You have Italian, Greek and Slavonic culture, which will give you access to a large part of the mediterainean. All isles but The Balearn are italian/greek and all of Balkan, much of Hungary is your culture. You can basicly control the entire southeast europe. This will put you in conflict with OE however.

I would go Land rather than Navel, it only a few isle in the medi.

See these stats for an example of what Venice can become.

 

[Sable_Rose]

Expand fast.. but it kinda depends on how many your playing with.

 

[Martinus]

Expand fast.. but it kinda depends on how many your playing with.

Well, we will likely have OE, France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, England, Holland, Sweden, Russia, Poland and possibly Brandenburg.

 

[Aladar]

Take out all of italy before you start expanding into the balkans. Northitalian provinses are much richer than southitalian and balkan provinses.

 

[Slargos]

These are excellent suggestions for a single player campaign as Venice.

 

[unmerged(6147)]

Vote for playing on easiest difficulty level (if the GM has not decided that yet), because it is hard to avoid amassing a lot of BB points early on as Venice and the easier the setting the quicker they erode away.

I think some more specific advices on the conquering speed should be given. On later patches I have only played Venice once in SP and never in MP so I am no expert.

Is it e.g. adviceable to FA Mantua and DV the rest of the minors including Papal States. If 10 years then passes, will the 1-province minors accept DA? What is your experience? (My experience from the SP game was not expansion but the opposite, and hence one of the more succesful games I have played ) If not then perhaps also Lombardy should be FAed directly. Anyhow Mantua and Lombardy appears most important since they cut off any other interested parties from a land connection to the peninsula with the exception of Genua which of course is a matter for itself. I guess it would be preferable to make a deal with FRA for Liguria. Possibly every other nation will prefer Venice to have Liguria (rather than FRA, SPA or AUS) if they cannot have it themselves.

Also speak with OE. Yours and his cores collide.

 

[Aladar]

These are excellent suggestions for a single player campaign as Venice.

Well they worked for me in MP as Venice.....quite well indeed.

 

[Slargos]

Well they worked for me in MP as Venice.....quite well indeed.

Just because it's a MP game doesn't mean that everyone can't be playing SP.

 

[unmerged(27108)]

Just because it's a MP game doesn't mean that everyone can't be playing SP.

Humm, not sure to follow you here.

 

[Slargos]

Humm, not sure to follow you here.

If the tactics as described are used and they don't result in a smackdown from surrounding powers, you might aswell be playing cooperative single player.

"Take out the provinces in italy before you start expanding in the balkans"

Which OE worth his salt is going to allow this? Which Austria is going to be stupid enough to nurture this beast?

Nevermind France and Spain just blithely standing around chewing their cud while Venice gobbles up Italy and the balkans. :wacko:

 

[unmerged(27108)]

oh, now I understand your sentence

I should have known by now that you are somewhat sarcastic

 

[unmerged(38752)]

One very good bit of advice: ally one of the greater powers around you. Make concessions to that power to get his aid in expansion. OE is a good one, France also.

 

[Slargos]

One very good bit of advice: ally one of the greater powers around you. Make concessions to that power to get his aid in expansion. OE is a good one, France also.

The boring route.

A Venice player with COJONES allies ALL powers around him and plays one against the other.

 

[DSYoungEsq]

To survive, Venice, like Portugal, needs the co-operation of her fellow countries. Unlike Portugal, she cannot rely upon any one country to guarantee her survival. The best method is to convince Austria, France and the OE that none of them wants to see the others in possession of the various Venetian properties.

Venice expands by grabbing what it can while Austria is poor and France and the OE are far away. It holds on to what it has by making sure that no one wants to see major powers in possession of what it has. It wins by taking advantage of the disputes of major powers to chip off even more territory.

It hopes to God that it doesn't become the center of a big cluster ****.

 

[Martinus]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

One more question - is Venice capable of becoming a cash cow (which would allow me to conduct diplomacy via "handouts")?

 

[Aladar]

Yes, once you have all of italy. Later of you can then mint like 500d a year with 0 inflation.

 

[admiral drake]

Yes, once you have all of italy. Later of you can then mint like 500d a year with 0 inflation.

500d a year isn't exactly a cashcow

but venice is capable of becoming rich its all how you play tho and 500d a year won't bribe many people after 1600-1650

 

[Aladar]

CAsh is not the only thing you can bribe people with