Genoa IS hard...

[King Siegfried]

A couple tips of my own that may help you in future campaigns:

- As I play the HRE a lot, I know what it's like to be surrounded by potential enemies. The best way to deal with that is decide which directions you do and do not wish to expand in. Then start making alliances based on that right away. It is absolutely vital that you immediately strive to cement alliances. If you have ANY princesses, this early in the game they are best used for marriage alliances. None of my marriage alliances have been broken. That said, you still need to do some work to keep the marriage alliance from deteriorating (as with any alliance), so the occasional 1,000 florins or so will go a long way. Doing this will give you safe haven on the fronts you won't be committing your troops to, and that is a huge relief.

- If you do decide you want Sicily, keep a few things in mind. Firstly, Norman Knights, as I said before, are monsters. They are Sicily's shining star and they dominate the early-mid game. Simply put, they are the best infantry/cavalry until Citadel-level and, due to the AI's scaling in battle, they will tear even general's bodyguards to shreds. Also, Sicily almost never does anything but sit on their wealth, so they're always ready to create/spawn huge stacks of armies. Fighting on their land will be painful. The only way I know to take on Sicily is to take trebuchets with you on a boat and take Palermo in one turn. Without Palermo, they cannot get any more Norman Knights, and your invasion will be a LOT easier.

- And, as stated elsewhere, you simply must control the great Italian cities. And then get trade agreements to really suck every penny you can out of them. Thankfully, since you're Genoa, you shouldn't have any trouble garrisoning the cities, so you have an advantage there. Oh, and kick Venice out of Italy. I believe they're your biggest rivals, and you should just let Asia deal with them.

Good luck!

[Basileos Leandros I]

I have a full in-depth guide for Genoa if you're interested. Other than that, just a few tips:

1. Don't even bother spending your time organizing alliances with neighbouring factions, as all of them - specifically when you're playing Genoa - will betray you. Particularly the other Italian factions.

2. Taking Marseille might seem like a great economic opportunity, but this will bring you to an inevitable war with France or Aragon - or both.

3. The same goes for Ajaccio and the other island to the south. Keeping them seems to bring you at an almost instant war with Sicily and the Moors.

4. Your primary goal is to conquer the Big 5 northern Italian cities: Genoa, Milan, Florence, Venice and Bologna. My tips are to ditch your settlement in Ajaccio immediately - this provides you with troops to invade the Rebel Milan and Florence, and also temporarily prevents war with the Moors and Sicily. Conquer Milan with the combined troops of Genoa and what was Ajaccio's garrison. Then take Florence, you should get them both without much trouble. The next target is Bologna, although you don't want war yet, you will simply get annihilated by the might of the HRE. Try purchasing it off them, or for the more cheaper option, spam spies and assassins to lower order and destroy infrastructure. By this time, Venice will more than likely attack you, so take her grand city to weaken her considerably. With the Big 5 cities, the world is your oyster, and you pretty much hold the most economically important cities of the game.

5. Never break alliances. You shouldn't have voided the alliance with Sicily, as it lowers your global reputation drastically. From here, no one will trust you, deal with you diplomatically, and war will be declared every weekend on you. If you want to go to war with an ally, trick them into attacking you. Keep your border cities unprotected, with an army nearby hiding in trees. Patrol your border with full stacks to make them scared. Attack THEIR allies, etc.

6. To make 10k per turn not including building and training of soldiers is quite pathetic for Genoa. I'm sorry for the bluntness, but Genoa is quite easily the richest faction in the game, and you should be raking in three times that amount quite easily. Obviously you are at war with too many neighbouring factions, so get some ceasefires and trade rights. Also, patrol your land routes, as you may have some hidden rebels choking your trade routes and stealing your money (I was once losing 2k a turn in Venice from some hidden rebels that were blocking the roads to Vienna and Zagreb. Not good).

7. Remember that cities are your best ally. Cities provide more wealth. Cities provide you with militia armies that are considerably stronger than any other militia armies in all of Eurasia. Cities provide you with musketeers and reasonably strong heavy cavalry.

8. Last but not least, never underestimate the deadliness of your crossbowmen. Historically, Geonese Crossbowmen were used extensively throughout Europe as mercs, they were feared through the lands. When used correctly (I won't go into detail here, read my guide for more info), your xbowmen should be killing hundreds each battle. Also remember to never use them on your city walls unless you need them to fight melee or man your towers. For some reason, xbowmen are crap on walls, to the point of absolute uselessness.

Everything you said right now doesn't apply at all in my current game. Not being offensive or dissing you in any way, it's just that it didn't apply in my game at all.


1) Everyone respected their alliances. Venice never attacked me during their time in Italy, France didn't even take a look at Marseille, Sicily as well didn't bother.

2) Neither. Nobody even went to the border of the Marseille province. I've never seen an army outside Marseille, apart from rebels.

3) Cagliari is a wonder, honestly. Brings me around 3.5k per turn and its only at stone wall level. Ajaccio, always kept it with one general, nobody even dared to look at it.

4) You're spot on. I missed Milan, by the time I gathered my troops Venice attacked and conquered it because I chose Florence instead.

5) Broke alliances only with Sicily, but I'm always Trustworthy or Very Reliable.

6) I'm allied with all of my neighbours except HRE and I have basically a part of Northern Africa, Marseille, Genoa, Florence and Cagliari. I have huge garrisons on each of them, that's the problem. Army upkeep is huge because they're all Spear Militias and Crossbowmen.

7) I've built the best army barracks possible for the moment in Genoa, and made an Alchemy Lab as well, to prepare myself for the Musketeers. Militia cavalry are crap though, they're only useful against light units.

8) Crossbowmen work very well for me during sieges. I used them in the Genoa sieges and they killed 200-300 men per unit (I use huge units).

[Spartan90]

Well I must say, you are one of the few very lucky people that haven't had allies attack you. Of course, it all depends on what difficulties you play on, but anything above M/M difficulty will have any neighbouring faction trying to overtake Ajaccio and Marseille.

Don't get me wrong, the islands are cash cows, nevertheless they are no where near on par with your "Big 5" northern Italian cities. And on top of that, they bring you war far too often. However, if you have the army, or your neighbours aren't attacking you, by all means take the islands - every game is different!

I agree with you in saying Militia Cavalry are crap. They are easy to spam mass armies, but only in large numbers are they useful. However, Familia Ducale (sp?) are quite decent heavy cavalry.

I'm quite surprised your crossbowmen work well on the walls? When I leave them there, only about 3 men per unit will actually shoot (due to the fact that crossbows don't shoot in arcs like longbows). Can you tell me how you're using them? As I find siege defense one of the crossbowmen's greatest flaws.

[Basileos Leandros I]

Well I must say, you are one of the few very lucky people that haven't had allies attack you. Of course, it all depends on what difficulties you play on, but anything above M/M difficulty will have any neighbouring faction trying to overtake Ajaccio and Marseille.

Don't get me wrong, the islands are cash cows, nevertheless they are no where near on par with your "Big 5" northern Italian cities. And on top of that, they bring you war far too often. However, if you have the army, or your neighbours aren't attacking you, by all means take the islands - every game is different!

I agree with you in saying Militia Cavalry are crap. They are easy to spam mass armies, but only in large numbers are they useful. However, Familia Ducale (sp?) are quite decent heavy cavalry.

I'm quite surprised your crossbowmen work well on the walls? When I leave them there, only about 3 men per unit will actually shoot (due to the fact that crossbows don't shoot in arcs like longbows). Can you tell me how you're using them? As I find siege defense one of the crossbowmen's greatest flaws.

I was finally attacked but not by a friend, by a neutral faction. Spain attacked Palma but were quickly send back home, they had no chance against my walls and my crossbowmen. Slowly but surely the economy is booming back again, profits improved to around 13k and everything is going well for the moment. Got a sure fire cash reserve so it should be good. I'm expecting my cities to upgrade to huge ones soon..

About crossbowmen, they are very effective when the enemy is near and when you use them on the top-top of the walls. For example, use them in a very compact bloc on the top of the gate when you use them in cities and far away, on the walls, when the enemy breaches your walls and attacks your land troops.
When regarding citadels and fortresses, always use them on the middle tier walls or last tier, and you forfeit your first ring of defences. That way they can shoot from up the walls down on the enemy, and it's killing...

[Basileos Leandros I]

Got past the 321 turn limit and continued playing. In the end, I mustered up my troops, lots of mercenaries and good troops and conquered Bologna, Palermo and Syracuse from Sicily after initially raiding the main Egyptian cities, sacking them and them destroying every building. Got me enough cash to have an army of 80000 a turn and the conquer everything in my path. Immediately after taking the cities, I made a ceasefire and trade rights, then an alliance, with Sicily. For the moment problem solved, with more cash to my treasury, and with a strong military base (Palermo).

Going to expand eastwards in the Byzantine Empire, on the coast, instead of Venice. And then unite Italy once and forever.