Venice's Starting Position...

[Owain Glyndŵr]

How is it considered so difficult? It hasn't even been twenty turns and I've already grabbed Florence, annihilated Milan, and begun expanding into Greece. (Playing on M/H)

[Theseus1234]

well one must take into account the factors other than availability of rebel provinces. the main disadvantage to venice's position is the numerous amounts of nations that surrounded. you will find that your borders meet with hungary, the HRE, papacy maybe sicily, and the byzantines. if the AI were able to attack at the same time, you would be quickly reduced

[Lord Feloric's Ambassador]

My Lord would like to know who these people are that considers Venice to be difficult. They have a good position for sea trade and a competent early roster. The beginning of the game with Venice may be easier than with any other faction.

well one must take into account the factors other than availability of rebel provinces. the main disadvantage to venice's position is the numerous amounts of nations that surrounded. you will find that your borders meet with hungary, the HRE, papacy maybe sicily, and the byzantines. if the AI were able to attack at the same time, you would be quickly reduced

How often does all of the surrounding nations attack at the same time?

[Exia]

My Lord would like to know who these people are that considers Venice to be difficult. They have a good position for sea trade and a competent early roster. The beginning of the game with Venice may be easier than with any other faction.



How often does all of the surrounding nations attack at the same time?

Greetings, quite new here and to M2TW, but not to the Total War series.

I'm currently playing my first M2TW campaign as Venice on M/M (with Kingdoms installed) and to date, I've twice been attacked by multiple nations at the same time. At around turn 40-50, I was at war with Milan, the Byzantines, Hungary, the HRE and Sicily. I was able to obtain ceasefires with Hungary after I trashed two of their full-stack armies while I forced a ceasefire with the HRE after I took Innsbruck and Bologna from them. I destroyed Sicily 5 turns later (they only held Palermo and Naples anyways).

As of right now, I'm at war with Portugal (who was able to expand into western France), the Moors, the Byzantines and Milan; with the latter two being soundly beaten. Then I get a message that the Mongols have arrived somewhere near Baghdad.

As for Venice's starting position, it's not too hard as compared to that of the HRE. You can secure Italy within the first 20 turns if you so wished, and having Venice, Milan, Genoa and Florence as your cities ensure that you'll always have a healthy supply of florins even while campaigning.

[sinosleep]

My Lord would like to know who these people are that considers Venice to be difficult. They have a good position for sea trade and a competent early roster. The beginning of the game with Venice may be easier than with any other faction.



How often does all of the surrounding nations attack at the same time?

Have you played the game on very hard before? If you have, I'd say that the surrounding nations attacking at the same time happens about 90% of the time in vanilla.

I've beaten the grand campaign several times, and regularly win battles where I'm outnumbered 3 to 1 so I'm not a newbie, and I'd go as far as to say the the my Milan and Venice campaigns were the hardest I've ever played.

Up until I decided to go ahead and use Lusted's CAI and BAI files on my vanilla game those campaigns were nearly impossible on very hard. Every time I started one I was embroiled in 3 and 4 front wars CONSTANTLY being as diplomacy is entirely useless on very hard in a vanilla game.

[MTW2]

If its so easy, why are you playing on M/H. I could understand this if you had been playing vh/vh and found it easy but on M/H. Maybe its easy because of the difficulty you have it on.

[O'Hea]

It's because they're stretched out pretty thin and have a tough time bringing all their forces to bear on any one enemy at a time. Meanwhile, they're right between Bologna and Innsbruck, and the Milanese have all their forces concentrated in a pretty small area. Their capitol is also their most vulnerable settlement.

[Conquistatore]

Their capitol is also their most vulnerable settlement.

If you are talking about Venice then that is not true. Venice is probably the best capital in the world and the most easily defended. The only access is over the bridge right next to the city so you can mass troops on the bridge and have reinforcements ready in Venice itself.

Like I have said in previous threads, the main problem with the Italian factions (especially Venice) is their spread out starting position and lack of rebel settlement's to conquer. Expansion means war, and war means many fronts which splits your forces and puts you under pressure.

[Theseus1234]

Like I have said in previous threads, the main problem with the Italian factions (especially Venice) is their spread out starting position and lack of rebel settlement's to conquer. Expansion means war, and war means many fronts which splits your forces and puts you under pressure.

i'm gonna have to disagree with the lack of rebel settlements part. theres florence to strengthen your italian holdings, zagreb, and some greek cities. and on one really cares if you go to war with the byzies

[Spartan90]

Simply, Venice's starting position offers the prospect for huge wealth, but it's provinces are spread out thin - ranging from the capital itself, all the way to the Black Sea, and to the south, the fairly underdeveloped Crete. It can be difficult to bring in reinforcements quickly, and because you fledgling empire has so many isolated trading posts in far away nooks and crannies of the Med. Sea, it proves tough to defend without a strong navy, and a keen, discerning eye to foresee any future attacks.

Crete will generally come under attack by Egypt, so watch out for any Egyptian ships that are garrisoned sailing near the coast of Crete.

[Exia]

Simply, Venice's starting position offers the prospect for huge wealth, but it's provinces are spread out thin - ranging from the capital itself, all the way to the Black Sea, and to the south, the fairly underdeveloped Crete. It can be difficult to bring in reinforcements quickly, and because you fledgling empire has so many isolated trading posts in far away nooks and crannies of the Med. Sea, it proves tough to defend without a strong navy, and a keen, discerning eye to foresee any future attacks.

Crete will generally come under attack by Egypt, so watch out for any Egyptian ships that are garrisoned sailing near the coast of Crete.

Is a settlement's happiness affected by its distance from the capital? If so, then that's another thing which a Venice player should look out for, though I think it applies for any large empire.

[Spartan90]

Yes, distance from the capital creates a huge drop in happiness. Which is why you shouldn't leave London as your capital and then take a huge city such as Constantinople

[tuore]

IMO Venice is easy. I've beat more than 4 long campaigns with them. First, eliminate Milan and take nearby rebel cities. Then, assault Greece and then call a crusade to Jerusalem and start fighting the Egyptians. And voilá, you have a big empire.

[Muagan_ra]

Venice has a great starting position - it's a great faction to play in general! The close proximity of rich lands, and the ability to expand without getting the Pope all bunched up over fighting Catholics; Venice is very well situated.

[Robbespierre]

Playing venice is very easy. They have a good start position and can conquer very fast the mediteranne terretories. Their army is with the Italian garnisons really good.

The neighbours are very weak. The HRE plays passiv, hungary doesn't care about Zagreb and Byzanz is under the leadership of the CI big, big, big , big .

[eggthief]

You got no right to speak if you dont play on VH/VH, I mean even that is just way to easy.

[Robbespierre]

By what right you want to know with which severity I play?!
I always play vh/vh... and it's too easy.
Build some ports, mines and markets and you got more than enough money.
The battles are always easy. I don't see any big differences.
For example: one time I defend with sword- and spearmen a hill. The Ci didn't even tried to move around my army. No, his cavalary ran into my Spearmen (yes, not the swordmen)...

[Reynolds]

The position doesn't really matter, you can't change it(unless modders can) so just work with what you got and get conquering, the whole map should be Venetian if you can play the game well, their roster, c'est formidable

[JRR]

Venice has the best capital because of the rive,moat what ever you want to call it i had a full army sieghing my capital and i only had a general and 4 units of spear mitia but with gold armor upgrades ,Hre had quite alot of infantry and mailed knights and cross bowmen the infantry were feldal knights..... anyway they were held at the bridge by 2 units any the got owned lol


morral of the story .... dont say that venice's capitol possition is rubish

[Spartan90]

Venice has the best capital because of the rive,moat what ever you want to call it i had a full army sieghing my capital and i only had a general and 4 units of spear mitia but with gold armor upgrades ,Hre had quite alot of infantry and mailed knights and cross bowmen the infantry were feldal knights..... anyway they were held at the bridge by 2 units any the got owned lol


morral of the story .... dont say that venice's capitol possition is rubish

I don't think anyone's saying Venice's capital has a rubbish position, I think we can all agree that it's the best and most easily defended city in the game. But the starting Venetian Empire as a whole can be a bit tricky as it's regions are very isolated.