Favorite Italian faction.

[Concrete]

Unless you happen to be playing as a far Asian faction, contact with the Italian states comes quickly.
Which of the three(Venice, Genoa(...) and Sicily) is your favorite/most liked/most tolerated/annihilated by you after the other two.

[Caesar Clivus]

You forgot the papal states. They're in italy too

[Concrete]

You forgot the papal states. They're in italy too

If this was a most hated poll, they'd be in here, I assure you.

[Tyrenia]

My pick is Venice. While their early roster is little more than Italian Spear Militias, and variations therof, they really come into their own mid-late game. They also have a great starting position, with the ability to easily expand either east or west. They are also quite challenging, when the HRE, Byzantium, Genoa, Hungary and (to a lesser extent) Sicily, all want a piece of the pie that is your fabulously wealthy empire.

One of my all-time favourite factions!

[Anaatti]

I like Sicily and Venice both. Sicily has great expanding choices, and pretty good roster at late and early.
Venice because i like their starting position (rich venice) and expanding is pretty easy early on.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

You forgot the papal states. They're in italy too

Unless your a Mod-God, they ain't playable....{}

Venice has some nice units but Sicily's land's are more centered, and they got those roudy Normans...

[HarneY]

I know I'm going to get flamed for it but I just love Genoa. Not because they're easy but I just love the faction colour especially on the general bodyguard and IMO their starting position it best in the whole game.

[JorisofHolland]

Genoa. In RR/RC they have a very good starting in the Late Campaign as well as a nice roster. I know many people hate Genoa, but there is absolutely no reason for that. (Well, maybe they are a bit treacherous when AI controled, but that's just the AI)

[cuo]

I like all three of them. Sicily has a good starting position and of course norman knights and muslim archers. Also I like their history. Venice has good units too and the best starting position of the three factions. Genoa's troops just look awesome but are a bit to generic. Genoa also has a good starting position.
I voted for Sicily just because of of norman knights.

[StyggeKrumpen]

Sicily is my choice. Norman knights early to protect your castle, quick acccess to crusader guilds, muslim archers and an interesting starting position.
BTW playing RRRC comp.

[merocaine]

The Most Serene Republic.
Very challenging in the early years, once you get rolling though you can dominate the other Italians, Vassalage city!

[soulson]

I like Venice. Obtain trade rights with HRE and you gain alot more coin to fund your war with the Romans. Also, you can take Ancona from the start which will train quality troops to take all of Italy.

[Gogolometro]

Venice for the fun of killing the Ugly One.

[DeliCiousTZM]

in RR-RC Venice and genoa are utterly worthless hosting noooo early-mid units that can hold up against anything early campaign ofc. i remember having Ragusa attacked on the tenth turn by Byzantium Catpharact or whatever their called 20 + armor 2 groups aswell and their Palace guard. you know what i could build ? spear miltia and more spear miltia and peasants. Someone forgot to balance that out ^^.

[gluteus maximus aurelius]

I've never much liked any of the italian factions, but if I HAD to choose one I'd probably say Sicily, simply because they're the ones I play the most often out of the three, and Norman Knights are much better than any counterparts you're likely to find at the point in the game in which you get them. However, I do think they're the worst off economically, and need to go and conquer either the other Italians or the Balkans before they can really take off.

[Gogolometro]

Monetary I play Venice in this time. For greek generals use the almighty xbow combined with classy sargent spearman. I made them run like rabbits just because xbows, spears units I have a super nice shock trooper, some hungarian axemans and some german two-handed. Belime panic was pure fun. And mercenerys can do a great blow to greeks, especialy if are recruited in Anatolia. But, I must confess, I was not focus on greeks, I just ignore them and keep them busy around Ragusa. Like a Venice player, must know you must KILL GENOA AND PAPACY!

[DeMolay]

Personally, i love Italian factions for various reasons (i play RR/RC units ) . My favourite is Venice .

Sicily in the early period is arguably the most powerful faction , because they have the muslim archers ( cheap , very effective ) when other factions have to rely on peasants for missile units and like all Italian factions , they can build effective spearmen from cities . Normand cavalry is also a good advantage ( nice charge ) for Sicily early on compared to its neighbours . Sicily is really the best faction until 13th century IMHO

With Venice and Genoa in early period , you have to rely on the fact that you are usually richer than Sicily (if you take Milan and Marseille with Genoa quickly , or Bologna with Venice ) , so you have to count on mercenaries more (for your infantry especially , macemen for example )

In high period , all three factions are more or less on the same level , problems with Italian faction is morale of the troops (they have less "feudal" units than let's say HRE for instance because they usually have less castles ) , but by getting city halls quickly in cities, you get the Caroccio for raising spirit in battles . Venice has still the "Pesante Archers" (in RR/RC) , "Venitian archers" in vanilla , in RR/RC they take 4 turns to build , but they are highly effective (on par with English longbowmen but more expensive in upkeep and not trainable in 1 turn ) , with Genoa you get Genoese crossbowmen which is a very good unit for defending and if you take them in numbers .

In late period , Sicily is the weakest IMO , Venice has the "pesante infantry" in RR/RC , Venetians heavy infantry in vanilla , which are very good against armour , not too expensive , it's one of my favourite infantry unit , Genoa is very strong in late era like Venice , they have all the good late tech stuffs .

Overall i prefer Venice because of the real history of the "Serenissima" , the fact that i prefer archers over crossbowmen (although when one has a good strategy to deploy the crossbowmen , they are as deadly if not more in some contexts where the ennemy has lots of armoured units or when the battle lasts ) , and also because of the position of Venice : quite easy to defend the city itself (bridge , forts , almost impossible to blockade or invade by sea since you control the adriatic sea ) , also if you manage to survive the early era , its not too hard to colonize all the adriatic coast until south of Greece .

I also love the Venetian heavy infantry as well (it has different stats in RR/RC , more realistic ones IMO ) and the concept of making financial colonies on the coasts ( i only take coastal cities for trade when i "roleplay" Venice , i build almost all my troops from two fortresses at Ancona and Ragusa ) , defend them thanks to a powerful fleet and small but elite type of army .

[meese]

Sicily does get an advantage in the Sword and Buckler Men who are great light infantry. A shame they don't get any good archers later, relying on muslim archers the entire time.

[Massive_attack]

Sicily 4 life.

Great castle roster, and i really mean superb. Only down side for me was the armor upgrade for the norman knights, which i changed to look exactly the same. Besides that its a damn fine faction. If it wasnt italian, id say the city roster was weak, but frankly as there the bloody italians with there super-milita-men with bullet-proof armor and doom sticks of ruin, its all good.

Not saying the other factions are bad though. Except Genoa, i wouldnt hit that with a mile long ruler. The most defining feature of the faction is a unit of crossbows and a plate heavy cavalry unit that sucks compared to the likes of french lancers or Gothic knights ? Bah. Venice is nice because of its top notch city roster (imo).

[♛☧Priscilla☧♛]

Papal States I say =) Don't know why everyone hates them... Guess I didn't get to feel your pain since I never played another catholic faction