Republic of Genoa !

[Alexanderos]

I started a campaign with them(early) , turn 1 Alliance with Venice so far !
I was thinking of assembling a small force and taking Cagliari to build my economy. When I have succesfully done that , I would take Marseille and sack it for a boost . With a better trained army with units from my Ajaccio castle and the militias from Genoa . Milan is my next target ! From there , I will attack Sicily , and have about 10 or more regions when I've crushed them . Then Venice will follow , and to complete my 25 regions I will conquer the Iberian Peninsula too :

What do you think ? What is an effective army for early game ? What do you council me to do ?


It's Savage AI if I recall corectly with RR on

[Mausolos of Caria]

Alliance with Venice so far !

Violating history, hm?

[NordicRevolution]

Genoa is one of my favorite factions to play, you start off small and in the center of the action. I usually start off allying with HRE and the Papal States. I would've kept from allying myself with Venice, as they usually are the first faction to get hostile with Genoa, meaning you can take their wealthy capital. After Venice you can expect Aragon to be next to attack you. After you wipe them out you are on your way to becoming the next superpower in Europe.

[Ichon]

There are different ways to play Genoa but I've played them more than any faction except Lithuania. Basically I found I enjoyed 3 options the most- fight Moors and defend at first in Italy using the papal favor gained fighting Moors to slowly expand in Italy. Another option is to go for Venice/Sicily directly which usually leads to excommunication and then attack Rome and kill Pope then setup the Pope as your puppet by offering Corsica or Cagliari or even Marseilles which serves as a good buffer with France, then make Italy and Adriatic a Genoan land. Lastly expand Genoa with trade colonies... so maybe going on Crusade keep a port in the east, grab somewhere in the Black Sea and Africa, fight Venice for Ragusa and Crete, etc.

[Chazz1225]

Well as an upper Italian faction, you're gonna have to rely on militia troops to start your expansion. Train up some Pavise Spear Militia, some Urban Crossbows and Cavalry Militia also recruit some heavy Infantry Mercenaries where available. Be sure to capture the closest castle, either the one at Bern or Cagliari or Ajaccio so you can change those urban Crossbows for some genoese crossbow, from there expansion choices are up to you

[Rushwithoutmercy]

Their unit roster is about as exciting as a brick.

[Granite88]

I find buying Bologna from the HRE and rushing Bern to give the best start for Genoa.

[Alexanderos]

And how exactly do you buy it? Because when even if i give them 20000 florins in exchange of bologna they still consider it very demanding.

[Granite88]

The first move I make is to send my diplomat to the HRE at Bologna. I offer them an Alliance, Trade Rights, $1000, and map information for map information. They will accept, then offer to take Bologna off their hands for $3600 per turn for six turns. The HRE will do the same if you are Denmark and want to buy Hamburg. And if you're buying Hamburg you will get five Chivalric Knights to boot. It does have to be with an alliance, and it has to be on the first turn in my experience.

[Alexanderos]

The first move I make is to send my diplomat to the HRE at Bologna. I offer them an Alliance, Trade Rights, $1000, and map information for map information. They will accept, then offer to take Bologna off their hands for $3600 per turn for six turns. The HRE will do the same if you are Denmark and want to buy Hamburg. And if you're buying Hamburg you will get five Chivalric Knights to boot. It does have to be with an alliance, and it has to be on the first turn in my experience.

Hmm.. it does sound intereseting. I have besieged Marseille but I'm tempted to start a new campaign to try this. However , Bolgna currently acts like a buffer between me and Venice , they're less tempted to break the alliance and declare war .

Another question , on SAVAGE AI does the AI break alliances like in vanilla?

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Im guessing you are playing on M/M, on higher difficility it is much more expensive to trade money for provinces. What you can do is offer them a high amount for lots of turns and right after the deal is done just inform them that you are cancelling the tribute, it will hit your reputation and no one will want to ally you, but, hey you got a free province

[The Kybrothilian]

The savage AI is balanced in warmaking and alliances. It does break alliances, yes, but not often.