Tsardoms Total War - FACTION PREVIEW: Republic of Venice

[paleologos]

Hello, pay attention to Broken Crescent's animations for templar or teutonic units...

I don't have that installed, can you post a link to a video?

[rafmc1989]

Great work!

[Roma_Victrix]

This is absolutely glorious. I love Venice! I'm thrilled by all of this; so much work went into this mod! I definitely have to play it and give it a try simply out of respect.

[alex33]

Can you give me the source of the Excusati Guard? I've looked far and wide for something about them but I can't find anything online and I would really like to read more about them

[Wallachian]

They are mentioned in the Osprey Men at Arms book the 'Venetian Empire 1200 - 1670'. The Excusati are mentioned as the Guard of the Doge on page 4 as having a mix of both eastern, western and Italian organisations.

'Excusati' literally meant settlers that were excused from taxes. The latin name was 'Excusati Ducatus'.

There is also the text 'Venice in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; a sketch of Ventian history from the conquest of Constantinople to the accession of Michele Steno, A.D. 1204-1400' mentions:

the escusati of the doge (whom Cecchetti, I think, calls his guardia nobile) were bound to carry homeand stow in the palace all purchases made for the use of the palace.Dandolo says the " Excusati Ducatus " were the fishermenand fowlers of Dorso-duro, "ad servitia Ducatus deputati" (Mur., H. I.S., xii. p. 188).

[alex33]

I have another question. I am not that well versed in Medieval warfare and I am currently on-off reading "Military Organisation Renaissance: Venice C. 1400 to 1617" but I wonder was it common that the Signori of Venice were recruited as knightly Lance formations? From what I've read it seems Venice rather relied on Condottiere to provide the cavalry forces of the armies and very seldomly recruited in Venice itself.

[Wallachian]

Yes you are right, Venice was not very well known for having a powerful cavalry. Most of its cavalry was based on Condottieri and other mercenaries such as the Stradiots. That is why the Venetian bodyguard is not a cavalry unit but an infantry unit. However, we thought it was worth having at least one Venetian noble cavalry unit to represent the various Venetian noble families. We can have them as being very rare and hard to recruit.

[alex33]

Yes you are right, Venice was not very well known for having a powerful cavalry. Most of its cavalry was based on Condottieri and other mercenaries such as the Stradiots. That is why the Venetian bodyguard is not a cavalry unit but an infantry unit. However, we thought it was worth having at least one Venetian noble cavalry unit to represent the various Venetian noble families. We can have them as being very rare and hard to recruit.

Oh Venice was pretty good with cavalry they had pretty strong cavalry detachements that over time became very loyal afaik. Many Mercenary companies kept fighting for them even after their Condottierie died in battle. As far as I'm reading into my book it seems that the Venetians were huge fans of the "Lance Spezzate" actually. I think it's a great Idea to have a Venetian signori cavalry as they can also represent "settled" Mercenary nobles which is as far as I remember something that happened quite often. So giving them a low availability and long refresh rate would be a good idea!

[Wallachian]

Yes that is what I meant, they did not have powerful native cavalry. We do have Lance Spezzate for Venice as well. But the Signori cavalry represents strictly the nobility.