VENICE: Part Two
(
Part One)
Our mission to wipe Ragusa from the map goes swimmingly; they have no allies, a weak army, and their lone province falls to a siege within a year.
Next up, we receive a mission to take a province that Venice starts with in the 1492 demo, and which I remember has a very nice 7 or 8 base tax:
After accepting, we mouse over Cyprus to see what their diplomatic situation is and see that they're guaranteed by the Mamluks. For those who aren't familiar with this mechanic - countries can guarantee the independence of smaller countries, and that will give them an automatic CB if anyone attacks the guaranteed country. So, if I attack Cyprus, the Mamluks are almost guaranteed to join on their side. EU3 also had a mechanic called Spheres of Influence, which went even farther than a guarantee - anyone having any relations, like offering an alliance, with a country you add to your sphere (which costs prestige) gives you a CB on them. I haven't seen those yet in EU4 but I think I saw a Sphere of Influence mapmode so I assume that means they're still around?
So, anyway, yeah, Mamluks.
Our navies are pretty close in power but their galleys swing the advantage to their side. I need to bulk up my navy a bit before taking them on; I can be patient.
In the meantime, I encounter that trade bug Roger was talking about earlier:
That's annoying. This is my merchant in Alexandria, forwarding to Constantinople for some reason instead of Venice. I can maybe see how the AI could do this, because Constantinople does forward to Ragusa which forwards to Venice, but it's still stupid and wrong and a bug and costing me money.
One of the benefits of being Venice is that they start out with a bossmode ruler:
The way Republics work is that every election (4 yrs?), you can elect a new leader that's either 4/1/1, 1/4/1, or 1/1/4....or you can re-elect the same leader, who gains 1/1/1 on top of his previous stats. Which in this guy's case, happens to be 4/4/4. The downside is that you lose 10 Republican Tradition (the Republic version of Legitimacy) each time you re-elect someone:
In this screenshot, I have 80% Republican Tradition (lost 10 from re-electing, probably lost another 10 from an event), and being 20% off the maximum translates to a 40% hike in stability cost. Yikes.
Following a war with Serbia in which I helped out my trusty ally, they ditch me immediately. Well a pox on you *******s.
I notice the Ottomans take Kaffa, which I had happened to see earlier was their mission. I look to see what their new mission is:
rut roh. This will create tension in the future.
When I mentioned being patient earlier, I meant it; I've been slowly building up economy through buildings and getting a jump on some admin tech (4 for ideas, 5 for constable/temple tax buildings) and diplo tech (trade efficiency), as well as getting my first couple merchant ideas. In 1467, my vassals complete their integration:
and within the next couple years, I decide it's finally time to strike Cyprus. To my dismay, I see that they are now a vassal of the Mamluks, but then I realize that they were always gonna join the war anyway so it isn't much of a difference. I prepare a few galleys and carracks (as mentioned in part 1, my plan to dominate the seas):
and then move out with my navy, including a small sieging force for Cyprus. I plan to fight 0 land battles in this war except for killing the garrison on Cyprus, as my navy will keep anyone from touching me, so that should be all I need.
On April 11, 1469, my attack is ready:
I have my navy, easily with enough carracks and galleys to handle the Mamluks, in the same province as their trade fleet so I can strike quickly and decisively to erase it and take an early lead after the declaration of war.
Next time: the war for Cyprus!