****yawn****

You don't have to play Venice to win fairly easily this way. Just don't expand more than 3-4 cities until Industrial or so, keep largely to yourself, and just tech and ally with CSs and invest in the econ and you should do very well.

So far, I haven't seen many checks against tall econ booming. Sure, if you start next to one of the nut-jobs you have to be prepared to handle it but other than that it's usually just smooth sailing.

The reason it seems so easy with Venice is because their trait enforces that type of play and further rewards it with the 2x trade routes. IMO, that is already the 'optimal' way to play if you want an easier win so Venice just capitalizes on an already strong strategy.
 
If you've got a ton of money and nothing to do with it, try switching some of those external trade route to internals. Monarchy + 4 puppets feeding your capital like 7 food each makes for a tall city fast. Tall cities make lots of beakers and hammers and money.

People play Venice by doubling down on the external trade rout strat. I think Venice's real power is you can play a full external trade route strat and a full internal one at the same time.
 
There are quite a few Challenge games over in Strategy & Tips. If you are so bored, try those and they're a number of us that would be interested in your experiences.
 
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