Austria?

How does everyone play as Austria? I wanted to start a game as them but I really had no idea what to do. As in, tradition or liberty? Also, do you build some cities and then annex some cs or just annex cs?

thanks

Generally speaking, Tradition or Liberty doesn't matter much for Austria. That just depends on how the map shapes out to be. Aggressive neighbors/lots of room to expand? Liberty. Otherwise, Tradition.
As for buying CS, I only buy those that are either adjacent to my empire (And therefore easy to defend) or have strategics that I need. I rarely end up buying more than 3 CS's over the course of a game (And I play with 22 CS). Also, I prefer to buy Religious and Militaristic CS first, as the benefits of Maritime, Cultural and Mercantile CS's are too big to ignore, but if you have the happiness, Mercantile is also a good target.
Another way to play Austria however focusses on supplying Vienna with food trade routes (So a coastal Vienna would be preferred here), and get all the Great Person Boosting buildings there, along with the Coffee House, giving you another 25% bonus. Buy up other coastal CS to give you even more food trade routes, get Tradition (Hanging Gardens are a must if you have no normal garden possibility) and try to grab the Collossus. This strategy isn't as strong on higher difficulty levels though.

Austria has a tiny bias towards Tradition compared to generic civ simply because some of the nearby city states will become part of your empire via marriage.

But if you want 4 self founded cities with Tradition still works even if you (over time) marry several additional city states. (In fact Monarchy provides a lot more happiness to support this than the Liberty tree)

When marrying a city state, first check its buildings it already has, if it's missing a required building for a national wonder you are either currently building or planning on starting really soon then initially puppet. Otherwise you can annex immediately. (Annexing immediately upon marriage is the normal case since there is no resistance and no need for a courthouse, in addition you often want to buy the natural wonder just outside cultural boundary the same turn)

Austria's UB can be built anywhere (unlike the base building that must be flat) and in addition provides a great people bonus. More Great Scientists and guild people will help both science & cultural victory.
In addition, Austria's UA has a very interesting interaction with Gunboat diplomacy. (You'll get units from marrying a city state and then park them right outside the city state you next want to marry to cause a shotgun wedding)

The commerce and patronage social policies can bring about a good cs purchase. With commerce you save more money and with patronage you get to keep your CSs more. All you need is 5 turns of cs alliance and then you could buy the city state....

reddishrecue said:

The commerce and patronage social policies can bring about a good cs purchase. With commerce you save more money and with patronage you get to keep your CSs more. All you need is 5 turns of cs alliance and then you could buy the city state....

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But this is actually a reason to NOT finish the whole Patronage tree. In fact, since you only need five turns, you might just forego cash entirely and just have your spy promoted to secret agent coup your target. Even without spies, doing quests will often cause you to become an ally without cash expenditure.
So this leaves Patronage opener and consulates as the two most useful parts of Patronage as Austria.

Also, most, if not all, city states are coastal, and so for Commerce, it's the right side you want and not so much filling the whole tree since you'll be using Cargo ships and not caravans.

Right.. I mean if you're going for only the city state purchase. The patronage tree works for the city states and for the alliance more rather than just a city state purchase like Austria can do. As Austria, you don't always have to purchase a city state since over expansion can be possible as well as empire unhappiness.

On a map with multiple continents, the UA can be used to acquire an easy beachhead.

Loucypher said:

Also, I prefer to buy Religious and Militaristic CS first, as the benefits of Maritime, Cultural and Mercantile CS's are too big to ignore, but if you have the happiness, Mercantile is also a good target.

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In my opinion, i would buy Maritime's and Religious's.

Mercantile- Happiness always needed

Cultural- In BNW, early culture is so low without them, and they help with every aspect.

Militaristic- Maybe if they have a bad unique, like the Ballistae. If they are handing out Longbowmen or Impi, never.

Maritime's give maybe 2 food to the capital, which is so little. I could get one trade route and have it be worth 3-6 CS allies. Faith is good, but not needed.

These city states are useful enough to keep around. I couldn't agree more. ^^