selling cities to Venice

I was in war with Germany. Took a city, got another in the peace deal. Sold both to Venice and they immediately returned to Germany.
Is this a bug or a feature of Venice's trait? Does Venice get compensated from Germany? Because why would he buy expensive cities, if he cannot keep them? ..

On another note, why does Venice suck so much as an AI? lol

been on a few different maps, and I'll have 5 - 7 cities, enemies have 3 or 4.....and than there is Venice with his 1, MAYBE 2 cities at turn 200.

Blaz3 said:

On another note, why does Venice suck so much as an AI? lol

been on a few different maps, and I'll have 5 - 7 cities, enemies have 3 or 4.....and than there is Venice with his 1, MAYBE 2 cities at turn 200.

Click to expand...

Venice can't found new cities. They can, however, puppet the CS using their merchant of Venice (replacement for Great Merchant), and, of course, puppet the cities they conquer, but never annex them.

@lefuet: Venice most likely liberated the city to get on a good side of Germans, or perhaps gifted cities can't be puppetted...not sure.

in my games venice's AI has been pretty good as long as theres a large supply of city states for it to gobble up