Liberating city states from Venice

I recently finished my first game against Venice, playing as Isabella. As expected, they were gobbling up city states and I decided I needed to put an end to it. However, when I freed the city states (Hong Kong and Florence) I was not given the option to liberate them. I only had the option to puppet or annex.

Unfortunately I did not take screenshots, but I intended on liberating them and was not given the option. Is anyone else having this problem?

It's like Austria. They become a native city of the Venetian empire. They no longer have a unique identity to be repatriated to.

I know this has been mentioned before in reference to Austria, but doesn't this kind of break core mechanics of the game by permanently removing city states? Granted, even if they could be liberated I would still prioritize sacking Venice and Austria

nenya said:

I know this has been mentioned before in reference to Austria, but doesn't this kind of break core mechanics of the game by permanently removing city states? Granted, even if they could be liberated I would still prioritize sacking Venice and Austria

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Many people agree that it breaks the purpose of City-States and the Diplomatic victory. I like the mechanic though. It adds a certain urgency and uncertainty to the City-State concept. It's like trying to solve a series of on-going murders while the killer closes in on its next victim.

Who will be killed next? Can you stop them in time?