Inland Sea Venice....optimal strategy?

[Scribls]

Playing a multiplayer game with a couple friends and 5 AI players where everyone is Venice (increased CS count as well to accommodate plenty'o'puppets). We are playing a high seas oval map where we re-rolled until all 3 of us got a coastal start.

My game got off to a great start with me securing Great Library around turn 35 and going straight into Iron Working to get the Collosus which I will complete around turn 53. Unfortunately, after scouting the land a bit more I believe I am going to be on an inland sea. Here is my start location:

https://imgur.com/a/vMXX6rR

Here is my tech tree at the moment:

https://imgur.com/a/U17JW6e

So I just got my first MoV but have no idea what to do with it or what my strategy going forward should be. I have the only capital capable of building Machu Picchu so I will get that eventually but I can't think of a great grand strategy or even what to do with any of my MoV.

My initial thought is to puppet Panama City NW of my cap to give me some coastal trade routes (can I move a cargo ship to a city not connected by water? I imagine not) and then to just maximize science (Oracle, Observatory, etc...) and try and kill the world before their gold really gets going. But I don't have much experience with Venice so I am definitely open to suggestions.

 

[sixty4half]

I like Venice's Domination end game. Tech for lancers (Metallurgy) and go Commerice for Landsknechts. Save tons of gold leading up to this. Pop your most recent MoV (you may have to save him for a little while depending on the timing) the CS nearest the Capital you want to start from. Then buy a ton of landsknechts, you can buy one and immediately move it, then buy another and move it, then buy another. Landsknechts is the only unit you can buy a bunch of in one turn from the same city. Then upgrade them all to Lancers. Then you can take your opponents Venice, leaving him with only governor controlled expansions. If they haven't saved up enough money they can't produce units anymore and rely on their governors. You can then use the Lancers to pillage all their remaining tiles so they never get to produce anything.

After that, the remaining AI civs should be a push over.

You could do it at Civil Service if you think your opponents don't have a strong, up-to-date army by then and you have enough gold to purchase a large army at that time. That may take some doing if you go full into Tradition. You may not get to Landsknechts at the same time, It's been a while since I've played a Venice domination so I'm a little foggy on the exact timing.

Keep in mind though, that since there is a unit cap that is based on the amount of cities you have, you can quickly hit that cap in a Venice game. You'll need to buy a couple of CSs to increase that unit cap.


How do you know you are the only person able to build Machu Pichu? Are you playing a hotseat game in which you are all watching each other play? That could put this strategy at risk. You'll need to escort that final MoV so they don't capture it. They'll question why you're sending it so far away, so it'll be obvious you plan to buy the CS instead of cashing him in. They'll also see you buy all the units so they might prepare for the invasion.

 

[Scribls]

I know I am the only one able to build Machu because I have the only mountain capital and all players are Venice. (Embassies with all opponents and scouting in general)

I do think a military approach prior to my opponents gold getting ridiculous is my best option especially since I should have an early tech advantage due to Great Library.

 

[sixty4half]

Remember that, even though you can't control your citizens in your expos, you can manipulate where they go to a point by using your builders. The governours will prioritize gold production, but foremost will prioritize high yield tiles. So if you have an incense on plains or desert, it might be wiser to wait until that city grows in pop before building the plantation. If you have tiles with 4/0, 3/1, 2/2 your governour should prioritize those over undeveloped gold tiles. Do farms first followed by camps and plantations that produce food. If you put a mine on gold or silver as your first improvement, your governour will work that 0/3/3 tile forever and you'll never grow that city.

 

[Scribls]

Remember that, even though you can't control your citizens in your expos, you can manipulate where they go to a point by using your builders. The governours will prioritize gold production, but foremost will prioritize high yield tiles. So if you have an incense on plains or desert, it might be wiser to wait until that city grows in pop before building the plantation. If you have tiles with 4/0, 3/1, 2/2 your governour should prioritize those over undeveloped gold tiles. Do farms first followed by camps and plantations that produce food. If you put a mine on gold or silver as your first improvement, your governour will work that 0/3/3 tile forever and you'll never grow that city.

This is good advice - Panama City has gold and I was going to improve that pretty quickly but maybe I will target a camp and some fishing boats first to get it up and running. The fishing boats thing is wild speculation because I did a poor job scouting over there but that is my hope and I don't see any other viable options to be honest for a puppet at this stage.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I do have desert folklore as a pantheon (only faith producing pantheon in my capital really and Mombasa and Panama City have some desert) - so hopefully P