Venice gets a lot easier if...

[Morthis]

It may seem like a bug, but if they create the artwork, give you a button and write up the civtext, it is deliberate and not a bug.

Look, if you want to use it, go ahead. If you want to cheat and give yourself 10000 gold, go ahead too. But sitting here arguing it's not a bug is just stupid. Between this only working under specific conditions, and directly contradicting the UA of Venice, I don't know how any reasonable person could think this was intended.

 

[Lrd Dread]

I am not sure about the auto annexing thing. I have not seen this. When my merchant goes to a city, in the far left side, there is a button that asks if I want to spend gold to annex the city. To me, that is not a bug. I do not use the strategic screen. I only use the main graphical screen.

 

[AgentTBC]

Puppet. Spend gold to PUPPET the city. That is not the same as annexing it.