Venice strategy?
- Thread starter refmon
- Start date
homegrown
Missionary of Sorenism
I can attest to that. It's the new civ that I've had the most trouble wrapping my brain around. Consensus seems to be to go OCC Tradition to start. Ignore religion unless you have an insane faith-producing pantheon available like DF or Stone Circles. Take Optics right after Philosophy. Use a trireme to scout the coast. Use your first MoV to puppet a nearby coastal city state and start cargo shipping food back to Venice. Use cash to rush buy important bldgs the puppet doesn't already have (library, granary, workboats!). The puppet will run market specialists to generate your next MoVs. Use all of your available trade routes to connect with as many civs as you can reach. Put priority on techs that add trade routes, extend their range, or add gold.
After finishing Tradition, take 3 in Patronage for Consulates and Philanthropy, then start in Commerce. You want to finish Commerce, probably having to open Rationalism somewhere along the way.
Most of your subsequent MoVs probably want to conduct trade missions. Except, when your capital starts to outgrow it's existing food supply, it's time to puppet another cs that can send another cargo ship of food back to Venice.
Don't forget to defend yourself. I think the AI starts getting really nasty at your second cs puppet, just as if you'd warmongered your way to get it.
The only vc you should be thinking about is diplomatic.
budweiser
King of the Beers
You can go wide with Venice. I just did the most painful Dark Horse victory ever on immortal. I almost gave up twice. I had every diplomatic malus you could think of. I killed 2 AI and lied to my friend about moving troops through near his lands. In the end I did an Order Diplo with 12 puppets. I was about 7 turns away from space but didn't want to chance it.
Monthar
Deity
If you want some good advice for playing Venice, check out MadDjinn's LP. http://www.youtube.com/user/SBFMadDjinn?feature=watch
Edit: I forgot to add the link to the thread with the discussion of this LP. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=500698
Edit: I forgot to add the link to the thread with the discussion of this LP. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=500698
I posted this in another thread:
Venice gets one of the "best" starting locations. Wait for a nearby CS to become decent, puppet it, then puppet another one. I've won with puppeting only 2 CSs and by puppeting a million. Greece/Austria isn't a challenge, even on Deity. Here's what you do:
1. Settle city ASAP.
2. Get TRs (Trade Routes) up ASAP.
3. Puppet CS when it's at 7-10 pop.
4. Prioritize TRs, when you can build 10 ships, build 10 ships not a wonder/culture building. Especially on Deity.
5. Get second puppet for more money.
THEN: Either plan to use a 2-3 puppet strategy, or "puppet them all" strategy. I like puppeting 2-3.
(2-3 strategy below)
6. Buy CS allies when they are on "sale" (aka gold is more effective quest).
7. Buy more allies, until they are all allies. Use spies to rig elections.
8. If playing against Greece expect a little competition. Buy them on sale all the time.
9. If you will be short on votes, put Diplomats into friendly capitals. But their votes for world leader only.
10. If only puppeting 2-3 CSs use the rest on increasing influence on CSs. If not, be sure you can handle the happiness hit.
The AI won't buy off your allies often haha. Once you are the host, you've pretty much won. Play Venice on Archipelago, Small, quick speed, and you can beat Deity haha
Venice gets one of the "best" starting locations. Wait for a nearby CS to become decent, puppet it, then puppet another one. I've won with puppeting only 2 CSs and by puppeting a million. Greece/Austria isn't a challenge, even on Deity. Here's what you do:
1. Settle city ASAP.
2. Get TRs (Trade Routes) up ASAP.
3. Puppet CS when it's at 7-10 pop.
4. Prioritize TRs, when you can build 10 ships, build 10 ships not a wonder/culture building. Especially on Deity.
5. Get second puppet for more money.
THEN: Either plan to use a 2-3 puppet strategy, or "puppet them all" strategy. I like puppeting 2-3.
(2-3 strategy below)
6. Buy CS allies when they are on "sale" (aka gold is more effective quest).
7. Buy more allies, until they are all allies. Use spies to rig elections.
8. If playing against Greece expect a little competition. Buy them on sale all the time.
9. If you will be short on votes, put Diplomats into friendly capitals. But their votes for world leader only.
10. If only puppeting 2-3 CSs use the rest on increasing influence on CSs. If not, be sure you can handle the happiness hit.
The AI won't buy off your allies often haha. Once you are the host, you've pretty much won. Play Venice on Archipelago, Small, quick speed, and you can beat Deity haha
I started a renaissance starting game- I puppetted 1 cs to get a TR to ship back production to the capital, since i wanted to secure wonders production before my neighbors. puppet a CS with a luxury resource, since luxury returns more for a Trade route.
Ally a CS with the other MV, and use the money to buy inernal TR ships, workshops and other buildings. use TR for money when the CS or other civs grow a little because a 1-2 gpt tr is a tiny return...
Ally a CS with the other MV, and use the money to buy inernal TR ships, workshops and other buildings. use TR for money when the CS or other civs grow a little because a 1-2 gpt tr is a tiny return...
chazzycat
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 3,085
yes you definitely want to be coastal, don't build inland. Trade routes are key for Venice and sea trade routes are worth double land routes. Food from internal routes is doubled as well, which is critical to building a huge capital (which is very important for Venice).
Monthar
Deity
Never turn off start bias if you're planning to play as Venice or you'll likely start well away from the coast.
1. Your capital should be coastal, otherwise restart. Build scout if this not archipelago.
2. Preferably some sea resources. (it is not hard with Venice)
3. Go pottery, then go for fast merchant. Meanwhile build monument and granary. Go tradition.
4. Find coastal CS (Meanwhile reseach tech for lux), build lighthouse if needed, 2 cargo ships.
5. Buy that CS, you will get worker from them, CS lux is probably alredy upgraded. You can be unhappy until worker come to capital to upgrade lux.
1 cargo to deliver food to capital, second for gold.
6. Research and build library, then head to Philosophy. Build National Colledge and Oracle if possible.
7. Head to currency, build market, put specialist. You will get second merchant in 30 turns. (30 gpt for each route, 14 routes for gold, 2 for food)
8. Buy third CS. Build additional caravans.
9. Head to Education. build and buy universities. make as much RA as possible.
10. Then u can spawn more merchants or scientists. As u wish.
So after all:
Tradition->Patronage->Rationalism
Cause science means more cargo ships, cargo ships means more gold, more gold - more allies. You may have around 500 GPT on turn 230+. Obviously u can buy all CS.
2. Preferably some sea resources. (it is not hard with Venice)
3. Go pottery, then go for fast merchant. Meanwhile build monument and granary. Go tradition.
4. Find coastal CS (Meanwhile reseach tech for lux), build lighthouse if needed, 2 cargo ships.
5. Buy that CS, you will get worker from them, CS lux is probably alredy upgraded. You can be unhappy until worker come to capital to upgrade lux.
1 cargo to deliver food to capital, second for gold.
6. Research and build library, then head to Philosophy. Build National Colledge and Oracle if possible.
7. Head to currency, build market, put specialist. You will get second merchant in 30 turns. (30 gpt for each route, 14 routes for gold, 2 for food)
8. Buy third CS. Build additional caravans.
9. Head to Education. build and buy universities. make as much RA as possible.
10. Then u can spawn more merchants or scientists. As u wish.
So after all:
Tradition->Patronage->Rationalism
Cause science means more cargo ships, cargo ships means more gold, more gold - more allies. You may have around 500 GPT on turn 230+. Obviously u can buy all CS.
Adriano5
Chieftain
Not my strategy; just a few tips.
Your military is very important as Venice, because the only city that can produce things that you choose is your capital, so your war machine is mostly driven by gold, not production capabilities. This can be fatal if the enemy has a much larger army than you.
1. Build a wall after around turn 50-100 or sooner, in both your capital and your puppets(after this is generally, rounding it out, when other civs are interested in attacking)
2. Have a unit or more protecting every trade route you own.
3. The more trade routes, the better.
4. Make sure that you have allied city states or another nation in the way of hostile nations, they will act as a buffer between you and hostile civs. Try not to puppet those CS because otherwise the hostile civ might capture it.
5. civs will try to conquer you, but you have to have a ton of allies. Build up friendships with nearby civs and city states, so that the enemy is only on one side.
6. Try not to trade with enemies or hostile civs; I did this because I didn't think they would attack me, and three of my 6 trade routes were destroyed. I was doing 100+ gold per turn, now its at 50 and sinking.
Your military is very important as Venice, because the only city that can produce things that you choose is your capital, so your war machine is mostly driven by gold, not production capabilities. This can be fatal if the enemy has a much larger army than you.
1. Build a wall after around turn 50-100 or sooner, in both your capital and your puppets(after this is generally, rounding it out, when other civs are interested in attacking)
2. Have a unit or more protecting every trade route you own.
3. The more trade routes, the better.
4. Make sure that you have allied city states or another nation in the way of hostile nations, they will act as a buffer between you and hostile civs. Try not to puppet those CS because otherwise the hostile civ might capture it.
5. civs will try to conquer you, but you have to have a ton of allies. Build up friendships with nearby civs and city states, so that the enemy is only on one side.
6. Try not to trade with enemies or hostile civs; I did this because I didn't think they would attack me, and three of my 6 trade routes were destroyed. I was doing 100+ gold per turn, now its at 50 and sinking.
hphamdmd2018
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2014
- Messages
- 10
With Venice, you only have 1 city. For a normal game, people can adopt 3 trees but with Venice you can adopt 3 trees easily.
Venice is good for diplomatic and cultural victory.
For the diplomatic path: Go full tree on Tradition. These are Wonders that are ranked in termed of important for this type of victory
1- Colossus: Addition 1 trade route but 2 for Venice
1*- Petra if you have desert start
2- Hanging garden: Good because you will need a huge capital city
3- Stone henge: Give you 5 faiths and 1 GE point. It should be your very first wonder for religion but on harder to get on Immortal or harder difficulty
4- Fobidden Palace: Good for all diplomatic victory.
5- Wonder for additional spy (Forgot the name): So you will compete with other AI for CS alliance and it is quite inevitable that they will start hating you. So, how to do it peacefully. Wait for their alliance to fall out and gold gift them or send a spy to reduce their influence at that CS.
6- All piety wonders: Hagia Sophia, Borobudur, Great Mosque if you choose to go religious (which I highly recommended). By the time you get to this point, you should have 1 Great Engineer. Use him to finish Hagia Sophia, get the great prophet, make it an enhanced religion or a tile improvement, then switch to borobudur as it is in a lower priority for the AI, then the Mosque. As for religious, rush a shrine first and you should choose 15% Wonder production as your founder belief. Together with the 15% wonder production from the tradition, you can secure a stone henge and colossus and maybe hanging garden within 40-50 turns.
7- Big Bang: Reduce gold purchase. At this point of the game you will realize you wont produce many buildings but wonders and you need money for your military and building. So this is a very good wonder on you. The reason it is quite in a low priority is not many AI will adopt Commerce and you will have a decent chance to finish this later.
8- Chichen itza: Longer golden age means more money. Golden age gives you more gold and production. More time in golden age means more money, more CS ally. Hard to get actually because this is the top tier wonder list of the AI
I would suggest to spend your money on building and military units. As long as you are not in the bottom list pf military strength, you are fine.
Usually, a civ can adopt a maximum of 3 trees but with Venice, only 1 capital can help you adopt 4 trees totally (3 full trees before an Ideologies)
The tree you want to adopt is
1- Full tree in Tradition
2- Open piety but finish later or situational as you want your religion to make better relation with your CS (Check out my religion guide http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=525113). Go full tree later when you get what you needs
3- Patronage is a MUST
4- Commerce: Especially good on this Civ as you will have more money and can have more gold gift to CS
5- Freedom ideology is another must because it has a lv 3 tenet that give you 4 influence per turn with CS you have trade route with. So, usually you can rush Colloseus but not Petra which will give you 14 trade route totally. You will have at least 14 alliances for sure with this policies only.
Playing with Venice on harder difficulties will result in constant war with aggressive AI. The trick here is to never let you fall bottom in the soldier point on your continent. Check the demographic data and buy/upgrade soldier so that you have a decent amount of them in your capital.
Don't use your first Merchant to buy off CS as you will get nothing or no new units. Just get a tile improvement because the extra money early game will pay off huge late game. Buy military unit, finish CS quest. Get horse to buy 1-2 horseman/chariot archer for faster camp and buy triemes to secure your trade route. 1 mistake most people make when playing with Venice is their military strength. Yes, you will shine but not necessary early game. Spend money on your military and HELP YOUR ALLIANCE DEFENSE AGAINST AGGRESSIVE AI. This is very important because if they finish them off, who do you think will be the next target? You dont want war in your capital. Make it somewhere else.
You will shine when the World Congress is found. If you have enough delegates, go for Standing Army tax because you love peace when playing this Civ. Always check for your relation with the AI as it will affect their declaration of war on you.
Focus on Building that generate Food--> Production --> Beaker --> Faith in term of priorities. You don't have to worry too much about happiness or gold as you will have A LOT with Venice.
Venice is good for diplomatic and cultural victory.
For the diplomatic path: Go full tree on Tradition. These are Wonders that are ranked in termed of important for this type of victory
1- Colossus: Addition 1 trade route but 2 for Venice
1*- Petra if you have desert start
2- Hanging garden: Good because you will need a huge capital city
3- Stone henge: Give you 5 faiths and 1 GE point. It should be your very first wonder for religion but on harder to get on Immortal or harder difficulty
4- Fobidden Palace: Good for all diplomatic victory.
5- Wonder for additional spy (Forgot the name): So you will compete with other AI for CS alliance and it is quite inevitable that they will start hating you. So, how to do it peacefully. Wait for their alliance to fall out and gold gift them or send a spy to reduce their influence at that CS.
6- All piety wonders: Hagia Sophia, Borobudur, Great Mosque if you choose to go religious (which I highly recommended). By the time you get to this point, you should have 1 Great Engineer. Use him to finish Hagia Sophia, get the great prophet, make it an enhanced religion or a tile improvement, then switch to borobudur as it is in a lower priority for the AI, then the Mosque. As for religious, rush a shrine first and you should choose 15% Wonder production as your founder belief. Together with the 15% wonder production from the tradition, you can secure a stone henge and colossus and maybe hanging garden within 40-50 turns.
7- Big Bang: Reduce gold purchase. At this point of the game you will realize you wont produce many buildings but wonders and you need money for your military and building. So this is a very good wonder on you. The reason it is quite in a low priority is not many AI will adopt Commerce and you will have a decent chance to finish this later.
8- Chichen itza: Longer golden age means more money. Golden age gives you more gold and production. More time in golden age means more money, more CS ally. Hard to get actually because this is the top tier wonder list of the AI
I would suggest to spend your money on building and military units. As long as you are not in the bottom list pf military strength, you are fine.
Usually, a civ can adopt a maximum of 3 trees but with Venice, only 1 capital can help you adopt 4 trees totally (3 full trees before an Ideologies)
The tree you want to adopt is
1- Full tree in Tradition
2- Open piety but finish later or situational as you want your religion to make better relation with your CS (Check out my religion guide http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=525113). Go full tree later when you get what you needs
3- Patronage is a MUST
4- Commerce: Especially good on this Civ as you will have more money and can have more gold gift to CS
5- Freedom ideology is another must because it has a lv 3 tenet that give you 4 influence per turn with CS you have trade route with. So, usually you can rush Colloseus but not Petra which will give you 14 trade route totally. You will have at least 14 alliances for sure with this policies only.
Playing with Venice on harder difficulties will result in constant war with aggressive AI. The trick here is to never let you fall bottom in the soldier point on your continent. Check the demographic data and buy/upgrade soldier so that you have a decent amount of them in your capital.
Don't use your first Merchant to buy off CS as you will get nothing or no new units. Just get a tile improvement because the extra money early game will pay off huge late game. Buy military unit, finish CS quest. Get horse to buy 1-2 horseman/chariot archer for faster camp and buy triemes to secure your trade route. 1 mistake most people make when playing with Venice is their military strength. Yes, you will shine but not necessary early game. Spend money on your military and HELP YOUR ALLIANCE DEFENSE AGAINST AGGRESSIVE AI. This is very important because if they finish them off, who do you think will be the next target? You dont want war in your capital. Make it somewhere else.
You will shine when the World Congress is found. If you have enough delegates, go for Standing Army tax because you love peace when playing this Civ. Always check for your relation with the AI as it will affect their declaration of war on you.
Focus on Building that generate Food--> Production --> Beaker --> Faith in term of priorities. You don't have to worry too much about happiness or gold as you will have A LOT with Venice.
hphamdmd2018
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2014
- Messages
- 10
Another point I want to make when founding the world congress is to choose appropriate policies
Choose science as it will help you have more merchant for more gold and city influence and reduce the rate of influenced by cultural victory AI.
Definitely choose standing army tax because money is a problem for aggressive AI but not you (You are filthy rich)
World Ideology give you even more power in the World Congress
World Religion will help you a lot with religion (Check out my religion guide http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=525113)
Embargo luxury that is not from your cities. You only have 1 cities and your happiness is not a problem but maybe a huge problem for other AI.
International project should be avoided at all cost unless you really owned the game with 2-3 puppet CS. You cannot control the production on other CS and therefore its hard to be in the first place with this policy.
NEVER let Embargo CS in action because you will suffer a lot without trading with them.
Keep in mind that you are very powerful and the AI can do very little to stop you at the World Congress at this point. So the problem is how to get to this point! Go strong early game. Dont be greedy and you will really shine.
Choose science as it will help you have more merchant for more gold and city influence and reduce the rate of influenced by cultural victory AI.
Definitely choose standing army tax because money is a problem for aggressive AI but not you (You are filthy rich)
World Ideology give you even more power in the World Congress
World Religion will help you a lot with religion (Check out my religion guide http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=525113)
Embargo luxury that is not from your cities. You only have 1 cities and your happiness is not a problem but maybe a huge problem for other AI.
International project should be avoided at all cost unless you really owned the game with 2-3 puppet CS. You cannot control the production on other CS and therefore its hard to be in the first place with this policy.
NEVER let Embargo CS in action because you will suffer a lot without trading with them.
Keep in mind that you are very powerful and the AI can do very little to stop you at the World Congress at this point. So the problem is how to get to this point! Go strong early game. Dont be greedy and you will really shine.
Monthar
Deity
You can get the puppets to build all the international projects as Venice and can therefore win every one of them. The key is to use your UA to make purchases in the puppets. Just buy whatever they're building unless it only has 1-2 turns left to complete and they will switch to the current international project. Sometimes you have to make multiple purchases of buildings in a puppet to get them on the project.
The only wonder for an additional spy is a national wonder that you can't even start until you have a police station. There isn't a world wonder for extra spies.
If you're going Piety and already founded your religion, don't waste that GE on Hagia Sophia. instead use it on the Great Mosque, so the 3 missionaries you receive from Borobudur will get 3 uses each instead of just 2. thus you get the equivalent of an extra 1 1/2 missionaries from this wonder combo.
The only wonder for an additional spy is a national wonder that you can't even start until you have a police station. There isn't a world wonder for extra spies.
If you're going Piety and already founded your religion, don't waste that GE on Hagia Sophia. instead use it on the Great Mosque, so the 3 missionaries you receive from Borobudur will get 3 uses each instead of just 2. thus you get the equivalent of an extra 1 1/2 missionaries from this wonder combo.
hphamdmd2018
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2014
- Messages
- 10
I have just finished a game with Venice on Emperor. I won diplomatically even thouh my score was on the bottom of the list. My GPT is abou 500g and I have 20,000g in my bank 10 turns before I win. I just bribe all the CS to get all the votes needed for the World congress. I made 1 mistake to make Tithe as one of my religion belief as Venice doesnt need money except for his trde route. Moreover, since Venice has only 1 city, I would recommend to get the religion that spread 50% farther. That way it is easier to spread the religion.
I was in the continent with wonder builder Egypt, China went Piety?!? and Morroco with his trade routes and aimed for cultural victory. As I said before, I built up a strong army so they didnt have any good motivation to crush me. My trade route can cover all costs for my army. I got 1 point in Patronage just to get the reduced influence decay on CS and rushed the Commerce tree. In my game I failed the Wonder race as they out produced me. I started with Marble, rush stonehenge and colossus. That's all wonder I have.
I failed all free prophet and missionary wonders as well as teh Great Mosque, even the Fobbiden Palace for cultural victory. However, I controled all the world congress through money and My military is super strong thanks to military units gifted by CS. I got the lowest point 800 while the highest is 1600 but still win because I started making some alliance and attack their capital cities. When you have 20k gold, you can do whatever you want including rushing 10 bombers and havoc your neighbor (in my case Egypt) Then Egypt fell back, I demand the CS he took before, liberate it and get 2 more votes in the world congress. I rush World Ideology Freedom to give my more power. Egypt with culture victory had influenced me about 50%. My cities are in civil resistence with -40 happiness. I think it was a wise idea to attack Egypt at that time.
Getting the world ideology Freedom was a big win. I got 2 more delegates from the World Congress plus my happiness started to raised again and put those who didnt choose Freedom in troubles.
The only thing I did quite badly this game is not my faith. Venice had only 1 cities and it is very hard to generate a good faith production. Venice spreads his religion mainly via his trade route and it is super hard because of the Bavarian and 3 Piety finishers on my island. I tried another island but at that time, 80% are religious thanks to Maya and India. That was an epic failed for the religion perspective. However, I do manage to make my religion World religion via the World Congress and give me an edge to keep my religion locally while giving the AI harder time to spread their religion.
Overall, you cannot fail with Venice to be honest. If you are the lowest score for the entire game, Dont freak out. Remember
1- Focus on trade route, preferably those without Honor social policy as they are likely to start war on you.
2- Never stay behind in military. You have MORE THAN enough to support your military and people fail because they lost their capital.
3- Rush colossus. Very important. In the Emperor game, it is hard to go for Petra but it is possible. Chop down forest, do whatever make sure you have the Colossus.
4- Rush the Commerce tree. Finish Tradition, 1 point in patronage with gold gift boost and then full commerce tree. Very important to get you rich.
You wont have an edge on any other victory condition. The AI will ignore you most of the time unless your military is awful and they will start missions on you. Otherwise, you should enjoy your peace time until you have 500g per turn via trade route. Buy all the build with your enormous amount of gold and put research as production. You will start to out tech them and eventually win with bribery and advanced military power in 1 turn.
Venice is the Civ that can win with the lowest score and only less than 5 World Wonders for the entire game. You will feel bad for the whole game as you can do nothing to give an impact on the politics but when you get enough money. However, when you can control the whole world congress, you can do whatever you want. The AI will try to Embargo you, buy some CS alliances and get it down. Get the World ideology and World religion. Always Nay to world project because you will be behind in production. Also Nay to great artist boost because you want more great merchant, engineer and scientist. You capital should be full of specialist tile improvement to make it really shine. I would say spend all the prophet for tile improvement. first 2 merchants for tile improvement also and the 3rd to get more land. You will buy all of the buildings (because you are filthy rich) in that CS and it will be productivity in a flash. Friend/Ally with military states so you can have more units to defense the new land.
You may get bored with Venice though especially during mid game where you can buy all of your buildings, let the production for science and if you set auto end turn, you may just sit and stared at the screen for 15 mins without doing nothing. Just remember, Venice can only fail early game but after passing mid game, you will never fail. Controlling the World Congress is so strong that you can get whatever you want.
I was in the continent with wonder builder Egypt, China went Piety?!? and Morroco with his trade routes and aimed for cultural victory. As I said before, I built up a strong army so they didnt have any good motivation to crush me. My trade route can cover all costs for my army. I got 1 point in Patronage just to get the reduced influence decay on CS and rushed the Commerce tree. In my game I failed the Wonder race as they out produced me. I started with Marble, rush stonehenge and colossus. That's all wonder I have.
I failed all free prophet and missionary wonders as well as teh Great Mosque, even the Fobbiden Palace for cultural victory. However, I controled all the world congress through money and My military is super strong thanks to military units gifted by CS. I got the lowest point 800 while the highest is 1600 but still win because I started making some alliance and attack their capital cities. When you have 20k gold, you can do whatever you want including rushing 10 bombers and havoc your neighbor (in my case Egypt) Then Egypt fell back, I demand the CS he took before, liberate it and get 2 more votes in the world congress. I rush World Ideology Freedom to give my more power. Egypt with culture victory had influenced me about 50%. My cities are in civil resistence with -40 happiness. I think it was a wise idea to attack Egypt at that time.
Getting the world ideology Freedom was a big win. I got 2 more delegates from the World Congress plus my happiness started to raised again and put those who didnt choose Freedom in troubles.
The only thing I did quite badly this game is not my faith. Venice had only 1 cities and it is very hard to generate a good faith production. Venice spreads his religion mainly via his trade route and it is super hard because of the Bavarian and 3 Piety finishers on my island. I tried another island but at that time, 80% are religious thanks to Maya and India. That was an epic failed for the religion perspective. However, I do manage to make my religion World religion via the World Congress and give me an edge to keep my religion locally while giving the AI harder time to spread their religion.
Overall, you cannot fail with Venice to be honest. If you are the lowest score for the entire game, Dont freak out. Remember
1- Focus on trade route, preferably those without Honor social policy as they are likely to start war on you.
2- Never stay behind in military. You have MORE THAN enough to support your military and people fail because they lost their capital.
3- Rush colossus. Very important. In the Emperor game, it is hard to go for Petra but it is possible. Chop down forest, do whatever make sure you have the Colossus.
4- Rush the Commerce tree. Finish Tradition, 1 point in patronage with gold gift boost and then full commerce tree. Very important to get you rich.
You wont have an edge on any other victory condition. The AI will ignore you most of the time unless your military is awful and they will start missions on you. Otherwise, you should enjoy your peace time until you have 500g per turn via trade route. Buy all the build with your enormous amount of gold and put research as production. You will start to out tech them and eventually win with bribery and advanced military power in 1 turn.
Venice is the Civ that can win with the lowest score and only less than 5 World Wonders for the entire game. You will feel bad for the whole game as you can do nothing to give an impact on the politics but when you get enough money. However, when you can control the whole world congress, you can do whatever you want. The AI will try to Embargo you, buy some CS alliances and get it down. Get the World ideology and World religion. Always Nay to world project because you will be behind in production. Also Nay to great artist boost because you want more great merchant, engineer and scientist. You capital should be full of specialist tile improvement to make it really shine. I would say spend all the prophet for tile improvement. first 2 merchants for tile improvement also and the 3rd to get more land. You will buy all of the buildings (because you are filthy rich) in that CS and it will be productivity in a flash. Friend/Ally with military states so you can have more units to defense the new land.
You may get bored with Venice though especially during mid game where you can buy all of your buildings, let the production for science and if you set auto end turn, you may just sit and stared at the screen for 15 mins without doing nothing. Just remember, Venice can only fail early game but after passing mid game, you will never fail. Controlling the World Congress is so strong that you can get whatever you want.
Except that controlling the World Congress is overrated. Apart from Sciences Funding (which is not needed for Venice anyways) and the World's Fair (which you will likely not win), there is nothing else worth proposing. There is only so many Embargo Luxuries you can propose, all the while waiting for the UN to kick in. When I easily won my Immortal game, I didn't need to bribe any city-states towards the end even though I had 30k - no one else really cared to take away any of my alliances. However, I didn't check to see if being a host made the difference in the number of votes I needed. It could be just having six Diplomats and 12 city-states were all that was needed.
Monthar
Deity
The free GMer at Optics is truly free just like Babylon's free GS at writing.
