Best way to Unite Italy?

[Teeny]

I mean I just bought this game, so maybe uniting my homeland is a wee bit steep, but, I have too, I tried before with Florence but everytime i occupied the Papal States, a treaty would be signed and I lost all my land, maybe im playing the game like HOI4 and not a different way, but I digress, what is the best way to unite Italy? Its my goal in any game to assert Italian dominace upon the planet, so please, if you know a good strat, help a fellow out.

[Teeny]

A man robbed of his pasta

[rubish 1]

play florence and be the papal states lil bish

[Tiny Tyrant]

The main thing is you have to take it pretty slow. Italy is highly developed, which means taking land there gives a ton of AE. You also need to get a big oustide-of-Italy ally, France or Austria are usually your go-to friends.

There are two ways to approach taking Roma; you can either become Protestant or Reformed or remain Catholic and wait until Roma is the last province you need to take to form Italy to conquer it. Italy is one of the few tags who can be Catholic and hold Roma with no penalties, so you are gonna want to form Italy as soon as you take the province.

[Victrixy]

Rome should be the last province to take. You will get malus for occupying Rome as a Catholic nation and not Italy yourself, unless you convert to Protestant or Reformed.

A general strategy would be take your time and only take required provinces and/or provinces that is in the way. Because AE is very high in Italy, as provinces are rich and most required provinces are within the HRE (until Shadow Kingdom event fired), also you cannot form Italy until Adm tech 10.

The provinces required to form Italy are:
1) Genoa;
2) Milan;
3) Modena;
4) Verona;
5) Mantua;
6) Firenze;
7) Siena:
8) Roma; and
9) Ancona

Milan is a good nation to form Italy, as it has very high development, good national ideas and unique government type (national ideas and government type alone give you 10% infantry combat ability and 5% morale).

As for diplomacy, try allying the HRE emperor (usually Austria), so you don't get "demand unlawful territory" from the Emperor for taking HRE land. If you can't ally the Emperor, then try ally a strong nation, like France and PLC for example.

Once you form Italy, you will get permanent claim on all provinces in Italy. And once Italy is united, where you want to expand is up to you as Italy is pretty much at the centre of action. You can go Crusade in Holy Land, conquor Iberia and pull trade from the New World, or dominate Egypt and expand into Asia for the trade.

[Raxo]

play venice and have fun, and lookout for habsburgs

[N2-Power]

I recently did it as Aragon, though you need to switch culture to sicilian at the start of the game. Aragon is actually in a very good position, since it has Naples in a PU and later gets Castille for free (provided you can get the Iberian Wedding event to fire). It can also get big allies easily. Mine were France and Poland-Lithuania, which kept coalitions at bay even though I had massive AE (100+). I also got lucky with this tho, as Austria kept dishonoring the call to arms when I attacked the empire, as they were heavily in debt and friendly towards me. Rome was actually among the first two provinces I took, the penalty is not that huge really.

If I was going to form Italy as an actual Italian nation, I would probably go for Venice.

One general tip: Watch out who gets excommunicated (the pope has a tendency to ecommunicate his rivals) as you can attack them and take provinces and vassalize them for no diplo cost and just 50% AE.

[Shogun_Potatoe]

Sounds like you are not selecting the provinces you want to take in the peace treaty make sure you select what you want from your opponent's before hitting ok

[Fellini_Fiend]

Milan would probably be my pick for the best. High starting development and can get some decent alliances. I would suggest to concentrate on keeping Austria and France from getting into Italy so make those the priorities and certainly ally Austria so you don’t have to get rid of the HRE land. I might even suggest staying in the HRE when the Shadow Kingdom event happens so you can be protected by the emperor as well. Other than that just save Roma for last. I believe you core it automatically if I’m not mistaken once you click the button. I don’t believe you need to core it to click it.

Other than Milan Florence might be my second pick, I personally went with Genoa my first time in the region and then recently did it as Naples.

[Hanulf the Berserker]

I did it as Naples in my last game - you start with a decent amount of provinces but you have to watch which countries rival Aragon then get them to support your independance (preferably your supporters are not rivals of each other).
And you should plan on going Protestant because you want Rome sooner or later.

[Fellini_Fiend]

Първоначално публикувано от Kazarr:

I did it as Naples in my last game - you start with a decent amount of provinces but you have to watch which countries rival Aragon then get them to support your independance (preferably your supporters are not rivals of each other).
And you should plan on going Protestant because you want Rome sooner or later.

I didn’t even have to fight for my independence funnily enough. I got supported by France and someone else plus I allied Castile who randomly became a subject under them when their ruler died without an heir and I think they got scared enough to just give me my independence which actually made me annoyed because I was literally like a month away from declaring my independence which would have saw Castile and myself becoming official allies and getting our independences in the same war plus getting the land in Sicily. Either way I had a good time playing as Naples especially since their national ideas are no longer an utter disappointment. That was pretty much the reason I always stayed away from Naples, those ideas were just so not good; not terrible necessarily but they were just a step higher than generic ideas.

[Isiloni]

Put a box trap and under it put some carpaccio, prosciuto and salami for the antipasto, rissoto or pasta (NEVER CUT YOUR SPAGHETTI) for Il Primo, Some mediterranean fish or veal for Il Secondo (dont forget Il Contorno with it), and finally some tirmaisu, gellato or panna cottaa for Il Dolce.
If you follow this all lands of Italy will we yours and all their people will love you

[TylerofQueens]

Savoy, Florence/Tuscany, Naples, Venice are all good starting countries to unite Italy. Out of them Savoy has arguably the best shot and Venice coulde be tied with Naples for difficulty out those.

The first question you want to ask is HRE or no HRE. Venice and Naples start outside the HRE but you can add them to it eventually. If you're in the HRE you have to deal with slower expansion inside the HRE but you can atleast expand. If you're not a part of the HRE you can't really touch Italian HRE provinces until after 1490 when the SHadow Kingdom fires.

Savoy is not only the best way around this but is also the historical choice (Correct me if I'm wrong but Savoy both in game and in real life unites Sardina-Piedmont and then goes on to unite Italy in a war against Sicily? Feel free to correct me) anyways Savoy starts with territoy in and outside of Italy but is also apart of the HRE which protects it from France for a while atleast. It also starts with good diplomatic options and can ally with Austria. The mountainous terrain also helps with defense (this coming from somone who always underestimates Savoy's terrain advantage in wars). Finally you're close to territory that let's you expand your trade power in the Genoa Trade node (Provence, Lyonais).

When it comes to expanding, ignore the territory you don't need (see the EUIV Wikia or other comments) because you only need a handful of the actual teritory. Take what you need then form italy. Weather your Savoy or not, form any other formable countries that you can like Sardina-Piedmont or Tuscany because they usually have better bonouses. Take Rome last and after your 100% sure you can take the Unite Italy descision the second after, otherwise you get a Catholic/Papal modifier malace that can set you into a precrious position.

[luckymarine]

Remember that before the shadow kingdom event hits every single province taken in northern Italy is going to generate some massive agressive expansion.

Naples is easy if you know how to get out of a PU, you'll want to rush to switch tags to Italy as soon as possible because Naples ideas are some of the worst in the game...

How about being Papal State? you start with Urbino as a vassal and have access to Venice who's outside of the HRE, easy feeding of your minion.

Then it's either Milan or Florence, with Florence you can tag switch to Tuscany before you switch to Italy which can be nice for picking up a few achievements. As for Milan they end up in an ambrosian republic which is fairly terrible for long term play in regards to absolutism but can still work.

Wouldnt recomend Venice purely because expanding into Italy means attacking into the HRE, something that can easily go very very wrong if you're not used to the mechanics.

Oh and top tip, start a new war before peacing out of your old one. Sounds odd but if you're at war the leader of the HRE cannot ask you to return land. You dont want a call to return land, it will put unrest in that specific province through the roof. So be at war with someone insignificant till your core comes in and then white peace out of your new war to ensure you get the smallest possible peace timer.

[Brick]

I don't know b/c HRE.
Damn HRE.