Genova or Venezia?

[Feba]

I would like to start as an italian republic (never tried before) in ironman, but which one?
According to your experience which one between Genova and Venezia was funnier to play with?

[kayla]

Venice.

[Kagemin]

They both can be fun and challenging. Venice has Austria and the Ottomans to worry about, but easy access to both the Coonstantinople and the Alexandria nodes.
Genoa on the other hand starts with provinces all over the place, which can make for a very interesting game if you try to keep everything or even expand those territories.

[Funsize]

Venice. France usually gets a mission to conquer Genoa, which gets dicey depending on how strong and willing Austria is to defend you.

[PFC Chamberlain]

Venice has the added challenge of being outside the Empire, so expansion in Italy can be very difficult. My advice to you, ally with France if you value your existance. My first try as Venice fell apart because even though I was very militarily successful early on (I broke Austria's back, I even conquered their gold mines in Tyrol.) They recovered, and with the help of their new French ally, the two of them wiped me off the map.

My second Venice game has featured less expansion in Italy overall (Though I have isolated Naples diplomatically, and intend to conquer them over the next 20-30 years), but I am allied to both France and Castille, who in turn are allied to eachother. I am, in a word, untouchable which leaves me free to colonize Africa.

[baywatch06]

After the last updates, the mission trees of both states have become better, but Venice is more interesting because it starts with 2 beautiful great projects. Both of them have good contributions when brought to level 3 at the beginning of the game, and the Venice naval doctrine is also quite effective. With the Venice mission tree, it is possible to reach and colonize India, China and Australia, but if possible, share the Mamluk state with the Ottomans. If the Mamluks survive and become stronger, they can choose exploration as the 3rd idea and can be your rivals. The mission tree in Genoa is good, you can go to Africa in a short time and colonize America, but it is more enjoyable to dominate the entire east with Venice.

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.