Opinions on best nation to form italy

[BGR]

Milan Savoy or Florence?

[Yags]

Milan or Venice

[Rodi]

Naples, because you can easily expand inside africa as soon as you break free

[AC Denton]

Milan is a decent choice. You may start friendly with France. Though they may also attack you to force their personal union again.
France holds claims on Savoy provinces and will try to take them but you can ally Austria which may help.
I'd say Florence(Tuscany) is neither good nor bad, it's a valid choice. I'd avoid picking someone that'll be fighting on two fronts though.

If I was doing it, personally i'd start as Naples, as you already hold the largest territory and the northern powers won't really bother you much but are potential allies. You just have to break your personal union with Aragon, which isn't hard.

If you haven't done this before, keep in mind you'll want to take Roma last as you'll face a lot of problems for holding Roma until you can form Italy.

If you want to break immersion a little, you could do it as Aragon. You'll already be powerful and have Naples as a subject. You could annex (or conquer them in their independence war). Giving you Aragon and half of Italy. Then do a culture shift (increase development until the Italian/Latin culture is above 50%.

[CyPunk]

Milan has best ideas and is easiest in my opinion, while have good flavour and still being challenging enough. Nice government form if you go Ambrosian republic.

Savoy is most fun with interesting choice paths and flavour. I like to play them diplomatically and try to ally both France and Austria (now even have a mission for that).
You can occasionally get a PU over Milan as well.

Consider Naples as well. Had lots of fun on that game till AE killed me. Independence war is easy (or obtained via event, but the war path is recommended to get extra land etc.). Also have access to North Africa then. And forming Two Sicilies gives great idea set.

[reprodukTOOOOOOOOOOOR]

aragon

[BGR]

all wrong its ulm

[Azazel]

Originally posted by reprodukTOOOOOOOOR:

aragon

yes

[CreutzFeldJak0b]

Originally posted by Azazel:

Originally posted by reprodukTOOOOOOOOR:

aragon

yes

yes

[Stephano]

Originally posted by CreutzFeldJak0b:

Originally posted by Azazel:

yes

yes

yes

[Kapika96]

Florence. IMO they're one of the most fun and OP nations in the game. Their government (with the right reforms) pretty much guarantees constantly having fantastic rulers with no stab hits. It's great! Add to that they start with -10% dev cost (don't even need to unlock it) and you can easily become a powerhouse by just devving up what you have while slowly expanding and consuming the rest of Italy.

I'd also say Naples/Venice are bad ideas solely because they're not in the HRE. Having to wait almost 50 years in order to safely attack any of the other northern nations would be a right pain in the ass. Sure, both of them could join the HRE, but that really needs to be done ASAP otherwise you'll be too big, plus if Austria decide they don't like you then it's basically impossible.

[Marquoz]

Venice is my top pick. You ally Austria (plus maybe Poland and Hungary) and go crazy. Day 1 you can start fabricating on Byzantium and vassalize it before the Ottomans take it. That enables you to tear the Ottomans apart and conquer the entire Balkans and Anatolia. You expand down the east coast of Italy into Papal States land and Naples at the same time, and your alliance with Austria may enable you to pick up a few northern Italian provinces before the Shadow Kingdom resolves if wars work out right. If not, who cares? You'll be the #1 great power in the world after eating the Ottomans, Serbia, Bosnia, and so on, with the Mamluks and the rest of Italy next to fall. Diplo-vassalization of the smaller Italian states even becomes a possibility once you're a colossus.

It's a very easy run. You form Italy a bit slower than an HRE start, but your overall power level is way higher.

[Marquoz]

This thread inspired me to start a new Venice game, lol. It's January of 1451 and things are going well so far:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2364303137

Austria and Poland are my allies, and Byzantium is a vassal. Once I accumulate enough favors, I'll declare a reconquest war on the Ottomans for the Byz cores. I also just took Urbino and Ancona from the Papal State. They were allied with Bologna, so I snagged it, too.

My next expansion target is Herzegovina--I have claims on both provinces. After that, I'm gunning for Albania and Ferrara, who are each other's only allies. Albania is doing well so far and ate most of Serbia, but Ferrara is my real target. I'm looking forward to being able to march troops up and down the east coast of Italy and to the additional trade power from the Po estuary.

[Marquoz]

It's 1474 now, and there are many important changes since the last screenshot:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2365412456

The biggest, obviously, is that I'm annexing Byzantium and have recovered all of its cores from the Ottomans. I've also conquered Herzegovina, Ragusa, and most of what was once Albania (Serbia took the rest). I'm on the way to complete control of the Ragusa and Constantinople trade nodes, important feeders to Venice.

I've also force-vassalized Ferrara and Florence (which was reduced to an OPM by the Papal States; they only control Pisa. I'll use their old cores to take more key territory from the Papacy. The Shadow Kingdom Imperial incident finished in 1466 or so, so all of Italy is now available to conquer or inherit. I'm also no longer a Republic--I just became a dictatorship on the way to being a normal monarchy. Personally, I'd rather have access to estate mechanics, personal unions, higher absolutism, and royal marriages. Italy here we come!

My next moves will be another war against the Ottomans to eat more of their European territory and a war with the Papal States to recover Florence's cores. Austria got the personal union with Hungary, so I'll eventually have to betray them to take over the rest of the Adriatic coast, but that will have to wait. I think I'll replace them with France as an ally, when the time comes.

[BGR]

Originally posted by Marquoz:

It's 1474 now, and there are many important changes since the last screenshot:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2365412456

The biggest, obviously, is that I'm annexing Byzantium and have recovered all of its cores from the Ottomans. I've also conquered Herzegovina, Ragusa, and most of what was once Albania (Serbia took the rest). I'm on the way to complete control of the Ragusa and Constantinople trade nodes, important feeders to Venice.

I've also force-vassalized Ferrara and Florence (which was reduced to an OPM by the Papal States; they only control Pisa. I'll use their old cores to take more key territory from the Papacy. The Shadow Kingdom Imperial incident finished in 1466 or so, so all of Italy is now available to conquer or inherit. I'm also no longer a Republic--I just became a dictatorship on the way to being a normal monarchy. Personally, I'd rather have access to estate mechanics, personal unions, higher absolutism, and royal marriages. Italy here we come!

My next moves will be another war against the Ottomans to eat more of their European territory and a war with the Papal States to recover Florence's cores. Austria got the personal union with Hungary, so I'll eventually have to betray them to take over the rest of the Adriatic coast, but that will have to wait. I think I'll replace them with France as an ally, when the time comes.

no one asked

[Marquoz]

I see you're living up to your name again.