First Venetian Game, Colonization + Good Idea sets?

[Karsk]

First of all I want to say thanks for the responses they've been very helpful in all my topics.

Now to business: I see a lot of people talking about colonizing as Venice yet im not sure how it's done. I'm not sure If I can steer trade from either North or South America into the Venice node, if I did colonize, and I guess it would be carib and sa, could a merchant steer trade back to my capital?

The other possible option I see is that I could colonize the far east and steer that trade through Alexandria, has anyone done this/ anyone think this is a good idea too?

Finally since I am very unfamiliar with playing in Italy and with playing as Merchant Republics in general since I never did in EUIII. So I don't know what some of the good ideas are and just as importantly, what would be a good order in which to pick them.

Any help would be very appreciated thanks very much

Edit. Also since Venice is surrounded by very powerful states it seems difficult to expand unless I do it through colonization. With Austria-Hre, Ottomans, and Hungary I dont see any viable ways to expand in Europe. I always get a French alliance to dissuade Austria but that is for defensive purposes mainly. What are some good strategies and places to expand into?

[Xara]

The only trade you can get to Venice from the Americas is Mexico and California via the entire East Asian route, everything else must flow to Europe

If you want to colonize there, you will have to collect in Caribbean and cut off any of the others trying to send trade to London, Bordeaux, and Sevillia

[Bandit17]

Your game will be broken down into steps or objectives. First objective is to unite all Italian cultures under your rule and while doing so weaken the Ottomans(use HRE alliance) and than the HRE(use France alliance). 2nd objective is to solidify your position in the Mediteranean mostly done here through Middle East expansion. 3rd objective is to create a colonial empire. 4th objective is to reduce the power of France and Spain.

Now you can work on some of these objectives at the same time but that's how my campaign went. I understand it's much harder to expand now but it's still doable and is just a slower process.

Merchant Republic pros: Extra merchant and trade bonuses = more cash. You also never have to worry about a long regency or stab hits when your leader dies. You also can get to 100 Republic Tradition (RT) and keep the same ruler for a few elections in a row which ups his stats and allowing you to rack up some nice monarch points. You also get access to the very nice Plutocratic Idea line which is a must have imho.

Cons: Lack of royal marriages, no PU's and you can't diplo-vassal. Also, annexing vassals puts a real strain on your RT since it's not only harder to come by than legitimicy but over using your RT prevents you from using the nice Merchant Republic bonus of keeping the same Dodge through a few elections. Low RT = some negative events and upping your stab gets costly with low RT.

Since the revolution cb has been nerfed into dirt you will find it difficult to expand. Your best bet is an aggressive start and try to get Bosnia and Serbia as vassals before the green blob gets them. Allowing the Ottomans to expand will only hurt you later. Depending on the coin flip at the start you can try to get the HRE as an ally and this will help you greatly in your opening moves. As long as you maintain a strong alliance the Ottos should stay away and if they don't your navy is superior so no sweat.

Ideas: Diplomacy, Offensive, Religion, Plutocratic, Expansion, Quality, Espionage and Trade. Espionage is optional but the others I feel are pretty important. You can pick up Economic or Naval ideas for Espionage if you like. I took Espionage because having diplomats is the life blood to expansion but if gold is hard to come by than by all means choose a different route.

Here is a pic of my opening moves:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=176483440

If your lucky the Ottos will annex Byzantium and when you get the conquer Cyprus mission you can free it as a Byzantium vassal. Than when you take on the Ottomans you can free cores and the Ottoman power will be weakened significantly.

Trade: Focus on Venice, Ragusa and than Alaxandria and Constantinople. You can try collecting in Genoa sometimes and if you move your home merchant out of Venice it can sometimes be profitable.

In late game you should have a colonial empire in Africa and one starting in the India/South Pacific regions. If money is not an issue you can form Italy (a monarchy with Rome as capital) and this will help with expanding into Europe.