Last year I wrote a guide for my favourite Italian State to play as: Milan. Milan gets the Golden Ambrosian Republic which is a great early game government and the nation has the ability to form Italy long before Napoleon. However, that guide is now out of date due to changes made since 1.30 and some of the new DLC.
This is my guide for singleplayer using most DLC, but not Mare Nostrum or Origins or Conquest of Paradise DLC (so trade leagues are not a factor). If folks want to give tips for people using those DLC I'd appreciate it. Most important is the Emperor DLC for the mission tree which this guide will help you to complete.
The start and first month really determine how easy a game you're going to have. You may want to reroll if any other these things happen:
1. The Papal states rivals you (This is the main one and happens a lot annoyingly) 2. Genoa allies a large nation like France or Austria (in my game they allied Lithuania, so I waited for Poland to get a PU with them) 3. No Swiss Merc Captains have any siege pips
Starting Rivals
1. Switzerland 2. Genoa 3. Savoy (almost guaranteed to rival you)
Phase 1: Setting the Estates and opening allies
You start with a weak ruler and rich lands so we're going to get the Estates Statutory Rights and lots of early game cash.
1. Give the clergy 3 perks, including the +1 Admin point, and the +3 papel influence for each church built. 2. Give the Nobility 3 perks, including the +1 mil point and the right to livestock production revenue. That last one will give them lots of loyalty without increasing their influence, which will make it easier to revoke the Estates Statutory Rights later on. 3. Give the Burghers 3 perks, including the +1 diplo point, and the indebted to burghers. 4. Don't take any perks that raise stability cost. 5. Sieze land, call the diet, and sell land. For the diet you want one of two missions. Either Improve Papal relations to 100 (+1 Papal influence for 15 years) or Get a port (immediate claim on Genoa and 500 sailors when taken). This will free up a diplomat you'd otherwise need to use to build a spy network of 30. 6. You'll have no crown land and take the Estates Statutory Rights. Normally you're better off taking the negatives of low crown land, lower autonomy, and siezing Land, but the upcoming disaster and mission tree make that a bad idea (discuss later). 7. Hire advisors and set focus to admin. We're going to need a lot of admin points. 8. Milan can support 5 diplomatic relations; Begin by allying Mantua, donate to the curia treasury and the Papacy will ally you. If you have extra diplomatic reputation (ruler or Advisor) then Austria will royal marry you. You can ally them later. Any other allies are up to you, but I like to get on good terms with Castile.
Phase 2: The first two wars
Your first war target will depend on which Diet Agenda you took.
1. Hire some Swiss mercenaries up to force limit (4,000) who have a captain with good seige pips. Winning a war whilst employing them will fulfill a mission which lowers their maintenance cost and improves their discipline for 30 years. Once you get the Estates Statutory Rights you'll be over your force limit so disband 1 cavalry unit. 2. If you improved relations with the Pope then Declare a Humiliate Rival War on Switzerland. Employ a spot of strategy (cheese) by mothballing the fort in Como. The Swiss will march on it. Once locked in movement reactivate the fort so they suffer a -2 penalty in the upcoming battle. Once the Swiss Army is shattered siege down Bern. 3. Whilst that is happening begin fabricating claims on Genoa. 4. Make Peace with Switzerland for Show Strength. This will give you 300 monarch points. 5. If you took the port mission Declare war on Genoa. You should only need to take Genoa to win assuming they don't have a powerful ally. Take Genoa and Albenga. You should also release Corsica to remove Genoa from Italy all together. Now you have permanent claims on Ferrara, Bologna, and Ravenna. 6. If you did the Genoa war first declare war on Switzerland and do steps 3-5. Once done coring Liguria make peace. 7. Genoa should now be an invalid rival. Rival Venice. It should be around 1447/1448.
Phase 3: The Golden Ambrosian Republic
You can get this event to fire automatically by getting legitimacy below 75. If you're lucky a 100 tradition general event will do it, but otherwise just introduce an heir. The Ambrosian Republic is a very good government in game and I honestly don't know why (it only lasted 3 years in reality and was not very effective). It gives +10% tax revenue (more than Italian Signoria) and +5% Morale of armies. Paired with Milan's +10 INF combat ability and you have the best troops in Italy. Finally, unlike merchant Republics you get to keep the Estates rather than the rubbish factions.
1. Wait for the disaster to fire. 2. Declare a Reconquest War on Venice. This will cause Francisco Sforza to appear as a 3/5/4/2 general. Use him to defeat the larger Venetian army. 3. This War needs to end in under 4 years. (In my case Savoy allied Venice so I peaced them out by humilating them for the Splendor and power projection). Only take your lands back to avoid a coalition forming. You will now have claims Venetian lands in Northern Italy.
Choice: Golden Ambrosian Republic or the New Sforza Dynasty?
1. The disaster only ends when Milan returns to 0 stability and Sforza has either seized the country or been defeated. 2. The easiest course of action to restore stability to Milan is to take Sforza as ruler. When you get the choice between the Guelphs and Ghibellines sacrifice 10 Rep Tradition for +1 stability. You can get this event twice during the disaster. 3. Accept Sforza as military dictator (-1 stab) and then as Duke (+1 stab). 4. Stab up one more time to end the disaster with a 5/5/5 duke. 5. Alternatively, you can adopt a military dictatorship or restore the Ambrosian Republic. In this case sacrifice 1 stability for + 10 Republican Tradition. When Sforza tries to take over you'll be at -3 stab and need higher Republican Tradition to lower stab cost. You can lose 5 stab from this diaster so let it stay at -3 until Sfroza is beaten. 6. I prefer the Ambrosian Republic to the Military Dictatorship. The Dictatorship offers +10% Morale and lowers autonomy, but the rulers stats are normally random (roughly based on army tradition) and you can't disinherit or abdicate like with a monarchy. 7. Now at +1 stab future Milanese events and missions will give you an additional +2 stab and you can take the estate perks for cheaper advisors at higher stab cost.
Phase 4: Aggressively Managing Aggressive Expansion
1. By the time this is all done (1455) you should have adopted the Renaissance (or savescummed until it appeared in Milan) and have unlocked your first Splendor perk. Choose Justified Wars for the lower AE. 2. You should try heavily to become Curia Controller for the lower AE and extra diplomat. 3. Diplomats should be constantly improving relations with outraged nations and neighbours. 4. During the disaster alliances might have been broken as your royal marriages were exploited for a potential claim to your throne. Look to reestablish those allies. 5. Before making peace with someone see who will form a coalition against you and buy their silence with cash (once you become a great power you can also influence nations for another +25 relations. The easiest way to beat a coalition is to reduce its starting membership. 6. Espionage Ideas have a perk which lowers AE, but I advise against this. 7. Humiliation Wars are a good way of building truces with rivals so they don't join the coalition. Humilate plus gold is good, but if you have 100% war score you can also show superiority for 300 monarch points and a 15 year truce. Switzerland is a good target for this. 8. Invade Ferrara and Bologna. Be sure Mantua doesn't get a coastal province. You want a presence on the Adriatic for your next war. 9. In your second war with Venice be sure to take Split and Corfu and release Dalmatia for the reconquest CB they have on Venice, Ragusa, and Croatia. Remember that reconquest wars carry very low AE. 10. Keep expanding like this until you have completed the Kingdom of Lombardy Mission.
Choice: The Shadow Kingdom. Should you stay or should you go.
Most likely, the HRE will elect to eject the Kingdom of Italy and you can choose to leave or try to stay. If you stay and don't ally the Emperor then you will receive some bad modifiers. That said, I think you should stay as Trent will stay and some small Italian states might rejoin. Some might even become free cities which are always protected by the emperor. I recommend staying for this reason and only leaving when you form Italy. As long as you are allied to Austria (i.e. the Emperor) there is no harm in it.
Phase 5: Securing Milanese Rule
Milan has some great missions related to increasing Legitimacy/Republican Tradition and the level of Development in Lombardy. Assuming you have the Ambrosian Republic you can re-elect leaders and they will generate more monarch points, but re-electing them lowers Republican Tradition. This is not an issue for Sforza. These tips have no specific time, but are something you should be whilst uniting Italy.
1. Elect militaristic (1/1/4) leaders and use the monarch points to strengthen Republican Tradition to 75 and then 95. This early on only re-elect twice (3/3/6) as after that the return on re-election isn't worth it. 100 military points for 3 Rep Trad sounds expensive, but it will pay off, trust me. If you followed this guide you should already be close to 100 Rep Trad. 2. 75 Rep Tradition will complete a mission which will lower stability cost and increase reform progress for 20 years and unlock more missions. Choose the Republicanism and Frequenct Elections government reforms. 3. Be sure to revoke the Estates Statutory Rights in the 1460s so you can start to sieze land again. 4. 95 Rep Trad coupled with low unrest/low autonomy and alliances with Rome and the Emperor will complete a mission giving +1 stability and +0.50 Rep Tradition for 20 years, allowing for you to re-elect leaders regularly and keep Rep Tradition high. Your best bet it to lower autonomy and then provoke rebels given you are conquering new lands at this time. 5. Building 10 courthouses after this will complete another mission which will give another +0.50 Rep Trad for 30 years. Now you can re-elect the best rulers in Christandom and you'll need the monarch points. 6. Plutocratic and Economic ideas give a policy which can raise Rep Trad, whilst Plutocratic and Diplomatic ideas have a policy which lower the cost of re-election (and increases the role of woman in government so you can be very ahead of the times). 7. Develop Milan to 30 to complete a mission further lower dev and construction costs and unlock more missions 8. Develop Lombardy so the area has 150 dev total (basically double the areas starting amount). Try to have 20 dev in Como and 40 in Milan. This will complete a mission where Como will start producing silk and unlock more missions. You can wait for your 3rd national idea which lowers dev costs by another 10%. 9. Bank 1000 ducats and build five farm estates to complete a mission which raises the development of all Lombard provinces and unlock more missions. Textile factories are at level 11 and by then you'll probably be ready to form Italty so don't wait on this one. 10. Dev Milan up to 40 if you haven't yet to get permanent benefits to Milan and your overall econony.
Phase 6: Preparing Italy for a Punative War
1. A Punative war is bound to happen and the best way to survive it is to fortify the passes. Have forts in Como, Saluzzo, Trent, and Friuli (can keep the one in Treviso instead, but I recommend replacing it with one here). This completes the mission Fortify the Passes and upgrades the forts to Level 4 for free! Nowhere else will have these beauties before Military Tech 14 and you should have this done by Military Tech 9. Be careful about their maintenance cost though. 2. If playing single player enable scutage on Dalamatia once you have all of their cores so that the AI can't take their lands as part of a punative war. Since a punative war score ticks based on battles won you can hole up in Italy and massacre armies besieging your mountain forts and ride out the storm. Most nations with powerful Med fleets should not join so you should be safe from all sides. 3. Try to vassalise Naples once you have completed the Kingdom of Lombardy Mission. Most of the time Naples will either become independent and have to attack the Papacy, whereby you can help Naples lose land. Alternatively they can be a vassal of Aragon and you can use the Transfer Vassal Splendor perk to take it for yourself (Also get a province on Sardinia and release them as a vassal). Former is generally easier and more common. This will give you reconquests CB for Malta and Sicily and Sardinia in the next war with Aragon. Iberian wedding can delay this. 4. If you can, try to complete the Alpine Wall mission by getting Trieste from Austria, but don't worry about that mission line if you can't. Similarly, don't worry about Union with Naples and Destroy Austria missions if you don't get to them in time. 5. You should now have a claim on Rome and sieze it from the Papacy (break your alliance with ahead of this, but only shortly before this). Be sure you are still Curia Controller or an ally is to avoid excommunication. Otherwise be a Protestant nation. You should Form Italy between 1510 and 1520.
Choice: The question of religion.
As Milan you can choose between Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox (via Orthodox rebels spawning on Corfu. To do this send a missionary with not maintenance to try and convert it, this will spawn rebels. When 50 > of dev is Orthodox their demands will change from tolerance to conversion of the state. That used to be the best course. However, I now think Catholic is best if you keep the Curia as you have monuments which can help and Catholics also have a perk for +0.2 Rep Trad.
Phase 7: The Grand Republic of Italy Branches Out
1. Complete the Unification of Italy by driving out the last foreigners and annexing Naples. This will likely fire the coalition 2. Defeat the coaltion coming up against you 3. You should have a large enough navy to complete the mission and attack Tunis. Be sure to devastate the region for the achievement on Steam. 4. Crusade against the Ottomans. They will march on Corfu as long as Dalmatia has Scutage enabled. Trap their armies with you navy and then ferry soldiers to the island for battle. You will stack wipe each and every army, making the Ottomans easier to capture in the future. 5. Dismantle the HRE. It will block your conquest of France in all likelihood. 6. Vassalise Switzerland down the road to further secure your northern border and potentially conquer more of Germany. 7. Get a Conquistador using Exploration ideas to find Ethiopia and try to ally them. Would abandon exploration ideas after this though. This will give you cliams on Egypt. 8. Bounce between the Mamluks, the Ottomans, Austria, France, North Africa, and Spain and work towards building the 2nd Roman Empire. This should help prevent any future coalitions.
Choice: Army Composition and Monuments
Milan is meant to use mercaries rather than its own troops. However, hiring mercs causes you to lose 5 professionalism. So either don't drill your troops or lower recruiting standards before hiring mercs (give you extra manpower). You can then use this manpower for other uses
1. Italian Wars, Admin Ideas, Plutocratic ideas, and Milan's ideas all Lower cost of mercs. Use them in wars. 2. Use Wars against large powers like the Ottomans and France for cash. 3. Use cash to upgrade monuments 4. Use your manpower to speed up their construction. 5. Doge's Palace (increases Rep Trad which is great) 6. Duomo di Milano (Resists the Reformation and papal influence. Only upgrade if Catholic) 7. Santa Maria del Fiore (Splendor and cheaper advisors is great) 8. St. Peter's Basillica (Lowers idea costs and curia costs, but only if Catholic) 9. Malta Forts (Lower warscore cost of other religions land. Best if Orthodox, but is always great) 10. Royal Palace of Caserta (Governing cap and reform progress are okay).
Once you form Italy move to a professional army and stop using mercenaries.
Phase 8: A guide to Absolutism.
Republics have penalties to Absolutism. The military dictatorship only has a -10 penalty, but the Ambrosian Republic has -30 (normal). As the age of Absolutism approaches you'll want to reconfigure your Estates and government reforms.
1. Base 65 - 30 - 10 from frequent elections = 25. Very low. 2. Switch to Long term limits and Strengthen executive powers in government reforms (65 - 30 + 10 + 25 = 70). 3. Remove all estates benefits which cost Absolutism and sieze 100% of crownland (+ 15 Absolutism). 4. Switch to a parliament at the start of the age. It gives perks and removes the Nobility. 5. Giving out seats in parliament costs absolutism so give it to your best provinces before the Age starts and let them be automatically assigned after that (no hit to Absolutism when done automatically). 6. Court and Country Disaster should be fixed and can give another +20 Absolutism, but this can be hard for nations with Humanist ideas. Lower Stability and have a Cruel leader (65 - 30 + 10 + 25 + 15 + 20 = 105 Absolutism. No benefit after 100 Absolutism).
Consider becoming a revolutionary nation in the final age as their government is very very strong. However that isn't necessary.
Early Ideas
1. Admin is vital for coring those high dev Italian provinces and improving your mercenary forces 2. Plutocratic for the general benefits and policies that Republics get (If you are going back to a monarchy this is optional, but still recommended if possible) 3. Diplomatic for the policy pairing and ability to help keep nations out of coalitions
Later ideas (in no specific order)
1. Humanist will be needed if going for a Roman Empire Run. Religious ideas if Orthodox. 2. Economic for the policies and to further supercharge your rich lands. 3. Defensive or Offensive. You'll be sieging a lot, but defensive has many offensive perks and will make the Alps a fortress. 4. Quality is better than Quantity since you can afford to pay for a good army and Quality will also improve your navy. 5. Influence if you have lots of vassals (pairs well with Admin and Diplo).
That about wraps this guide up. It was a lot of fun to write. Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for improvement.
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