Milan

[Si GeeNa]

How quickly the strategic picture changes in North Italy.

In one of those long drawn out struggles against Venice, my Milan has HRE and the Pope among allies. The Venetians have been knocking on Milan's door every other turn and I have been turning in far too many heroic victories for my liking.

Having turned away the latest incursion, Venice proceeded to siege Bologna instead of Milan. I ride with my ramshackle units to support the defence of my HRE allies. The turn after I place my stack next to Bologna, the Venetian stack entered it.

I have no idea what has happened. Obviously a battle has not taken place for the stack in Bologna looks to be complete. (HRE also had a complete stack within the city prior to this movement.)

I think the crafty Venetians had broker a good deal, they had sieged Bologna and subsequently offered to "buy" it over.

My previous safe city of Florence is now exposed with a Venetian Bologna. In the strategic consideration previously, I only had to worry about the defence of Milan. With the current development, I have to concern myself with possible attacks on both Milan and Florence from Venice and Bologna.

The immense enjoyment of it all...

[Frederick_I_Barbarossa]

I would really like to know what the AI is thinking when it is playing Venice...because it has a tendency to do absolutely INSANE things...like promptly attack Milan and HRE even though it is in an absolutely horrid strategic position. I don't WANT to conquer Venice as Milan...I want to do business with them, but their stupidity forces me to unleash a can of Milanese whoop-hiney on them...

[PseRamesses]

I would really like to know what the AI is thinking when it is playing Venice...because it has a tendency to do absolutely INSANE things...like promptly attack Milan and HRE even though it is in an absolutely horrid strategic position. I don't WANT to conquer Venice as Milan...I want to do business with them, but their stupidity forces me to unleash a can of Milanese whoop-hiney on them...

Perfect oppurtunity to make them your vassals then m8! Then u can continue trading plus get a hefty annual tribute from them.

[DeathBUA]

I've playing as Milan now, really actually enjoying the campaign. I've made some interesting strategic moves just to spice things up for myself. I've pushed my Empire to include Bruges, Paris, Dijon and Marseilles in a line running north south and thats as far west as I'll push myself right now(and I didnt take over metz, bern or anything like that). Then I took over Italy(except Rome for now) and Sicily, Ajaccio and Cagliari, Tunis and Tripoli. Then since Venice was excommed I crusaded against Zagreb, took that over and that's when I had my moment of lets do something different.

So I initially turtled, raising funds, improving cities and garrisons. Then I built myself 3 full stack armies with 3 teutonic knights, 5 genoese x-bow militia, 8 italian spear militia, and 3 DFK's + a general. And promptly went north from Zagreb and took Budapest from the Hungarians, Krakow and Thorn from the Polish and now my encirclement of the HRE is complete!

Now I'm gonna give the Pope the whatfor, seige Rome, then push inwards from all sides once I've got some more florins and troops. On top of that the Danes are my allies but once I've jacked the HRE up I'll take them out too...

Really I can't say enough about those Genoese X-bows...they are so versatile, and so deadly compared to anything else that they should be the core to which your army is formed around.

[Mordon]

Question:
I've heard that spears with the "good vs cavalry" trait are less effective against infantry than their non"Good vs cavalry" peers. Something to the tune of getting a reduction in attack vs infantry if they have the anti-cavalry bonus.

So, really, two questions:
#1: Is this true?
#2: If so, does this mean that a Milanese player(before teching up to dismounted broken lances and such) may want to use Italian Militia and Italian Spear Militia in conjunction, with the Spear Militia serving as anti-horse, and the regular Italian Militia as a sort of "light line-infantry"?

This is of course assuming you have full armour upgrades available for both.

This would also mean one could keep their armies going even longer, as you'd be using multiple unit pools, and could field new armies more quickly...

Thoughts?

[Iavorios]

Well this is the point to play as any italian faction. All the spears whith anty cav. bonus are the best thing you can use against it. Espesially as a Milan you have axes to italian spear militia and genoese crossbow militia. The genoese crossbows are one of the best units in the game. Very good archers, and good melee fighters to. And they are availeble from city drill squere. So your armies as a Millan will be mostly made of italian spear militia and crossbows. And you can really make tons of them.

[Mordon]

What I mean is, are "Italian Militia" better than "Italian Spear Militia" at fighting in a melee against non-cavalry forces?

Currently my armies are a mix of Italian Spear Militia and Genoese Crossbow Militia.

I'm simply wondering if (armour upgraded) Italian Militia will fare better against other infantry than Italian Spear Militia.

Like I said in the prior post, I've heard that units that have the "good against cavalry" trait get an attack reduction when fighting regular infantry.

This would mean that non-bonused Italian Militia would make better infantry-vs-infantry fighters than Italian Spear Militia, who would form the anti-cavalry spearline.

If I recall, the game even calls Italian Militia "light infantry" while it calls Italian Spear Militia "Spearmen".

[Magraev]

I believe that is correct. Town militia has a small spear bonus too though, so they are not as good as sword infantry either. Dismounted knights or dismounted broken lances are the best foot infantry for milan. I think you need a castle though (bologna is an option - you just have to evict the germans. Bern is also good.).

[John_Longarrow]

Mordon,

As Milan, the spear malitia is better for you due to its anti-cav value. Your crossbowmen are better as infantry than the malitia due to better armor and a very nasty crossbow. So far I've found that having extra crossbowmen is much better than having the malitia around since it gives me more troops who can shoot without sacrificing combat power.

The spear malitia is better for use against cav which is why I have some in my armies.

[Mordon]

Yes, I prefer the crossbow militia as my all-around infantry(At least until I can crank out broken lances), I was just exploring possibilities of using more than one or two unit pools.

Every single catholic faction was at war with me in my campaign at the time I posted that query, so fielding as many effective troops as possible was important

On my next milanese campaign I'll be experimenting with regular Italian Militia for things like taking walls and other cannon-foddery things.(They are cheap, plentiful, and expendable; crossbows less so.)

[Zinian]

First time poster here, and somewhat of a Milan fan. (Only so long as you are Milan... ) Anyways. My general strategy with Milan consists of taking Florence on the 2nd or 3rd turn, and then converting it to a castle. Cagliari and the other island province off the coast are too isolated IMHO to use as "hard core" troop producers. Also, they can generate MASSIVE income if you have trade rights with France Spain and the Moors.

Keep a diplomat sitting on Rome, and get Rome to ally with you any way you can. If the Pope is angry at you for any reason, bribe him.
Congratulations! Now, any faction that attacks you just about anywhere on the Italian providences will seriously tick off the Pope, and become excommunicated. Hold off Venice until this occurs, then hit them with everything you've got. Also, choose to ally with the HRE so that way Heinrich doesn't decide to attack you instead of Venice.

Also remember that way with Sicily, Venice and the HRE is a matter of when, not if. If you can, secure all of modern-day Italy before backstabbing the Pope to take Rome. Also be sure to keep several spies flitting around France to make sure they choose only to trade with you, not attack you. If you take Bern, you can hold them off rather handily, although beware troops coming across the coast from Marseilles(spelling?).

Once Gunpowder opens up, you can really shine. The Monster Ribault is one of the funniest things I've ever used, and fully capable of routing entire armies if you are fighting a bridge battle. Musketeers behind groups of men at arms is my general strat in endgame.

Good luck, and keep your x-bows at the ready!

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I don't see a point in changing Florence in to a castle. Playing as Milan you don't really need castles.

You can start with buying Bologna of the HRE.

[John_Longarrow]

Mordon,

I've observed in game that Spear Malitia may not be as good at dealing damage as Malitia, but they can hold out longer. Their better defence seems to give them an edge against other factions spears and swordsmen.

I've also gotten into the habit of having my spear line just behind my crossbows. I'll keep the crossbows off skirmish and charge my spears through their formation to hit anything trying to attack the crossbows. If I get the timing right this means the enemy's charge is upset, they are stuck fighting my spears, AND my crossbows go hand to had against them. This trick has left many a dead Norman on the field.

[marrow]

VH/H

Everything went as planned,conquered Florence and Ajaccio (Sicily beat me to Cagliari) and grabbed Venice in retaliation for venetian attack on Milan.
Venice sent an army with 4 generals (including faction heir) and thus could never afford ransom (16000!!) so I broke their back in one go.
Cash started piling up immediately and queues were full up for many years ahead.
Pope is my best friend (I decided to pay him 750 florins for 25 turns...) but for some reason everyone is ganging up on me now, I mean proper.
The atmosphere started getting really tense when Venice allied with France and HRE, but then HRE allied with France and Sicily, Sicily allied with Venice etc...
On the back of that alliance the frenchies decided to block my ports only to get ex-commed and provoke my instant response.
Marseille fell immediately and I asked the pope to commision a crusade to Touluse, which I also promptly took.
That however pitted me against the Spanish pretty much straight away so now I am officially the most hated faction there is.
Even the Russians and the Danes hate me (poor & v poor respectively)...
Although I'm still on so-so terms with Sicily, they keep landing their troops on Corsica (full stack, inc. 3 NK and 4 DNK!) only to pack'em back on the boat immediately. I've been there so I know one turn they'll change their mind and besiege Ajaccio.
My own Milanese Pope is on his last legs (66 years old...) and the top dog in the college is a Venetian cardinal named Umberto the Missionary with full piety and he's only 42!
I can feel the rug being violently pulled from under my feet as I'm slowly but surely losing revenue - no one wants to trade with me - and I still have to produce troops for the war against France (marching on Dijon next spring).

I reckon this is quite normal though on VH, wouldn't expect less. Otherwise the Milanese are hard to match for raw power and numbers.
It has been said many times before but upkeep on their units is either completely free or cheap anyway so you always have a lot of men to throw around.
And of course you get Genoese Crossbow Militia pretty much right off the bat and they will see you punish the French & HRE on a completely new level.
All in all a very enjoyable campaign, even the units look cool in green (especially GCM with their pavises). Strongly recommend playing it on VH tho or it may turn out too easy and boring!

[Jason X]

any advice on guilds with milan?

specifically, does anyone bother trying for swordsmith guild in cities (i suppose the only practical way is build the whole armourer series in a citadel and then convert back to a city)?

also, does the woodman's guild archer bonus apply to crossbows, and has anyone tried for this with milan?

[marrow]

You can get a swordsmith's guild in cities later in the game once you've built a huge stone wall. Start churning out dism. broken lances and it should upgrade in no time, however this is a bit laborious and unlikely to come about before turn 80 - 100 (depending on farm upgrades and money) so it makes more sense to do this with castles. Best bet is to capture Touluse (the French usually invest in it) and establish the guild there. Best thing about Touluse is that it is a perfect cornerstone of your expansion into the Iberian peninsula and at the same time holds the French at bay. If you get SG HQ in there you can train some awesome armies. I currently have Armour Factory, top archery range and SG HQ in Touluse and my troops from there cut through the French, Portugese and the Spanish with ease. Plus, top archery building gives you mounted x-bows which are fantastic against Jinetes, especially with all those upgrades.

As for Woodsmen's Guild, I don't think it is worth your while as Milan. Genoese x-bows are ridiculous as it is and AFAIK the guild does nothing for them (don't quote me on this tho..) so you'll be much happier sticking with Merchant's Guild or Assasins' Guild. Just my 2 cents.

BTW, Famiglia Ducale are nowhere near as strong as FK in real life I have found so at least 1 - 2 castles is still a good thing to have.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

any advice on guilds with milan?

specifically, does anyone bother trying for swordsmith guild in cities (i suppose the only practical way is build the whole armourer series in a citadel and then convert back to a city)?

also, does the woodman's guild archer bonus apply to crossbows, and has anyone tried for this with milan?

Only England can build the Woodman's guild. If you capture one the bonus applies to all archer and crossbow units.

[TheLastPrivate]

I have yet to see England AI make woodsmen's guild, or even venture out of their island. Their AI needs some looking at..seriously

[Jason X]

thanks for the replies, chaps.
@marrow: my thinking was that a weapon upgrade would be good for broken lances from a city, but i remember reading that swordsmith's guild is castle only?

@monsieur alphonse: i now know (to my cost in my russia campaign) that only england gets woodman guild points when training archers, but i thought building the brothel buildings gave any faction woodsman guild points? good to know the bonus applies though, i might try getting one of my GCM producing cities to get this guild.

*edit* sheesh, WG is another castle only one, so this is another case of build brothels, convert to castle, get guild, convert back to city... bah!

[TheLastPrivate]

I think you can convert only once though, no?

[marrow]

thanks for the replies, chaps.
@marrow: my thinking was that a weapon upgrade would be good for broken lances from a city, but i remember reading that swordsmith's guild is castle only?

Eh, mon amis, I reckon I should put "don't quote mne on this" in my signature!
Thanks for that mate.

[marrow]

I think you can convert only once though, no?

I have converted several castles to cities and the option to convert it back to castle is still there.
Once a city grows past Large level (12k) it cannot be converted to castle though, so a conversion from a citadel to a city is irreversible.

[Nepereta]

I started my milan campaign a little like a lot of the venice starts. Diplomatic buyout of bologna -> take florence -> caligary -> ajacio. Roughly parallel to this set of conquests I try for dijon & bern.

I converted everything to cities. A good bet is to capture a fortress ( pre built) some other guy has built. I personally used Palmero?? (sicily) but I am sure there are other good possibilites out there. I think personally you only need 1 or 2 for the entire game the money you can make with the cities is immense and the militia are excellent and a very cheap alternative to the pros.

After cleaning up on these rebels ( Sicily is fast on Tunis in the 1.3 patch!) I would suggest taking north west africa from the moors using crusades ( bribe the pope if neccessary) once they engage Spain or Portugal ( thesse cities will be nearly empty) get your knightly order ( preferably hospitaller in Milan).

Timbuktu
Get a cav heavy army to rush down south to timbuktu. Jump start part or all of the journey with a readily completeable crusade for bonus speed. ( of course you will bleed troops if you appear to actively move away from your objective)

Get timbuktu's town hall upgrades and build a fort ontop of one of the ivory resources. Dump a cheap troop there and Keep filling the cheap fort every turn with a merchant. I don't whether this is cheating but it sure makes a lot of bread since every turn in that position will generate 300+ gold per merchant. Town hall+ ensures the Legal upgrades on the merchants. Try to power grow ( low tax + chivalric boss) timbuktu and work on getting the Merchant guild line ( which will be likely given the upgrades) and the constant stream of traders You'll eventually be getting merchants with high legal abilities and the two merchant guild traits if you play your cards right. Once you get 20 then fort up one of the other ivories and start filling that. Take Arguin whilke you are down there.

Increasing trader capacity

As you reach large cities ( hopefully as a result of being very chivalric in successive crusades) get into merchant banking! Merchant banks can give 1 or 2 additonal traders beyond those you get per grain exchange. The merchant bank upgrade is really worth while for this point + its shorter build time for the equivalent cost market upgrade.

Take every opportunity to wipe out the rest of the italians since each of the great cities is a marvelous trading opportunity. Especially once fully upgraded + Palmero makes a lovely central Geneose + swordsman base ( focused build here will likely net you a swordsmiths guild)

In terms of other bases initially I used Milan to produce x-bows. Genoa to produce shippping and general trading frippery. Its worthwhile desinating a second inland city for troop production. The sea cities should evetually have full upgrades simply to take advantage of militia troops( since you only get free that which you recruit).

Focus a lot of your build on making additonal cash and oodles of freely maintained militia troops and everything else will fall into place.

[marrow]

Dump a cheap troop there and Keep filling the cheap fort every turn with a merchant. I don't whether this is cheating but it sure makes a lot of bread since every turn in that position will generate 300+ gold per merchant.

Pah! Hat's off, this has to be the single best money making trick I've yet seen mate.
I would even go as far as to call it historically feasible, and it's not our fault AI can't match human invention in this respect. Sure, it gives you a shocking advantage, but hey... if you're strapped for dough it's excusable. Fair dues.

[Bullethead]

Just so FNGs understand....

The 1.2+ patches have radically changed the behavior of Sicily, so the general strategies laid out in some of the earlier posts aren't quite applicable these days. But this only applies to the opening moves.
After that, your economy should see you through.

Sicily will hit Tunis immediately with a family member and just about the whole Sicilian army. Leaving those troops there before Tunis falls, the Sicilian ships will return to Naples, grab some more troops, and head for Cagliari. The Sicilian army in Tunisia sometimes doesn't even besiege Tunis for several turns--I have no idea why.

Milan still needs to take Florence right off the bat, to forestall the HRE or the Papal States. But if you bring that army back to Genoa for reinforcements before heading to Ajaccio, odds are you'll then find Cagliari in Sicilian hands by the time you get there. Your only real hope of beating the Sicilians to Cagliari, if you leave them unmolested, is if pirates attack their invasion fleet while your fleet is not QUITE close enough to land the troops. However, this happens fairly often so it might be worth the gamble. OTOH, instead of hitting Ajaccio next after Florence, going to Cagliari next will gain you a couple of turns and usually get you there first.

More aggressive players might also consider doing the following:

• Send the diplomat to Rome via Bologna, with money in hand for the bribery necessary to cover the immenent aggressive war with Sicily.
• Send the initial Milan army to take Florence on turn 2 or 3.
• Build ships instead of troops at Genoa for the 1st few turns.
• Send one of your initial ships south to spy on the Sicilian fleet's position, so you can hit it with your main navy without having to look for it.
• Send your augmented fleet to destroy the Sicilian fleet after it leaves Tunis. This will strand most of their army in Tunis, whether they take it or not.
• Conclude the war with Sicily however seems best at the time.

Usually, on land, you'll have a free hand with Florence if you move there immediately. Your real rival for the other rebel provinces is Sicily, and this is a naval matter. Just remember that even with the bulk of the Sicilian army in Tunis, the Sicilians can still find troops to take Cagliari, so you need to kill their ships.

[Robespierre]

islands? schmilands. that what i say. trade? schmade.

Milan fans can steal a trick from venice. its this. send your diplomat to Bologna. offer trade rights and map info free to make them more friendly then when done offer 1000 florins for 6 turns for the city of Bologna. this done send your leader from Milan to the new city and the merc crossbows to link up with the heir to besiege Florence. the duchy rules!

then cannon up ready to fend off Venice. oh, and be nice to the papa, he's an old man.

[glyphz]

Ah, Milan... So treacherous in AI hands, that it becomes a priority to avoid them, disable them, or annihilate them ASAP. Once you become adjacent neighbors, it's likely that no alliance will stop them from having a go at your lands. In a players hands...

Playing at 1.0, (try out a few factions before updating to ver. 1.X), M/M, and no fog of war (bear w/ me).
With only little land to expand to in mainland Europe, tried a tactic I found very favourable early game: purchase lands, much more feasible w/ HRE and French neighbors.

So 1st turn, roads in genoa (plus diplomat)and ballista maker in milan (more on that later), militia in both.
diplomat to bologna (save first): alliance and trade rights, and...
Settled for bologna, vienna(such a rich city), and innsbruck for map info, military access, and 1300 for 19 turns. Cheers!
Sent spy to gain a bit of exp, combine fleets to port, disband most merc garrison in innsbruck, build more militias in purchased cities to slowly disband more mercs, besiege florence. uneventful 1st turn, no?

no alliances to venice, sicily, portugal, and moors, and perhaps hungary and byz emp, yes to spain and poland
best diplomat to marseilles, add reinforcement to besieging army (decided to starve, cardinal raises cats in milan, continue to build militias, esp in vienna, other diplomat to rome and sicily, build economy, while tech to ital spear militia in vienna and milan/genoa. once diplomat meets w/ the french (save 1st), i supposedly bartered for marseilles, but ended up with:
After trade and alliance, marseilles, toulose (sp?) and bordeaux (sp... , anyway they got it quick) for around 1180 for 15 turns). Nice!

First crusade
build up, first ballista ready. once florence succumbs, get your spy, cardinal +priests created, all generals except Faction L (too old ), and all available troops in north italy (while still keeping decent garrisons in milan and bologna to deter invasions, no doubt spies are already mingling and sending info). once ready call a crusade to tunis ASAP, and entertain the pope if you have to.
Ajaccio is 1st up, i got a mission for it and received 4 knights (they so look cool in milanese green btw ) reinforce borders, esp in the west or disband if needed (or why not disband other units in place of your free knights). send also in your spy/ies, priests to get exp, then next turn move to cagliari and tunis.
*keep both islands as castles until you have at least built a peasant unit or 2, before turrning to cities, you may want all your crusading troops to gain exp.
i had 4 generals in my one crusading army that besieged tunis, but b4 assault use your faction leader in italy and assemble his own crusading army (militias). tunis falls and all 4 had at least 3 command (8 the most), 5 chivalry (8 most), 7 loyalty (10 most), and 4 piety (6most). almost teared up in pride. oh yes i did!

i'm not done yet, not with my cooked up master plan (evil grin)
but that's for later
notes: 1. all of this done by10 turns or slightly less.
2. i find taking bern important, and was lucky to get it after a half stack HRE failed to. Got dijon too. actually took it along w/ bern as it was left w/ a weak garrison. sent parties from milan/genoa, marseilles (merc xbows), toulouse.
zaragoza also fell to me w/ troops from bordeaux, and reinforcements made from toulouse. *eyes* pamplona greedily.
3. bordeaux, ajaccio, cagliari, and tunis became cities. tripoli too once i get it.
bordeaux if i ever get angers. and pamplona (future) if i get toledo. (allied to spain and i want to avoid backstabbing)

2cents: in purchasing cities, i go for payment as stretched out as possible
Reasons.1. AI waits for me to finish the deal completely before planning to take back what was originally theirs, allowing me to build up (farms most important, esp in castles) and reinforce my border states (italian sp./genoese xbow mil, armoured seargents).
2. not too much of a drain on my treasury early on, allowing me to at least built simple economic buildings everywhere
3. dont take what is hard to protect. i didnt go after rennes (despite long term plans to seize the brit isles), and was taking a gamble w/ dijon, and zaragoza (high risk/high reward).
Hope , you enjoyed it

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Well here what i reckon you should do with Milan

Expansion
Expand into Florence, but then gift or trade it to papal states, as this city is a key target for attacks by HRE, Venice and Sicily. Then you should take Ajjacio to the south, aswell as Cagliari, which are good to fall back to as the AI is not intelligent enough to port units to attack islands by the sea. You might consider taking Bern to the North, but it is heavily defended so bring a strong army. Then i suggest either moving to Africa or trying to wipe out Venice, they become a threat and a pest towards the middle of the game.

Units
Genoese Crossbowmen are the one of the finest crossbowmen in the game, so i suggest you get them, as they are also good at piercing armour, and there is lots of that to pierce when it comes to HRE, also the militia and spears towards the start tend to be decent, compared to the mass of spears you get whilst playing England. Although they may lack cavalry to begin with, Cagliari has the first stable, so you can recruit mounted sergeants from there, but other than that you dont really need a great amount of cavalry, the generals bodyguard is fine for this point in the game

Economy
Aswell as serving as good military points, both Ajjacio and Cagliari are key economical points, as no merchants can go there, if you exterminate the population when you take it over, then the population will rise when you build, so these settlements can become key economical points. Aside from this, central Italy is one of the key diplomat areas, you will get diplomats coming from all over the map to exchange rights etc. so get as many trade rights as possible and you should earn alot of money

Navy
Aswell as being threatened inland, Milan faces problems with its navy, as there are both French and Rebel navies scouring the area. Build up a navy of around 6 ships andd you should be able to hold the ports in your area from blockadation.

Papal States
It is important to keep in the popes good books, as he does bad things to those who oppose you, when you go on a crusade, and are fed up with the settlements revolting on you, sack them and give them to the pope as a gift, he will not only like you more, but so will the factions who are favoured by the pope.

Well hope this helps on yor exploits as the kingdom of Milan...

[TheLastPrivate]

As of 1.02....

1) DO NOT ever, ever take cagliari/ajaccio. After 1.02 the AI has developed naval fetish, and will risk losing their mainland provinces just to assault these two islands.

If you don't take these, they'll land on Genoa, but that's a lot easier to defend than ajaccio and cagliari, which don't even make that much money early on. Once Moors,Sicily, and Venetians are eliminated you can take the islands, although still expect Spanish/Portugese landing parties.

2) Buy out bologna with alliance offer (they will break it first so don't worry) and a few florins, and as soon as venetians leave Venice unguarded hit it and kick the venice out of the peninsula. After that, build a fort around the venetian port "choke" and defend your peninsula with it.

3) After Venice kick out Sicily, all the while buttering up the pope. If they get excommed (or venice), strike a crusade down their major castle/cities and consolidate Italy. However, you can forget about Ragusa/durazzo as they aren't worth it.

4) Bern/Innsbruck offers very good frontier defense, use forts at the chokes.

5) Once Italy is consolidate the world is your oyster, although I prefer going west and south (Make Tunis your pope academy )

[TKaz84]

As of 1.02....

1) DO NOT ever, ever take cagliari/ajaccio. After 1.02 the AI has developed naval fetish, and will risk losing their mainland provinces just to assault these two islands.

If you don't take these, they'll land on Genoa, but that's a lot easier to defend than ajaccio and cagliari, which don't even make that much money early on. Once Moors,Sicily, and Venetians are eliminated you can take the islands, although still expect Spanish/Portugese landing parties.

Or, you can ALWAYS take Cagliari and Ajaccio. They are usually council targets anyway, so you might as well get rewards. After that you can either park flees around them and sink any army that comes close, or you can wait for someone to land there and then take their mainland provinces. Even if you lose the islands if you conquer the mainland you will have crippled whatever faction that took them, allowing you to dispose of them at your leisure.