Crusader Kings II

[Myth]

I started playing as Venice (Old Gods start) because I wanted a break from the norse and my Karling supremacy game made it so I own 2/3 of Europe as the HRE (which means I can crush face, but since I don't want to bother with 1 county wars there is nothing to do, bar the occasional excommunication of annoying counts who start getting big ideas)

Merchant republic mechanics are very refreshing and while some of the events are mildly annoying and written as if from forum posters (which just might be the case, like with the Odin encounter for the norse) I find them really different (and thereby - fun).

So, I have a couple of questions. First of all, since I started late I haven't kept up on patch changes. Now google searching for trade post seizure gives me outdated information.

I grew pretty quickly and I've seeded the sea region around venice with my trading posts. All but 2 of them are the property of my family. And those last 2 are really triggering the OCD perfectionist in me since I want a monopoly in that region before moving on the next one. But I don't have a way of getting them, since the miserable family that holds them just has those two and I'm much larger than them. And most of the time I'm Doge too.

I don't get a plot to take it over, and I can't declare war for the posts if by some chance I'm not Doge either. I fabricated a claim and managed to nab one of the counties as the local Duchess rebelled from Karling rule for a short time (the Empire of Francia owns half of Europe however so that won't last long) but the only thing that this got me was the option to upgrade my enemy's trading post using my own gold which somehow doesn't seem like a good idea...

Since the Basilea of the ERE decided to burn down one of my ports AFTER taking 100 gold in a bribe, I decided she should have a little accident. And so she did. And recently since i've become Doge and my house got a ton of quality members my assassination plots have become very successful, especially within the Republic. I got a horrible event where I lost my precious 24 year old son (all positive traits damn it!) to my nemesis. And since I stopped save scumming I decided I'd just plot to kill off that entire family as revenge, and in the process also see what will happen to their trade posts. A dozen assassination plots later (some with 450% plot power right off the bat) that family is no more but another one sprang up (which I knew would happen) and took their existing trading post infrastructure (which I didn't expect to happen).

So how do I take trading posts from smaller families within the Repuiblic? FYI the other merchant Republc got stomped by a Muslim Caliph and therefore is no more, so we're the only ones out there doing the trade thing.

edit: after a good while of searching and reading it appears that one must be weaker (ie. have fewer posts) than the rival family to grab their stuff. If you're the top dog (which you will be because you prioritize keep upgrades and tech heavily into trade practices and the AI doesn't seem to do so) and have the most TPs then you're basically screwed and have to sit back and let the AI outgrow you to get its stuff.

When you are weaker you have several options:

1. Be dodge and ask to take their ports (the AI tried to do this to me. I've since decided to never ever let it be Doge again, not to mention that I had an enemy Doge live up to age 86 after I decided I'd let him have the republic at age 71 since "how much would he live, really" and those 14 years of vastly reduced income really set me back) - must have fewer posts than them

2. Be a regular family and plot to take a larger family's post.

3. Be a regular family and declare war on a larger family for one (or all? Not sure) of their posts.

So yeah, rapid expansion like I did might not be the best idea. Having an early core of fewer but more upgraded posts might actually work better but only if a single other family gets that sea region. If 5 different families litter the sea around Venice it will become worthless. I still don't know if there is a way for me to get those TPs other than wait and hope a ruler would destroy my rival's TP and I'd notice it before they rebuild (highly unlikely).