I thought i would post my experience and lessons from my campaign with Venice. although reading the post above, a lot of what i have learn is there.

Venice is in a great location and ironicaly in between a rock and hard place. that being in between alot of cathlic factions and also on the cusp of the muslim world. The Trick is to get a solid base of operations first, using ities spears and crossbows, both units will hold you under pretty heavy attack if you can keep them focused on strong points. garrison well, and after the rebel land grabs pass, work on your getting 5 cities and the two island castles if you can to the south west. this should give you both the ways and the emans to make money and work on your armies.

it is most important to do things big with venice, if your going to get merchants get lots of them and make sure you don't let others in, same goes for spies, preist and assassin, i have an army of spies, preist and assassins roaming around esp. in front of my armies... this was something i didnt do very well for a while.


* tip Pavise Crossbow Militia work very well in open ground when stagged and skirmishing, if possible aim at the units at the back of the incoming units it causes a large numbers of kills. ities spears can hold any local factions inf at the start of the game.

*tip theres alot of rolling hills around, if you can attack from the hill tops.

rhodes and the other island are great for trading and for staging a naval base. i have one castle and one city, to allow for strong riads into turkey or the holy lands.

wait for the excummincations for milan and sicily , they will attack you and them take all the settlements you can in 2 or 3 moves, i wiped out mailan and sicily in 4 turns each...

after sicily you should have great castles ready to mass produce Venetian Archers, Dismounted Men at Arms, and Venetian Heavy Infantry, as they leave alot of the other units in the area lacking....

take your time with venice and you will prove to be a very strong faction...