Any ideas (help with HRE)

[PaulTa]

Any ideas for keeping Venice pacified? No matter what I do, it seems that they are programmed to want a war with me. I'm trying to stay at peace long enough to tech up to something beyond spear militia, but I can't get Venice to calm down.

Any tips would be great. I'd like to get a chance to actually use those great units I saw in the demo, rather than dreaming of them with my militia and merc armies.

[Valdincan]

Venice is very aggressive against the HRE, as they have little elsewhere to expand to. I would suggest rallying a large force at Innsbruck, and attacking Venice, it might take a few turns, but once its done Venice losses a large chunk of their income.

[Aenlic]

Venice appears to be hard-coded to hate the HRE. The first thing to try is to immediately send a diplomat to the Pope and make an alliance. Being allied with the Pope will help, and if they do attack then they'll be excommunicated more readily, making them targets for the Sicilians and the Milanese.

Try to get alliances with both of those, as well. With the Milanese and Sicilians on your side, or alternatively the Hungarians and/or the Byzantines, the Venetians will be less likely to focus entirely on you.

If the Venetians do get excommunicated, attack immediately and sack one of their major cities or castles. Make it as expensive as possible for them to rebuild and that will slow them down as well.

[Valdincan]

Venice appears to be hard-coded to hate the HRE. The first thing to try is to immediately send a diplomat to the Pope and make an alliance. Being allied with the Pope will help, and if they do attack then they'll be excommunicated more readily, making them targets for the Sicilians and the Milanese.

Try to get alliances with both of those, as well. With the Milanese and Sicilians on your side, or alternatively the Hungarians and/or the Byzantines, the Venetians will be less likely to focus entirely on you.

If the Venetians do get excommunicated, attack immediately and sack one of their major cities or castles. Make it as expensive as possible for them to rebuild and that will slow them down as well.

Getting a alliance with the pope might be hard, as the pope does not really like the HRE.

[Husar]

Venice appears to be hard-coded to hate the HRE. The first thing to try is to immediately send a diplomat to the Pope and make an alliance. Being allied with the Pope will help, and if they do attack then they'll be excommunicated more readily, making them targets for the Sicilians and the Milanese.

Try to get alliances with both of those, as well. With the Milanese and Sicilians on your side, or alternatively the Hungarians and/or the Byzantines, the Venetians will be less likely to focus entirely on you.

If the Venetians do get excommunicated, attack immediately and sack one of their major cities or castles. Make it as expensive as possible for them to rebuild and that will slow them down as well.

I started an HRE campaign today and I did indeed have an alliance with Milan, but they betrayed me after taking out France, the Sicilians also showed up taking that city next to Venice that I had, Venice besieged Vienna and Innsbruck as well as that city the Sicilians took. Now the Danes also came and wanted a few of my cities, including my capital in Frankfurt.
But, while my counterattacks always take some time, I can defend most of my cities very well and I got teutonic knights in Frankfurt which really helped. The Italian militias can be overrun by most knights above feudal knights and if you're lucky by merchan cavalry militia. Having a general or two in endangered cities also helps. I tend to block the gate with spearmen and once the battle is fully engaged, charge my general in. He will then usually make them rout if they are not too many.
My counterattacks come along somewhat slowly, but I prefer to have some good defenses first before starting any counterattacks.
Concerning the cheap spearmen, I think the best one can hope for is a teutonic order building, alternatively try to get feudal knights, they can take on most of the italian militia.

[Valdincan]

The italian factions are not to be trusted, especially the Sicilians.

[Beren Son Of Barahi]

I think the best way to slow them down would be to have spies to the south near the paths to alps, and forts of the hills, keep a garrison in the forts to slow them down and give you some room to build up and attack venice, the only way to slow em down.

[pevergreen]

i have not had Venice betray me in any of my HRE campaigns (i used HRE to learn instead of England) but Milan continues to attack me every 3rd turn with a full stack. I did kill two popes..but i am allied with Papal States, a vassal of Milan, Venice and Sicily...yet Milan continues to attack me, Sicily has a half stack next to Rome (i took) and are moving another half stack there....ally with pope isnt hard, talk to them, an offer of trade rights is 'Generous' (this is on VH) then Alliance is 'Generous' as well.

[Furious Mental]

This might seem like strange advice but I would say get rid of Bologna when the game starts- just sell it to some other state. Because there are three factions jammed into the Italian peninsula it always becomes a war zone within about 15 turns of the game beginning, and you will be at its epicentre if you are in control of Bologna. On the other hand if you get rid of it the Italian factions will mostly be too busy fighting over it to attack you. If you don't get rid of it my advice is to find some way to wipe out the Italian factions early on since in the long run prolonged war in the Italian peninsula is a huge drain on resources, and there is no way to be in control of a city in the Italian peninsula and not be at war with an Italian faction (and in fact usually you will be at war with all three, at least on very hard). Do not just capture the city of Venice and expect that to resolve your problems- I did that and Venice continually sent large armies to recapture it and refused any ceasefire.