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Milan-Italy-Roman Republic | Beginner’s Guide 1.25 EU4

Milan starts in one of the highest developed area of Northern Italy in game. Your capital of Milan is also one of the most developed provinces at start and after a few events it becomes a province with the most development. Along with that you have two end trade nodes next to you, Venice and Genoa, which means you aren’t really going to have economic problems at any point. Combine that with the monarch point generation of the Ambrosian republic. And you are looking at a world super power from fairly early years.

Main Impediment early game- Aggressive Expansion

I will divide this guide into Phase I, II and III, with each phase subdivided into conquest and diplomacy and a separate Milan or Italy specific game mechanics section in the end.

I intended to write this guide for beginners, but really it’s going to be for beginner-to-intermediate level players. The reason is that you can’t have a set strategy for conquest and diplomacy when playing Milan, you will have to improvise a lot depending on alliances and rivalries around you.

OPENING MOVES

  1. Get level 1 advisors. Improve relation or diplo rep. Morale or discipline
  2. Rival Switzerland, Venice and Genoa
  3. Ally Savoy, Mantua and one of either Papal State or Aragon
  4. Starting improving relations with Austria and France
  5. Make your Ruler into a general. And get a general from estates
  6. Move your merchant from Genoa to Venice
  7. Start building spy network on Switzerland
  8. Invest in becoming papal controller whenever you can

PHASE I- FORM ITALY

Provinces needed- Genoa, Milan, Modena, Verona, Mantua, Firenze, Siena, Roma, Ancona

Prepare to fight 5 or 6 wars to get all provinces.

Beginner’s tip: If you don’t want coalitions, you can play passive. Attack your neighbor, grab a province and sit back till the AE is below 10 for all neighboring nations. Then go to war again. And rinse and repeat.

CONQUEST

The War for The Swiss Alps

Beginner’s tip: The Swiss war is mostly optional. Switzerland will typically ally couple of neighboring one province minors, so it won’t be very hard. But if they ally anyone bigger, you really don’t need to fight them right now and you can skip to the next war.

  1. Attack Switzerland and call in Savoy with promise of land.
  2. Peace out with one of two options-
    1. Humiliate
    2. Get Waldstätte and Graubünden; give Bern to Savoy. It forms a solid defensive fort in the mountains to protect you against punitive war enemies from the north.

I really suggest going for the second option. That fort was the difference between me losing a punitive war and just barely holding on.

Rest and let AE die down. Keep improving relations.

The Venetian War

Beginner’s tip: If you skip the earlier war, attack Venice when truce expires using the reconquest CB, you take less AE and Venice doesn’t usually have a lot of nations in their trade league yet.

  1. Declare if they don’t have a lot of nations in their trade league
  2. Get Brescia and Verona

Hopefully Ambrosian republic event will have kicked in by now. This is the only event that I would restart the game for while playing Milan. If you don’t have Ambrosian republic event in the first 20 years or so, you are going to lag a bit. There are certain conditions you need to meet to fire it. We will discuss it more in the game mechanics section.

The next set of conquests will depend on the diplomacy around you and your handling of web of alliances and rivalries in Europe.

Machiavellian Diplomacy

Let’s start with some basic diplomacy tactics you can run, I call it Machiavellian diplomacy. It seems fair seen as we are playing Milan into Italy! This section is more for beginners, as intermediate level players will likely know all these tricks.

  1. If your enemy has a strong ally, wait for them to go to war and attack your enemy when their ally won’t join in.
  2. If your ally is allied to your enemy number 1, declare war on enemy number 2, drag your ally. Then declare on enemy number 1.
  3. Consider temporary alliances with rivals of your enemies. Or someone who wants a province. You can decide to share the spoils of war depending on how long you aim to keep the alliance.
  4. “Accepting would destabilize the nation” modifier. This next trick is usually handy for papal state. They are typically allied to one or two major catholic nations and you need your allies to fight this war. However, your catholic allies might have a -100 modifier saying ‘Accepting would destabilize the country’. This means they have good relations with the pope and are trying to ally them. You can get around to it by attacking a minor ally of the papal state and co-belligerent them. This removes the earlier modifier and your ally will come to war if that was the only thing keeping them out.
  5. When peacing out enemies in war, keep in mind what your near future wars might be and see if you can break any alliances you don’t want.
  6. And finally never take provinces from a war ally who isn’t co-belligerent early on. The extra 50% AE modifier means a certain coalition war.

Using all this diplomatic tactics, you can conquer all provinces over time needed for forming Italy.

The Ferraran Conquest

Get Modena. Mantua will want Ferrara. Give them, if AE is too high.

The Conquest of Firenze and Siena

Florence usually fights Siena. Whichever way that war goes you need to get Firenze and Siena to border papal state.

The Genoan Conquest

  • Find an opportune time
  • Coastal provinces and more trade power in the Genoa trade node

The Mantuan Conquest

  • Break your alliance
  • Declare on the day truce expires
  • If you are lucky they will only have a minor ally. If you are unlucky, they will have big allies like my last play through where somehow they managed to ally Austria, Spain and Russia. Either way you need to take Mantua province before starting your next war against papal state.

War for Rome

  • Make sure its your last war to form Italy
  • Usually has strong catholic nation as allies
  • Take Rome and Ancona only
  • Lot of AE + Potential excommunication + Occupation of Rome malus (till you click Form Italy button) + Refused to return Rome opinion modifier (ticks down eventually)
  • Get ready to improve relations and stay quiet for a bit after this war

You can do couple of others things to make this war easier.

  1. Convert to Protestant or Reformed
    • No excommunication. Only -20 opinion modifier as neighboring heretics rather than -50.
    • No Occupation of Rome or Refusal to Return Rome modifiers.
    • +1 missionary when you control Rome

2. Wait a few years for AE to tick down significantly (say below 10), before declaring on Papal State

You can form Italy in under 100 years while remaining Catholic, but it’s easier if you convert to Protestant or Reformed.

DIPLOMACY

Allies

Savoy

  • They want Switzerland provinces, so they will help with the first war
  • A flimsy but effective buffer against France and Spain.
  • Dissolve alliance after you form Italy, you have cores on them now
  • Consider not joining their war if they are attacked by Provence and France. Not a good idea to fight France on your own early on.

France

  • Try not to fight France at all early game
  • Their alliance will help against Spain
  • Keep improving relations from the start and ally whenever possible

Austria

  • Potential long term ally
  • Might rival you at start but usually unrivals you and you can ally them later
  • Their alliance will help against Ottomans

Bohemia/Hungary/PLC

  • Ally one of these depending on who is thriving well
  • Their alliance will help against Ottomans too

Subjects

  • Not advised for Phase I. Too much AE.
  • In my last play through, I managed to get Switzerland as a subject and helped them expand into burgundy a bit. They formed a decent buffer with 2 mountain forts, but it probably wasn’t worth it considering the amount of AE it generated when I vassalized them.

FYI, start making boats when you get the coastal provinces. I go 60-40 split at the start between light ships and galleys.

Phase II- Unify Italy. Neutralize Ottomans. Neutralize Spain. Lay down groundwork to form the Roman Empire in Phase III.

  • Phase I really was the hardest part of this play through
  • Italian national ideas are amazing and you get free reconquest CB for all Italian provinces
  • To form the Roman Empire, you need all provinces in France, Iberia, Italy, Balkans, Anatolia, Mashriq and few other provinces of Tunis, Fez, Cairo, Wien, Zeeland, London and York.

CONQUEST

Reconquest Italia

  • Very likely Spain will inherit and integrate Naples. Fight them and call in France.
  • Also have reconquest CBs against Savoy, Genoa, Provence, Papal state, Venice, Mantua and whoever else exists. Fight them one by one, it won’t be that hard.
  • While fighting Spain, try to get a foothold in Iberia.

Kebab for Dinner

  • Get a claim on Dalmatian coast.
  • Don’t expect to get too much war score for first couple of wars. Chip them down bit by bit. Call in your allies.
  • Once you get to Constantinople, its game over for Ottomans.

Berber Coast

  • Need only Fez and Tunis to form Roman Empire
  • But it’s nice to have a continuous border from Anatolia to Iberia
  • Sought out vassals as Berber provinces have 50% increased coring costs; Tunis/Tlemcen/Djerba/Algiers
  • Have 2 or 3 vassals at different times; don’t give all provinces to one subject

DIPLOMACY

  • Keep the French alliance for at least the majority of Phase II
  • Keep Austria as ally till the last And one of Bohemia/Hungary/PLC as allies too
  • Subjects in North Africa as mentioned before

Try to finish Phase II by around 1720.

PHASE III

Finishing Kebab

  • Ottomans usually eat up all of Mamluks by this time or the Mamluks only have a few provinces left
  • Try to vassalize Mamluks or release them as subjects. Use their reconquest CB for Mashriq cores.
  • Make Client States once you get to Diplo tech 23
  • Grab provinces and trace out a border to make sure no one else gets the provinces you need.

Finishing Iberia

  • Finish up Spain and Portugal
  • Remember to take the 3 islands in Atlantic too. I forgot to take them and later had to travel all the way to Spain’s new capital in Indonesia and Portugal’s new capital in Eastern Africa to claim them.

French Baguette

  • Main adversary for Phase III
  • Remember to get border provinces you need here too and get the coastal provinces in the English channel
  • Make client states when suitable
  • It will take a few wars to finish them up

War against the Great Britain Royal Navy

  • Need provinces of London and York from England
  • Naval warfare is key
  • Aim to land 200k troops
  • Keep 100 transports in Straits of Dover. And stack of 150 ships (mostly heavies) on either sea tiles. Land 200k troops ASAP. A bit overkill but this strategy will work guaranteed.
  • Grab provinces of London through York

Quick recap on Navy

  • Start with 60-40 split on light ships and galleys when you start making ships
  • After having about 30 light ships, switch to full galleys production to counter Ottomans
  • Choose the ship boarding doctrine for free navy.
  • Don’t be afraid to go beyond your naval force limit as you will be able to afford it.
  • After neutralizing Ottomans, start swapping galleys for heavies.

Tidy up Europe

  • Get Zeeland and Wien. They are likely in the HRE and you will have to fight Austria. Blitzkrieg them and get the provinces you need.
  • Get any Balkan provinces that are left

DIPLOMACY

  • Don’t let your subjects have too much land. Keep integrating them and keep making new vassals or client states for faster conquests. You need 190 opinion to start annexing subjects, so keep improving relations with your client states.

And that’s all the conquest and diplomacy you will need to form Roman Empire starting as Milan. In my last play through, I managed to form Roman Empire by 1778. I remained Catholic and a Republic for the whole game. And I didn’t need to go Revolutionary or fire the Court and Country disaster.

GAME MECHANICS

Ideas

Influence/Diplomatic- Influence is great for the reduced aggressive expansion and the extra diplo rep. It will also help with integrating vassals late game.

Diplomatic- Extra improve relations along with diplo rep helps with AE. +1 diplomat is helpful in improving relations with more nations.

Plutocratic- Must have as a Republic. Each one of its ideas is tailor made.

Administrative- Reduced merc cost. CCR.

Humanist- Religious unity with extra tolerance and negative unrest is a must since you will be conquering a lot of sunni provinces.

Quantity- Manpower. Land force limit.

After this you can go Quality, but it won’t matter because you have already won the game 🙂

Ambrosian republic

  • Event turns your monarchy into a republic
  • Event fires if you have a regency or if your legitimacy is below 75
  • Force it by abdicating ruler or accepting nobel rebel demands (lowers legitimacy)
  • As a republic, you can select one of the 411, 141 or 114 ruler depending on which monarch points you need the most at that time
  • Elections are every 5 years and reelecting the same ruler will increase their stats by +1 in all categories (capped at 6) but will cost 10 republican tradition
  • You gain 1 base republican tradition every year, further modified by power projection. So you will get at least 5 tradition back every election which leaves 5 more tradition of the 10 you need to reelect. You can make up the difference either by events which give you more tradition or by strengthening government using mil points.
  • Always choose to reelect as having a 666 ruler is amazing for monarch point generation.

Some people like to switch back to monarchy once they have formed Italy for couple of reasons- More absolutism for faster conquest as republics have a -30 maximum cap for absolutism; and get possibility of PUs, again for faster conquests.

You can switch back to monarchy if your republican tradition goes below 40 via events.

In my opinion, it’s great to be a republic because, you will be drowning in monarch points which is a rare feeling in eu4. And almost every other game you play will be as a monarchy and playing as republic is experiencing a different game mechanic which is fun.

Shadow Kingdom

You can choose to stay in the HRE or not. I always choose to get out of it, but you can stay in if you plan on becoming the Emperor.

Religious War

  • I like taking part in the religious war as I usually have time that I’m waiting around and not fighting anyone because of AE or manpower
  • +0.5 army tradition and -5% mil tech cost for 100 years
  • Age objective fulfilled

Extra Monarch Points

  • You will be drowning in monarch points if you stay as an Ambrosian republic
  • Use the extra diplo points to increase your mercantilism, you can increase it up to 100 and you get trade and embargo bonuses
  • Use the military points to strengthen government whenever possible
  • Use the admin points and any other extra monarch points for development
  • Use your deep pockets, to get level 4 or 5 advisors for even more monarch points generation

Absolutism

I had a max absolutism of 55 in my last playthrough and it was enough for me. You can do the absolutism tricks and get more absolutism. I don’t think it’s necessary to form the Roman Empire unless you are going for a world conquest.

Revolutionary Italy

In the age of revolutions, you can also go revolutionary by firing a disaster. This gives you a lot of bonuses and will definitely help in conquests. This is certainly for players who have a bit  more experience in the game. I won’t go into it in this guide either as there are a lot of good tutorials out there. If you think its too much work to fire a disaster and deal with rebels to go revolutionary, you can just be a plain old ambrosian republic and still kick ass.

Hope this guide helps the beginners to intermediate level players a little bit! Have fun!

Here is the video tutorial.

And the timelapse.