u/CommentLow982

In this series of posts I'm covering factions (now playable with the New World expansion) deemed Very Difficult by the game. I play them on VH/VH, no cheats, wherever I employ exploits or cheesing techniques I explain them in detail.

In every chapter I'm going to give you an overview of the faction, describe their starting position and then what I've made of them in the first decade (1700 to 1709, the first 20 turns). I see no point in offering a guide beyond this; in VH/VH saves this early game is where you carve out a functional and prospering kingdom for yourself, which in later stages you will use as the core of your growing empire. Later stages differ less for factions as you will likely have your most crucial needs covered by the end of the first decade and your overall strategy will have taken a clear shape.

Finally, I'm going to tell you what and how I did in my save with the faction covered.

Earlier parts:

1 The Knights of St John

2 Saxony

3 Quebec

4 Hungary

In this, fifth part I'm taking an exception and won't give you the usual annotated screenshots, Venice is a well-equipped VD faction and doesn't really need to look around for missing pieces to grab - the dilemma lies in where to use their potential.

VENICE IN 1700

Venice presents a fascinating paradox among Very Difficult factions: structurally, she's blessed with advantages that would make other VD factions weep with envy. A Major Settlement with all the essential city buildings already in place. A Cannon Foundry, an Opera House, an Army Encampment, and above all, and Admiralty. A home port at Chioggia. Towns at Udine and Verona with a craft workshop and a coaching inn. On paper, Venice in 1700 has more infrastructure than Hungary, Saxony, or Quebec combined.

But there's a problem. Actually, two problems.

First: Venice controls two regions, but they're separated by many miles of Mediterranean Sea. Venetia, the home region in northeastern Italy, is everything you'd expect — well-developed, prosperous. Morea, in southern Greece, is none of those things. A Minor Settlement with no additional city building slot. No port, though one could eventually be developed at Pylos. No tradeable commodities. And crucially, no land connection to your capital, which means no Trade Agreement slots forvthe port. Moderate tax income - and a land border with the Ottomans, useless for trade but triggering VH AI ageession.

Second: Venice sits surrounded by three powerful neighbours — Austria to the north and east, Spain (holding Turin, Lombardy) to the west, and Romr, Italian States to the south. The Republic government type makes diplomacy with monarchies inherently trickier, and Venice's National Trait is Italian Unification — which sounds inspiring until you realise it would require conquering territories held by Spain, a major power sitting astride every trade route from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

What Venice lacks, despite all that infrastructure, is strategic depth. She's a Major Settlement with nowhere to grow without immediately colliding with major powers. And Morea, that distant Greek exclave, is a distraction dressed up as an asset.

So the fundamental question facing Venice in 1700 is this: do you play as a Mediterranean power competing for scraps of Italy, or do you remember what Venice actually was — a maritime trading empire — and pivot accordingly?

I chose the latter.

THE VH/VH DOCTRINE

Before we get into the campaign narrative, I need to explain the principles that underpin every decision in a VH/VH save, because Venice's success wasn't about faction-specific advantages — it was about applying a consistent strategic doctrine that works across all Very Difficult factions.

THE AI BONUSES

On Very Hard campaign difficulty, all AI factions enjoy a 180% bonus to tax income, massive discounts on construction, recruitment and upkeep costs, a 50% research rate bonus, and enormous morale bonuses in battle. You cannot outbuild the AI. You cannot win a war of attrition. You cannot field "ideal" army compositions, because you're fighting with whatever you can afford.

Most players never finish a VH game — Steam statistics suggest less than 1% ever do. The usual forum discussions about "optimal full stacks" are irrelevant in VH/VH. You don't get optimal. You get functional. And affordable.

TABLETGAMERDAD'S MILITARY DOCTRINE

Obviously everyone have their own playstyle and preferences, mine are dedigned to meet the adaptive/responsive/opportunistic playstyle and my purpose-focused budgeting.

My standard tactical unit is the Brigade: two infantry regiments, one 12-lber Foot Artillery battery, and one general whose bodyguards double as heavy cavalry support. A full stack consists of five such Brigades, though I rarely field full stacks in the early game — three or Brigades plus army level support units (if available/needed, like siege artillery or light inf) is more typical.

Brigades are modular. They can fight independently or coordinate with other Brigades. They can integrate with or be reinforced by separate csvalry or stealth detachments - units with the Paths Seldom Trod trait that can (try) move(ing) through enemy terrain unnoticed on the campaign map.

An important note here: this applies to AI visible terrain, otherwise Fog of War applies to AI as well, they're not omniscient. This applies at lower difficulties as well, many players who keep complaining about AI attacking them "for no reason" forget that they might simply look weaker than they are. Many provincial capitals are not within sites from their borders. Marching forces closer, "flashing" them to the AI might deter or even interrupt their invasion build up. Remember AI doesn't count bodies or combat value makin ttheir military decisions, just the number of regiments. This is why regions with no garrison at all will attract even opportunistic backstabbings from allies. Whenever the AI smells weakness, they won't resist the urge, no matter what.

Before Fire-by-Rank is researched, Militia performs nearly as well as Line Infantry at significantly lower upkeep. So early armies are built around Militia-based Brigades. Later they are changed to Line Infantry, even elite troops, artillery support is changed to Horse Artillery for mobility matching infantry, and sometimes get another support unit like mounted shooters or light infantry with 70+ range. The 12-lbers aren't just fire support — deployed inline with canister shot, they function as early machine guns, morale shredders, landing sudden shock hits that collapse enemy cohesion faster than sustained musketry ever could. And the multiple generals scattered through your line provide localised morale boosts that partially offset the AI's massive morale advantages - doubling as cavalry support. Everything is designed to be adoptable, purpose based and as decentralised as the game allows.

On VH/VH, victory comes from synergy — stacking every available edge simultaneously.

The Dead Weight Rule

Here's the financial reality of VH/VH: any unit that sits idle long enough for its accumulated upkeep to equal its recruitment cost has paid for itself twice — once to raise, once to maintain — without earning it back. That money has a better use: future income infrastructure.

So the standing army is lean — an elite veteran core that provides continuity and battlefield experience. Everything else is raised for a specific campaign, used, and then disbanded or rotated into garrison duty. Campaigns are brief, decisive, and surgical by necessity. Prolonged wars of attrition are death traps when the AI outspends you by design.

The Prize Money Economy

Naval warfare in ETW has a feature that transforms early-game economics: prize money. When you capture enemy ships, you receive cash immediately. A captured galleon can yield over 1,000 gold. A 6th-rate frigate hunting pirate ships can generate thousands in prize money while simultaneously clearing trade routes for your Indiamen. Check my Malta guide for a detailed description of the Naval Superiority doctrine, and my 1v14 battle video for a demonstration of how to cheese ETW fleets.

For a faction starting with a couple if frigates — like Venice — this is a game-changer. Prize money funds expansion, pays for infrastructure, and bridges the gap until your trade network starts generating serious income. It's not a gimmick; it's a core pillar of the maritime empire strategy.

VENICE IN 1709

Fast forward a decade. Winter 1709.

Venice now controls nine regions across three continents: Venetia (Venice) and Central Italy (Rome) and Malta in Europe; Windward Islands (Martinique), Leeward Islands (Antigua), Trinidad (San José), Curaçao (Punda), and Dutch Guyana {Paramaribo) in the Caribbean; and Ceylon (Trincomalee) in the Indian Ocean.

The economic transformation is stark. Trade income (+13,508) dwarfs tax income (+3,476) by nearly fourfold — exactly what a maritime trading empire should look like. Add diplomatic income (+1,500 from selling tech for cash paid in multiple turns)) and basic income (+1,750), and gross revenue sits around 20,234 per turn. Expenses (army -9,317, navy -5,811, forts and town watch -744) total roughly 15,872. Net income: +4,362 per turn. Treasury: 5,896 and growing.

We are the top exporter of Spices, Sugar, and Ivory. We control 11 of the 20 trade nodes across the four trade theatres, Sugar and Spice plantations in the Americas and our first Tea plantation on Ceylon — roughly a third of world commodities trade. We have seven trade partners and no alliances, which means complete diplomatic flexibility. An eighth trade partner comes online next turn when the Commercial Port upgrade completes in Ravenna.

On the research front, the Drill School in Venice completes in three turns, unlocking Fire-by-Rank. We're nine turns from Joint Stock Companies, which allows Commercial Basin upgrades. We have a Classical University at Udine, a College at Verona (already upgrading to Classical University), a School in Kralendijk (Curaçao), and we're demolishing the Craft Workshops in Kandy (Ceylon) to make room for another school. Research infrastructure is being built everywhere.

We are, in every sense except the game's label, a Major Nation.

HOW I PLAYED THEM

Turn 1: The Great Swap

I decided to play Venice as Venice — a maritime trading empire. But in ETW's 18th-century setting, the Eastern Mediterranean is no longer the lucrative crossroads it was in earlier eras. The money is in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean. So the doctrine would stay the same, but the geography had to change.

First, diplomacy. I sold all starting research to the highest bidders for immediate cash. I signed Trade Agreements with all three land neighbours — Austria, Spain, and the Italian States — and sold each of them five turns of military access. These moves accomplished two things: they generated revenue, and they created disincentives for early aggression. By Turn 5, Austria would be at war with Prussia or Poland (they always are), Spain would ignore isolated Turin, and the Italian States wouldn't be strong enough to attack. The Trade Agreements and military access deals acted as additional buffers.

Then I approached France with a proposal: I would give them Morea (Patras) plus 6,800 gold plus two technologies in exchange for Martinique and the Leeward Islands. They accepted.

Why this swap? The mathematics were straightforward. Morea is a distinctly average European region. No tradeable commodities. A Minor Settlement with no other city building slot. No port, though it could eventually grow one at Pylos with enough investment. But critically, it's not connected to Venetia by land, which means it doesn't contribute to Trade Agreement slots. A trade port there could recruit Indiamen, but getting those ships to the Atlantic trade window takes five turns from Morea, then two turns for intercontinental transit, then another turn to position in a trade node. Eight turns total just to get a ship into the money.

Martinique, by contrast, has a trade port ready to go and sits one turn from the nearest Atlantic transit window. And more importantly, it can serve as a staging ground for invasions of the two pirate-held islands nearby: Antigua and Trinidad. Those are lightly garrisoned, and crucially, they're not in Europe. Territorial expansion in the Caribbean generates far fewer diplomatic penalties — fewer factions care, and everyone hates pirates anyway.

Playing a maritime empire requires good relations. Other factions are not only rivals; they're also markets or potential markets. You cannot afford to alienate everyone at once. Good relations (and careful garrisoning) are what keeps the AI from the "backstabs" so many players keep complaining about. They are hard to build and maintain - and easy to lose.

Martinique also has a tradeable commodity: a fertility-5 sugar plantation. Goods that could immediately be sold to land trade partners as well as sea trade partners. For sea partners, I picked France and Great Britain first, hedging in their inevitable Atlantic conflict.

The Caribbean Campaign (1705-1709)

While diplomacy settled in Europe, I spent the first ten turns building up. The Army Encampment in Venice was upgraded to a Barracks. Two towns had their existing buildings demolished to make room for schools — research tempo is everything on VH/VH, and Venice lacked educational infrastructure despite being a Major Settlement.

We recruited a small invasion force: six Militia regiments, three 12-lber batteries, and three generals. Three Brigades. They sailed for the Caribbean and took Trinidad by storm. The garrison — three Firelocked Armed Citizenry units — was no match for three full Brigades.

Then something unexpected happened.

The United Provinces took Flanders from Austria. France immediately retook it, then continued north and captured Amsterdam. That was the UP's last European province, and when it fell, the United Provinces ceased to exist as a faction. Their overseas territories — Curaçao, Dutch Guyana (Paramaribo), and Ceylon (Trincomalee) — all turned Rebel.

Suddenly there were more "free" targets on the board.

I postponed the planned invasion of Antigua and pivoted to Paramaribo in 1706, fearing the French neighbours might grab it first. Then Punda (Curaçao) in Winter 1707. In both cases, we immediately began repairing military buildings and recruiting fresh troops. By Winter 1709, we had rebuilt enough strength to launch simultaneous sieges on opposite sides of the world: Antigua (from Punda) in the Caribbean and Trincomalee (from Paramaribo) in Ceylon. Both fell.

The Mediterranean Theatre (1708)

Meanwhile, back in Europe, a second army had been raised in Venice — this time Line Infantry, that core standing army had to be established after all - now that we had the income to support it. The army sailed out with Admiral Luca Malfatti's flagship, the 5th-rate that had been sitting in Chioggia. Note that Venice starts at peace with the Barbary States - keeping our trade routes safe but denying us easy prize money in the Mediterranean.

The fleet sailed past Malta. And I checked the balance of forces.

The Knights of St John held Malta with a respectable fleet: a 5th-rate flagship, four 6th-rates, and three Indiamen. Malfatti's flagship could take them — though doing so while simultaneously transporting an invasion army was risky. If the naval battle went badly, I'd lose both the fleet and the ground forces.

It went well. We captured Malta in 1708. The prize was considerable: not just the island and its shipyard (useful for Mediterranean shipbuilding, though useless as a home port), but also the Knights' fleet. The three Indiamen alone provided extra trading capacity.

The Italian States, despite not being formally allied to the Knights, immediately declared war.

We sailed from Malta, landed the army under Rome, and took the city by storm. The plan was simple: the army could be ferried between Malta and Rome to suppress inevitable rebellions in both newly-conquered regions. One army, two volatile territories, and the Mediterranean between them meant we could respond to unrest in either within a turn or two.

Austria and Spain, busy with their own wars and happy with our Trade Agreements, did nothing.

The Naval Economy

Throughout all of this, Venice's starting fleet was working. The 6th-rate had been detached to the Caribbean on Turn 1 to hunt pirate ships for prize money. Admiral Malfatti’s fleet did the same against Barbary Corsairs. It's a simple but devastatingly effective strategy: pirates spawn regularly, they capture ships from AI rivals,and capturing them generates immediate cash. Over the course of the first decade, that single frigate and the later additions from captured enemy fleets generated over 20,000 gold in prize money — while I kept five frigates for my own use, primarily to have one patrolling both our coasts in America and the four trade theatres each.

Twenty thousand gold. That's the equivalent of several turns of total income in the early game. It funded expansion, paid for infrastructure upgrades, and bridged the gap until the trade network started producing serious revenue. Early prize money is king. Well, generally early money is king. We tax heavily - because we can, and offer local tax holidays instead, like in Rome first for public order reasons, second to help Florence emerge faster.

CONCLUSION

Venice is, paradoxically, the easiest "Very Difficult" faction I've played so far — easier than Hungary, Saxony, Quebec, or the Knights of St John. They have so much structural potential that I wouldn't even call them a minor faction. The starting fleet alone transforms the early game, and the Major Settlement provides infrastructure that other VD factions have to build from scratch.

The key was recognizing that Morea is a trap. It looks like an asset — a second region, a foothold in Greece — but it's actually a distraction that pulls resources and attention away from Venice's true strategic potential. Swapping it for Caribbean colonies on Turn 1 reorients the entire campaign toward what Venice should be: a maritime trading empire with global reach.

From Winter 1709, the forward path is clear. We have a foothold in Ceylon, which means India is the next theatre of expansion. The rich provinces in the Americas are controlled by major European powers — who are also our trade partners and markets, so we're not touching them yet. India, by contrast, offers wealthy regions and carries no diplomatic penalty with Europeans (except Portugal, who still hold Goa). The Mughal Empire and Maratha Confederacy are wealthy but fractured, and their troops — despite VH morale bonuses — struggle against disciplined European line infantry with integrated artillery - and now with extra mobile firepower with Mounted Tribal Auxiliaries from Guyana.

Venice in 1709 controls nearly a third of world trade, has no enemies among the major powers, and sits poised to dominate the Indian Ocean. Not bad for a "Very Difficult" start.

Thank you for reading, and tell me which Very Difficult faction to cover next — you have the list in previous posts. I have Gran Colombia, Genoa, and the Iroquois already played - and I’m playing Scotland now.

Feel free to comment, correct, contradict, or contribute.

xxx TabletGamerDad

THE VERY DIFFICULT FACTIONS GUIDE - #4 HUNGARY

In this series of posts I'm covering factions (now playable with the New World expansion) deemed Very Difficult by the game. I play them on VH/VH, no cheats, wherever I employ exploits or cheesing techniques I explain them in detail.

You can find the first part (The Knights of St John) here, the second part (Saxony) here, and the third part (Quebec) here.

In every chapter I'm going to give you an overview of the faction, describe their starting position and then what I've made of them in the first decade (1700 to 1709, the first 20 turns). I see no point in offering a guide beyond, in VH/VH saves this early game is where, carving out a functional and prospering kingdom for yourself, which in later stages you will use as the core of your growing empire. Later stages differ less for factions as you will likely have your most crucial needs covered by the end of the first decade and your overall strategy will have taken a clear shape.

Finally, I'm going to tell you what and how I did in my save with the faction covered.

HUNGARY IN 1700

Each Very Difficult faction comes with their own difficulties, and your first glance at Hungary's map will immediately give one away: she's landlocked.

A sizeable, but underdeveloped single region faction, Hungary sits surrounded by Austria, Poland and the Ottoman Empire, three Major Nations, each with a military force that could easily sweep away our “army” that consists of a battery of Demi-Cannons and a single regiment of Pandours, a militia-type light infantry unit. In vanilla Grand Campaigns Hungary normally emerges by rebellion or liberation, I'm playing them (as well as all VD factions in this guide) in Feral's most excellent mobile port. Otherwise they are a region of Austria.

And Hungary in 1700 is exactly that, a landlocked region cut out from the Austrian Empire. To the west, Austria proper and Croatia, to the east, Transylvania, all three still under Habsburg role. To the north, the Carpathian Mountains, and beyond them, Poland-Lithuania, to the south the Ottoman Empire. All that the monarch of the freshly independent kingdom, Bakoss has, is Preßburg (Pozsony/Bratislava), and plenty of poorly developed farmlands that not yet feed the emergence of the plenty of towns Hungary has.

What Hungary lacks, and therefore will need to acquire are the fundaments of, well, empirehoid, at least in game terms. Prinarily, a coastline with connected home port to receive and export tradable commodities, a military building of the Barracks line, or buildings or building slots for a Gunsmith, or an Admiralty to allow for the research and upgrades for Ordnance and Naval technologies. Neither does she have an educational, religious or intelligence/entertainment building, or a town to build them.

A side note: Hungarians follow theceastern naming convention: surnames comes first, first and middle names next. For some unknown reason ETW completely fails to handle it, leading to monarchs to be known by their surnames only (like Bakoss), and in addition to that, the database is full of female first names, so you are going to have plenty of female brigadiers, captains, generals, admirals, politicians and agents with female names like Orsolya, Anna, or Enikő. We had a Lady Secretary of War in 1709 in this save.

Since this is the first time in the series we're near a major war theatre (with Saxony, we were literally in the eye of the storm, and disrupted the usual play by taking out Prussia), I'm going to add an extra section for it:

THE SILESIAN WAR THEATRE

The Grand Campaign starts in a preset equilibrium. Curiously, when left alone (without a human player) simulations of the game show this balance is quite stable, hardly ever do factions successfully expand beyond 15-20 regions and AI never wins. This, actually is a feature, AI isvdesigned to contain aggression - yours. AI doesn't play to win. They are there to keep you from conquering the world. So their conflicts (while shaped by the butterfly effects of your own playing and random variations, show very similar patterns as well.

To understand them one needs to look at the victory conditions of different factions - the regions most wanted will be the focal points of decades long AI wars.

One of the conflict zones is Central Europe. Prussian, Polish and Austrian ambitions clash here, broadly depicting the real-life Silesian Wars and the War of Austrian Succession in the region. Hell typically breaks loose at End Turn 1. Either Prussia invades Saxony triggering their alliance with Poland or they go directly for one of the other two. Sometimes Poland attacks first, Austria almost never will, unless getting involved through their Anglo-Dutch alliance, or being declared on themselves.

However you can safely expect a long and chaotic war usually deterioriting into an all-against-all. For Hungary, the fundamental question is whether to enter this conflict, or to preserve good relations with their involved neighbours or turn their attention south first, to the Ottomans. On vh/vh this question is answered easily: you just don't have a real chance of taking on all those major powers at their peak, early strength. Whereas you'll find the Ottomans much weaker than their numerous regions would suggest.

HUNGARY IN 1709

Fast forward a decade (20 turns).

A season short of the first decade we have settled an old debate over a name: it's officially Konstantinápoly. If you look at the 1700 map, there are not a lot of Major Settlements with a Gunsmith, let alone an Admiralty slot. The nearest such cities are Vienna, Warsaw, Berlin, Königsberg, Istanbul and Venice. The first four are ruled by the three major powers in the Silesian theatre, Venice, although a common and reasonably cheap target for Mediterranean starts (they are typically allued to Rome only), could only be connected only through Austria, so that leaves us with Istanbul. She's three regions away and you start with no army. So there's not a lot of alternatives to a traditional "slow start", improving your recruitment building until you can set up a minimal offensive force (in my books, on vh/vh, that means 6x LI + 3x 12-lbers). Since we're playing vh battle difficulty as well, I employ 3-4 generals per army, they inspire nearby troops, so having them behind sections of your line partially will offset massive AI morale bonuses. If you play a faction with other such troops, use them, the bonuses are cumulative).

All in all, what Hungary has in 1709, after a successful Balkans campaign of Belgrade>Sarajevo> Sofia>Athens(liberated)>Istanbul, and the fiasco of an Austrian backstab attempt, losing them Croatia and Transylvania, is the nice, compact kingdom covering all the bottkeneck assets, Barracks, Gunsmiths, Admiralty, home ports, colleges, trade partners, etc. than can form the backbone of a successful ETW empire.

The agricultural upgrade program and a near universal tax holiday will allow those numerous emerging towns and ports to pop faster, in early midgame, and the three existing ports already allow for some trade from Other Goods alone, and stand ready to export whatever exotic goods we can acquire from trade nodes and future overseas conquests.

HOW I PLAYED THEM

On VH all AI factions will enjoy a180% nonus on their tax income, massive discounts on construction, recruitment and upkerp, as well as a 50% bonus on research rate. You cannot outbuild the AI (although you must do your best to at least catch up with their economies), so expansion is imperative. And for Hungary, going south is by far the most cost effective alternative. Turn 1 I made trade agreements and sold 10 turn Military access to both Austria and Poland, both were happy to have their own backs secure while facing hyoeraggressive Prussia.

Then a slow start, basically doing nothing but building up for 10 turns.

Then a series of quick and surgical campaigns against a dwindling Ottoman Empire, culminating in the capture of the jackpot prize: Istanbul.

Meanwhile we carefully nurtured relations with major powers, staying neutral, but gaining friends by mutually beneficial trade (don't believe people telling you diplo is "effed" on vh/vh, it's just harder and they don't know how to manage it).

The Ottomans fielded loads of poor quality melee troops with insane vh-boosted morale - basically the Maratha experience in smaller scales. Chain shot, many generals (doubling as heavy cav) and terrain are your friends againstvthem. And as usual, AI's stunning tactical incompetence. Pandours are decent light inf, and placed well might gain veterancy stripes fast from killing routers en mass. Not quite Legion Británica, but pretty usefull they are.

CONCLUSION

More of a slow start faction than an actually very difficult one, I put them 4th on my list for the lack of an immediate threat or an irreperable structural limitation. They are a fun faction to play, I enjoyed Hungarian Hussars, Hungarian Grenadiers and Pandours, and they also look quite cool on the battlefield. Wherever you go, go in style. We went to the Americas and India in style - later in this save.

Thank you for reading, and tell me which Very Difficult faction to cover next, you have the list in the previous post.

Then I plan to do an extra, writing up what it is worth it to know about what the AI in ETW does, and why they do it.

Feel free to comment, correct, contradict or contribute,

xxx

TabletGamerDad