Civ 5 Venice Civilization
Civ Bonuses, AI Info, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings
Updated for Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLCs
Civilization's Leader: Enrico Dandalo
Civ Bonus: Serenissima
Venice is only able to directly control one city and are unable to Annex Cities or gain Settlers through any means. To offset this weakness, they get Double trade routes and a Unique Great Person, the Merchant of Venice upon researching Optics and in replacement of the Great Merchant. Venice is unique in their ability to purchase both units and buildings in Puppeted Cities, but may not change the Production Queue.
Unique Unit: Merchant of Venice
Gain one free on Researching Optics, otherwise replaces the Great Merchant
The Merchant of Venice is like the Great Merchant, but gets double City-State Influence and Gold for Trade Missions. Also special about the Merchant of Venice is its ability to purchase a City-State instantly, making it your Puppet. This is Venice's one way to expand their borders and can be very helpful when a CS has resources you want to control or has the potential to make a great City for your Empire.
Unique Building: Great Galleass
Requires Compass
Costs 10 more than the Galleass it replaces, but has +3 Ranged Strength and +2 defense, which is a solid improvement and gives Venice a strong unit to protect their sea trade routes and even bombard cities to take control of others on the same continent, as they are not able to enter the Ocean like the regular Galleass.
| Warmonger Hatred | Wonder Compete | Offense Build | Defense Build | City Defense | DoF | Friendly to Civs | Denounce Civs | War w/Civs | Deception Likelihood | CS Comp | CS War | |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 3 | |
| Other Info | Dandalo has a tendency to go for a lot of gold, and is pretty likely to found a Religion. The AI tends to favor a Diplomatic Victory type, so take those CS Allies away from Venice late-game! | |||||||||||
Strategies/Ideas for playing Venice:
Enrico Dandalo's Venice is arguably the best Civ for a One-City Challenge. You should start on Coast, but don't always (I've been landlocked) - you should likely reroll unless you are playing Pangaea, for you need that Coastal position to reach out and trade with other Civilizations beyond your Continent. Start at least one scout on Continents, two on Pangaea, as meeting City-States is extra-important to Venice. You can use your starting Warrior to protect your first Worker from Barbarians until you can get out an Archer to allow you to rush a Wonder or three before you begin exploiting your bonus Trade Routes.
A Diplomatic Victory is the easiest route for Venice given they have great Gold to Ally City-States. Puppeting City-States will take away their Delegates, but the required votes will go down. You should only use Puppeting on a couple of CS in order to buy Cargo Ships there and send them to Venice for +Food. Otherwise, us the Trade Mission to instantly give +60 and Ally City-States. You will have a lot of gold, for every time you research a tech or construct a building/wonder that unlocks a new trade route, you'll get double that amount. Use a ship along with units on the ground to protect those trade routes - destroying coastal Barbarian Encampments near sea routes is effective because it stops them spawning and others around the globe will harass closer targets.
Skip building a Monument and wait out the Culture or hope for +20 from an Ancient Ruin. Use the time you might (with Liberty) build a Monument to instead construct a Shrine when Pottery research is done. Tradition is the best Social Policy opener for Venice given it boosts specifically in the Capital, and your lack of need to build or buy Settlers will give you more flexibility in your choice of Wonders, letting you take advantage of the +15% production toward them heavily. Liberty also seems viable, for you get a "free" Merchant of Venice in replacement of the free Settler, but this is misleading as that free MoV will increase future costs and doesn't make the tree really worth it. The Tradition line just scales better for the later game with its massive growth bonuses, help toward early Wonder Production that will benefit your Society forever, and +1 gold/-1 unhappiness for each 2 Citizens in Venice. Piety would be better, and a whole more more interesting, than Liberty in my opinion but Tradition trumps all for such a small Civ as Venice.
The Colossus is a Wonder I consider highly important for Venice. You don't need to build or buy Settlers, so you can likely unlock the required Iron Working tech with The Great Library. The Colossus will give Venice two Trade Routes instead of one, higher profit from those Routes and +1 GPP toward Merchants of Venice. Of secondary importance is The Hanging Gardens, which is also highly desirable since you have only one City, and the Free Garden (+25% great person generation) comes free whether you're near a river or lake or not.
It's very dependent on who you're playing against and the difficulty, but playing on Emperor I have been able to secure the Great Library, Colossus, then Hanging Gardens in that order by rushing GL and making sure the required techs were done to try to begin on the next as soon as each Wonder finishes, researching Optics (MoV for Customs House) after all three were unlocked for construction. To aid in this, Gold can be used to purchase better production tiles for Venice to work and an Archer to begin offensive against the Barbarians and get CS Allies. Go for a National College immediately after that. The Techs to unlock all these buildings put Markets, Compass, Workshops, and Machinery for the Ironworks within easy reach while you establish some Land trade routes (easier to defend in the early-game) and from this point try to keep the number active at or near the maximum available to you throughout the game.
My getting all three Wonders in a few games to test my strategy was possible with a bit of luck, but playing on a lower difficulty it is definitely doable almost 100% of the time with a good start. I was lucky enough to have a few Forest tiles to chop to facilitate this strategy. +30% Production total to Wonder construction from Religious Pantheon and Tradition led to great success for me. My actual build order for a successful game was something like Scout > Scout > Shrine > Worker > Great Library (Iron Working) > Colossus > Hanging Gardens > National College, obviously getting the tech for them in that order. It is good that you pick up Archery along the way to do City-State quests and protect your lands.
Here's a short list of Wonders that are useful to Venice, ignoring optional things like Religion. It's not meant to be exhaustive, but some of these are important in getting yourself started then securing all the votes for that Diplomatic Win:
- Great Library Requires Writing - The free Tech can jump you to the Classical Era and allow production of the Colossus or a very early-game National College to set Science very high.
- The Colossus Requires Iron Working, Coastal City - Extra gold from trade routes, +2 trade routes for Venice and a free Cargo Ship. +1 Great Person Points toward Great Merchant
- Mausoleum of Halicarnassus Requires Masonry - Build this for +1 Great Merchant point and +2 gold per tile on any stone or marble resources, along with 100 Gold for each Great Person expended. Only build if you have at least one of those two tiles near your City, otherwise it's a waste of time.
- Hanging Gardens Requires Mathematics, adopt Tradition - Extra food in the Capital and a free Garden providing +25% GPP no matter your terrain. This will let you run Merchants, Scientists, and some Engineers and Artists to get you great people earlier without stifling your growth but isn't absolutely necessary.
- Petra Requires Currency, Capital adjacent to Desert - Petra provides +1 Food/Production to all Desert Tiles except Flood Plains, while giving an extra Trade Route slot with free Cargo Ship. Like the Colossus, it gives +2 Trade Routes for Venice as opposed to 1. When Archaeology is researched, it increases to give +6 Culture to the City.
- Forbidden Palace Requires Banking, adopt Patronage - You will want to rush for Banking anyway. This will reduce unhappiness a bit in your City, but the +2 Delegates in the World Congress give you some extra flexibility with your votes and may secure the victory for you later.
- Leaning Tower of Pisa Requires Printing Press - Gives +25% Great Person generation in the city along with a free Great Person of your choice. You can rush this, since you should try to be first to research the technology to found the World Congress, anyway.
- Eiffel Tower Requires Radio - +2 Great Merchant Points and a flat Happiness boost.
- Big Ben Requires Industrialization, adopt Commerce - reduces cost of Gold purchasing in Cities and adds a flat amount of gold to the city along with +2 Great Merchant Points.
- Porcelain Tower Requires Architecture, adopt Rationalism - You can afford Research Agreements with every Civ if you so choose, and this will boost the Science you get from each by 50%
As for Religion, you can exert a lot of pressure to Cities surrounding those Trade Route destinations and easily spread your religion, so it's wise to found one with Venice, just be mindful of other Civs' feelings and don't get hostile about spreading it - let it happen naturally by pressing it around another Civ's cities. You'll get quests to spread your religion to City-States, which helps a lot in getting those Alliances, saving gold for those that don't offer good Quests. For a Pantheon, I chose 15% production of ancient/classical Wonders to get the three I so desired, but +10% Growth would be the second choice if there were not 3 camp tiles for extra food, or many Plantations for Culture. For Founder Belief, most likely go for Tithe (Gold), but you should also consider +Culture for every 5 followers in other Civs, since it will help with your Social Policies when you already have so many bonuses to Gold Generation. Only consider the Religious buildings if you will be Puppeting City-States, as you would only be able to build one in Venice.
Getting to Optics quickly can let you use your Merchant of Venice to either conduct a trade mission (short run gold) or construct a Customs House (long run gold). Use the first two for a Customs House because of how scarce gold is in the early-game, to help you buy more buildings over the long run, and follow your own instincts to nab a CS Ally for the third depending on what City-States are around - a CS Alliance can be a huge help early in the game, particularly religous as they greatly speed the Pantheon and first Great Prophet, or Cultured for faster Social Policies.
Patronage naturally comes next for your Social Policies. It will help you keep control of City-States and increase the bonuses from them. Later, having every City-State giving you 1/4 of their Science and giving you more Resources will help your lone City to flourish, experience more Golden Ages, and research the tech you need to stay competitive. The Great People gifts will certainly help, as well. You should be mindful of who you are angering when you Conduct Trade Missions or buy City-State Alliances with Gold. Civs will get more and more angry as you do this, so spread out the damage if they are claimed and try to balance things out with kind acts toward that Civ, while keeping an adequate military to deter or ward off an attack. Else, keep your influence high so that they cannot steal the CS Alliance from you and you are not forced to take them right back, causing a diplomatic hit.
Compass is probably more important to Venice than most new players would realize - the extension of Sea Trade Routes from 20 to 30 hexes, followed by the Harbor which you will build for a further 50% range increase; it can also connect Puppeted Coastal City-States on your Continent (before Compass for intercontinental trade). The Great Galleass you'll get access to from Compass can bombard coastal Barbarian Encampments to protect your Sea Trade Routes while a Mounted unit or Scout runs about to clear them from the map. You can definitely do damage with the Galleass, but certainly have less incentive to attack Coastal Cities than to focus your efforts on Diplomacy with neighboring Civs to protect yourself and generating Gold and Luxuries by trading with them. Try to DoF with direct neighbors but do buy up land if necessary when a Civ settles nearby, because your 3 hex radius is incredibly important with only one City.
Try to be first to found the World Congress and you'll never lose your spot as Host. Gold comes so well to Venice and Luxury resources so plentiful that your City's happiness will be very high, resulting in many Golden Ages. Keep an eye on CS influence and give 250 or 500 gold here and there to keep them around. First priority will be Cultural, then Maritime, Religious, Mercantile, and finally Militaristic. You should be able to defend your lands if attacked, for you can afford to park a military over your important assets - unit maintenance is not that high and you will not be settling near other Civs to make them covet your lands. All in all, be a suckup as you're just biding your time until the World Leader vote, which you can win on the first try if you are careful about maintaining your alliances with each CS.
Later in the game you should definitely adopt Commerce for +25% gold in Venice and later +2 GM points from Big Ben along with its cost reductions, for you will be doing a lot of gold purchasing whether it's in Venice or any Cities you've puppeted. You should be rolling in dough from all the Trade Missions and your natural inclination to use Merchants in your Specialist slots. I suggest you fully explore Commerce to get more out of Gold in the late-game out of Trade Missions and the ability to purchase Merchants of Venice with Faith.
Go for Rationalism as well as you will have plenty of gold for Research Agreements to advance your Science. Since you are likely going for a Diplomatic Victory, you don't need to worry as much about what Ideology you choose so long as you follow Civs you may anger. Order is a safe choice, with Freedom second. As for the World Congress, be careful enacting Sciences funding if another Civ is already angry with you, but definitely Veto Arts funding and even buy others' votes to prevent it for you will get less Merchants of Venice. You should have the most CS allies and can repeal anything you don't like by the time their votes are counting.
If you can avoid War and keep your Science high enough to get key technologies, make optimal use of the double trade routes available, and maintain all those City-State alliances, you can probably win with Venice on a higher difficulty than any other Civ. Many players' first Emperor-Deity win will be with Venice, because they are a very simple Civ to play and the votes will be practically handed to you.
| Sid Meier's Civ 5 is a deep strategy game. I created these individual Civilization Guides to highlight the strengths of their specials and unique units. If you have an opener or tip for playing this Civ that you would like to share with other readers, please use the comments form below. Some Guides are in need of update and will be improved to a new standard of quality or altered to reflect gameplay changes in G&K and Brave New World. | ||||||
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16A fun time in Civ 5 to you two and you all reading this guide. PasteKBrain
My initial assessment saying you should make Customs Houses is kind of wrong with them. I might make one or two, but really they make so much gold from the trade missions that it's hard to recover that amount in the long-run with a CH. I think puppeting 2, maybe 3 is the most important thing, along with getting Forbidden Palace.
I really need to play them again, and might make it a Deity OCC. I won one of my first hard games with Venice and enjoyed the peaceful playstyle and accumulating massive amounts of Gold.
Sweden: Good idea, then they can lose all their money and we can be awesome.
Everyone else: No, Venice is on the same continent, and we want a big army to defend against it.
Polynesia: I don't care about your big armies, I am literally being killed by Venice here!Needless to say, the motion did not pass, and I am now setting my sights on Austria, my eternal city state rival.Sweden, the only civ on a different land mass is just denouncing me from a distance.
