Civ V Venice: How To Win On Deity With Trade And Comfy Gaming Chair

Going through several Civilization V threads, I’ve seen people really think Venice is the worst civilization ever. Well, I love playing Venice. I’ll show you how to snatch the Diplomatic victory in less than 6 hours of gameplay. You might have a great gaming chair at your back as well; you know that sitting for 6 hours can make for back pain down along the line.

Ok, so here is why people hate Venice:

• You only have 1 city. No settlers.
• You can only control what is being built in that 1 city.
• You can’t expand anywhere.
• They don’t have Unique Unit for battles; only Great Merchant.

Now here is why I love Venice:

• No fuss about where to settle.
• Double trade routes (amazing for Gold).
• You can sit back on your gaming chair and adopt policies that make purchases in City States financially viable.
• You can invest in several Great Merchants to buy city states.

The end game is the Diplomatic victory. You have to ally with all city states (provides the majority of votes necessary for Diplomatic victory) and you have to conquer at least 1 capital for additional votes.

I play Quick mode on Deity. You can win such a computer game within 200 turns. Just make sure to sit properly all the while doing it – I have the AutoFull pink gaming chair at my back just to help me keep my focus for 6 hours. It has to be said that I’m equally as impressed with the best gaming chairs as Civilization 5.

Start With Optics, Build Trade Routes

First of all, it’s nice if you get a hill adjacent to a mountain (Observatory will give you 50% science), river, and 100% sea as the starting position.

Obviously you choose the Pottery as the first tech, followed by Sailing And Optics. When you reach Optics, you will get a Great Merchant. Use him to buy a city state you can create a sea trade route with. Use the new city state to feed food to Venice.

Focus on building the Library and National Library as much as possible. Strong research is vital in order to produce as many trade routes as possible as quickly as possible. One extra idea is to build either Petra (you’ll need a dessert) or Colossus. Both of these wonders will give you an extra trade route. In the case of Venice, that translates into 2 trade routes.

Direct the trade routes to other Civ cities in order not only to gain Gold but also Research. Those Research points can make a major difference in the beginning.

Focus On Building Great Merchants And Allying City States

Built a Market and have a specialist in there. This will make creating Great Merchants that much easier. When you a city state with him, immediately (within 2-3 turns) create a food trade route back to Venice.

With the gold you get from all those trade routes, invest in allying with city states. Look for deals (and other city state questions).

Obviously, you start with Tradition and then with Patronage to get the best relationship with city states. Transition to Rationalism to boost research.

At turn 100, you should be seeing something like 200 Research points per turn. If you see that, you can comfortably sit on your gaming chair to see your wealth increasing.

With the accumulated funds, ally with the city states as soon as humanly possible.

Additionally, you can turn to Commerce for 1-3 policies in order for Venice to make more money and for the purchases within cities to be 25% less expensive.

Start Thinking How To Snatch A Capital (Or Two)

For a Diplomatic victory, you’ll need all the city states (which you can buy) and at least 1 Capitol (which you have to conquer). It’s best you create a quick grab-the-capitol scenario and then sue for peace.

If you manage to do that, you only have to wait for the Diplomatic victory voting.

You can accomplish all of this in under 6 hours; about 200 turns is my record. Really do think about all that gaming chairs thing when you’re playing Civ V. It takes time to nail down the Venice strategy and you don’t want to sit on a nail-down chair.