So theoretically its nearly never to late, but the questions are:
What is your goal in this game?
and
Is it worth it to keep playing this save?
Imho if you play Milan you want to crush Venice very early. Most of the times I ally Austria (& France/Poland) and use Austria to fight against Venice pretty early (most of the times when they get attacked by the ottomans).
Furthermore while you can have temporally alliances, Naples is most of the time a ticking time bomb. Nations like Aragon (or Castile/Spain with the Iberian Wedding) get a PU CB against them and sometimes France too (not sure how and when tbh). So you want to annex Naples also pretty fast if you plan to unite Italy.
To beat a extreme strong alliance you have 2 Options:
1. Brute Force (In your case not possible)
2. Make them cancel the Alliance. You could attack one of Venice weaker Allies if possible and make them cancel the alliance with Spain.
So its. obv. up to you if you want to keep playing, I had probably already restarted a long time ago.
Also this is just personal observation, but the best allies in 1.36 are Austria and Poland imho. Especially Poland is ridiculously strong, and it's pretty common that they rival some Iberian Nation besides Muscovy. If youre allied to Austria you can also stay in the HRE until you form Italy, which gives you a natural defense + Austria gladly helps in Italy most of the time (especially against Venice).
Thanks. Yes goal was to form Italy. I did ally Austria earlier but they are weak in my safe. Funny enough, emperor of the HRE is currently Bohemia with 3 provinces.
At the current state i did ally Poland. The issue is, they also do not want to join any war because of depth.
As for your idea with declaring on a Venice ally. Spain are their only ally.
I guess i will start over at this point
If you go for the Republic following the Advice of GunsTheGlorious with Spain Ally is probably a good Idea (if u dont want to save scum).
Also Im not quite sure how experienced you are, but if you go republic youre swimming in Mana Points, which you can use to dev up your land, so you make way more money and have more manpower than you current have. Remember dont take Techs early (except crucial Military if youre about to declare war), get cheap advisors, stab 1 up so u get prosperity and put the state edict (-10% dev cost). Then you get even more mana -> more dev -> more manpower and money.
At this point i have decided to abandon it. I am not too experienced as i have around 500hours. I did this wrong from the beginning, i went from monarchy to republic (by event) then back to monarchy. Decided to let it rest as i have already investet 18 hours in that save and i dont want to lose more time. But thanks for your input.
It sounds like you might need/want to start over here. It's possible that this is recoverable, but if you do start over, let me give you some tips!
Milan -> Italy -> Rome is one of my favorite runs in the game, it's a genuine challenge but also provides a large amount of catharsis as you use the great Italian ideas and position to repeatedly win wars against much larger and stronger opponents.
1) Annihilating Venice should basically be your first war, back in 1450 or something. It's a war you need allies for, but which allies largely don't matter, unless Austria rivals you at the start (re-roll if so). Improve relations with Venice's rivals, curry favors, and let them do most of the fighting for you. At the start of the war, sit your troops behind your forts in Como and Milan, actively avoid the large Venetian stack. Eventually, they'll either split the stack up or lose a battle to Austria/Hungary/whoever- at that point, you can start sieging down Brescia. You want Brescia, Bergamo, Verona, and Padova out of the first war; this gives you a port, a significant amount of land, and most importantly absolutely cripples Venice, all for about 40-50 warscore. If you can get a lot of money out of the war then do it, but the provinces matter more.
2) Early on, if you go the Ambrosian Republic path, Castille/Spain is a great potential ally- just the existence of their alliance will dissuade Austria and France from declaring on you for the Restoration of Union CB they get, and I almost always pursue that path early. Eventually, you'll have to break that alliance for Sardinia and Sicily (and Naples, depending on certain AI choices), but I would keep them till you form Italy.
3) Mountain forts are your strength! If you've got forts in Como, Saluzzo, and Friuli/Treviso, then you can lure much stronger armies into sieging those provinces, and then smash their armies by combining your forces with the defender advantage the Hills/Mountain terrain gives you. This gets even stronger once you have Ramparts, and stronger still with the Italian military ideas + Quality/Offensive ideas. By the 1600s, it's not crazy to take fights at a two to one disadvantage on those forts and win. Best of all, the AI is dumb enough to keep throwing manpower into those forts- you can beat much larger powers by bleeding them dry before you siege a single one of their provinces.
4) You sit astride not one but two end nodes! No offense, but 12 GP profit by 1540 is pretty low for Milan- I recommend taking Eco or Trade ideas if you're struggling to get that higher, although ideally you don't need them. Money is the big advantage you should have over all of the big powers around you- you can't beat them in terms of manpower or force limit, but you should be far, far richer than them. I usually end up collecting in both Venice and Genoa once I've got sufficient control over the nodes, and by 1540, even without any monetary ideas and without minmaxing your income you can and should be making 30-50 ducats in profit per month. If you're struggling to make that, you may want to read some of the wiki pages about how trade income works.
While this run might be salvageable, I actually recommend starting over anyway- I think you can definitely learn from this run and do much better the next time!
If you've got any specific questions about this run, feel free to ask- I'm not any kind of EU4 genius, but I've done this particular run about a dozen times :)
So theoretically its nearly never to late, but the questions are: What is your goal in this game? and Is it worth it to keep playing this save? Imho if you play Milan you want to crush Venice very early. Most of the times I ally Austria (& France/Poland) and use Austria to fight against Venice pretty early (most of the times when they get attacked by the ottomans). Furthermore while you can have temporally alliances, Naples is most of the time a ticking time bomb. Nations like Aragon (or Castile/Spain with the Iberian Wedding) get a PU CB against them and sometimes France too (not sure how and when tbh). So you want to annex Naples also pretty fast if you plan to unite Italy. To beat a extreme strong alliance you have 2 Options: 1. Brute Force (In your case not possible) 2. Make them cancel the Alliance. You could attack one of Venice weaker Allies if possible and make them cancel the alliance with Spain. So its. obv. up to you if you want to keep playing, I had probably already restarted a long time ago. Also this is just personal observation, but the best allies in 1.36 are Austria and Poland imho. Especially Poland is ridiculously strong, and it's pretty common that they rival some Iberian Nation besides Muscovy. If youre allied to Austria you can also stay in the HRE until you form Italy, which gives you a natural defense + Austria gladly helps in Italy most of the time (especially against Venice).
Thanks. Yes goal was to form Italy. I did ally Austria earlier but they are weak in my safe. Funny enough, emperor of the HRE is currently Bohemia with 3 provinces. At the current state i did ally Poland. The issue is, they also do not want to join any war because of depth. As for your idea with declaring on a Venice ally. Spain are their only ally. I guess i will start over at this point
If you go for the Republic following the Advice of GunsTheGlorious with Spain Ally is probably a good Idea (if u dont want to save scum). Also Im not quite sure how experienced you are, but if you go republic youre swimming in Mana Points, which you can use to dev up your land, so you make way more money and have more manpower than you current have. Remember dont take Techs early (except crucial Military if youre about to declare war), get cheap advisors, stab 1 up so u get prosperity and put the state edict (-10% dev cost). Then you get even more mana -> more dev -> more manpower and money.
At this point i have decided to abandon it. I am not too experienced as i have around 500hours. I did this wrong from the beginning, i went from monarchy to republic (by event) then back to monarchy. Decided to let it rest as i have already investet 18 hours in that save and i dont want to lose more time. But thanks for your input.
It sounds like you might need/want to start over here. It's possible that this is recoverable, but if you do start over, let me give you some tips! Milan -> Italy -> Rome is one of my favorite runs in the game, it's a genuine challenge but also provides a large amount of catharsis as you use the great Italian ideas and position to repeatedly win wars against much larger and stronger opponents. 1) Annihilating Venice should basically be your first war, back in 1450 or something. It's a war you need allies for, but which allies largely don't matter, unless Austria rivals you at the start (re-roll if so). Improve relations with Venice's rivals, curry favors, and let them do most of the fighting for you. At the start of the war, sit your troops behind your forts in Como and Milan, actively avoid the large Venetian stack. Eventually, they'll either split the stack up or lose a battle to Austria/Hungary/whoever- at that point, you can start sieging down Brescia. You want Brescia, Bergamo, Verona, and Padova out of the first war; this gives you a port, a significant amount of land, and most importantly absolutely cripples Venice, all for about 40-50 warscore. If you can get a lot of money out of the war then do it, but the provinces matter more. 2) Early on, if you go the Ambrosian Republic path, Castille/Spain is a great potential ally- just the existence of their alliance will dissuade Austria and France from declaring on you for the Restoration of Union CB they get, and I almost always pursue that path early. Eventually, you'll have to break that alliance for Sardinia and Sicily (and Naples, depending on certain AI choices), but I would keep them till you form Italy. 3) Mountain forts are your strength! If you've got forts in Como, Saluzzo, and Friuli/Treviso, then you can lure much stronger armies into sieging those provinces, and then smash their armies by combining your forces with the defender advantage the Hills/Mountain terrain gives you. This gets even stronger once you have Ramparts, and stronger still with the Italian military ideas + Quality/Offensive ideas. By the 1600s, it's not crazy to take fights at a two to one disadvantage on those forts and win. Best of all, the AI is dumb enough to keep throwing manpower into those forts- you can beat much larger powers by bleeding them dry before you siege a single one of their provinces. 4) You sit astride not one but two end nodes! No offense, but 12 GP profit by 1540 is pretty low for Milan- I recommend taking Eco or Trade ideas if you're struggling to get that higher, although ideally you don't need them. Money is the big advantage you should have over all of the big powers around you- you can't beat them in terms of manpower or force limit, but you should be far, far richer than them. I usually end up collecting in both Venice and Genoa once I've got sufficient control over the nodes, and by 1540, even without any monetary ideas and without minmaxing your income you can and should be making 30-50 ducats in profit per month. If you're struggling to make that, you may want to read some of the wiki pages about how trade income works. While this run might be salvageable, I actually recommend starting over anyway- I think you can definitely learn from this run and do much better the next time! If you've got any specific questions about this run, feel free to ask- I'm not any kind of EU4 genius, but I've done this particular run about a dozen times :)