>get tired of playing balkan and muslim countries
>want to play Italian game
>Pick Venice
>Realize only legitimate expansion route is to fight Ottomans pre-emptively to secure evrope
>quit, pick Genoa
>Realize only legitimate strategy is to decimate the Ottomans AND Venice
>quit, pick Naples
>Ottomans gets perma claims on my ass, have to fight him because the AI was wide powergaming
>quit, pick Florence
>It's fine until Ottomans took a minor Venetian province now I have to fight them for control of Italy
What the fuck is wrong with this game? Every time I play I have to deal with the existential kebab threat.
Even when I don't play Byzantium I'm playing Byzantium spiritually because vassalizing Byzantium is the most efficient way to conquer the balkans.
The meta of this game is insanely boring.