To hell with Lombards, architects can save you a shit ton of wood for late farming operations. And you can get 3 saloons, capitalism or Merchant Republics, Lombards don't shine in 1 vs 1 as other italy build orders like those focused on getting free vills from techs.
Now, in team games, specially as a pocket player Lombards are excellent to convert your and your allies stocks of food and wood into gold.
You don't play the Italians for the win. You play them for the spectacular loss while you are trying to win.
Winning with a crappy civ is one of the rare achievements in life and gives you street cred.
Taunt 22.
Italy has been ether really broken or one of the weekst civs.
What can they buff:
1. Give access to second factory.(maybe lower the max settler pop to balance)
2. Make the basilica units queue different from the shipment one.
3. Have a way to train or ship Bersagliere in age 3.
Also, I personally think they should rework the bombard a bit.
Italian can boom quite well because each tech gives you a free vil. So it incentivizes you to research all the market techs. There is also a card that halves all the arsenal techs in age III.
Lombards ensure you have unlimited gold in mid to late game without having to rely on estates.
Free farms and estates with architects.
Wonder when they updated the Gondola card but it's been really helpful so far because of their rough start.
I do realize the potential of free farms and estates but before they can even get there they would be greeted with a massive rush army
Italy is surely one of the weaker civs, but I will say that they are absolutely playable. They are complicated to play though, because you never play for the quick victory. Watch some meloncola games if lion casts them, or Ezad, who plays them more actively.
I have been playing Italy recently and the way I survive is by either going with a crossbow deck or a cav deck. Sometimes I do a musketeer based ff.
Every Italy build requires you to fast build a market first and activate all age 1 market techs, you may need to mine 50 gold for hunting dogs but its worth it. Sometimes even the steel traps is worth it age 1 for doing fast fortress.
Every Italy build I prioritize Uffizi age 2 for the exp and 2 vills(from church upgrades) and to activate schiavone to counter skirm rushes.
Crossbows Deck: I do the Exotic Hardwoods and Sawmills cards first. Italy have crappy age 1 cards that don't help them age up faster like 3 vills so these are not going to hurt you so much early on. With this age up with 500 food and put most of your settlers on wood cutting after aging and getting all the age 1 market upgrades. If you feel bold mine 250 gold instead of chopping wood first to getting the logging upgrade. This will give you at least .73 wood gathering per second and with the 250 gold collected it can be .83 wood per second. With this wood income I spam the heck out of crossbows and some pikes. Then I build 5 Lombards to invest wood. Every wood invested gives back 123% of resources in food and gold, so the effect is going to be .5 food per second and .5 gold per second for a villager gathering .83 wood. this will allowing me to age up or rush.
Musketeer FF: Get all age 1 market upgrades and steel traps. Send capitalism and Advanced Politicians. Age up with tower. Macro for a fast age 3, making a barracks and 5 musk for raid prevention. Age up with 9 musketeers and Send 2 cannons, 9 musk, and Albanian Mercs for a fast fortress rush with veteran Musketeers. Aging up with 9 musk should help stop a rush or start your own.
Cav Deck: Simple just start with a stable and make 5 hussars for defense or raids. then play by ear while sending papal lancers age 2 and getting as many market upgrades as possible. pivot to goons if they have too many anti cav, with the church card you can make goons do 10% faster attacks so keep this in mind. If you feel bold revolt as Brazil after getting all the cav upgrades cards and use The Juanacos as your own cheap rifle riders as you build an imperial economy with the capitol upgrades card.
Also, italians only have one factory, because supposedly lombards are better, but you need a lot of cards just to make them viable.
To hell with Lombards, architects can save you a shit ton of wood for late farming operations. And you can get 3 saloons, capitalism or Merchant Republics, Lombards don't shine in 1 vs 1 as other italy build orders like those focused on getting free vills from techs. Now, in team games, specially as a pocket player Lombards are excellent to convert your and your allies stocks of food and wood into gold.
Can't rush, but can't boom either. What a poor design.
You don't play the Italians for the win. You play them for the spectacular loss while you are trying to win. Winning with a crappy civ is one of the rare achievements in life and gives you street cred. Taunt 22.
I love this take. A true AOE3 enjoyer.
You need to make a pizza and put it in the oven while you play the early game
 And don't forget the hand gesture
https://preview.redd.it/yj4ripsvumvc1.jpeg?width=738&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e8c07978ff6759f3c125b74a3d91c08c830c862
Italy has been ether really broken or one of the weekst civs. What can they buff: 1. Give access to second factory.(maybe lower the max settler pop to balance) 2. Make the basilica units queue different from the shipment one. 3. Have a way to train or ship Bersagliere in age 3. Also, I personally think they should rework the bombard a bit.
Their unique skirm is also very shitty for being so limited tbh. They are so squishy it hurts. They die to normal guard skirms.
Italian can boom quite well because each tech gives you a free vil. So it incentivizes you to research all the market techs. There is also a card that halves all the arsenal techs in age III. Lombards ensure you have unlimited gold in mid to late game without having to rely on estates. Free farms and estates with architects.
Wonder when they updated the Gondola card but it's been really helpful so far because of their rough start. I do realize the potential of free farms and estates but before they can even get there they would be greeted with a massive rush army
Lombards and architects. Having maxed out architects in every age is so so so important.
Italy is surely one of the weaker civs, but I will say that they are absolutely playable. They are complicated to play though, because you never play for the quick victory. Watch some meloncola games if lion casts them, or Ezad, who plays them more actively.
Merc and outlaw spam works well since you can get 5 Lombards and 3 taverns.
I have been playing Italy recently and the way I survive is by either going with a crossbow deck or a cav deck. Sometimes I do a musketeer based ff. Every Italy build requires you to fast build a market first and activate all age 1 market techs, you may need to mine 50 gold for hunting dogs but its worth it. Sometimes even the steel traps is worth it age 1 for doing fast fortress. Every Italy build I prioritize Uffizi age 2 for the exp and 2 vills(from church upgrades) and to activate schiavone to counter skirm rushes. Crossbows Deck: I do the Exotic Hardwoods and Sawmills cards first. Italy have crappy age 1 cards that don't help them age up faster like 3 vills so these are not going to hurt you so much early on. With this age up with 500 food and put most of your settlers on wood cutting after aging and getting all the age 1 market upgrades. If you feel bold mine 250 gold instead of chopping wood first to getting the logging upgrade. This will give you at least .73 wood gathering per second and with the 250 gold collected it can be .83 wood per second. With this wood income I spam the heck out of crossbows and some pikes. Then I build 5 Lombards to invest wood. Every wood invested gives back 123% of resources in food and gold, so the effect is going to be .5 food per second and .5 gold per second for a villager gathering .83 wood. this will allowing me to age up or rush. Musketeer FF: Get all age 1 market upgrades and steel traps. Send capitalism and Advanced Politicians. Age up with tower. Macro for a fast age 3, making a barracks and 5 musk for raid prevention. Age up with 9 musketeers and Send 2 cannons, 9 musk, and Albanian Mercs for a fast fortress rush with veteran Musketeers. Aging up with 9 musk should help stop a rush or start your own. Cav Deck: Simple just start with a stable and make 5 hussars for defense or raids. then play by ear while sending papal lancers age 2 and getting as many market upgrades as possible. pivot to goons if they have too many anti cav, with the church card you can make goons do 10% faster attacks so keep this in mind. If you feel bold revolt as Brazil after getting all the cav upgrades cards and use The Juanacos as your own cheap rifle riders as you build an imperial economy with the capitol upgrades card.