The Venetian Gambit (Lan/MP)

Venice is probably known in every MP Tier List as the worst piece of dung you could ever take since they only have one city and are completely wrecked if their trade goes down, which can easily happen if you dont have enough navy. However Venice can prove to be a great power if played correctly!
This guide is preferable to games with people you know, however, you could possibly try it with foreigners as well. The main reason why i recommend it for LANs is because you need to act as a peaceful negotiatiator until the medieval era, or at least have one trustful ally who can protect you until your cash-cannon can fully deploy.
The aim of this guide is to abuse Venices power when it's at the pinnacle of its might. The only UU of Venice is the great galeass, whose epoch marks said era where Venice strikes most: The fact that Venice can make a ton of money through its trade does not matter in the late game where most powers have a good economy. Yu have to fully invest within the medieval era, because that is the time where the other powers didnt out-research you yet and you are the only nation that already has a ridiculous amount of money per turn.

Apart from the usual first scout, Venice heavily relies on its quick first merchant. Therefor you should rush optics for the free merchant whom you can send to your first city-state. This merchant should not annex a City-State since they will not be grown by population enough to be worth it. Instead, take the 800 bucks and the free alliance for an early boost of your capital. Since you rushed optics, you should probably build the Great lighthouse because you will have to rely on a strong navy anyway.

After optics you should research Writing to keep up with your enemies. You can now purchase the library whilst building the lighthouse with the merchant you sent off to a city state. The other money can be spent on whatever you want, either a freighter for early trade or something for your town.
Afterwards you should focus on techs to develop your tiles like masonry and then rush for the colossus. The Colossus will not be entirely necessary for a sufficient middle age economy, but it is a nice addon with its two extra trade routes and the bonus for the great merchant.

After you built your starting wonders you should slowly start to concentrate on your economy. This guide is assuming that you atleast are able to maintain peace with enough possible trade partners. Researchwise, you should go to currency for all this pesky gold to gather with your market and all the freighters you've got. If you are lucky and got your capital in the desert, you can even increase the number of freighters by another two with the wonder Petra.
SoPo-Wise, go for commerce once you reach the medieval era. The most important thing will be the mercenary army with its Landsknechts and the following SoPo with even grants you a 25% unit discount.
Then you should focus on researching pikemen and compass. Apart from the trieres, from whose you should already have some to protect your trade, you will now have heavy galeasses to ensure naval dominance. With galeasses and pikemen researched and assuming that you have a ridiculous middle-age economy, this is your time to strike!

Welcome to the High Middle Age! If you followed this guide you will probably make at least 150-200 ducats in the medieval era and have another merchant with the Great Person points gathered from the Great Lighthouse and probably the Colossus.
Probably most of your friends/enemies will have suspected that you are a fool trying to get that Venetian diplo victory, but now its the time to abuse your treasury!
Naval-wise, the heavy galeass should help you protect your trade and dominate the coasts until frigates get researched. Your great merchant however will be the mainsource of domination. Go select the most profitable city-state from whom you can invade your most viable target. Send some uits along if you have some(probably siege), and then just buy him up to get the city.
Once you have this forward settlement, its time to call the Landsknechts. Their cost is about 160 in standard, without the discount, so even by that you should be able to at least pump out one per turn, not even regarding the possibility that you have stacked up a little fortune to press out more within the first turn. However, i would highly recommend such a stockpile, since the Landsknecht can move instantly after purchase, making him purchaseable multiple times within a single city. Afterwards, just make your enemys crumble under the mixture of siege and landsknechts.
After this medieval dominance, everything is open with your marionette cities that can purchase stuff inside thanks to venice.