Enrico Dandolo leads medieval Venice - the small trading state that turned the focus of a whole holy crusade from killing Muslims to making Venice rich! It was Dandolo who persuaded the crusaders to go against the commands of Pope Innocent III; rather than head for Egypt, he took the crusaders round to Byzantium, in order to collect debts and make money. The assault on the city was brutal, and the money made from it was vast!

Let's look at what my Venice has to offer:

Crusader Venice - Enrico Dandolo UA: Fourth Crusade Upon capturing an enemy Capital, all cities enter "We Love The King Day" and you receive an additional Trade Route. Production while building Naval Units increases by 3% for every Puppet in the Empire. (Max 66%)

Dandolo now focuses on capturing cities, rather than puppeting city-states. Additional trade routes for capturing capitals will be very useful - we have got 50 or so of the things, after all! And the naval production bonus will allow Venice to build more ships as they capture more cities, leading to exponential naval growth. In contrast, a civ like Innocent III doesn't have a military UA; he instead relies on other civs to make his conquests for him, putting him in a weaker position. (Note: Best-case scenario would be to have both Venice and Innocent tbh, but CL doesn't have any civs in Italy so that won't happen :p)

UU: Great Galleass The Great Galleass is a unique Galleass replacement for Venice. It is more expensive than the Galleas, but it has higher Combat and Ranged Combat values as well as a 100% bonus vs Cities. Must set up before firing.

The Great Galleass is significantly more interesting than it was in BNW - rather than simply being stronger, it is now a floating siege engine! This obviously makes it far easier for Venice to capture the Mediterranean cities in the MKIII, thus benefiting the UA. The Great Galleass is also a better choice than other UUs on the peninsula - the Steam Frigate, for example. While this Sicilian unit may be fast, it also comes significantly later than the Galleass, limiting its usefulness. The Steam Frigate also has no such synergy with the UA, meaning that the Great Galleass is both more useful and more likely to be used than such a unit.

UU: Noleggiatore The Noleggiatore is a Caravel replacement for Venice. When it starts its turn on the same tile as a friendly Cargo Ship, it receives 2 Movement and 1 Sight. When stationed inside a Puppeted or Occupied city, it generates Gold equivalent to the city's Population.

Oh, what a shame we aren't using EE; this lad would replace the Carrack, and both UUs would come at the same tech. Rip in rip ;_;

Oh, yeah, explanation...

The Noleggiatore is another unit with synergy with the UA. As more Trade Routes are built, it'll be more likely for the Noleggiatore to be sped up by them. The Noleggiatore's gold earning ability will also help make use of the puppeted naval powerhouses. The Noleggiatore also seems to be the only Naval Melee UU on the peninsula, so I guess I'm gonna have to skip the comparison :p

(Creds to Urdboy for the design btw; it's the greatest shame that the AoE effect on the Great Galleass isn't possible, because that might have made it one of my favourite UUs ;_;)

One final question I've heard people ask: Y No Merchant? My reply?

Why have a merchant for Crusader Venice?

The Merchant of Venice came later - the period of the Italian Renaissance, where art was plentiful and in fashion. Having him here would make no sense. Also, if we look at Urdboy's MoV design for Renaissance Venice: "UU: Merchant of Venice (Replaces Great Merchant) When a Merchant of Venice is stationed in a city, all great works yield 1 gold and the generation of Great Writers, Artists and Musicians is increased by 25% of that cities' gold output. Upon performing a trade mission or building a customs house, there is a small chance that the Merchant of Venice will create a random Great Work."

This is a far better representation of the MoV, which has nothing to do with City-State Purchasing. This is because that was merely a feature introduced to (try) and make Venice viable. Instead, Crusader Venice has the far more reliable route of just conquering his City-States - along with anyone else in the area. The final reason not for having the MoV is that if I did keep it the same as vanilla, Venice would have to be excluded for the same reasons as the Kalmar Union or Austria - the ability to just take control of Nation-States defeats the point of them, and takes away reason to support them.

So, having proven that Crusader Venice is a powerful choice, and a far more synergetic civ than her rivals, what are you waiting for? Make that vote!