Veii

Veii is a medium-sized Etruscan faction located in southern Etruria, across the Tiber from Latium. It is one of only a few factions playable in multiple scenarios, being available in both the Unification of Italy sandbox and the Etruria-only sandbox.

Its starting neighbours are Rome, the Sabines, Clevsin and Velathri in the full Italy sandbox, and Clevsin and Velch in the Etruria-only sandbox.

In-game Description
"The city-state of Veii is one of the wealthiest owing to its control of the Tiber river at Etruria's south. When Rome escaped Etruscan hegemony, Veii would become one of Rome's earliest rivals over control of this territory."

Starting Cities

 * Veii:
 * Cisra:
 * Tarchna:
 * Velch***:
 * Vatluna***:
 * Velzna+:

*** City belongs to Velch in the Etruria-only sandbox

+ City only belongs to Veii in the Etruria-only sandbox. In the full map sandbox it belongs to Clevsin instead

Strategy
The Tiber river provides a very defensible border against the neighbouring Romans and Sabines in the full Italy sandbox, so it may be wise to stabilize your other borders before crossing this boundary. On the other hand, Etruscan early-game brigades have superior stats to those of the Latins and Sabellics, which can be leveraged in an early strike against Rome (the Sabines, however, have a very powerful melee bonus which more than compensates for the lower base stats of their early spearmen).

In the full map sandbox, Veii's starting border with Clevsin is the most exposed. It will probably be necessary to either make a truce with them through diplomacy or conquer their more threatening cities of Velzna and Saina before doing much else. Conquering them entirely is also an option, as the eastern borders of their territory are very defensible, thanks to the Tiber river.

In the Etruria-only sandbox, Velch becomes the more threatening neighbour instead, as the border with Clevsin is reduced to a single defensible accessway north of Velzna.

Veii's economic bonus is quite strong, and helps ensure that the player will have enough gold to go around.

Trivia & History

 * According to legend, Veii and Rome's first war was fought as early as the 8th Century BC during the reign of Rome's legendary founder Romulus, making Veii a rival of Rome since the latter's very inception.
 * After roughly 350 years of intermittent warfare, the Romans under Camillus finally defeated Veii in 396 BC after a 10-year siege. The Romans virtually destroyed the city, which would never recover its former prosperity.
 * Veii was historically one of the earliest in-game factions to be destroyed, and wasn't actually contemporaneous with the Bruttii who didn't emerge as a distinct people until the 350s BC.
 * Aside from the city of Veii itself, none of the cities assigned to the Veii faction in-game were historically part of Veii's territory and were all independent city-states instead. Veii was presumably elected to receive its own in-game faction due to its significance in Rome's early history, and several other city-states were then merged with Veii to simplify the faction roster.
 * The faction's icon seems to be taken from ancient coins of coastal Etruria, which were often engraved with a very similar octopus or cuttlefish emblem.