North Etruscans

Attributes: | +15% Unit Defenses, +15% Charge Block, +10% Missile Defense, Flooded Marsh Movement

The **North Etruscans** are a medium-large Etruscan faction located in the southeastern area of the Po Valley, being separated from their original homeland in Etruria proper by the Apennine Mountains.

Its starting neighbours are the Umbri, Veneti, Cenomani and, more distantly, the Insubres, Ligures and Velathri.

### In-game Description

"Etruscan expansion into the Po Valley started in the 9th or 8th century BCE, though it is unknown which city-states led the initiative. The cities themselves established a seperate organization from the original Dodecapoli that nominally united Etruria proper. Many North Etruscan cities are said to have been founded by the legendary king Ocnus, who symbolizes hesitation, frustration, delay and the wasting of time and is eternally weaving a pointless rope in the netherworld."

### Starting Cities

* **Felsina**: Felsina or Velzna is the Etruscan name for the modern city of Bologna, which was absorbed into Etruscan culture around the 7th century BCE from the local Villanovan culture. It would be one of the cities of the North Etruscan League before being overrun by the gallic tribe of the Boii.
* **Mutna**: Forerunner to the modern city of Modena, Mutna was inhabited at various times by the Ligures, Etruscan and the Gallic Boii tribe. Abandoned after Hannibal's invasion, the city was re-founded by Rome and became one of the most important cities in Cisalpine Gaul.
* **Parma**: Currently home to one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in the 12th century, Parma was originally an Etruscan colony named after the latin word for a round shield.
* **Ravenna**: Landlocked in modern times, the city of Ravenna was an important port in Roman times and served as the gathering point for Julius Caesar's forces before he marched them across the Rubicon and towards Rome.
* **Spina**: Situated in the marshes of the Po river delta, the ancient Etruscan port city of Spina had been lost to history before being rediscovered by aerial photography in the early 20th century.
* **Adria**: Namesake of the Adriatic Sea, the city of Adria is thought to have been founded by the Veneti between the twelfth and ninth centuries BCE. It was rebuilt as a major port city by the Etruscans in the late sixth century BCE, and the Greeks, who sought Adria's port for the amber trade, made colonization efforts from Aegina and Syracuse. The Adriatic Sea would eventually shrink away from Adria, causing it to lose most of its importance by the 6th century CE.

### Strategy

The North Etruscans start out very surrounded, but the Appenine Mountains form a very defensible border against Velathri to the southwest. Various rivers delimit the rest of your territory and their crossings can be fortified to make your borders secure, though the Po river has a large amount of crossings that would need to be fortified in order to make your northern border fully secure. An easier solution to securing your northern border might be to make a truce with the Veneti and/or Cenomani through diplomacy.

Early-game Etruscan units have better stats than their Sabellic counterparts and your faction has decent bonuses to buff your soldier's defensive stats further, making the Umbri and Picentes to the southeast a potentially attractive target for early expansion. Your Gallic and Illyric neighbours arguably have superior unit rosters in the very early game and many of them have decent combat-related faction bonuses to boot, so expanding in this direction may be better put off until you can field some mid-game units such as Hoplites.

### Trivia & History

* While there is archaological evidence to support that the Etruscans had indeed already colonized some parts of the Po Valley in the 9th Century BC, the Etruscan presence in the area was significantly enhanced by a second colonization wave in the 6th Century BC during which Etruscan expansion reached its zenith.
* Prior to Etruscan colonization, the area was inhabited by Ligures, Veneti and Umbri.
* The North Etruscans were overran in the 390s BC by the same Gallic invasion of Ifaly that also led to the sack of Rome by the chieftain Brennus. The Boii and Lingones tribes ended up assimilating the area. This event can be recreated in-game through the Invasion Sandbox of the Eagle King DLC.
* The definitive Roman conquest of the formerly North Etruscan area occurred in the 190s BC during Rome's final war against the Boii.
* Historically, a few other in-game cities were at one point owned by the North Etruscans as well at their largest expanse. These are Mantua, Acerrae and perhaps even Mediolanum. In-game, however, the Gallic Cenomani and Insubres have already migrated into Italy and conquered these cities.
* The North Etruscans were historically one of the earliest in-game factions to be destroyed, and weren't actually contemporaneous with the Bruttii who didn't emerge as a distinct people until the 350s BC.
* The faction's icon seems to be taken from engraved coins produced in Pupluna that depict the mythological figure Metus, the Etruscan equivalent of the Gorgon Medusa of Greek mythology. It is also used by the Velch faction that only occurs in the Etruria-only sandbox. It is arguably more appropriate for the Velch faction than for the North Etruscans, as they actually own the city of Pupluna in-game where these coins were found.