Spain: Are they that much harder than Byz?

[smoothdragon]

I was playing the Spanish in Early Period on Normal diff and I have conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula, all of Arabia and Anatolia, half of Europe and parts of Russia. Throughout my wars in Europe, I got excommunicated three times, and each time rebellions were just awful. The ironic part was the rebellions were the worst in Arabia! In each Arabian province, the tax is set on very low, each has a keep with 400 peasants with high loyalty and high acumen. Each keep has a town guard, church, and border fort and yet these %($)%*)#_# provinces still rebel even when I am not ex-communicated and not at war! I've crushed about 5 rebellions of 2+ stacks in Constantinople and Anatolia alone and I can't seem to keep the rebellions down. I have large garrisons moved into those provinces (2 stacks of lancers and Chiv MAAs) into each of those provinces and I still get revolts! What is wrong with this picture? I played Byzantine before and it was never this hard to keep revolts down (I conquered the entire world with them easily).

Is playing the Spanish that hard that I have to leave 2 stacks of high-end units just to keep provinces loyal? The only problem I can see is that my Influence is low (3 crowns), but how can that be when I own more than 50% of the world? The fact that the Pope can cause my entire kingdom to revolt with just a single word is just aggravating. The Italians are attacking my ships and provinces and they get away with not even a warning, whereas if I retaliate I get ex-communicated! I should just stick to Orthodox factions...

[Spino]

Yes, Spain is much harder to play than Byzantium, especially in the early years of any campaign. Try it on Hard next time, it's tougher and more 'realistic' than Normal and best of all, the tactical AI is at its best.

Many people have complained about the mass rebellions in the game. It makes no sense to have them in light of 100-200% loyalty, low taxes and sharing the same religion as the conquerers.

Rather than waste florins on entire armies designed to occupy rebellious provinces you should create a horde of spys which can do the same job without the yearly maintenance cost. Also create hordes of bishops and cardinals to convert the Orthodox and Muslim populations of those troublesome Middle Eastern provinces. It is incredibly helpful to have a conquered population share the same beliefs as your king. Religious tolerance is one thing, civil disobediance is another.

For your enemies create Inquisitors to lower Happiness levels in enemy provinces and put enemy leaders with low Piety ratings on trial for heresy! Combined with scores of spies and assassins this will allow you to eventually transfer loyalty of those provinces to your faction via rebellion.

Also consider swarming the Papal states with assasins and assassinating the current Pope. That's right... the Pope. You've already been excommunicated so you have nothing to lose. The new Pope may be more open to communication and if you're lucky, less effective than his predecessor.

[hrvojej]

The distance between your king and your provinces is important. Obviously, your naval routes are cut off, and this has a huge impact on loyalty. Clear them up. Your king has low influence when he is just crowned, and it gets lower if you lose, especially if you lose crusades. Kill the Italians, kill your king, or kill the pope, one of these three things should improve the situation (I would opt for the first one; a long term solution). Keep bishops, spies and assassins in your province, maybe the ai is flloding you with subterfuge. Do a search on the forum as well, most of these things I mentioned are explained in a lot more detail.
Hope this helps

edit: Just a few more tips. The provinces that will rebel the most while xcommed are the ones with the highest zeal. Try to control that with inquisitors, although it's a bit tricky. In any case, keep an eye on them. I would go with assassination of the pope instead of eradication, as this saves you the pain of him reemerging constantly every 3-4 yrs with 400 royal knights.

[This message has been edited by hrvojej (edited 10-07-2002).]

[insolent1]

I'm willing to bet its the placement of your king. He has to be ablle to get to a province with say 3 turns so make sure your trade routes are open & keep your king in a province with a port. In the later stages I always keep 2 ships in all seazone so if a storm happens & I loose a ship there is one to fill the gap. I do this as I encountered a massive rebellion 30+ provinces with 3 factions respawning & it was becuase a ship was sunk in the med. The reason it may seem harder than the byzantines is becuase it is

[smoothdragon]

It was bizarre in that I had >90% of the population in those Arab provinces as Catholic and yet they still rebelled. Perhaps what I needed was spies, and I'll be mindful of using them in the future. Thanks for the help.

[cihset]

Hah!

Spain has one of the best starting positions, especially in early time.

[maroule]

Quote Originally posted by cihset:
Hah!

Spain has one of the best starting positions, especially in early time.

[/QUOTE]

yes and no, there is room to expand (and bribe el Cid), but I always end up fighting it out VERY early with the almo. I take them out then, tx to the use of mercenaries, but it's always a bit sad, because I am against early rushes (seems like cheating against the AI, and I like consolidating/trade better than conquest)

[Spino]

Spain can be hard, especially if you don't bribe those armies in Valencia, Portugal and Navarre (in that order). If not then you'll wind up facing stacks of Almos hell bent on taking the rest of Spain. At least that's been my experience. I started two campaigns as the Spaniards on Hard and each time the AI rushed Almo stacks into my territories. I wasn't able to rest until I had seized Morrocco, thus leaving the Almos only one way into my territory instead of the land 'links' into Granada and Cordoba. Once you take Morrocco the situation becomes much easier to handle, unless of course France decides to take a cheap shot and invade the Iberian peninsula.