Best solution is to not let a city get to a revolt stage in the first place. Several suggestions....
A city with population of 2k-6k rarely, if ever, needs to be exterminated upon capture. There is plenty enough time to put your own buildings/temples in place to reduce culture penalties. A city between 6k-12k is about the same...best to occupy when captured. A city between 12k-24k is where things start to get dicey. If the governors palace has already reached maximum, best to exterminate and jack the taxes to very high to slow down growth. Choose the best Law&Order temple you have (if it's better than the native one), and put in place a governor with the highest number of influence laurettes. Doesn't matter his management skills...it's influence that keeps unrest in check. Use peasants or some other local unit (Town Watch, etc) as garrison as this helps with unrest. When the population starts to get large again, begin to reduce taxes until it gets to the lowest level.
More often than not, the population will reach a point where it stops growing. This is your target...what I call ZPG (Zero Population Growth). If this happens at 75% loyalty or higher, you will never get a revolt in that city ever again. That little orange guy on the city campaign tag is your best friend
In R1 I can get to ZPG in virtually every city I own with almost every playable faction...and without the need for a city manager. Revolts are a pain in the a$$ unless you like the "Butcher" moniker for your faction leader.
ZPG is not an exact science, and it can be puzzling to accomplish at first, as Vincent has discovered. But to me it removes one of the more frustrating aspects of the game (revolts), so you can concentrate on having fun instead of threatening to toss your computer out the window
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