How to instigate a civil war

[Dramicus]

Errm, well the title says it all i guess...

All I want to know is how to start a war to wipeout a line that has become, well, crappy...

It seams that lately Ive been geting alot of "six toed", "chinless wondered", "peverted", "cowardly", "good runners"... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

Thanks in advance (I dont know why I always say this, I thank you anyway...) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[mav3434]

I haven't actually tried this, but supposedly the way you do it is find a good general(s) with a lot of troops who has a title, strip him of it by dropping an emissary , but keep him in command of the army. Add in some mercernary troops too, as they have low loyalty inherently.

Maybe also try a few assassination attempts too, but use low level assassins as they probably won't kill him. Also try to frame him for treason, just try not to be succsessful.

I found that they most often happen right after succession of monarchs, when one old leader who had big loyalty bonuses from VV's is replaced by his unaccomplished son who has very few vv's.

[Exile]

If you have an established empire and have some ex-heirs out there (2nd+ generation uncles) kill off your King and current heirs - a civil war will erupt..usually http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif otherwise you lose, so keep a saved game handy.

Make a list of your generals so you know who you want to support when the civil war starts, because all you will see then is the names of the two contenders and their respective number of troops. You dont want to go through all that and end up with another loser.

[Sainika]

If you play Catholic faction you can launch and succesfully fail several Crusades. If you are a muslim faction do the same with Jihads (just don't forget to lose at least one useless province, like Cyrenaika or Sinai). And if you play ortodox...well read all written above. And you succeed. I don't want to wish you good luck because in that case you'll never accomplish your goal:)

[Dramicus]

Well, how do you suggest I complete my goal with a king who screams like a girl while running from the battle as the unit of peasents is hot on his heels? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

But I have had some quite strange occurances with this, because i lack and good princes/kings I do have several generals who are lvl 8+. This kind of leads one to think that the king has no power and that the country is actually run by a group of people who have more than the empire in mind... anyone ever played/beat MGS2 for the ps2? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[mav3434]

yeah, maybe your generals are working...for the Patriots

[Monk]

...The Patriots? you mean the Football team from NE? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Maedhros]

I played a game recently as Poland and kept getting week worthless heirs.

I kept a lvl 4 assasin handy to off them regularly. Eventually I created a civil war by killing all my direct heirs and fought a civil war which I would rather not have.

Opportunists stole much of my favourite land. 100 years later I had retaken all, but had to continually maintain large armies in the Balkans because "opportunists" die hard.

Dealing with a weakling king would have easier. I could have left him in Warsaw to rot while my many capable generals take care of the non clerical tasks of governing.

Best cure for weakling heirs, and this is just an observation. But significant empire expansion and improvement will do the task. When you let the nation get stagnant your heirs tend to be uninteresting. Even if you are doing well as a whole.

Build, cultivate, and conquer.

Oh, and don't be afraid to slice your sons throat if you want to insure he doesn't succeed you. Just keep one in reserve in case you slip in the tub.

[Kraxis]

Ok if you really want a Civil War fast... Go and send a Crusade every year but sell the Chapter House right away, that way the Crusades fail and your ruler loses Influence which in turn means Loyalty. Make sure to move very loyal troop under command of very disloyal generals, this way the rebels will have a better chance of getting a lot of good troops. Let your king sit alone in a corner of his realm far from the disloyal troops.

If you manage to do this well (and make sure you kill off any heirs so their don't join the rebellion and take command afterwards) you can actually end up with a very lopsided rebellion where your king might only have the troops he has in the province he is in. Then just back the rebels in the fight and one of your good generals might become king instead... GREAT FUN

[mav3434]

anybody know if you can have a civil war with one, kick-ass, super traitorous general with loads of troops or do you have to have multiple disloyal generals rolling around?

[Kraxis]

That is a big question...

As far as I know you need at least one good general to be the leader of the rebellion. You will in fact be informed that a rebellion is brewing but they have yet to find a leader... But if you stip your best generals of their titles (perhaps all of them if you can get the others loyalty very low) then you can be sure at least one of them will become a rebel. BTW you will get informed of the number of troops and the beset generals of both sides at the start of the civil war.