Confounded Revolutionaries

[Somebody Else]

Why does my empire feel it necessary, as soon as my king goes overseas to conquer Egypt, to revolt completely... including re-emergence of factions Do they forget he exists just because he has no dock??
I should be able to save the situation, I'll just slaughter the 8000 strong Polish army that just appeared in a province with... 200 men garrisoning it. It's not as if I don't have enough battles to fight. I lost four provinces in that debacle.
I dislike rebellions. Dissidents should make themselves known, so I can execute them.
I suppose this means I should never send my King on an amphibious attack.

[torsoboy]

Quote[/b] (Somebody Else @ Dec. 12 2003,14:20)]I suppose this means I should never send my King on an amphibious attack.
This is the correct answer.

[Shamus]

I personally almost never take my king/emperor/sultan away from the heart of my empire, unless I’m expanding on all fronts and I need his command abilities. Provinces that are a ways away from him seem to get pretty moody when he’s gone. Best to just use a high ranking general or prince to launch amphibious assaults. In fact, that is what one of my princes just did against Scotland. I launched an amphibious assault from the Iberian peninsula, as the Almos. The English were being attacked by the French from the south, and now I threaten their north. I have never seen a faction scramble to try and make an alliance as fast as that (I wasn’t on the island for more than a turn before he sent an emissary my way http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif ).

[Somebody Else]

Yes, well - I was conducting a multi-front war - I had one front against the Spanish in southern Spain, a broad front against the Russians, and a very extended front against the Egyptians. And then the Almohads piled in against my Egyptian possesions. I am currently in a state where of the eight currently surviving factions (barring mine) only two are not actively at war with me. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif

[Shamus]

That is annoying isn’t it? On my last game as the Byzantines I was in a similar situation in that every faction but two were at war with me. It decimated my trade routes. In ten short years (from the first declaration of war against me, until all but two had joined against me) I watched my income go from about 30,000 florins a year to around 3000 florins per year. Thank goodness I had 350,000 florins in my coffers.

It sounds like you are all over the map.

[ichi]

Quote[/b] ]Dissidents should make themselves known, so I can execute them.

I think that they do. In VI the nasty vices are listed, and by hitting the shift key you can identify provinces that are on the verge of being 'revolting'. Hitting the V key will identify sea lanes that are cut off.

I posted this a while back at The RW Site. It has a few points pertinent to this case.

Province/General Loyalty

1) Build lots of happiness: spies, religious agents, taverns, Town Militias, churches, and upgraded farms all help happiness. The more buildings the happier the province it seems.

2) Do not auto-tax. I keep taxes at Normal or High usually, but each turn I hit the Shift Key, this allows me to check my provinces at a glance. Always keep your province happiness at above 100, above 110 if possible.

3) Keep at least 100 peasants or spearmen, 60 archers, and a 60-man infantry unit in each province. Keep more in Portugal, Scotland, Ireland, Arabia, Leon (and a few others that are trouble spots). I use the theory that keeps a big wall of troops along my borders, but in the interior I keep old, beat up, cheap units. Keep extra troops on islands or in distant provinces.

4) Check your Generals from time to time, especially after your king dies. Do not let a General with less than 4 loyalty command a stack. Keep disloyal heirs and powerful Gens in a stack with the King.

OK you say, I do all of that already.

5) Keep your King connected to the rest of your army. Never take your King to an island. If the King gets cut off from the rest of the army they lose loyalty - big time. Keep your King in a province with a port. Never let your King get trapped inside a castle siege. Always have control of the seas - keep connected by navy.

6) When you have heirs then fight with your King in situations where you have a good chance of not getting slaughtered. This increases your King's valor and other virtues. The best is a 7-star King. Above that and they have low valor children. Try to marry your Kings to other factions daughters. Do not stop conquering for too long; it seems like when I stop expanding my armies become restless.

7) Assassinate or otherwise remove royalty with bad vices. Same goes for Generals with vices that reduce their loyalty or happiness (Envy, Blackmailer, etc.)

8) When your King dies the new King appears in one of your most highly developed provinces - make sure this is not on an island. This is a critical time, as he does not have the loyalty of all of his men yet. Not a good time to fight, but check everyone. Everytime my King dies, that's when I go through my stacks and inspect my Generals and Governors.

9) Marry your daughters to your own Generals, not to other factions. This improves their loyalty.

10) Ransom back captured troops. When you fail to ransom back your guys that have been captured it sends a message to your other Generals (not sure about this one, but sure seems true).

11) The computer is programmed to trip you up. As you get bigger, it slows you down by giving vices to your Governors and Generals that decrease happiness and loyalty. Just before you get ot the 60% of Europe conquered level, and again just as you approach total victory, the level of revolt rises. In these times boost your level of troops garrisioned in each province. At the end of the game I try to have as a minimum: 2 100-man unit, 1 60-man infantry, 1 60 man missile, 2 40-man cav, and a few odd units in each province, along with a spy, bishop, emissary, and assassin.

12) Repeat, check every province at the end of each turn. Before hitting End Year, hit Shift Key and look at map. Greens are OK, Yellows and Reds need attention.

Hope that helps

ichi

[makkyo]

the same thing happened to me when i was the english. My king was in germany (my entire empire at that point from spain to germany)
Despite the 6000+ garison i had on the island i still had rebelions every season. I even lowered the taxes and sent in spies/priest but the relels still persisted. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with being excomunicated and being allied to the muslim factions...

[Sun Tzui]

Hey ichi, great post.


Quote[/b] ]along with a spy, bishop, emissary, and assassin http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif I leave 1 bishop + 1 spy i think agent management gets BOOORING....you must have a LOT of pacience http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

HEY EVERYBODY Drink from the wise word's of ichi *bows* and *bows again* http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[PseRamesses]

I think MTW is much like chess - protect the king, right? All your units, buildings, trades, provinces, agents etc are there for one reason: PROTECT THE KING. So, how much I would like to have my monarch lead a crusade or campaign to gain influence, command, experince I simply don´t. I learned this on the 2nd or 3rd game I played when I built the 4th reich from Navarre to Smolensk, from Sweden to Naples. My only opponents left where a 2 prov Russian, 3 island Byzantine and the rest of the map where under the Egyptian sultans rule. I sent my king to show the sultan a couple of moves and while entangled in a most successful campaign in the middle east... BAAAAAM... game over. Civil war in all my provinces and to my suprise none, I mean NONE of them whas loyal to me but turned rebel. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

[kiwitt]

MTW is much like chess, Protect the King. As an old chess player, I can appreciate that.