My first mass rebellion...

[Kommodus]

I started a Byzantine campaign in the High period on Expert difficulty. In about 1360, I controlled Asia Minor, the Middle East, most of Russia, North Africa, Spain, France, and a big chunk of land in the Balkans. I was at war with the entire map (except for Sicily and the Pope), and was poised to strike at Hungary, which had recently broken its alliance with me and attacked. Almost all of my lands had good loyalty, and the emperor was safe in Constantinople, with my navy controlling the waves.

Suddenly, in 1363, the following territories sustained rebellions, all of them quite massive:

Castille
Portugal (loyalist Danes)
Leon
Navarre
Aragon
Valencia
Toulouse
Morrocco
Algeria
Tunisia
Egypt
Rhodes
Crete
Carpathia (loyalist Hungarians)

None of them had low loyalty; I had owned them for quite some time, converted most of the populace, and built them up considerably. Needless to say, since I was already at war with the world, I couldn't afford to use a lot of troops for internal struggles.

Nevertheless, I scraped together what troops I could spare to contest most of the rebellions. The loyalist rebellions contained large numbers of knights and other good troops, but the rest consisted mainly of peasants, spearmen, archers, and crossbowmen (in number ranging from about 1300 to about 2700, usually at least 2000).

I retreated in Portugal, Carpathia, Rhodes, Navarre, and Valencia. I was defeated in Crete and Leon. The rest I held (so 7/14 total). A lot of my generals gained "Skilled Last Stand" that year. I executed almost 9000 rebels and got more than 20,000 florins.

Right after I finished putting down all the rebellions, I got a message that my emperor had died (perhaps that had something to do with all the rebellions?) Curiously, although he had no heirs of his own, one of my generals (who happened to be my best) became emperor. I suppose he must have had royal blood.

Like I said, the death of my emperor may have had something to do with the massive rebellion, but it was not a civil war.

Anyway, the empire is mostly intact, and I hope to regain what I've lost quite quickly. Does anyone know what might have triggered the rebellions? Or is this just that infamous game feature?

[katank]

did any navies sink or was your emperor at all on the offensive?

how much territory did you have?

if you owned 80-90%, there's usually a big rebellion to slow you down.

[son of spam]

Did you check on loyalty in all provs? If it was low in one prov and it rebelled, it could start chain rebellions, because loyalty drops in provs next to a rebellious prov, and thus cause rebellions in provs next to the rebellious provs and so on. That could be the reason, because many of the rebellions were in spain and north africa, which are close to each other.

Also, the Emperor dying probably lowered loyalty, which set off the rebellions. I bet he had maginificent builder or something like that.

[son of spam]

Also, sometimes loyalty drops tremendously because an elimanated faction is about to reemerge. Just keep up loyalty by sending in armies, and the faction will never reemerge http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[Kommodus]

Quote[/b] (katank @ May 08 2004,16:58)]
how much territory did you have?

if you owned 80-90%, there's usually a big rebellion to slow you down.


Yeah, that's probably the main contributor. I think I owned about 80% of the map.


Quote[/b] (son of spam @ May 08 2004,19:52)]
Also, the Emperor dying probably lowered loyalty, which set off the rebellions. I bet he had maginificent builder or something like that.


This probably contributed as well. All my rulers always get Magnificent Builder, and most get at least Steward. Interestingly, however, the new emperor also had Magnificent Builder when he took office.

To answer the other questions, none of my ships were sunk and my emperor was not on the offensive. (He was actually a zero-star commander, do you believe it?)

Also, all of the rebellious provinces had high loyalty, except for Carpathia. I had owned them for quite some time. The only provinces I had recently conquered were in East Asia. The loyalty in most of those provinces was only around 120%, but strangely, they remained loyal

As for re-emergences, the only faction with serious potential to re-emerge right now is England. I killed their royal family a few years ago and many of their former provinces are still rebels. They've stayed down so far though.

[katank]

well, as princes, they could get magnificent builder if they are there in province when the buildings finished.

then, they can get it when they are the king.

so your former emperor could have had two builder and two steward vices which your new one doesn't have.

also, happiness modifiers like mercy ones cannot be possible with princes IIRC.

also, the numebrs might be higher than it seems if you recently reloaded.

[meravelha]

Playing the same faction under similar circumstances I have found that:

Byzantines tend to have excellent and long-lived emperors. During the course of their happy careers they tend to build up many happiness-producing V&Vs. Often, by the time they are old, they are adding 40%-50% to happiness of imperial subjects.

Woe when he dies The people mourn grievously. Sackcloth and ashes compulsory.

Number one son who takes over has had no chance to build up these good V&Vs.
Net result = 40% drop in happiness all over the realm.

Ditto if the emperor is ever marooned on shore with no communication to his empire (never do that....)


The answer is to make sure sure that happiness is founded in other things besides the sovereign. Build churches in every province, build monastaries, reliquaries and cathedrals in major cities.

Train your heir in happiness-producing virtues - sparing captives and the like - so that the people will have heard of his reputation when he ascends the throne.

As the emperor gets older, garrison provinces more heavily, lighten the taxes to merely 'high'.