Easy way to deal with bandits

[fester]

I soon found the larger my empire got the more time I spent dealing with poxy badits sitting on my land sucking me dry.It got to the point were I had to keep a forever busy army in each region going around fighting these repetertive battles against crap opposition and never daring to auto calc any battles for fear of suffering rediculous casualties.I know some one's probably sussed this out months ago but for any newbies out there it's a lot cheaper and easier to keep a diplomat in each region and bribe rebels as they crop up, However I dont know what the long term effects might be as the AI might see me as a soft touch and throw even more badits my way. Does any body know ?????

[Zorn]

I *think* that rebell armies spawn only in areas with fog of war.
I try to cover my whole area with towers, and have never problems with rebel armies.

[Es Arkajae]

Aye, I set up watchtowers.

I think you will still get bandits in some provinces which just seem to naturally spawn them.

As for the rest just use diplomats mate, if your empire is that large your money should be pouring in and you should be able to easily afford it.

[Penguin]

I know what you mean ill go destroy a rebel army and they'll pop-up in the next turn or a little bit latter :furious3: & they seem to come back stronger . i do like it when they have family members to bribe a cheap way to replace some one who just died. 1 question dose any one know how much money they drain?

[Es Arkajae]

Well you know that little black patch that appears below them and grows?, thats usually a good indicator of how much damage they're doing~D

But if you want a more exact estimation then go into your settlement details screen and look at how much you're losing to 'devestation' (I think), if there is no enemy factions army on your lands (and you haven't recently been fighting in the province) then all of that can be attributed to the bandits/rebels looting, pillaging and raping their way across your lands.

[Kraxis]

It is well worth it to bribe bandits away. A few units of Eastern Infantry and perhaps other light infantry are much cheaper to buy away than to let cause devastation. Of course if the bandits are close to a city it is often more fun and easier to kill them in battle. Just don't underestimate them. I sent four units of Militia Hoplites to beat up an army of four units of Eastern Infantry I thought (I had looked at the army and it had three units of EI and a questionmark). It turned out it was three EI and a unit of Horse Archers... Rats! Naturally I beat up the infantry but had to flee before the evil riders.

[KiOwA]

I've found that despite an extensive network of spy towers, the rebels still pop up from time to time, mainly in the larger (read:more wilderness) provinces. They make great training for new assassins, and a new General when my assassins are done.

[Maedhros]

I tend to treat them as a training activity too. Keeping a few units of light cav in cities near where they often operate. I don't ususally need more than that to deal with them. If I do I attack anyway, smash a few units on their flanks and withdraw.

I'll keep harrassing them until they are gone, or reinforcements arrive. At least skirmashing tends to keep nasty black patches at bay for a bit.

[Gregoshi]

Question for the panel: you've mentioned using watchtowers to thwart bandits from spawning, but with mixed results. Has anyone tried forts? Perhaps a stronger presence is required to discourage the rabble rousers. I'll have to try that next time I play as they are a problem for me in Gaul.

[Es Arkajae]

Forts do discourage local spawning of rebels I believe, perhaps more useful for those provinces where they will spawn no matter how many watchtowers you have up.

But for the rest watchtowers will do, they also of course make your territory observable.

Keep in mind that a fort needs a garrison which represents a continuous drain on your resources, although sticking an agent in a fort will keep it a going concern it doesn't protect it if someone chooses to attack it. I'm not sure if rebels will ever attack a fort even an ungarrisoned one???

[Parmenio]

I always bribe them. After a while the local dilplomats get quite high ranking - quite useful for neutralising those leaderless faction armies that occasionally wander by.

[frogbeastegg]

Removing the fog of war for the entire province helps, as has already been said. I also remember having more trouble with bandits in unruly provinces, ones where the city was experiencing regime devotion issues due to some form of brain disease that prompted irrational behaviour (i.e. they had low loyalty to me, the ingrates!). It has been months since I played SP and I never really investigated this much, so don't take that as anything other than a froggy guess.

More froggy guesswork: I also found rebel damage seemed to come in to flavours, although whether it was classed as such on the economic screens I don't know. They stand on a road and damage your trade, or they stand in the countryside and devastate it. Now, if you follow the logic that is most likely two different kinds of effects. For a city with extremely good trade having a road blocked might be more harmful than having a few farms burned.

Someone might have investigated this over in the ludus magna; I haven't been able to keep up with all the RTW related bits and bobs.

[Sinner]

I think it's not so much a case of forts discouraging rebels, but the extra troop(s) you need to man the forts. There appears to be a link between the number of troops in a region and the frequency of rebels/bandits, with more troops equals less bandits, which does make sense.

Another factor appears to be the size of the city, in effect how civilized a region has become. If I start a game with a heavily teched up city, I might get the odd rebel or two in the region, but they soon stop appearing or they appear so rarely that there's little difference. If I start a game with the same city but without all the extra buildings and instead build up as normal, then I get more rebels over the same period of time. My guess is that the % chance for rebels to appear in a region gets reduced each turn, with the more advanced the city the greater the reduction. This would explain both start-up scenarios.

[KiOwA]

Perhaps the chance for rebels takes into account ALL these factors, from watchtowers and forts to size of city and no. of troops.

[Oaty]

I think there is a bunny rabbit factor also.

I've had games where I crushed rebel armies in there infancy but as soon as I do'nt take care of one immediately I can have up to 10 or more rebels pop up everywhere and as soon as I crush all of them they come up a lot less. Also newly conquered land seems to spawn them more.

The worst place for rebels always seems to be modern day France, Germany and the Dacian area.