Question on Civil revolts...

One thing I have been struggling with is public order. I have constructed sewers, public baths, temples, hippodromes, amphitheatres, etc..., but the public order in even my native Roman cities is hard to keep above 85% without losing lots of money to low taxes and lots of games/races. In expanding my empire, I find I am forced to exterminate the population in foreign provinces because I otherwise have to keep a large garrison and spend lots of money to keep the constant rioting from turning into a revolt. Even the cities with small populations are on the verge of revolt.

I had been having riots in Carthage (pop > 25,000) for almost 10 turns in a row, with a governer, low tax rate, and daily games. I had a full size garrison in the city to keep them from revolting, but it was costing me too much money. So I abandoned the city so they would revolt. My plan was to reconquer it, exterminate the disobedient f***ers and make lots of money at the same time as sovling the rioting problem. When the city revolted, all the sudden it was given back to the carthaginians, and the revolting peasants turned into spearman, infantry, archers, cavalry, and even 3 groups of war elephants! I took heavy casualties in the assualt, but took the city back and my plan worked.

Later on, I had captured the city at the bottom of the map in Africa (Nepte I think...). I made sure to exterminate them the first time because I didn't need the remote city as a trade or troop building city. I had a garisson of ~850 men and a population of ~450 citizens. The public order stayed at 45% for 2 turns, then they revolted and kicked me out. The Numdian garrison in the city after the revolt was a force of almost 900 men!

Now I understand a big city like carthage having a sizeable garrison (Except for those war elephants... :( ), but how can an army of 400 peasants revolt against and army twice its size, and somehow magically gain another 500 men, archers, and cavalry while the original peasants also become trained numidian infantry?

I share your pain. Revolt in Carthage destroyed two armies thanks to their elephants.

City revolts suck imo. Why can't I have the choice of fighting the rebels with my garrison - thats what their in the city for. How cool to have a street fight against a bunch of rebels, fighting over important buildings etc. The possibilities are huge and instead all that happens is my garrison is suddenly thrown out on their arses and thanks for coming.

City revolts were a major disappointment for me.

I find that revolts occur way to much. CA did this to add difficulty, but just isn't realistic. Can you imagine native romans revolting when the have the best sanitation available and yet they rebel because they have a large population. It is best to never upgrade farms to keep populations low, but many cities will still rebel. I get tired of micromaneging each city show i went into the data files and gave a law bonus to each of the govenors buildings. this has made the game much more enjoyable.( along with the rome total realism mod.) ~:cheers:

I think if you construct Colliseums in those huge towns, you will have gladiator uprisings instead of carthaginian rebellions. Personally, I build the colliseum early on and never had a rebellion with elephants, it was always with gladiators (which is easier because gladiators are not as mobile and don't have ranged weapons). Again, do not upgrade farms. If you build the farms and your population keeps exploding to a point where the city can't even carry its own weight, it is usually a good idea to move all your garrison out, have an army standing by (a big one, since the Senate will tell you to retake the city immediately), and let the people revolt. Then, just besiege the settlement until it runs out of food, or, if you are feeling up to it, siege it (make sure you have onagers, since using other "siege equipment" will cause huge casualties in your side and might even take longer than 36 minutes). Also, use peasants to garrison those buildings. Placing expensive units in the cities spreads your army thin and wastes money. Just have a huge army of peasants (low upkeep, large unit) in each city so that your garrison percentage reaches 80% (check in town details, adding more will not raise it above 80%, so don't even bother). Then, pick a location between a group of cities and make sure that an army can reach each city within a few turns. The army that you make doesn't have to be great, but it should be able to take on opposing forces. I suggest just having a few units of Principes, Roman Cavalry, Onagers and Archers Auxilia. If a city gets besieged or if your garrison gets kicked out due to revolts, just send the army there to deal with it.