Culture and penalties

I have read somewhere that culture is related not to the amenities like theatres and acadamies but the groups within the game, Greek, Roman Barbarian etc. When one of the different type occupies the town of another a penalty accrues. So how do you minimise it, or eliminate it. I ask as the Juli are sat in Gaulish 'Patavium' (top of italy) Pop is 16000. The sole occupant is a general with bodyguards. On paper it should be revolting as my spys note it has 0 % public order. It didnt, It remained so for five turns until i ransacked it with a selucid army lead by my faction leader with five squares/wreaths/stars. He lasted a turn before the town revolted immediatly with a PO of 70% and 1200+ soldiers garrisoning. HOW COME? He certainly had more than the Roman govenor. Not only that it went to the Juli rather than Gaul???

Any clues

Thanks

Hi,
Culture penalty is caused by having buildings of a different culture in the city. It is usually 5% penalty per building and you can identify what culture the building is by hovering the mouse over it (if it is was built by a different faction then it will say [building name] ([culture name]) one the pop up box.

Each faction is part of a culture. these cultures are:
Roman:
Romans Julii
Romans Brutii
Romans Scipii
S.P.Q.R

Greek:
Seleucid Empire
Macedon
The Greek Cities
Thrace

Carthaginian:
Carthage
Numidia

Barbarian
Britannia
Gaul
Germania
Iberia
Dacia
Sythia

Eastern:
Parthia
Armenia
Pontus

Egyptian
Egypt

Wiping out culture penalty is impossible till the city reaches the next level, it's walls are upgraded (should it have any) and the provinces roads are upgraded. One of the best options in the meantime is to destroy all buildings that are not your faction's culture in the city. This can, however, cause loss of income and happiness in other formats from the city. Another option is to try and upgrade every building in the province. This removes culture penalty (-5% per building) and prevents other losses in the city. Sadly it is expensive and cannot be done if buildings are already upgraded to their maximum level for that city size level.

Regarding your second question, I have no idea how that happened. It probably was a bug. I suggest you get the latest version. Perhaps that could fix it?

The settlement went to the Romans because the settlement's main government building was still Roman in culture and the Julii were the Roman culture that built the main government building. This causes the settlement to automatically rebel to the Julii should the owning faction be of a non-Roman culture group. Hope this helps, cheers!

Thanks.

I now totally destroy everything as policy

I think the governor's building gives a 20% culture penalty if it isn't the same culture as your own. Which is a bit of a nuisance if the city is already at the top tier as you can't replace it with your own.

Anyway, regarding the revolt issue, it is not uncommon for AI controlled settlements to withstand revolts with incredibly low public order. On harder difficulty levels, it's really frustrating to see them hold onto a massive city with a bunch of peasants whilst you have to lower taxes, hold games and fill the garrison with soldiers to achieve the same thing. It may take a few turns but normally there are riots in the AI settlements, although revolts and being turfed out are rarer.

As to the settlement going back to the Romans after you took it and lost it, it sounds like a loyalist rebellion for the previous owner - ie the Romans. Often if a faction has held a settlement for an extended amount of time and/or the majority of the buildings are of that previous faction's own construction, then when the settlement revolts, they'll get it back instead of the original owner's faction.

As to knocking down opposing culture's buildings as soon as you capture the settlement, be careful. The first thing to do is lower taxes to the minimum and then think about knocking down buildings if you're still in danger of a revolt. Remember the first couple of turns you hold a conquered settlement will generally have the most unrest, so if you can hold on for a while without knocking everything down, do. Also if there are high tier temples giving large public order and law bonuses, only replace these when you have public order under control. There's no point knocking down something that gives +30% public order and only has a -5% culture penalty.

i agree with the prof almost 100%, except you also need to consider not lowering taxes if you are going to leave a general/governor in the city.

with taxes at high or very high and you complete a building or train a unit, you have a chance at gaining in the good administrator trait, which improves the governor's 'law' ranking.

i destroy buildings that i'm not going to use right away so the cultural penalty is less- it is calculated on ratio of 'their' buildings to yours, so cav stables and archery ranges are bad if you are just going to build infantry.

and to add to what was already pointed out- roads and mines and farms can't be destroyed and so you have to wait until the settlement is the next higher level to build over these. but if you exterminate the population, it is going to take quite some time to reach the next population level, so you are going to have to take this into account, too.