Quote Originally Posted by Blodrast
ok, I don't remember the exact details, but the general idea was that:

1. kill them all will increase your dread and give your governor various VnV's; at first dread-related, and they may be quite useful; but if you keep it up, the vices will stop being useful and actually become unpleasant (I can't remember exactly what the lines of VnV's were).

2. release them all; (temporarily) increase happiness; this will also lead to your leader getting VnV's; again, short term good, long term not necessarily. I think there was another issue here about loyalty, but I can't remember it.

3. kill the ringleaders. This is the neutral one. It will NOT affect your leader, and it won't lead to him getting any VnV's whatsoever as a consequence. So if you don't want anything to change, do this.

If you do either of 1 or 2, it's a gamble. As I said, short-term it's beneficial. Long term, it becomes more of a gamble, and you know what it's like in gambling: the hours always wins
This is the advice I've seen before, but I don't have any evidence to back it up. I mean, I don't see any consistent pattern with the V&V's of my governors of rebellious provinces. Either way, if this is correct then it would seem that you should alternate a couple of times - e.g. kill 'em all once or twice, and if you have more rebellions then let them all go once or twice.

I don't know if I'm right, but it seems that the first rebellion in any province is pretty small. Also, it often seems that the size of the rebellious army is partly determined by the size of your garrison, so I don't leave big garrisons in any of my rebellious provinces for long and I move big armies next door if it looks like I'm going to have a rebellion no matter what I do. When I fight the first rebellion in a province I use my governor to lead my army and I make sure to kill the first one or two prisoners I capture while still on the battle field - it will give the gov the "scant mercy" vice that comes with one dread star. (You can only do this once - there are extended vices you get from killing lots of prisoners, but they have drawbacks and are harder to get. I think one (bloodlust?) requires that you kill 1000 prisoners - luckily my rebellions haven't been that big!)