Hooo boy, I sure am tired of killing rebels!!!

[Satyr]

My stupid rebels always seem to camp on my roads. Heck, if I don't deal with them they often cosy right up next to my settlement. The knock to trade and devastation is too high to leave them there. It is hard enough making ends meet as some of these eastern factions particularly when you are sealed off from trading by being at war with all your neighbors.

If the darn Egyptians would only accept a cease fire I would be doing good. It would be a good thing that they are getting overrun by the Selucids for a change except that this is a short campaign and I am supposed to eliminate the Selucids so I really wish they weren't doing so good.

Anyway, I sure am tired of fighting the same stupid fight night after night. My HA against 2 units of eastern infantry, one unit of archers, and one unit of light cav. How many times I have faced the exact same rebel army I can't even imagine! I actually turned my comp off last night as I couldn't face another rebel army. I hope CA tones them down some or I will not play Rome much longer.

[Quillan]

Watch towers SEEM to help, though it can be inconsistant. Playing Egyptian, I had 3 rebel armies appear in a single turn, when I only had 4 provinces. However, since building watch towers that allow me to see everywhere, I rarely have rebels appear. They still show up sometimes, though.

[*Ringo*]

Watch towers SEEM to help, though it can be inconsistant. Playing Egyptian, I had 3 rebel armies appear in a single turn, when I only had 4 provinces. However, since building watch towers that allow me to see everywhere, I rarely have rebels appear. They still show up sometimes, though.

If this is true, i'm going to stop building them! I like fighting rebels, they are good experience for my younger generals. Everything in moderation i suppose tho.

*Ringo*

[phred]

Forts help quite a bit. I had rebels coming through a mountain pass every turn into my Julii province, but after I built a fort in the pass they stopped completely. I would think that a fort (manned with one unit) built in the foggy part of your provinces would help.

[Maltz]

Does anybody have any theory about rebels popping up? So far here are a few experiences - might be inaccurate, though:

(1) Rebels pop up at fixed spots in a given territory - for example, at the end of a bridge. Once appear, a rebel army don't move themselves.

(However, those camped in the rebel city sometimes DO come out to take a walk. A famous example is the settlement just north of Rhode. The cretian archers/slingers always come out to enjoy their sea view. Sometimes those camped in a rebel city also come out and attack weak offenders - I saw one a few days ago.)

(2) Certain areas have a high chance of rebel occurance - perhaps it is linked, but not directly proportional to:

- public order (to be more specific, maybe "unrest level", "distance to capital", and/or "cultural penalty")

- extent of "fog of war" (i.e. more watch towers reduces rebel, I have not experienced this at all, though.)

I wonder whether rebels are like "mercenaries" that has a certain regeneration rate dictated by the above factor (plus a random factor?). So they just regenerate every turn. For areas that are highly rebelious you get rebels every few turns.

(3) Rebel family members seem to mature once in a while. It seems to me that there is a secret family tree running...? But when we play as the rebels we don't see any family trees.

[Sin Qua Non]

I can attest that watchtowers may help the rebel problem, but they won't eliminate it. I often don my insane emperor's hat and send someone out to place watchtowers all over Arabia and Africa, and rebels still show up. The watchtowers just allow me to watch them pop into existence, wave hello, and then distrupt my trade. So don't worry about them disappearing entirely because of watchtowers.

[Paul Peru]

(However, those camped in the rebel city sometimes DO come out to take a walk. A famous example is the settlement just north of Rhode. The cretian archers/slingers always come out to enjoy their sea view.

I started a greek campaign the other day. Trying to get off to a good start, I sent all my Rhodean troops to the mainland the 2. turn. Most of the rebel force left the city to smell the rotting algae etc. Not having sufficient forces to attack (beachcombers would have reinforced - killer ranged units...), I waited for the town to surrender. Then it occurred to me to bribe the beach bum rebels. They were quite cheap, and since they were all permissible units for my faction, I got to keep them all. A nice boost to my army at a bargain price... The pop-up rebels are usually lameish units, but an Armenian, say, always needs a population boost, so disbanding peasants in his barren mountain towns is a good option.

[Satyr]

If there is a rebel town and it is generating rebel armies I don't have any problem with that. I just am sick to death of the randomly popping rebel armies. Like ToranagaSama I find them NO FUN to deal with. But I find that as the Parthians anyway I am fighting about 3 or 4 times more battles because of rebels than I would if I was only fighting the enemy factions.

I have actually quit playing Rome for now because of this. I just bought Kohan II and am having a blast. Hopefully an additional patch or two to Rome will bring me back. Otherwise I will go back to playing Medmod MTW instead.