me personally i use the revolt method and reclaim the cities. It does take some doing by getting an army up to speed in the area...but I like it more personally then gifting and re-taking, that just seems cheesy and an easy way out. I take the losses with revolts but I feel cleaner afterwards...

i've avoided farms, but the temples themselves usually provide a nice happiness bonus...plus, fertility temples only help getting more children/general produced as well which is nice...so i deal with faster population increases.

I think i'll need to keep a better eye on my generals though for good/bad VnV.

Is there any way to determine what kind of armies will be produced during a revolt. Will a town capable of only the first rank of militia only produce those during a revolt or will all sorts of random stuff pop up including cavalry and whatnot even if that town normally cannot produce such units?