How to forment a rebellion

[Organ Grinder]

Hello, I'm new here.

I was playing the Danes last night in GA and have reached a point where I have a decent trade network and have conquered Sweden, Norway, Livonia and Lithuania from the rebels. I noticed that Finland (held by Novgorod at the time) had a garrison of under 100 and had so for a few years. I dropped an emissary and a bishop in there to try and stir things up and - hey presto - within 1 year rebels appeared and ousted the Novs and in I marched to wipe them out and cease Finland. I gained a new province quickly and easily and still remain allied to Novogorod.

Did my action of putting a catholic bishop in an orthodox land and an emissary in there too help forment the rebellion or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

Also, are there other ways to forment rebellions in neighbouring countries so you can invade them without breaking any alliances or incurring the Pope's displeasurer if the other faction is catholic?

Cheers

[Diehard_TH]

Hi,

I'm pretty new too but here goes. I believe Spies help provinces rebel. I'm playing the French and have spies in some neighbouring HRE provinces and the loyalty in them is always really low.

That said i wait years for a rebellion and nothing happened so i wiped them out in one go, to avoid the Pope wrath.

Bishops, Cardinals etc will change the provinces religion and zeal and if these differ from the current overlords rebellions can occur. This may have happened in your case.

I'm pretty sure Emissaries don't effect loyalty.

[Deus Ex]

I have a related question...

How do you get spies to do anything other than look for secret vices? It seems the only "action" they have is to do the vices thing.

Is there something I need to do to get the other uses out of spies??

DE

[Procrustes]

If you leave spies in foriegn provinces sometimes they will inform you if the other faction is planning an attack - either on you or someone else.

If you are besieging a castle, you can drop a spy on the garrison and sometimes they will "open the gates". It's great when it works - you get the province intact (no buildings or ports destroyed). Your chances of success are greatest just before the castle falls.

A spy in a province without border forts may catch foriegn spies or assassins that try to get through.

A spy will gain a star every time he opens a gate, reveals a vice, learns of an impending attack, catches an agent, or if he is in a province when a rebellion happens.

I actually like using spies - they can be fun but they aren't game winners.

[Deus Ex]

ahhhh - so in order to "Foment" rebellion, they just have to sit there in the province then??

DE

[Procrustes]

BTW, fomenting rebellions in one of your own provinces is a great way to fill your coffers and to train up generals and royal heirs. Pick a province that is prone to rebellion - Latvia, Portugal, etc. - take it over, give them a decent governor, max taxes and leave it poorly garrisoned. Don't build watch towers or town watches, but other improvements are OK. Don't put any spies in it, and leave them as a different religion if you can. Pretty soon you have a rebellion. Move in some more troops and put it down - and when you get the screeny asking what to do with the rebels choose "kill them all". Then do it again and again and again.... Your governor will start to get vices - at first just some dread, then more dread and increasing loyalty penalties. Each loyalty penalty just makes another rebellion more probable - in the end you get -50 loyalty and your governor is hated by the populance. The rebellions get bigger and bigger and the peasant troops get more and more teched. Each one you put down gives you more money and more experience for your troops.

When you tire of it, just strip the gov of his title and give it to someone who isn't hated, then build some happy buildings like watchtowers and a town watch.

[Procrustes]

ahhhh - so in order to "Foment" rebellion, they just have to sit there in the province then??

DE

Yes. The more stars they have the better they are at it. Since the patches, only the spy with the most stars has an effect - so spamming multiple spies into your opponents province won't increase the likelihood of a rebellion.

If they sit in one of your provinces then they help avoid rebellions, but again it isn't something you can expicitely order them to do.

[Yoyoma1910]

Yes, I find I like spies alot because you can drop them around a few places, and when you've completely forgoten about the little buggers, they give you a pleasant surprise. Just like relatives at christmas. It's nice to have someone do their job without you having to tell them what to do.

[Etym]

They're also quite useful for avoiding rebellions - drop one into a newly conquered province and the loyalty goes up.