Civil War And How to Prevent It

[Ultras DVSC]

King of Atlantis's civil war prevention program.

DONT LOSE A CRUSADE!

Lol, that's it! I had not the slightest idea why had broken out a nice civil war in my small empire, when all of my heirs and generals were relatively loyal... So the problem was that I'd started an unlucky crusade to the east... How long can I station a crusade in a province before it disbands? :)

[_Aetius_]

In my current Seljuk campaign on the BKB mod, i'm constantly under the threat of civil war, a succession of Sultans with poor influence ( 2 or 3) has caused mass discontent especially amongst his brothers and uncles of royal blood.

My empire is relatively large, from Bulgaria to Palestine, the Byzantines still hold Thessaly, Epirus and Georgia plus the islands and the year is 1210. I'm currently at war with the Almohads in north africa and the Byzantines in the Balkans and Asia Minor, having just lost Egypt to the Almohads loyalty has become an even more serious problem.

The way i've combatted it is to purge as many disloyal units as I dare, I have the loyalty of the top generals (8 and 9 stars) but the princes and lesser nobles are increasingly disloyal, many on 1, 2 or 3 loyalty.

I can't purge the army to much as im fighting 2 wars on many fronts and I cant suicide or assassinate disloyal generals as many are to important and valuable to the army. To lose them would mean many armies would be rudderless and frontiers massively exposed.

I'm constantly building so the Sultan will get the great builder and magnificent builder traits, but I can't help but feel that eventually (perhaps when the Mongols arrive) that this fragile balance will be broken and civil war tear the empire apart.

Many players will have been through this kind of balancing act, everytime a Sultan dies and a son takes over the threat of civil war is high and never really subsides.

On the Byzantines, it is extremely rare that they suffer civil wars, however in this current campaign a rather small civil war did take place but the rebels were swiftly crushed. The last time I was the Byzantines and had a civil war was so long ago I can barely remember it and the only time I see the AI suffer it is when the Byzantines are destroyed then reemerge.