Engineering Civil War

[macsen rufus]

Sure fire civil war -- lose a Crusade. Never tried it myself, but I guess if you launch a crusade then next turn destroy the chapter house, you're bound to have a civil war, I'm sure!

But it sounds like you did all the right things to provoke one last time, no idea why that didn't work. Did you leave any spies hanging around? They may have helped suppress the revolt if they were counterspying, and you can also try treason trials as I believe this drives down loyalty as generals don't like being framed

[Betito]

As an addition to losing crusades, try to get your king into an island with no port(rhodes, crete, matla, or something like that should do). That will lower the loyalty of all your generals significantly(i am suming your king has at least 4 or 5 of influence)

That usually does the trick for me.

[caravel]

It's easy as a muslim or crusading catholic. Just build a chapter house/ribat then 'train' 3 crusade/jihad markers and then just destroy the chapter house/ribat. Instant civil war.

As the Orthodox or non crusading catholic the best way to get a crusade going is not to separate your king from the mainland, as that way you will get revolts in many of your provinces. This is not a civil war. The most expedient method is to repeatedly send a few peasant forces into battles they cannot win, then try your loyal generals for treason to reduce their loyalty.

In either case once you're ready, the loyal and disloyal need to be separated into two camps in order to influence who controls which provinces when the faction divides. The king should be in a province on his own or perhaps with some of the other loyalists, as the units in his province won't defect. The loyalists need to be dvided and placed in situations where they can't win or take control of any decent provinces. It's not easy to get it perfectly right but you can do a better job of it than just leaving the AI to it.

I had to do this once with my 60 year old heirless king. Racing against the clock to try to precent my faction from dying out.

[Roark]

How to Engineer a Civil War

Step 1: Play as the Germans

THE END




But seriously, Caravel's tips above are solid...

Strip your spies from your provinces and give all of your armies to your most disloyal generals. Bribed Muslim/Orthodox rebels are perfect. Strip any governorships they may currently have and try them for treason repeatedly with zero star spies. Try your sons for treason too.

Keep your king in a far corner of your empire, away from your disloyal generals, and commanding a stack of the MOST loyal generals. Fail at everything. Go into battle and fight like a pansy.

[Kralizec]

Strip your spies from your provinces and give all of your armies to your most disloyal generals

I thought that regardless of the general, stacks will break up with units siding with both loyalists and rebels?

[danfda]

I thought that regardless of the general, stacks will break up with units siding with both loyalists and rebels?

Actually, so did I, but I've only had a civil war once, due to a failed crusade. It was wicked...

[Martok]

I thought that regardless of the general, stacks will break up with units siding with both loyalists and rebels?

Not in my experience. Stacks remain intact when a civil war breaks out (unless of course you'd split them up beforehand). That's why generals are so key; whoever's in charge of the stack will dictate way the entire army goes (loyalist or rebel) in case of civil wars.

[Empirate]

Everything that lowers your king's influence is important for triggering the civil war: Losing battles (though preferably no provinces...), betraying allies, losing battles, failed assassination/spying attempts, losing battles, and of course pissing off the pope. Try to get excommunicated! I had two civil wars the moment I was excommunicated in two games I played a while back.