Pahlava Expansion Question

[Thaatu]

The thing with RTW, at least in VH difficulty, is that there's always someone coming at you, and if you wipe him out, your new neighbour will be the next in line. In two Pahlavi campaigns I waited for about 80 turns before I took my first settlement. Granted it was a bit hard in the first one, as the Pahlavi capital that supposedly had mines gave no mining income... My income for the first 20 turns or so was below 200 mnai, with no troops other than my family members. Couldn't adopt any more FM's or I my budget would have frozen. But as my two settlements slowly grew in size, my budget balanced. Much easier the second time when the Nisa mine bug was fixed.

About unrest, the best way to battle that is with law bonuses. Construct buildings that give them, and also use governers who are at least loyal and preferably sharp. That combination might give out law related traits. If you're still keeping Nisa as your capital, change it. Parthian empire had quite a few capitals in its existance.