How to deal with recurring peasant revolts?

[chainmatrix]

How can I keep peasant revolts in check? In my Viyaja 867 game I had a small kingdom with 6-8 counties of which I directly controlled 4-6 (had only conquered 1-3 neighboring counties) and every person loved me (no-one had <75 opinion). All areas had the same faith as me (I had converted them to it) and the same culture, I had positive traits.

However, large number of peasants kept on starting a revolt, demanding lower control. I could not wage wars, because if I did and did not yield to the rabble instantly, by the time my troops made it back to my kingdom the rabble armies were somehow 5k-8k strong (while my 1st and 2nd generation rulers had ~1k levy army + 500 men-at-arms).

Regardless of how I handled the situation, the very same peasants revolted again and again ad nauseam every couple of years (with full strength no less), keeping my control of most areas so low they didn't produce anything; my 24 marshal could not restore control before they revolted again. Any help would be appreciated, is there a way to break this revolt cycle?

[teron]

Peasant revolts are based on popular opinion, with negative opinion causing the revolt.
Also unlike other factions, they fire without considering their military strength vs yours.

If you mouse over the province, it should tell you what is giving you the negative opinion. For example having levies raise for to long, outcomes of events (which can last a while), having low control giving negative modifiers.

If the source is due to low control giving county malus modifiers like Lackluster Administration (-1 control per month) or Lack of Sheriffs (-10 popular opinion) . Then the solution is to change your lifestyle to Authority (which gives +0.3 control per month) and focus on the overseer tree.

In that tree the first trait serve the crown gives +0.3 control, then grab Strict Organization which gives +20% Increase Control in Country Progress Gain. Also the final trait gives overseer give gives +50% monthly control growth.

Then use a mix of the passive control gains, while using your martial's Increase Control in County mission on counties that are easy to get to 100 control, or currently have malus modifiers. Ideally you may want to move the martial around focusing on getting rid of the malus modifiers first.

[chainmatrix]

Originally posted by teron:

(lot of good advice)

Thank you for the answer! If I understand the situation correctly, the basic problem is that me starting an offensive war causes the popular opinion to become irreparably low, and the revolt cycle starts. The only solutions to this seem to be 1) don't wage wars (not really an option in the long run), 2) always take Stewardship > Architect > Popular Figurehead which gives +50 popular opinion which apparently is enough to counter the opinion penalty from war, 3) have faith with Warmonger tenent (but then they rebel if there are no constant wars). However, it would seem counter-intuitive and ridiculously restrictive if those are really the only solutions that can prevent the peasant rabble revolt cycle?

(Peasant rabble wants lower county control, so while increasing control is crucial in getting the areas back to a productive state, it does not stop the cycle, vice versa.)

[teron]

Also that low control gives county malus effects which can give negative control growth, tax malus, levy malus or popular opinion.
Plus it kills your income and levies, since each point of control below 100 is-1% tax, 0.5% levies reduction. So for example at 50 control, you have a -50% tax modifier on the county.

So being really low on control is something you want to quickly fix, since it drastically weakens you.

Corruption [ck3.paradoxwikis.com] being some of the examples of the negative county modifiers that come with low control. Wiki does mention they start appearing at below 35 control.

Really you probably want to take a brief break from war mongering until any opinion malus is gone, and focus on getting control up via Authority focus and overseer tree. Since base control growth in your holdings is 0.1 per month. Authority focus and the first perk add 0.6 (each are 0.3) to that. So that gives a total 0.7 points per month in all your land that you directly, plus whatever you martial is doing in the county he is working on. Ideally moving him around to try clearing the county malus if they exist first. Especially if they have malus's that give negative popular opinion. Since getting back to 0 opinion tends to kill their wanting to rebel.

For the war front, it is you want to do short quick wars with some time at peace to remove the opinion malus. Which siege weapon MAA help with since they drastically speed up sieges. Eventually your vassals start doing the expanding, this is especially true if you are an emperor and drop a king level vassal on the boarder.

[chainmatrix]

Originally posted by teron:

So being really low on control is something you want to quickly fix, since it drastically weakens you.

Naturally, but the basic problem here is that increasing control annoys the peasant rabble and makes them revolt, and each revolt again lowers the control, hence the cycle.

Originally posted by teron:

For the war front, it is you want to do short quick wars with some time at peace to remove the opinion malus.

Indeed, but with the way war works short wars are usually not possible. :/ In this Viyaja game all feasible war targets were other kingdoms with multiple counties, and to claim one meager county one has to either get really lucky with a capture or successfully siege opponent's every bloody county to win the war. Even with siege weapons sieges were 4-12 months a piece, and then a lot of long travel times in mountainous area to boot. Two wars within a few years was enough to start this cycle.

[Sputnik]

Most low county control drop seems triggered by sieges. So, like Teron said above, you gotta take a breather from conquering stuff to raise control levels using your Marshal. You might also want to get your Bishop work spreading your religion and your Steward indoctrinating your culture.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Solution isn't not waging wars, it's just taking breaks for a year or two in between each war so you're not perpetually building up stacking negative Popular Opinion. Once it goes away altogether, it takes a longer period of being at war before it starts building back up again. You generally don't want to be perpetually expanding anyways, as after a certain point the benefits become quite minimal, especially since there's a very strict limit on how much territory you're able to directly manage.

[chainmatrix]

Originally posted by Sputnik:

Most low county control drop seems triggered by sieges. So, like Teron said above, you gotta take a breather from conquering stuff to raise control levels using your Marshal. You might also want to get your Bishop work spreading your religion and your Steward indoctrinating your culture.

The control loss being caused by sieges was a good tip, I am now experiencing with Martial > Overseer > Enduring Hardships to see if it could help significantly with the control issue. (In the problematic game all my areas had my religion and culture, but that bit is of course also excellent advice.)

[D34DLY]

Well, crush the peasants with your army works for me.

If your army is busy far away, then your options are to buy mercenaries, or just give in to their demands. Giving in to their demands isn't that bad.

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by D34DLY:

Well, crush the peasants with your army works for me.

If your army is busy far away, then your options are to buy mercenaries, or just give in to their demands. Giving in to their demands isn't that bad.

You can score a nice peasant commander sometimes by defeating an uprising. Comes with a trait to reduce raised levy costs I think.

[St3amfails]

execute them all. No one wants to rebel if everybody that does dies horribly.