Why are civil wars so annoying?

[NotImoprtant]

There is always a disloyal character with an unusually high powerbase which starts the civil war timer then suddenly my only general joins them and it becomes impossible to stop the civil war. There is little to no way to control the disloyal people and it makes the game impossible to enjoy. Is there any way to prevent this?

[Swesal]

Yeah... I haven't played in months and just came back, and the amount of civil wars are insanely idiotic. I must admit it was super easy before, but now anytime a war(offensive or defensive) happens, it is a good bet a civil war will break out very soon, which makes for a potentially very bad start for all the diadochi kingdoms, and even when it isn't a bad start, it is a near-run thing.

[ReivehnFliyt]

Hello Notimportant, Yes, There are in fact many different ways to handle this, however it will only be effective if you are able and willing to stay on top of who is doing what in your nation.

Firstly, Many characters an be put to trial, in Athens they may be ostracised and if you can afford patience, even assassinated.

Firstly, Do not put strong characters in positions of power until necessary. A disloyal yet incapable nobody is far easier to deal with than the head of a noble family with high skills and a loyal force to beat you with. Ensure the majority forces are held under regional banners, in other words don't give all your armies a general unless you are preparing for war. Instead have an army with an unassigned leader assigned to regional control which should be the black banner button on an armies menu, this will assign the army to that region and regions governor. Put the most loyal people in control of regions. The further away from your capital region should have your less loyal governors. Assign only a single army to each region, Ensure characters with lots of estates are stripped of their holdings. This will lower their powerbase drastically. A high Powerbase will cause even the most loyal character to become a barbaric scourge in your nation.

Ensure that any characters you assign to high positions have low powerbase, Characters that are loyal with a high powerbase can become dangerous. A character with no loyalty but a tiny powerbase will be unable to do anything. Sometimes you can avoid a civil war by removing the estates of the person likely instigating that war. Sure they'll hate you even more, but with no power they can't rise against you. Smear reputations too, This helps keep their popular support down and thusly, their powerbase. Reward veterans when possible and if you can afford it, ensure your nation has internal rebouts of forts that may protect you from rebelling armies long enough for you to consolidate your forces.

Also try creating client states out of regions if an area has a population too diverse to manage easily. These client states can be integrated at a later state and will have the leader of whatever person is in charge of the province at the time of client-creation.

[AugustusCaesar]

Originalmente postado por Swesal:

Yeah... I haven't played in months and just came back, and the amount of civil wars are insanely idiotic. I must admit it was super easy before, but now anytime a war(offensive or defensive) happens, it is a good bet a civil war will break out very soon, which makes for a potentially very bad start for all the diadochi kingdoms, and even when it isn't a bad start, it is a near-run thing.

Really though?

Just the last 3 days I played one game as a Germanic Nation and currently another as Rome, fought many wars and never had one single Civil War, nor was I really ever threatened by one breaking out since I simply quickly bribed, persuaded and/or gave them free hand and made they loyal enough.

So either I am doing something right or you are doing something wrong.

I am playing on the default difficulty and no mods.

[Swesal]

Almost certainly I am just awful.

[Pyrrhvs]

Yep just been playing today for the first time since the last update. Began the game as a minor nation with a pending civil war from the off, dunno how they could break this so badly.

[AugustusCaesar]

Originalmente postado por Pyrrhvs:

Yep just been playing today for the first time since the last update. Began the game as a minor nation with a pending civil war from the off, dunno how they could break this so badly.

How then is it that so many don't seem to have that problem?

I've asked a few other players of IR I know and no one seems to have the same problem.

Are you using mods? And which country did you play so I can try to replicate it?

Maybe just that nation has that problem, then it could just be a minor bug (if it only affects one nation).

Originalmente postado por Swesal:

Almost certainly I am just awful.

Hm, tell me, what do you do when you see the notification of an impending civil war?

Maybe we can give you a few tips.

[Pyrrhvs]

Originalmente postado por AugustusCaesar:

Originalmente postado por Pyrrhvs:

Yep just been playing today for the first time since the last update. Began the game as a minor nation with a pending civil war from the off, dunno how they could break this so badly.

How then is it that so many don't seem to have that problem?

I've asked a few other players of IR I know and no one seems to have the same problem.

Are you using mods? And which country did you play so I can try to replicate it?

Maybe just that nation has that problem, then it could just be a minor bug (if it only affects one nation).

Bithynia. Had a civil war within the first few years even with my leader in charge of the army. No mods or anything, with DLC. I haven't played for awhile but I used to like the old loyalty system, the new one just seems broken so far. I might give it another go at some point.

[AugustusCaesar]

Originalmente postado por Pyrrhvs:

Bithynia. Had a civil war within the first few years even with my leader in charge of the army. No mods or anything, with DLC. I haven't played for awhile but I used to like the old loyalty system, the new one just seems broken so far. I might give it another go at some point.

I'll give it a try, might even record it and upload it on Youtube so we can see if I can replicate it and how I would deal with it, I'll report back when I've done so ;) .

[AugustusCaesar]

Originalmente postado por Pyrrhvs:

Bithynia. Had a civil war within the first few years even with my leader in charge of the army. No mods or anything, with DLC. I haven't played for awhile but I used to like the old loyalty system, the new one just seems broken so far. I might give it another go at some point.

So, here it is, me playing Bithynia for 10 years with no Civil War. Sadly no luck in expanding, there were several moments where I almost could have but I couldn't declare war fast enough.

Only mods I am using / used is the Calendar mod. I also have the EasyCheat mod activated in case of bugs but it doesn't do anything unless you activate the event, which I didn't.

I also have the console activated but again, you can see I didn't use it.

Maybe you can have a look and tell me how it differs from your experience, which seems to be vastly different:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWWyNRGZf9E

[volbound1700]

There are ways to avoid the Civil War. Key is Bribe although you don't want to use it a lot because of corruption. Making friends helps as well. As you research technology, their are advances that will help as well. As you get further in the game, this becomes less of a problem. My biggest issue at the start isn't Civil Wars but Finances. Most countries have crappy Financial Situation. This improves with time but it can make smaller countries (i.e. Athens or Judea) unplayable.

I do agree the Civil War system should be revamped. I think that if a Civil War breaks out, the rebel army has to move towards your enemy stacks and engage or they lose the war. This will force conflict early and avoid silly drug out craziness.

[AugustusCaesar]

Originalmente postado por volbound1700:

There are ways to avoid the Civil War. Key is Bribe although you don't want to use it a lot because of corruption. Making friends helps as well.

Hm, I don't know, I never had problems with corruption even though I tend to bribe disloyal people when a Civil War is threatening or the Character is a General.

As of now, neither as a King nor an elected Ruler has too high corruption due to this caused me too much trouble.

I also never make friends, the costs I find usually too high and again, never had too much trouble despite it.

[Pyrrhvs]

Originalmente postado por AugustusCaesar:

Originalmente postado por Pyrrhvs:

Bithynia. Had a civil war within the first few years even with my leader in charge of the army. No mods or anything, with DLC. I haven't played for awhile but I used to like the old loyalty system, the new one just seems broken so far. I might give it another go at some point.

So, here it is, me playing Bithynia for 10 years with no Civil War. Sadly no luck in expanding, there were several moments where I almost could have but I couldn't declare war fast enough.

Only mods I am using / used is the Calendar mod. I also have the EasyCheat mod activated in case of bugs but it doesn't do anything unless you activate the event, which I didn't.

I also have the console activated but again, you can see I didn't use it.

Maybe you can have a look and tell me how it differs from your experience, which seems to be vastly different:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWWyNRGZf9E

Weird, not sure what I've done then to trigger it so soon. I'll try playing again at some point although I'm probably going back to Stellaris as soon as the update is out tomorrow. I've played all of the other updates with Imperator and never really had civil wars happen besides when the game first came out and I was playing as a tribal nation.