Help with public order and taxes

[Aristoxenus]

I am playing the Western Roman Empire (WRE) i am around the year 410 (with the mod MUNDVS MAGNVS), my Empire is holding, more surviving. The only good income i can get is to plunder the rich cities of the treacherous Byzantine Imperial lands.
My issue, I have a hard problem with income taxes, in Hispania , Gaul , Italia and many other provinces are pagan (mostly Mithras followers) i build them temples, sewers, circus, they kept being st***d ungrateful, i have to keep them with low taxes or they get angry (red face) i also make sure that the general or governor in the city is of the same religion.

Question, how do I resolve that? Is that too late? How do I keep raising taxes without them acting as enraged id**ts?

[Jambie Lionheart]

The solution is probably the same whether with your mod or vanilla. The Western Empire starts of in a bad spot and even worse they're split between the two main religions of the game.

There's a few threads outlining this now but you basically just have to draw a line in the sand on what you are prepared to lose (to take back later) and what is immediately worth trying to save.

First step is pick a religion and make sure the whole empire converts to that one as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Long term it'll make everything just that little bit easier. Then pick out the ones you don't think you can save and just let them go. You can either use them to top up the treasury or you can just come back for them later. Any general that doesn't share the primary religion, once you've mostly converted the population need to be summarily executed. As in send them into an impossible battle and manually make sure they stay dead :) You can also stick 'em in a fort some where you don't care about if you want.

If you have any settlements that start out in good spirits, tax them to the hilt. You'll still probably go into negatives before you can sort the mess out so be prepared to deal with an ever shrinking army too. Also get rid of the useless units as early as possible.

[Aristoxenus]

Originally posted by Jambie Lionheart:

The solution is probably the same whether with your mod or vanilla. The Western Empire starts of in a bad spot and even worse they're split between the two main religions of the game.

There's a few threads outlining this now but you basically just have to draw a line in the sand on what you are prepared to lose (to take back later) and what is immediately worth trying to save.

First step is pick a religion and make sure the whole empire converts to that one as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Long term it'll make everything just that little bit easier. Then pick out the ones you don't think you can save and just let them go. You can either use them to top up the treasury or you can just come back for them later. Any general that doesn't share the primary religion, once you've mostly converted the population need to be summarily executed. As in send them into an impossible battle and manually make sure they stay dead :) You can also stick 'em in a fort some where you don't care about if you want.

If you have any settlements that start out in good spirits, tax them to the hilt. You'll still probably go into negatives before you can sort the mess out so be prepared to deal with an ever shrinking army too. Also get rid of the useless units as early as possible.

/////
Thx, about the generals i already do this advice.
Also in most of my cities i need constant large garrisons.
I successfully converted Rome from Christianity to Sol Invictus, but the overall religion of the Empire remains Mithraism, and some parts like the Greco-Anatolian region are Christian with the exception of recently capture Cyprus/
I build circus everywhere and then they get mad if its yearly games.
So i have to reduce taxes to lowest and circus games to daily.
In southern Hispania and southern Gaul they are the maddest even thou they have public baths, circuses, level 3 Temple etc.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Originally posted by Aristoxenus:

Originally posted by Jambie Lionheart:

The solution is probably the same whether with your mod or vanilla. The Western Empire starts of in a bad spot and even worse they're split between the two main religions of the game.

There's a few threads outlining this now but you basically just have to draw a line in the sand on what you are prepared to lose (to take back later) and what is immediately worth trying to save.

First step is pick a religion and make sure the whole empire converts to that one as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Long term it'll make everything just that little bit easier. Then pick out the ones you don't think you can save and just let them go. You can either use them to top up the treasury or you can just come back for them later. Any general that doesn't share the primary religion, once you've mostly converted the population need to be summarily executed. As in send them into an impossible battle and manually make sure they stay dead :) You can also stick 'em in a fort some where you don't care about if you want.

If you have any settlements that start out in good spirits, tax them to the hilt. You'll still probably go into negatives before you can sort the mess out so be prepared to deal with an ever shrinking army too. Also get rid of the useless units as early as possible.

/////
Thx, about the generals i already do this advice.
Also in most of my cities i need constant large garrisons.
I successfully converted Rome from Christianity to Sol Invictus, but the overall religion of the Empire remains Mithraism, and some parts like the Greco-Anatolian region are Christian with the exception of recently capture Cyprus/
I build circus everywhere and then they get mad if its yearly games.
So i have to reduce taxes to lowest and circus games to daily.
In southern Hispania and southern Gaul they are the maddest even thou they have public baths, circuses, level 3 Temple etc.

Ok, I think I'm seeing the issue then. I remember way back when I still played BI, the western Empire was mostly Christian rather than pagan. Which makes converting from Christian to Pagan the rough choice. Remember that neighbouring provinces have an effect on local religous conversion rates of any one settlement. If you're really adamant about converting them to mostly Pagan or even worse splitting the religion alignment of the empire into multiple religions you're going to be dealing with extra rebellion and discontent, probably from start to finish.

The path of least resistance is to convert them to Christianity as quickly as possible while building up the economy. Don't think farms, think ports and roads at first. This gets your empire into a place where it's stable as quickly as possible. You might also want to consider moving your capital, depending on which settlements you most want to keep. The default is Rome but you can move that capital title to just about anywhere you like. Don't move it further away from anywhere that you care about.

EG, moving the capital to Massilia will go a long way to calming down the Hispanic and Gallic settlements but you should be prepared to let go of North Africa for the short term if you do, ect. There isn't really a perfectly bloodless solution for the Western Empires campaign in BI. Be prepared to lose settlements. Some of them, important, no matter which way you go.

Also, you can get rid of the high grade troops in settlements that aren't near your frontlines and where you aren't worried about major rebellions. Just replace them with peasants. It'll simultaneously buy you some time by lowering population in the settlement and raise morale through sheer numbers while also reducing overall upkeep costs.