Barbarians and Rebels in Vae Victis

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I have recently installed Vae Victis and I find in my first 2 games as Rome, the barbarians are a ever present threat that doesn't seem to go away. Also I have oexperienced a lot of rebellions. I have spent 20 years or more dealing with all this and I'm not getting ahead that much, at least perceptibly. I am spending so much time with barbarians and rebels that I don't have the time or the manpower to deal with other countries or states. My manpower keeps getting severely drained and it is very much touch and go. Also the disloyality of my commanders and governors keep seceding and I don't have the manpower to replenish my ranks.

How do I deal with the barbarians? Besides the obivous things such as colonization or the military? Create client states? How do I get the barbarians to settle or become clients? What good strategies are there to extend the frontier, besides increasing civilization levels? How I increase civilization levels faster? The barbarians come and come and come.

How I reduce the revolt risk? I find I am constantly dealing with rebellions or disloyal governors or commanders. I have the populist faction at 89 senators. Bad I know. Why am I experiencing so much rebellion? I can't catch a break. I never experienced this before Vae Victis.

Somebody give me some good advice. Please reply. Help out a fella. Somebody please reply.

 

[RHKINC]

Depending on your start date (assuming you started on the first one) if you expand too quickly you'll find your tech levels, population, and internal stability are not able to handle say, an empire spanning all of Gaul (France). As for your domestic stability make sure you're creating armies and appointing generals for them, rather than letting an even spark it. Give some characters bribes, or even the titles they seek to guarantee loyalty. Make sure you have the core of your empire secure, let the Barbarians conquer the outer areas for a time until you restore control of your own slice of the world. Now, as for creating client states you need to let the barbarians conquer some of your provinces, then you can wait for them to declare independence. This means don't attack and reconquer the province, let them hold on to it for a while and eventually it will become it's own country, then you can negotiate with it like any nation.

As they say in NASCAR, sometimes you have to go slower to go faster. Secure your homeland, let the barbarians create clients on the fringe, and take control of your domestic situation. It seems like you're not familiar with the Vae Victus character system as a further observation.

 

[Cheexsta]

I have recently installed Vae Victis and I find in my first 2 games as Rome, the barbarians are a ever present threat that doesn't seem to go away. Also I have oexperienced a lot of rebellions. I have spent 20 years or more dealing with all this and I'm not getting ahead that much, at least perceptibly. I am spending so much time with barbarians and rebels that I don't have the time or the manpower to deal with other countries or states. My manpower keeps getting severely drained and it is very much touch and go. Also the disloyality of my commanders and governors keep seceding and I don't have the manpower to replenish my ranks.

Like RHKINC said, it sounds like you might have expanded a little too quickly. Fast expansion usually means that lots of provinces will still have a minimum revolt risk from being recently conquered, plus they are nearly always going to have a different culture and/or religion which also makes it harder. Take your time when conquering, consolidate what you have, and make sure you have the resources you need before conquering again.

How do I deal with the barbarians? Besides the obivous things such as colonization or the military? Create client states? How do I get the barbarians to settle or become clients? What good strategies are there to extend the frontier, besides increasing civilization levels? How I increase civilization levels faster? The barbarians come and come and come.

Barbarian armies spawn in provinces that have >2 or so barbarian power, and tend to be more likely to happen when there is >5 or so power. When a barbarian army walks through another barbarian province, there's a chance that the barbarians in that province will be absorbed into the army, thus creating a "snowball" effect, resulting in larger and larger barbarian armies. They then march towards the closest civilised (or wealthy, I can't remember) province. The best way to deal with barbarians is to occasionally send out little units of 1,000 mercenaries (so as to not waste manpower) to sit in nearby barbarian provinces and let them rise up, before defeating those barbarians with your main army. This will reduce the snowball effect, and will give you extra slaves in the meantime.

You can only ask barbarians to settle (in which case the army disbands and becomes freedmen) or become clients (in which case they become a separate vassal state) when they take at least one province. They are not likely to accept unless their army feels under threat, so if you want to do this then you need to bring your own army close, and you might even need to defeat them in battle at some point. Creating a barbarian client state on your borders isn't a bad idea if you want to keep barbarians out; any future barbarian invasions will simply take over this one- or two-province state and will become the new rulers (and still be loyal to you).

How I reduce the revolt risk? I find I am constantly dealing with rebellions or disloyal governors or commanders. I have the populist faction at 89 senators. Bad I know. Why am I experiencing so much rebellion? I can't catch a break. I never experienced this before Vae Victis.

Revolt risk can be lowered by having a popular ruler (win battles with him as a general and give him lots of triumphs), having charismatic governors and by keeping your stability level high. For the rest, have a look at the Unofficial Strategy Guide, it will help with populists and keeping characters happy and loyal.