Beginners advice needed: How do I avoid Civil war?

[AFnord]

I'm currently in the process of learning how to play the game, but one problem has popped up: Civil Wars.

The first time this happened to me, my largest army deserted. They had been fighting barbarians for a while, so I guess this made them a bit unhappy. Should I try to rotate armies to avoid this, sending some back to a home province while I send in a new army to fight barbarians, or won't that have any major impact on their happiness? Also, is there a way to turn a unit that has managed to become loyal to a person back into one that is loyal to the nation?

Then during my next game, the civil war came from within. I noticed that a large portion of all nobles had turned loyal to a non-rightful heir during this game, is there any way to avoid this, and does that impact the chance of civil wars while the heir is still not the ruler of the nation?

Also, are there any other general advice on how to avoid civil wars from consuming my kingdom?

*edit* It should be noted that I've been trying to play as Macedonia, starting year/day is just one day after their initial war ends.

 

[Slavick3000]

The first time this happened to me, my largest army deserted. They had been fighting barbarians for a while, so I guess this made them a bit unhappy. Should I try to rotate armies to avoid this, sending some back to a home province while I send in a new army to fight barbarians, or won't that have any major impact on their happiness? Also, is there a way to turn a unit that has managed to become loyal to a person back into one that is loyal to the nation?

Try to keep you generals' loyalty up, and the amount of units loyal to them down. Each time a general is involved in a battle, every cohort in that battle has a chance to become loyal to that general. The more loyal units a character has, the faster he (or she for some British tribes) will lose loyalty. If the general joins a rebel faction during a civil war, all the units that have at least one cohort loyal to him will follow him to the rebel side. Units can lose their loyalty when the general to whom they are loyal dies, though I have noticed some characters "inheriting" a portion of the loyal troops from their father.
A good way to handle this is to give triumphs to low-loyalty generals and then using the loyalty boost from the triumph to replace them with someone less ambitious. As a preventive measure, it pays to rotate generals every time you can do so. However, that comes with the trade-off that you may not always have your best general available.

Then during my next game, the civil war came from within. I noticed that a large portion of all nobles had turned loyal to a non-rightful heir during this game, is there any way to avoid this, and does that impact the chance of civil wars while the heir is still not the ruler of the nation?

The nobles' support for the primary heir depends on a number of things. If their loyalty is low, they will probably support themselves or a friend. If their loyalty is high, but the primary heir is not of the ruler's dynasty, they might also support someone else. (If I recall correctly, Macedonia has a childless heir in the first few years from the start, so if your first ruler dies before the heir can marry and produce a child, you could end up with a very divided council.) Finally, nobles prefer candidates with higher popularity and prominence, so if you have two sons but the first one is unpopular, the councilors may back your second son instead.

Also, are there any other general advice on how to avoid civil wars from consuming my kingdom?

Keep loyalty high. That means improving the ruler's popularity, stability and fulfilling characters' ambitions. It also means placing your ruler's (and your preferred heir's) friends on your council (even if they aren't as qualified as some other characters) as well as regularly combing for high popularity and low loyalty characters that might pose a threat to your regime and exiling them, killing them or sending them off to fight barbarians with an undersized army. That last one might backfire though.
Another idea is to let the civil war faction win. Occasionally, the rebel leader might have much better stats than your current ruler does. In that case, letting him win might be a net benefit to your kingdom.

 

[AFnord]

*smacks head* I should have understood that rotating generals would be a good idea!

And thanks for all the advice. It feels a bit cruel to exile my political opponents, but if that is what has to be done, I'll do it!

 

[SAS]

I never place my armies under the control of a province governor.

 

[UniversalWolf]

Also keep in mind that losing a civil war won't end your game, so it's not the end of the world. You'll simply be playing the same nation under new management.

 

[AFnord]

My opportunistic neighbors seemed to love attacking me when I was in a state of civil war though

And thanks everyone for your advice, I'm now really enjoying this game. It won't push down the Victoria series from its place as "favourite grand strategy games", but now that I know how I can prevent my nation from tearing itself apart, the game became a lot more fun.


Oh crud. Rome & Carthage are not fighting, they decided to become allies and are now taking over the world together. I suddenly feel like this might be a game that I wont win...