How do I deal with rebels in a WC

[Adonnus]

I am trying my first WC campaign as Ottomans, not going very well due to a number of reasons. Mainly getting lots of really bad leaders but mostly due to my inexperience. I have just finishing conquering most of India in 1700, I am having lots of problems with rebels. There are about 10 revolts in the queue almost ready and more building up, with a total of 300k? rebels. Don't know how to deal with them since they are basically infinite with no breaks ever since I lowered autonomy in every province. Apparently you have to do that to get enough absolutism for a WC. Now I have no money, no manpower and still endless revolts, I have full humanism. How do I deal with the rebels?

 

[Lord Beverage]

Humanist ideas helps immensely - the earlier the better. I made this mistake in my only go at a WC and it made the 1500-1600s a slow going slog from having to leave anti-rebel stacks all over the world. The reduced years of separatism is particularly helpful as it reduces the need to take out the stack before they siege anything down.

Thankfully rebel stacks are rather weak despite their numbers - teleport in your best general and they can handle at least a 3:2 disadvantage or more.

 

[CoolSpin]

I conquered Japan as revolutionary France, I was filthy rich, so I put a 54k stack, only mercs, with merc cannons and cav, and put it to auto supress rebels because there were a rebel popping up literally every 2 months. I now add japan on my rebel hell list, along with india. Granted, I had 11 morale, so poff they went. But you say you dont have money.. There is a gold mine in bashgird, and a few in india. The supress is just cus I couldn't be bothered with rebels every 2 months..

 

[Dell19]

I'm currently trying to do a WC as well. To gain absolutism I lowered autonomy in India and had plenty of spare military points to use harsh treatment on the smaller rebellions to raise it further. I did have 30 years of regular rebellions but by that point I could spare 100 - 150 troops to quickly take down the rebels as they spawned. It was pretty painful for a while with periodic dips in income however my manpower remained high.

You can dis inherit your heir for 50 prestige so you should be able to get a good ruler each time. For the last 50 years I've had a 5-5-4 and now a 5-5-5.

Without seeing a screenshot its hard to judge however conquering India by 1700 is probably not fast enough when playing as the Ottomans unless you've made lots of gains elsewhere.

Here is my current game as a comparison (I think I'm on target with Novgorod, Timbuktu, Catalonia and Siak as vassals):

 

[Adonnus]

I'm currently trying to do a WC as well

Those numbers are insane....1000x more manpower, gold and more land than I currently have, how on earth did you get 22k gold anyway?

 

[bly08]

It's hard to give advice without seeing screenshots with relevant information. For a general opening strategy with Sunni Ottomans see the link in my signature.

 

[Pelthis]

If you said you lowered autonomy in INDIA. It probably means you aren't using Trade Companies. Yet, it's the most efficient way to make shitloads of money. Once you converted provinces (or not if you're playing humanist instead of religious) assign all provinces to TC. It will earn you lots of money even at 100% autonomy and allow you to get extra merchants to steer trade until Constantinople where you'll be able to collect tons of cash.

 

[Dell19]

Those numbers are insane....1000x more manpower, gold and more land than I currently have, how on earth did you get 22k gold anyway?

By forgetting to spend it, hadn't realised it had gotten so high. In the mid game I built manufacturies in my core territory and India whilst I have a lot of trade companies so my income is pretty large. The last institution cost 17k so will keep a reasonable amount. The main advice I've seen for the current patch is to grab India as soon as possible to set up trade companies there which I've tried to follow. I think by 1600 I had most of India under control which is probably a bit slow as I blocked myself with vassals and had to wait to integrate them.

For quite a while I don't think my manpower has dipped below 80% as quantity + offensive + Ottoman MP idea + missions keep it up.

 

[Adonnus]

I can't make trade companies as I dont have the DLCs, am I screwed?

 

[Vulkandrache]

how on earth did you get 22k gold anyway?

trying my first WC campaign as Ottomans

just finishing conquering most of India in 1700

Try again, better luck next time. 1700 is well into the point of boring mopup with the Ottomans.

There are about 10 revolts in the queue almost ready and more building up, with a total of 300k? rebels. Don't know how to deal with them since they are basically infinite with no breaks ever since I lowered autonomy in every province. Apparently you have to do that to get enough absolutism for a WC

Up your game and learn more about Absolutism.
As the Ottomans you can decrease LA in Anatolia and maybe Persia and/or Egypt and thats enough to get to 50 Abs.
With some -Unrest you will still be at negative Unrest in provinces with the right Culture and Religion.

Apparently

Dont try a WC if you have to go in with "apparently".
You can try to learn most things while already on the way, i did that on my first serious game as Italy.
But its better if you can name the list of important stuff in your sleep.
Especially things like Absolutism, which are crucialy for a WC. If you have any doubt about how they work then learn that first.
If i wake you up in the middle of the night you should be able to tell me instantly what the requieremts are for triggering Court and Country.

I can't make trade companies as I dont have the DLCs, am I screwed?

Not having acces to several DLC features certainly isnt going to make a WC easier.
TC's are very strong, but you can still extract the trade money from them.

 

[PhoenixG]

I am trying my first WC campaign as Ottomans, not going very well due to a number of reasons. Mainly getting lots of really bad leaders but mostly due to my inexperience. I have just finishing conquering most of India in 1700, I am having lots of problems with rebels. There are about 10 revolts in the queue almost ready and more building up, with a total of 300k? rebels. Don't know how to deal with them since they are basically infinite with no breaks ever since I lowered autonomy in every province. Apparently you have to do that to get enough absolutism for a WC. Now I have no money, no manpower and still endless revolts, I have full humanism. How do I deal with the rebels?

It's hard to tell without a screenshot. But lowering autonomy everywhere to get absolutism is wrong. Besides if you have no money/ manpower, I think you have a different problem than just having rebels (like not strong enough economy)

 

[Sfan]

The question is not how can you have 22k as the Ottomans in 1700, but how you don't have 22k as the Ottomans in 1700 and still expect to WC. WCs are extremely difficult tasks, and they require a strong domination of the mechanics of the game like trade, estates, buildings, army composition, and things like that on top of agressivity.

As for rebels, you need humanism as fifth group worst case scenario.
For absolutism, it's better to stack it by annexing vassals and doing harsh treatment than reducing autonomy if you have issues with rebels and manpower.

As for the lack of DLCs, well, that's really shooting yourself in the foot even if I understand that it's expensive. The issue is that most of the advices we could give are DLC-related. What do you have?

 

[ElGranCapitan]

bad leaders should never happen with the ottomans, everything that isn't 5/4/3 at least gets disinherited immediately, you get enough prestige to go through the "pick an heir" event multiple times

as far as rebels are concerned Offensive helps, with humanism combined you get an extra -5% separatism from the policy

 

[PhoenixG]

bad leaders should never happen with the ottomans, everything that isn't 5/4/3 at least gets disinherited immediately, you get enough prestige to go through the "pick an heir" event multiple times

as far as rebels are concerned Offensive helps, with humanism combined you get an extra -5% separatism from the policy

he doesn't have most of the dlc, so no otto government.

 

[Badesumofu]

Yeah, just on money - my last WC was a French one-tag and I had about 400k ducats by the end in 1770.

Money and Humanism are the answers - money for mercs (and I mean full merc stacks, 40/0/40 all mercs). Make a template for that. If you see rebels are going to pop soon build the template nearby, put a general on it and move in when they pop.

Humanism will more or less eliminate rebels in the first two ages. It will make AoA with all the autonomy lowering manageable but rebels will still pop. Reman recently did a video on the best ways to navigate the AoA and C&C. I highly recommend it (along with his entire channel). In the AoR you will face large numbers of rebels regardless. By that point you should have no real issue with simply killing them all.

As Ottomans, you should aim to conquer India ASAP, make into TCs, and spam manus in every province with a decent trade good. This should basically solve your money problems. You need a lot of money in the late game. Knowing how to get rich is currently one of the most important things to know for a WC imo.

 

[Sfan]

Just a clarification: full merc infantry, not artillery, else you hit the merc cap too early.

 

[Badesumofu]

I tend to use merc cannons in late game. Chucking 40 cannons on a level 8 fort generates substantial attrition.

I suppose they aren't needed for rebel stomping, though, regular cannons are fine for that.

 

[Sfan]

But how is it that you don't meet the merc cap? I sometimes hit it with only merc infantry.

 

[Zenonira]

With Administrative + Quantity ideas and the lategame super size, the merc cap is MASSIVE. You won't have any problems keeping several even full merc stacks. Also, since Merc cap scales with Force Limit, you could build some +FL buildings to increase merc count even further.

 

[Badesumofu]

Get a really high FL, basically. Revolutionary helps with that. I don't find I need Quantity. Last game I think my FL was around 1800 near the end. Admin ideas are a given of course. Any unit that is likely to take casualties for any reason I try to have as merc. Units that are less likely (eg cannons in a rebel stomping stack) will be regs. If I want to make a new merc stack and I'm at limit, I'll look for a stack that I can disband a do so. I finished my last game with about 400k ducats so towards the end I treat money as unlimited.