Opinion of Leige doesn't seem to matter in factions

[Tacrob]

Greetings,
I have about 300 hours playing as Feudal, tribal, pagan, and christian. I decided I wanted to go for some achievements as the Byzantines just as Holy Fury came out, and now I find myself in quite the pickle. I've made about 8 attempts playing as the Byzantine emperor from the earliest start date, and every time I run into the same problem:
Some faction arises and I will do all my normal steps to control it, but the faction continues to grow out of control. When the plot reaches a dangerous level, I'll mouse over the opinion of people who are in the faction and find their opinion of me is higher than the faction leader or the pretender, yet they remain in the faction.

I understand that some people can be coerced to join factions through intrigue, but it seems to happen quite frequently. Is this normal for the Byzantines?

In general, as a side note, I find playing as the Byzantines much harder than expected. I remember people in the past saying they were easy, but I've found them the hardest to play so far. Keeping my dynasty in power just seems like a fight against the tides in a hurricane. Is this normal or am I missing something?

 

[indika_tates]

Excommunicate the faction leader, imprison/humillate until he rebels. Revoke his titles. Rinse and repeat. Enable absolute rule and when you have a proper demesne (12 holdings) they won't rebel anymore. Creating the kingdom of anatolia helps, since a 100 opinion vassal is not going to join a faction unless he's bought by a favor. If this happens, excommunicate and kill everyone who dares to buy a favor from someone to coerce into factions. The point is simple. You have to be stronger than your vassals, which means that every emperor must have a proper martial education.

Hellenic is the way to go. The olympian champions society is quite strong for a martial ruler and the traits you get are also awesome. After holy fury being Orthodox offers nothing to a roman emperor.

 

[Tacrob]

Excommunicate the faction leader, imprison/humillate until he rebels. Revoke his titles. Rinse and repeat. Enable absolute rule and when you have a proper demesne (12 holdings) they won't rebel anymore. Creating the kingdom of anatolia helps, since a 100 opinion vassal is not going to join a faction unless he's bought by a favor. If this happens, excommunicate and kill everyone who dares to buy a favor from someone to coerce into factions. The point is simple. You have to be stronger than your vassals, which means that every emperor must have a proper martial education.

Hellenic is the way to go. The olympian champions society is quite strong for a martial ruler and the traits you get are also awesome. After holy fury being Orthodox offers nothing to a roman emperor.

Very helpful, I will give all those a try and see where it leads. Thank you for taking the time to write that out and help!

 

[Tacrob]

Excommunicate the faction leader, imprison/humillate until he rebels. Revoke his titles. Rinse and repeat. Enable absolute rule and when you have a proper demesne (12 holdings) they won't rebel anymore. Creating the kingdom of anatolia helps, since a 100 opinion vassal is not going to join a faction unless he's bought by a favor. If this happens, excommunicate and kill everyone who dares to buy a favor from someone to coerce into factions. The point is simple. You have to be stronger than your vassals, which means that every emperor must have a proper martial education.

Hellenic is the way to go. The olympian champions society is quite strong for a martial ruler and the traits you get are also awesome. After holy fury being Orthodox offers nothing to a roman emperor.

I do have a question though, if I excommunicate someone and then cause them to rebel, will the rebellion include others beyond their demesne or vassals? I've tried pushing some in the past into rebellion and then I'm fighting half the Empire.

 

[indika_tates]

I do have a question though, if I excommunicate someone and then cause them to rebel, will the rebellion include others beyond their demesne or vassals? I've tried pushing some in the past into rebellion and then I'm fighting half the Empire.

No, they can't. You only have to fight the excommunicated one and their vassals and eventual allies.

 

[Tacrob]

No, they can't. You only have to fight the excommunicated one and their vassals and eventual allies.

Thank you very much for the help! I've been playing a bit the past few days and had much better luck at managing factions. Thank you!

 

[mrstevehazzard]

Also keep in mind that normally someone at 80+ opinion of you will either leave the faction or won't join, but if the faction leader bought that conspirator with a favor or coerced them with a spymaster, they can be in the faction even at 100 opinion. If this is the case, you can use your own spymaster to get them to leave it.