Too many rebels in this game

[BitCaps]

I just bought this game when it was on sale. I have played for a quite a bit and I have to say I am so fed up with rebels.

It is very obvious the ai is super aggressive and expansionist and constantly goes to war and annexes everything very quickly, so the player must do the same to survive or get crushed. But everything is causing more rebels.

Capture territory = separatism = unrest = more rebels
Different culture = unrest = more rebels
different religion = unrest = more rebels
war exhaustion = unrest = more rebels
over extension = unrest = more rebels
convert religion = unrest = more rebels
rebels spawn = occupy land = more separatism = more rebels
being in state of war = events trigger = more rebels
being in state of war = events trigger = more unrest or a stability hit = more rebels
having rivals = subversive rebel support = more rebels

Even your enemy, when all their armies are dead and their provinces are occupied will cause stacks of rebels to spawn and be stronger than they were.

Why do you get penalized with stacking consequences for conducting any conquest in a world where everyone is in constant wars. It makes no sense.

 

[Vogelwiese]

I don't really know how you play this game, but to me it sounds like you're expanding too fast. So here are some tips that may or may not help you:
-First off you don't need to rush too much, the game lasts from 1444-1820 so you don't have to conquer everything in the first couple of years
-The game shows you which rebels are close to rising in the country overview, so just position your army in the according provinces which has 2 effects:

• Lowered unrest in the province

• When the rebels spawn they are counted as the attacker often giving them a terrain malus which makes it easier to defeat them

-If there's a very limited rebellion you can try to just raise autonomy if it's something you don't want to or can't deal with
-Never go above 100% overextension it basically guarantees your country to break unless you have a really large military
-Core every province you conquer since this reduces overerxtension
-Converting relgion is often not worth it unless you have a lot of conversion power (from religious ideas) you can lower the revolt risk created by this by choosing the humanist idea group which is generally a really good choice
-You should try to always have you stability at around +1 which lowers unrest quite a bit and also get's you a higher chance for a lot of positive events
-Try to get some nearby allies and give them Military access if they have a large enough army they will often just walk into your country and defeat the rebels for you, same with vassals
-Hire mercenaries if you want to quickly beat down a rebellion you can raise them very quickly and delete them again afterwards
-Different culture can be avoided by converting the province culture which is often a good usage for spare diplomatic monarch points
-You can also accept the culture if it is present in enough provinces which makes them give no malus

There's a couple more things you could probably do, but these should be decent help for a new player. I would also advise you to read some of the eu4wiki pages on rebels, unrest and some similar topics like disasters.

 

[CoolSpin]

Can't agree more on what Vogel said. It may also sound like you go over 100% overextension, this can ruin any nation not covering half the world, literally. And even then its a pain in the but.

 

[moscal]

Massive collapses of states was in... EU3.

In EU4 i never saw a massive collapse. Timurids and persian rebels; 3 states in Europe by reformation; some nahuatl or inca state; some state in Indian Penisula...

 

[CoolSpin]

AI dont do overextension, maaaybe 51 agressive expansion.. so you wont see a lot of AI explosions unless caused by the player.

 

[Drachenfels]

Seems we have new player on forum. That is not knowing game very well. What interests me is he going to learn or just fade away.

 

[CharlieMRCR]

Capture territory = separatism = unrest = more rebels
Different culture = unrest = more rebels
different religion = unrest = more rebels
war exhaustion = unrest = more rebels
over extension = unrest = more rebels
convert religion = unrest = more rebels
rebels spawn = occupy land = more separatism = more rebels
being in state of war = events trigger = more rebels
being in state of war = events trigger = more unrest or a stability hit = more rebels
having rivals = subversive rebel support = more rebels

Curious to know what nation you're playing. Anyway, here's my six cents.

1. Capturing territory will most certainly lead to rebels spawning, especially if you take large swaths of it. You're dealing with 15 separatism from all those provinces, then add on all the other penalties like wrong religion, culture, war exhaustion etc...so definitely expect at least one rebel group firing after a big conquest.

2. I rarely worry about culture...I'll promote a culture if the development for it is significant (English, Francien, Polish, Westphalian, Muscovite, etc.) After separatism fades and you convert the province to your religion, the culture penalty is not significant enough you can't deal with it before the rebels fire.

3. Religion can be annoying if you have weak missionary strength. If you're playing a nation where you can't expand into your own religion or convert quickly, consider religious ideas. If your missionary strength is high enough, you can convert a province before the rebels even fire.

4. As long as you're not letting yourself be occupied/losing a lot of battles, war exhaustion shouldn't be much of a problem. If you're taking on a foe who's powerful enough to do so, that sucks, but you can spend diplo if it's necessary.

5. Overextension is the main mechanic that will cause rebels you've already put down to become a thorn again. Luckily, all you have to do is core your provinces.

6. If what I already said wasn't enough, and you don't believe using manpower to put down the rebellions is worth it, seek bonuses from theologians, positive stability and ideas to lower unrest further. You can even get something like -5 unrest if you park enough troops in a province (not sure the exact number)

There are answers in the game to rebels. How can you eliminate the + Unrest modifiers, or add - Unrest modifiers?

With a few hundred hours under my belt, the most annoying part of rebels is when they don't fire. I just wanna kill rebels so I can start the next war and not have to worry about them! I'd support rebels in my own country if I could.

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

-Never go above 100% overextension it basically guarantees your country to break unless you have a really large military

Never go beyond 100% overextension he says. I like to live on the edge good sir.

 

[Badesumofu]

Take Humanist ideas. No more rebels. Unless you really push it.

 

[BitCaps]

That is a very useful detailed post from Vogelweiss. Thanks for sharing that.

I am aware of those factors. What I have been doing is:

} Never go over 50% over extension

} Always core every annexed province immediately

} Never put units on a newly captured province with high unrest. That would only delay it. I want them to rebel asap so I can move on to something more exciting than recapturing every province I capture.

} Sent missionaries to newly captured provinces to increase the unrest and take advantage of 100 bonus for recent rebellion.

} Humanist ideas seems to be pretty much mandatory in this game. It is only a matter of when to take it. It has a huge impact on reducing rebels. You can also combine it with another idea to get an additional 5 year reduction in separatism.

I am so fed up with rebels. I hope they patch it to have less of them, less often.

 

[Eviota]

That is a very useful detailed post from Vogelweiss. Thanks for sharing that.

I am aware of those factors. What I have been doing is:

} Never go over 50% over extension

} Always core every annexed province immediately

} Never put units on a newly captured province with high unrest. That would only delay it. I want them to rebel asap so I can move on to something more exciting than recapturing every province I capture.

} Sent missionaries to newly captured provinces to increase the unrest and take advantage of 100 bonus for recent rebellion.

} Humanist ideas seems to be pretty much mandatory in this game. It is only a matter of when to take it. It has a huge impact on reducing rebels. You can also combine it with another idea to get an additional 5 year reduction in separatism.

I am so fed up with rebels. I hope they patch it to have less of them, less often.

I mean, just imagine : you are a foreigner, you invade by war a country, destroy it, and annex it. How would you think the vanquished react ? Bend the knee (ahah) ?
Problem is, except autonomy, there is few thing you can do. If Paradox implemented some kind of "population" as it is in MEIOU & Taxes, you could also have the choice to slaughter some people to lower unrest. But since it is only development-sided, you have to cope with autonomy.

Rebels are balanced, believe me. You always know what to expect :
- Conquest ? Separatists.
- Forced conversion ? Religious fanatics.
- Lack of autonomy ? Particularists, noble rebels, clerical rebels.
- Absolutism (or event) ? Revolutionary rebels
- 100.1% overextension ? Pray for you soul.

With overextension and agressive expansion, rebellion threats are the thing that can slow you during your conquest, and it is NORMAL !
Otherwise, some people, who already can do a WC by 1699 with Manchu, would do it even faster. Play on easy if you are tired of rebels, but do not ask for the reshape of one of a few mechanics that work rather well.

 

[chegitz guevara]

If anything, rebels aren't powerful enough. There's a reason no one has ever conquered the world.

 

[TenshiN]

Actually, i'd say there is not enough rebels. Or rather, they are not nearly as impactful as they should have been.

 

[netherlink]

That is a very useful detailed post from Vogelweiss. Thanks for sharing that.

I am aware of those factors. What I have been doing is:

} Never go over 50% over extension

} Always core every annexed province immediately

} Never put units on a newly captured province with high unrest. That would only delay it. I want them to rebel asap so I can move on to something more exciting than recapturing every province I capture.

} Sent missionaries to newly captured provinces to increase the unrest and take advantage of 100 bonus for recent rebellion.

} Humanist ideas seems to be pretty much mandatory in this game. It is only a matter of when to take it. It has a huge impact on reducing rebels. You can also combine it with another idea to get an additional 5 year reduction in separatism.

I am so fed up with rebels. I hope they patch it to have less of them, less often.

So you basically encourage rebels, though you complain about them? ^^

Forcing them to spawn is a valid strategy in my eyes, especially if you want to lower army maintenance or go to the next war asap.
For that, you can add

} lower autonomy in freshly stated provinces with unrest and LA >~25% / 50% if given to estate.

This will double the benefit of your rebels: You force them even sooner and your provinces are more effective.

Anyway, in my early days i remember rebellions where a pain in the a*s.
There where times where you didn't even know when they would rise. Luckily they improved the rebel mechanic.

Nova days i feel like standard rebels are totally manageable, as long as RU / events don't go crazy.
If you feel like rebels are turning your game in a rebels fest, you either do something wrong, or are not effective enough in warfare to be in position to handle the rebels properly.

I mean, srsly, all you need to do is having 1 stack in the area which kills them as soon as they spawn... If you are not out of manpower / low army money / bankrupt / attacking with 1k cav at a time, there is nothing that could make you loose.