Your Empire and You, how to keep it intact?

[Savage_Swede]

I could just use some advice here, but i most of all just wanted to boast

Boy it is getting challenging to hold together your empire when it gets large enough. I play as Sweden and i own all of scandinavia, most of todays northern germany, all of todays poland and a small chunk of the Novgorodian lands. I have colonised most of the southern coast of america including most of the caribbean.

But here is the deal. I had a single colony in mexico, and one sunny day the colony was invaded by the Zapaotec. Since they were allied with the Aztecs and the Inca, i was suddenly at war with all three. So i figured, why don't i just conquer them? Should give me a nice fat profit once i own mexico. So i loaded 20,000 men onboard ships from denmark and sent them across the atlantic.

The three empires were massacred of course by my cannons, muskets and cavalry. 5,000 of mine held their ground against a massive attack by 13,000 angry Incans. So, in a year, most of mexico was mine, the Incan empire was wiped out and the Zapaotec my vassals. The only free empire was the Aztecs to the north, and the Maya to the far south.

Meanwhile, the african Mali tribe decided to attack my only two colonies in africa. So i figured, what the hell, and sent another 20,000 troops down there. Again my superiour armies slaughtered all resistance and i gained a large chunk of the Mali lands.

But now, all have gone to hell. I am having uprisings and revolts everywhere in my empire. My new lands in mexico and africa have about 20% chance of rebellion, and since my reputation is quite bad, every nation in the world are inciting more revolts everywhere they can. I can handle it, but the constant micro-managing is getting redious beyond belief. Every year i have literary hundreds of revolts. I have begun construction of courthouses (lowers revolt risk) in mexico and africa, and now in my home provinces in europe. I am also investing in stability research.

Money isn't a problem, so is there anything i can do except waiting for a reputation advisor to show up?

[The Super Pope]

I would guess that was a result of war-exhaustion

[Woad-Warrier]

Welcome to empire

[William the Bastard]

So, in a year, most of mexico was mine, the Incan empire was wiped out and the Zapaotec my vassals. The only free empire was the Aztecs to the north, and the Maya to the far south.

There is a way to only get 4 BB from annexing all of the Aztecs in one go. This is get all of their territories conquered but NOT seizing their territory. Wait for all of their armies to be beaten and so they are utterly defeated then the option to annex (just as would happen with a one province nation) appears. You will get a shed load of rich land and the same BB hit of annexing a one province nation.

The only advice I can give you is to not max out your rep/BB as fast as you have. It's there purposefully to slow your progress. Of course BB wars are fun if you can handle them (as it appears you are) but having a large nation with no revolts I find is even more satisfying.

[Fabolous]

I am also investing in stability research.

What is your stability? Stab is the most important thing for keeping revolts down. I live on +3. I can't stand to be lower, its just asking for revolts. If you're in the negatives, you haven't a hope of easily holding together a large empire.

[William the Bastard]

What is your stability? Stab is the most important thing for keeping revolts down. I live on +3. I can't stand to be lower, its just asking for revolts. If you're in the negatives, you haven't a hope of easily holding together a large empire.

QFT. You have got to love it when a prayed for CB falls into your lap out of nowhere. What? Not the same religion group or family connections too? YES! You gonna get Vassalised!

[Savage_Swede]

My stability is merely +1 and it will take me 40 ****ing years to get +2. But the revolt risks have slowly been decreasing by a few percent, but it is still way too high. And about that mexico war, i couldn't conquer it all simply because of the still unexplored Terra Incognita But i am already making fat profit though.

And i found a good advisor that will hopefully get my rep up to stop half of europe to incite more revolts. I have about 100,000 men spread out, just pressing down revolts. the Swedish empire have become a police state

[Spart]

Setting those religious sliders helps too. If you have a load of provinces with pagans, set the tolerance all the way up, if you didn't already. There's also the humanist tolerance national idea. And once you get cores on those provinces (if you have cash/spies, fabricate claims before or during the war) and the war exhaustion cools down, it should be just fine..

[Savage_Swede]

Tried the religious slider thing. But since Europe is religiously butchered, i cant lower my other sliders too much to get space for pagans.

I will try to stay away from wars for a while lol, and just build up my empire. But it is looking grim... Mostly because it is tedious having massive revolts all the time.

[scottishranger]

The most fun thing is trying to combat several large 8 regiment revolts while combating the world 3 other superpowers(in my case Ak Quanluy, Ming, and the Castille) across the whole world. I have 200,000 troops spread out across the world, and enough manpower for another 200,000. On the Easter front I have a 7 province border with the Ming. In the South a 4 province border with the Ak Quanluy's, and across the whole world my colonies are in direct contact with Castille. Add in a powerful Poland and the bb wars and it is a lot of fun.

[Savage_Swede]

The most fun thing is trying to combat several large 8 regiment revolts while combating the world 3 other superpowers(in my case Ak Quanluy, Ming, and the Castille) across the whole world. I have 200,000 troops spread out across the world, and enough manpower for another 200,000. On the Easter front I have a 7 province border with the Ming. In the South a 4 province border with the Ak Quanluy's, and across the whole world my colonies are in direct contact with Castille. Add in a powerful Poland and the bb wars and it is a lot of fun.

Alright enough with the bragging already

And well, i only have about 70,000 in manpower. Most of the manpower can be found in germany, and i only have a handful of provinces there. I'm going to expand across the holy roman empire in due time, but first i have to pull my current holdings together.

Stay tuned.

[HappeR]

'newly conquered territory' + low(ish) stability + nationalism + non-accepted culture + peasant rebellion = pain. I discovered this the hard way during my game as Aragon, I saw all of southern France burst into crazy revolts, and forming new states (or reforming old ones I had already beaten).

[The Walrus]

Swede, you said cash isn't a problem, maybe invest some ducats into stability?

[Savage_Swede]

Swede, you said cash isn't a problem, maybe invest some ducats into stability?

I wasn't born yesterday xD

I am investing everything i can... kinda. But i checked how long it would take if i concentrated all cash on Stability aloone, and it would still take about 30-40 years.

But touch wood, things are getting slightly calmer.

[Fabolous]

Besides stability, I follow the Alexander plan for empire management... near constant conquering. It works, I swear. As long as war exhaustion doesn't get too high.

[Woad-Warrier]

Besides stability, I follow the Alexander plan for empire management... near constant conquering. It works, I swear. As long as war exhaustion doesn't get too high.

Reminds me of the Roman Empire, kept conquering and it was stable. Stopped and it broke apart :hm:

[Fabolous]

Reminds me of the Roman Empire, kept conquering and it was stable. Stopped and it broke apart :hm:

Or the Orwellian mantra War is Peace, and its meanings on a constant state of war.

[Woad-Warrier]

Or the Orwellian mantra War is Peace, and its meanings on a constant state of war.

I'm curious. Have you gone 100% land and (you know opposite of Freemen... forgot the name, began with S..)

[Fabolous]

I'm curious. Have you gone 100% land and (you know opposite of Freemen... forgot the name, began with S..)

Nope. My navy is very important to me, and the bonuses (for both production and trade eff.), mean I'm not going to push towards land. I haven't touched my free-serf slider, and I don't have plans to. I've mostly been working on free trade over mercantilism for the colonists (and the other trade bonuses).* I also moved innovative-narrowminded a good bit into narrowminded (for the colonists) but now I'm bringing it back out again, though I can't remember why.


This reminds me, I get something like 22 merchants a year now. I can't trade in foreign CoT's due to my rep, but my trade numbers are pretty good in my own CoT's (of which there are something like 14), but not able to compete on an even merchant level with the likes of France (the trade master in my game), but the huge number of merchants makes me dominant in my CoTs.

[Woad-Warrier]

Yeah I though that was funny in your screen shots. You have a vast empire but your pretty damn poor considering