Bactrian Campaign - Please Help!

[Eptepyris]

I'm in the middle of a Bactrian campaign, and things are going well - I've conquered most of the Seleucid empire except for half of Asia Minor and their European holdings. However, I'm coming up against a wall in terms of how far I can expand while keeping my cities happy, particularly in Anatolia. I moved my capital to Hecatompylos, and that seemed to solve my problems for a while. I would move it further west, but then it's very hard to keep my Bactrian homelands happy. So I am looking for some advice on how to deal with riots and revolts, and I also have some specific questions.

First, why is it that I can build awesome temples of Ahura Mazda, yet I cannot build anything larger than minor temples of Apollo and Buddhist kapa thupas? The other temple upgrades appear in the building browser, but these are in separate construction chains from the ones I'm using. So the building browser tells me I can't build a larger temple because I'm missing a prerequisite, even though I already have a minor temple - the one I have doesn't count because it's in a separate chain that only goes up to the second level! Is this a bug? If so, I hope it can be fixed, because from a roleplaying perspective, it's terribly frustrating. I'm a Greek polytheist for Apollo's sake, not a Persian Zoroastrian!

EDIT: I searched the forums and found a thread that explains the RTR temple system. Turns out I can build larger temples of Apollo by destroying the larger temples of Ahura Mazda. I can even have two temples of Apollo at once, but that would be a gamey exploit.

Second, is there a way to reduce culture penalties? I have tried dismantling other cultures' buildings (at least the ones that don't benefit me, like barracks), but this has had no effect. Do I need to dismantle all of them and rebuild?

Third, why is it that garrison units sometimes appear to have a negative effect on happiness? Is there such a thing as over-garrisoning? I have noticed cities sometimes become happier (i.e., face turns from red to blue/yellow) when I remove troops - is it really improving, or is it just updating an out-of-date city happiness icon when I move troops out? It just occurred to me there's an easy way to test this, but I'm away from my home computer right now so if anyone can enlighten me on this point, please do.

Sorry if any of these questions have already been answered elsewhere. I did a search for the temple upgrade issue and didn't find anything. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me.

[El Generalissimo]

I wish I had more to suggest to help you with your dilemma, Eptepyris, but my Bactrian campaign is not as far along as yours. I'm still fighting Macedon for Asia Minor and the Seleucid empire, while weakened, still annoys.

I found the rebel cities of western India were very problematic. They have consistently high levels of discontent due to cultural penalties, as did some cities with Eastern cultures conquered during westward expansion. I started exterminating the populations and destroying all non-Bactrian structures that could not eventually be upgraded to Bactrian ones upon taking the city. This strategy has economic costs, of course, but reduces problems in my backfield.

Even my homeland cities maintain a general level of discontent often due to distance to the capital, but as long as they don't revolt I don't care. Check the influence and traits of your faction leader. Overall levels of happiness have swung widely after the death of my faction leader. Maybe he needs to be charged into the front of a Macedonian phalanx after you've cultivated positive traits in his heir.

Several of the sedentary governors developed negative traits that adversely affected public order, particularly those in India where fighting bandits, a good way to cultivate positive traits, meant getting chewed-up by stacks of Samartian horse archers. The impact of these negative traits were not immediately evident, but I saw improvements in cities after shuffling governors around. Removing some of the garrison also helped, I believe by lowering population and thus squalor, but I don't know for sure.

Did your research into the building tree indicate if you could eventually construct an awesome Buddhist kapa thupas? I'm encouraging Buddhism in the empire.

I hope some of this has been useful. Good luck, and long live Bactria!

[Eptepyris]

... I found the rebel cities of western India were very problematic. They have consistently high levels of discontent due to cultural penalties, as did some cities with Eastern cultures conquered during westward expansion. I started exterminating the populations and destroying all non-Bactrian structures that could not eventually be upgraded to Bactrian ones upon taking the city. This strategy has economic costs, of course, but reduces problems in my backfield.

I decided not to bother with India until after I'd dealt with the Seleucids - I figured they'd be populous and prone to revolts. I guess I was right. I think I may try exterminating rather than enslaving from here on out.

... Check the influence and traits of your faction leader. Overall levels of happiness have swung widely after the death of my faction leader. Maybe he needs to be charged into the front of a Macedonian phalanx after you've cultivated positive traits in his heir.

Hah! Maybe that's the AI's rationale behind consistently charging general's units into phalanges! But no, my faction leaders are generally wicked badasses, since they are constantly in combat.

Several of the sedentary governors developed negative traits that adversely affected public order ... The impact of these negative traits were not immediately evident, but I saw improvements in cities after shuffling governors around.

I have noticed this as well. Sometimes even seemingly positive traits (like benevolent governor, etc.) can cause a net loss of public order. As for fighting bandits, I usually ignore them completely, but maybe I should reconsider.

Did your research into the building tree indicate if you could eventually construct an awesome Buddhist kapa thupas? I'm encouraging Buddhism in the empire.

Yes. The way it works is that the first large temple you construct closes off the higher tiers of the other temples. So if you destroy your large temple (of whatever demonination), you will then be able to build the larger Buddhist structures, but you will need to start again by building the smallest (i.e., you will not be able to upgrade your pre-existing Kapa Thupa, because it's part of the minor chain with only two tiers).

EDIT: Forgot to thank you for your response. And I also had another idea: my Anatolian cities are too large to handle, even with full garrisons, so I'm going to let them rebel, recapture them, and exterminate every last one of the troublesome buggers.

[DraeKlae]

The building that creates the most cultural unrest is the core building, i.e., the "governor's" building. Temples seem to create some cultural unrest too, but they generally have bonuses that end up neutralizing the unrest they cause.