can't stop settlement from rebelling

[bce]

in my current Bactrian campaign, I can't stop Chach from rebelling. I took it from the Saka, enslaved and left a 20-unit garrison there. It still rebelled, so I recaptured it, enslaved again, and tore down all the buildings. I then let it rebel again (so that I could further reduce the population and stop wasting time) and recaptured it/enslaved. Now the city has only 400 inhabitants, but still overthrows my 20-unit garrison....

with low taxes / full garrison it's at 35% happiness. I can't keep it long enough to build type4 government and the general. I'd leave it to the saka and move on, but every time it rebels, they get ~10 gold armor/weapon units...

in the city panel it says ~65% of unhappiness is unrest and 75% is distance to capitol (capitol is at Persepolis). I don't want to move my capitol because more important cities will be too far away.

[Boriak]

If the city is economically weak, leave it and save yourself a nerve or two.

[bobbin]

Put a spy or two in the city as well to check if there are any enemy spys hiding in the settlement.

[Irenaeus]

You could also Sack it and have a Client Ruler/General from another city ready to move in as soon as you build the Level4 government, that would save you a turn. I always have trouble with the Arabian cities as the Seleucids, and have to sack them multiple times before they come to heel.

[bce]

have a Client Ruler/General from another city ready to move in as soon as you build the Level4 government

good idea, i'll try that. too bad rtw doesn't have a "kill everyone and move on" option

[Turtle Hammer]

I've had this issue before, both in Arabia and on the Steppe. I think it's one of those things that you really can't get around. You can't reduce a population below 400, and you can't put more than twenty units in a settlement. It's strange, I know, but it's just one of those things sadly. A few good enslavements usually gets things in hand eventually though.

Just out of interest, why do some rebel armies spring into being with seriously elite (three gold chevron!?!?) status? And where do all these soldiers come from in a settlement with 400 people? I noticed it in vanilla too, is it something hardcoded in? Suffice to say, auto_win attacker occasionally makes an appearance with that sort of sillyness.

[bobbin]

Yeah thats a weird quirk of RTW, there's nothing that can be done to fix it.

[athanaric]

Try to get rid of as much cultural penalty as possible: Upon capture, build stuff that takes one to three turns to construct (basic sewers, basic temples, basic regional MIC, ...).
Train an Allied General elsewhere, have him become Client Ruler, and then move him into the newly occupied town.

[PendragonLoT]

In my opinion that's one of the few weak spots of RTW and EB. It's a little bit unrealistic that a town with 400 people sitll rebels, although I have a 2000 man garrison. I mean I could stand 5 soldiers next to each inhabitant and that would surely subdue a rebellion.

[Knonfoda]

When it gets to this point I tend to alter the happyness bonuses for buildings such as shrines and so forth.

[XSamatan]

The 'population' in the RTW represents people willing and available to serve in your army. There are lots of other guys, women and children hanging around in the region and they can sure do you some harm.

XSamatan

[Prasutagus]

Some settlements are just too far away.

I had to let the deep African territories go. Even after all the aqueducts and temples and whatever else i built for them, the Nubians decided they'd be better off scrabbling in the dust for worms.

So i destroyed everything, sacked the town, and let them enjoy their stone age existance.

Sadly some people will never learn..

[ISA Gunner]

I just edited my export_descr_building file to give added happiness bonuses and law bonuses to some buildings. For example, the lowest level market gives a 5% happiness boost and goes up by 5 with every level. I gave other buildings that would potentially make a citizen of a settlement happier/more law abiding a slight boost and it worked out really well. You can still get rebellions in settlements that are very hostile towards your culture and where your garrison is insufficient. Adds in my opinion a bit of realism to the whole unrest thing. No longer will a 400 man village/town kick out your full Marian legion and spawn an army of elite soldiers to defend itself.