Does this make me a bad person?

[Wojek_Siren]

In Medieval II Total War, you usually get rewarded with chivalry when you spare the population. In Rome Total War, it just means another riot. So the best option is to wipe them out so you don't have to worry about it for while and carry on to conquer more cities.

You think by now the people should learn their lessons and that rebellion means death?

Now just one question? These riots are common back in ancient Rome?

[Alexanderos]

Yes , the riots were something often especially in new conquered lands where the people had other gods beliefs and cultures So it's pretty much historical accurate.

[tudor93]

if you play vanilla no, it's retarded; they riot so often because of that stupid squalor problem
just play a mod, vanilla is buggy and unbalanced

[Brusilov]

Although it's a long time since I played vanilla R:TW (2005 or 2006) the major cause of unrest when you've just taken it over is culture differences. If it's the same culture as you (Greek for instance) then the population suffers less unrest.

I'd presume also that generals don't have good 'governance' traits. So, if you play to conquer a region you need to have a decent family member trained up with some garrison units. It may be necessary to put the decent governor in with the army that took the settlement as the size of the army can calm them down a bit. In order to 'train up' family members to be decent governors put them in settlements that have eduction and culture buildings in-place. Also remember to move them out of the settlement every now and then just to use up some movement points as otherwise they can acquire nasty retinues or traits.

Remember also that you can move retinues between characters - but not if they already have a similar retinue. Simply 'drag and drop' them between the two characters. I tend to do this with only those two family members in a stack and outside of a settlement.

I presume you should also remove any buildings that are not of your culture - unless you can upgrade them and in doing so make them your culture.

[Wojek_Siren]

Yeah, just got Rome recently and shock by the amount of unrest. Attempting to get a mod, but I wanted to try the vanilla first. Which mod you think is the best?

I don't know. I think the squalor unrest makes it challenge for me, or else I would be steam rolling. Instead of full conquer army, I have to do half conquer and half reserve(to deal with revolts). Wish there was more happy buildings like a theater or a brothel.

[Kaiser Christoph XVIII]

One think in vanilla that always pissed me off was "distance to capital" always causing riots and unrest, that is the most unrealistic I have never heard of people rioting and rebelling because the capital is to far away, otherwise we would have non-stop rioting in Hawaii .

[Gromit]

One think in vanilla that always pissed me off was "distance to capital" always causing riots and unrest, that is the most unrealistic I have never heard of people rioting and rebelling because the capital is to far away, otherwise we would have non-stop rioting in Hawaii .

I think that just represents the administrative difficultues in running a large empire, and people's natural unwillingness to obey some far away authority they never see. I think it's a good feature (although it can screw up mods like EB with bigger maps, and admittedly continually changing your capital to something more geographically central seems unrealistic)

[Mausolos of Caria]

Yeah this is really a bit unrealistic in Vanilla Rome. As If the Roman exterminated all the cities in Italy

For mods I would recommend Roma Surrectum II, Europa Barbarorum or Rome Total Realism 6 & 7. All of them have a wider map, new factions , better AI and new faction rosters. They also solve problems like the squalor one.
RTR VII has a less big map, though, but goes more into detail, while adding some unique features. They also have a very new way for occupying a settlement and getting its public order up.

[anycolourfloyd]

Yeah this is really a bit unrealistic in Vanilla Rome. As If the Roman exterminated all the cities in Italy

during the italian wars in times of marius and sulla a not insignificant amount of extermination DID go on.. haha

[NobleNick]

"Distance to capital" -IS- an excellent and historically accurate factor contributing to unrest. It is THE reason that Rome built excellent roads to everywhere they conquered (and gives us the old saying: "All roads lead to Rome.") ---> they were shortening the effective distance to the capital (Rome). The fringe provinces would see those roads and know they meant that Rome could march legions easily up to their area and wallop them if they rebelled.

Although, itsy-bitsy Hawaii, hasn't taken on the rest of the U.S., mano-e-mano (why should they, with all those DoD dollars pouring into their paradise?); the attitude in Texas, when it was on the fringe (heh, and for some, now) was sort of, well, "...don't mess with Texas." And, even today, many Alaskans consider their "great and soveriegn country" to be casually tied to the rest of the republic. Glad we pay them an effective "negative state income tax," to live up there. Otherwise we might someday have "Civil War 2" on our hands.

Back to RTW: Unrest, like squalor (and, indeed, squalor contributes directly to unrest), is an integral part of the game. If you blindly (try to) ignore it, it becomes a major PITA. If you think about it, plan for it, and play for it, it is no big deal. Just a few things you can do to tame the beast:

1.) Build public order buildings in your settlements.
2.) Be conservative on upgrading farms.
3.) Exterminate Patavium (regardless of size) and any other large settlement you chance upon.
4.) When conquering a different culture, replace or upgrade some of the city's buildings (especially the temple and governor's hall).
5.) Move your capital to a more central location of your empire. Typically (with good planning) this is not necessary; and, even if you elect to do it, you should only have to do it once (maybe 2/3 of the way through your long campaign).

I hope that helps.

[Wojek_Siren]

Ok, I accept the fact about wiping out the population as one of my favorite quote from Medieval II is "Kill them all, let God sort them out".

[Blood Raven]

I Do it frequently, the fear of extermination keeps the population quiet.
I prefer to rule my empire with the iron fist of my military, if a province rebels i wipe it out, simple.
My advice on campaign is be utterly ruthless, if a city doe'snt surrender, exterminate it, if they surrender enslave the population, don't be leniant.

[Bonez]

Also, its a video game be as mean or nice as you want, you aren't really going to be affected in Real Life.

[Ferdiad]

Also, its a video game be as mean or nice as you want, you aren't really going to be affected in Real Life.

This, no point worrying over it too much.

[Sir Furlong]

Its great late game when you have to incite a revolt in your major cities just so you can massacre them down to a manageable size