How exactly does this system work?

[Antonio Luna]

I really can't understand the political system of this game and its significance. I was playing Carthage on hard and suddenly a civil war broke out with no warning and this so called Adirim Loyalists with the flag of Carthage just colored in green had about 9 full stack of armies and about 6 full stack navies. It's crazy and they conquered my Northern African, Spanish, Sardinian, and Sicilan territories. When i loaded the game before the civil war broke out and ended the turn just to see if a civil war will truly break out, it didn't. Is civil war just some random event? What causes it? How different is it from Rome 1?

Now I'm confused whether to continue the path where the civil war broke out or the one without it. I already captured Italia and Rome is reduced to Corsica, humiliated by being my client state. Without the civil war I would be able to start campaign on Gaul and possibly Greece. With the civil war however, I will be forced to deal with a very strong enemy and have to recapture my territories (hadn't really faced a truly hard foe, even Rome, before the civil war).

[Riekopo]

It's basically not very important and they don't explain it at all. It's like it was an afterthought. Not vital to the game like in Crusader Kings 2 for example.

[s0nny80y]

Cycle Generals. Try new Gen skill loadouts, especially in order to adapt to circumstance. Keeps replayability slightly up.

[Killerbee]

Yeah when I first started a campaign as Suebi I kept getting these 'Political Intrigue' messages every and I really couldn't be bothered any less with them. Then all of a sudden I got a bit wary and I checked the Political Panel. In a desperate attempt to even out the balance between the 2 parties I apparently ed up instead (I though that by killing and bribing their best and most influential generals their power/support would decrease - which actually turned out to be quite the contrary). I got to around 33% support and the next turn civil war erupted. Luckily they were just a bunch of pussies and I quickly retook what was rightfully mine... petty Tribal Chiefs