Total War Rome 2 Building Tips?

[Khajiit Dealer]

I'm getting back into Rome 2 and am struggling to keep provinces from rebelling. I'm pretty good at battles but the constant rebels are annoying me. Do you guys have any tips for keeping the filthy plebs from revolting? I'm playing as the Roman faction.

[Nup]

Is your squalor too high? Some buildings create squalor (especially higher level stuff) which can be countered by other buildings (usually purple ones, temples and the likes). 

 

The squalor/ happiness can be seen in the little info card when you click on a city. Its usually low enough value in green or red. 

[Khajiit Dealer]

Is your squalor too high? Some buildings create squalor (especially higher level stuff) which can be countered by other buildings (usually purple ones, temples and the likes). 

 

The squalor/ happiness can be seen in the little info card when you click on a city. Its usually low enough value in green or red.

I have a lot of temples, so that isn't the issue. Does taking slaves cause rebellions? I took like 10,000 during my conquest of Carthage.

[Nup]

I have a lot of temples, so that isn't the issue. Does taking slaves cause rebellions? I took like 10,000 during my conquest of Carthage.

 

I haven't really messed around with that a whole lot with slave mechanics, but yep I do know that they can do that. Not sure how to tackle it properly. 

[Wombo]

I'm getting back into Rome 2 and am struggling to keep provinces from rebelling. I'm pretty good at battles but the constant rebels are annoying me. Do you guys have any tips for keeping the filthy plebs from revolting? I'm playing as the Roman faction.

My basic go-to for keeping people happy is one entertainment building from culture (yellow) and one shrine, typically the one with a taxation bonus on tax harvesting edict, but this varies depending on the province. I occasionally add an additional shrine in a small city if needed in a 4 city province. If I'm tax harvesting a province I get a shrine everywhere! Turning off taxes in a province may be needed if the people are extremely unhappy. Sometimes you can force a revolt however and just ensure you have an army nearby to deal with what comes. Each turn a revolt continues is +20 public order, up to a max of 0 total public order (from -100). A slave revolt will instantly take a province from -100 to 0 in one turn.

 

Most things add to public unrest and taking on too many slaves is extremely dangerous. As slaves are former fighters, if you get too many slaves in a province and you have a revolt it will most likely be a slave revolt. Slave revolts can be extremely difficult to deal with as it will often spawn a full 20/20 army with units that are experienced in battle and may even have upgrades. Slave population declines over time as slaves die, this can be slowed if you want (as slaves do bring additional income to your provinces) by building a slave trader (yellow).

 

Other than that I just play around what the province produces most. If smaller settlements have industry, I go for industry bonuses, etc. I also try to have at least 1 farm in ever town as this keeps the food from running out. Also on the note of food, for having a food surplus you gain additional growth in all provinces and faster unit recovery, up to +5 and +10% respectively (I'm not sure how much excess food is needed but i believe it is based on empire size). You can check this by mousing over your food in the bottom right.

 

Placing a dignitary in areas that are having issues can raise public order, growth, and also contributes to taxes when deployed.

 

If you want a breakdown of how your province is doing and what is causing unrest just click on a province and mouse over the icon that shows their overall public order near the bottom left.

 

I'd say the most common reasons for unrest are:

Conquest

Raiding

Provincial instability

Building(squalor)

Slaves

Hostile agent actions

 

I'm almost to 1000 hours... ROMA INVICTA!