[STRATEGY] Good ways to manage the progression Stable-Glorious->Old-Decadent?

[mdoolitt]

Managed to become a Glorious Empire around turn 100. Great! I thought. But now I am wondering if I didn't peak too soon, as a few of my regions are having rubbish Loyalty, even native ethnic regions. Also, now I am worried about sliding into Old then Decadent. How does an nation best survive the Civil Wars and become Stable again? I know it's possible because I saw the Seleucids go from Decadent to Stable (with one usurper).

Your strategies for this process?

[loki100]

you don't need to go old-decadent-mature, you can go old-mature - that'll give you 3 govt age reductions - and skips the civil war problem

Now I did this as a test and now wonder if I needed to.

so here's 2 takes:

a) change age, best way is to pull all your pop off culture, assuming you are in the top 10 of legacy this may take some time and you may need (perversely) to find some short term decadence to keep you in the bottom tier (so a small rampage or capture/abandon). Thing is you need to remove all those good years from your culture score. At some stage, you'll get the -ve tokens, go old and now reverse. Its party time in your nation. Everyone to culture. Again you now need to shed the bad years from your culture calculation but sooner or later you'll be back in the top tier, back to mature and probably soon back to glorious.

I've set out some detail on this in my Epirus AAR.

b) don't bother. As a level III/glorious state you can make a lot of culture. Take the science focus decisions that come up and opt for culture (each step is a +5% faction wide bonus), don't be afraid of the decadence buildings, take them, the loyalty is well worth it. Remember the CDR is a ratio and its likely all the other big states are also gaining decadence, so your safety comes from being the best controlled. The small new factions (or returning) factions may bump you out of the top tier but they don't matter. The occasional decision to reduce govt age can help, as can grabbing a few unclaimed objectives (you did keep some back didn't you?).

Again have a look at the Epirus AAR for some idea how these numbers can stack up

[Bivox]

Yes I keep on going on golden age from time to time. So I went on conquest spree and my ranking actually increased by 20 ranks. So either I had really pushed culture building or other nation are just even doing worst.

[Bivox]

Me too . I opted to boost cultural building. The monument building is great cheap , take no slot and mass produced.

[Morbio]

I just do culture, culture and more culture and never go into civil war. I just go from Golden Age to Golden Age to Golden Age.....