Is it possible to deal with unrest late game?

[DSP3000]

Maurya

Around 350 turns in. Wines and dined the Seleucids and sneak attacked them on the middle of their own war and overran them with pure cavalry armies thus creating a new Persian empire. Control everything from Sarmatian lands in the north, Bosporus and Macedonia in the middle and as far west as Carthage in the south. It was an overwhelming cultural victory so I’m trying to paint the entire map. The problem is once a city gets to about 50+ pop they are in almost constant unrest no matter what I build.

I can use decisions to get loyalty to the mid 30s for a few years but it goes down. I have to keep about a third of my army, around 2000 CP parked on my major cities. Is it just a mechanic and impossible to overcome?

Throughout the conquests I dismantle all decadence buildings, no slave markets or usury in the empire. I disperse slaves Or give them rights every chance I get.

[Pocus]

The problem is once a city gets to about 50+ pop they are in almost constant unrest no matter what I build. (..)

<SNIP>

(..) Throughout the conquests I dismantle all decadence buildings (..)

You have made your choice, to play with only half the tools at your disposal to keep loyalty at a decent level. Bear with the consequences, unrest...

[Pocus]

Did you ever wonder why the decadence buildings are there? Did you ask yourself why they are in the game if they are useless? If it was the case, why would they be in the game in the first place?

[Surt]

A few circuses, racetracks and naumachia and you can get it going for some time, I think I got Carthage to 70 or so before it got a problem for me.
Disperse slaves, suppress unrest, dismantle plantations helped.
But the total amount of pops in the city, your empire and size of the empire set a limit.

[MarkShot]

Well, you had seen my my thread on Rome where I remained Glorious Empire + Golden Age probably for 420 years at experience difficulty level. I assume that is doable with others.

It was a long term balancing act which Pocus also attributed to manual province management.

I had clearly won the game by #200, and so I made that my goal for the next 300 years.

[MarkShot]

viewtopic.php?f=534&t=100857

It is significant to note that in the World Handbook Rome ranks #4. But by this time, Rome lacked enemies. Also, conflict is not conducive to stability. Sometimes, it is better to buy peace than win by combat.

[DSP3000]

Well, you had seen my my thread on Rome where I remained Glorious Empire + Golden Age probably for 420 years at experience difficulty level. I assume that is doable with others.

It was a long term balancing act which Pocus also attributed to manual province management.

I had clearly won the game by #200, and so I made that my goal for the next 300 years.

Certainly doable with almost any country but not conducive to most being able to win the game in the original campaign

[MarkShot]

I admit that I probable won't play Rome again or play for that specific goal.

But it was like the "Pocus Challenge" as he said the game was built so that it can't be done. Of course, when you say something like that, it almost guarantees that some nut case is going to try to prove you wrong!

Actually, I learned a lot about the game. The only thing which I think could really improve that challenge is do it only using the auto-POP and auto-Build features maybe after reaching imperial reforms. I think that would be really hard.