Slitherine

I would get messages that said my particular Government was strong or Weak or losing power..,etc. I would check around and I could not see anything on this. In addition, my empire was working great (winning battles, taking territory, CDR great, Legacy points steadily increasing,.,, etc. Then all of the sudden, I would get a Government or leader change down the road. And twice Rome had absolutely horrible leaders.., I think they were called Abysmal.., or bad, etc,., Both had +20% Decadence.., and other bad things that were incredibly hard to deal with.

Is this something I could have stopped or is this just random or by design.

its random, its a way of simulating ruler death for the Republics. They tend to last longer (unless things are going wrong) but they will die in the end.

And yes, numpties are part of the game, if they are extremely bad it will force you to alter your game play for a while (equally the very good open up opportunities), usually its an annoyance but not something too drastic.

Random.., good to know. Thank you for info.