Public Order

On clicking on a settlement in a province, the public order level of that province is shown as a green (positive) or negative (red) value from -100 to +100 and in brackets is the anticipated change in public order next turn.

To find out what is influencing your public order in more detail, hover the pointer over the Public Order bar in the Province Details window.

In the screenshot below, it is seen that public order in Britannia is at maximum and cannot increase further but would otherwise increase by 13 next turn:

Britannia Public Order

Hovering over the bar reveals that the contributing factors here are:

  • +8 for hard campaign difficulty which is the same for every province (it would be lower on very hard or legendary)
  • +62 for buildings happiness (30 for Circus Maximus – yes it had to be in      London, or Stratford to be more precise, 24 for three Level III nymph      groves, 4 for a level III Temple of Jupiter, 2 faction-wide for having      Mount Davamand (Parthia), 2 faction-wide for having Oracle of Amun-Ra      (Libya)
  • -50 for buildings squalor (16 for four level III towns, 12 for three      fishmongers, 4 for a delicatessen, 8 for two level III farms, 10 for a      level IV cattle ranch)
  • 9 for technologies (labour organisation +2, legal institutions +3,      consensual contracts +4 – note that progressive bonuses on the tech tree      are additive rather than overlapping)
  • -2 for cultural differences (see below on culture)
  • -11 for taxes (global effect of tax slider set to high)
  • -3 for faction (a Cornelii faction penalty of -1 to -4, worse with greater      Latin culture in province)

Other influences that may occur in different circumstances are:

  • Presence of agents and generals in the province
  • Slaves have a negative effect that can be seen by hovering over the slaves’ contribution to income in the Province Details window (just below tax rate)
  • Edicts, e.g. Bread and Games.
  • Military Presence: the army or fleet has to be actually inside the settlement not just in the countryside of the province to raise public order
  • Invasion unrest: each just-conquered settlement inflicts in a one turn order penalty on the province, depending on the actions chosen after defeating the city: make client state/satrapy (none), occupy (bad), looting (worse), subjugation (worst). Hovering over the options before clicking on them describes their exact penalties.
  • Provincial instability: after a recent invasion, in addition to the one off invasion penalty, there is an ongoing penalty that gradually reduces in magnitude by one public order factor each turn until the penalty reaches 0.
  • Rebellion: when there is an actual rebellion, there is a one turn public order bonus of 20, increasing order from -100 to -80. This reflects the most disgruntled elements leaving to join the rebellion and is handy for breaking the ongoing public order deadlock. Further +20 bonuses apply with further stacks of 4 units joining the rebel army each turn until the army is 20 units strong or until the army is destroyed
  • Military Crackdown: after defeating a rebellion there is an ongoing public order bonus that reduces gradually each turn until the bonus reaches zero.

Having high public order brings a major advantage in tax modifier to that province from the inspired population, around +8%. We saw above how important an overall 1% increase in wealth might be, achievable by perhaps merely 1 in 7 provinces having an inspired population.

Low public order results in negative modifiers to tax rates and when public order reaches -100, a rebellion will occur, with a rebel army suddenly camped out close to one of your settlements in the province. As mentioned above, 4 more units will join the rebel army each turn until it is defeated or until it reached 20 units.

From the public order standpoint, in the initial stages of province development, try and get the happiness up to inspired population level as quickly as possible. Once you have a very happy province, try and have the least positive order bonus possible; it is not giving you any more gain. So build up the wealth or food production in the province to reduce to this level.