Usurpers

[Prodigal]

I'm playing the English, & my king starts producing a decent sized brood of princes & princesses.

The first Prince is 4 star 5 acumen, with 3 piety, (not bad for a first attempt, thinks I). Anyhow, the second Prince to be born is OK, 2 star, blah de blah, & neither of these two have any seriously deviant v&v's so I figure great! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Next couple of princes are real low lifes, v&v's from hell, & not one good thing about them, no stars, no acumen, low loyalty, you name it, these two don't have it, unless it's what you don't want to see.

Anyway I'm playing the earlies, & I figure no problem with the idiots, they're decent cavalry units, I could use the troops, & besides, the next in line to the throne is a decent 5 star, (he gained an extra star in battle btw, destroying the french as every good English prince should).

Then my king drops dead.

To my surprise, amazement, & general disgust I find my 5 star prince is now a general! & the useless lil' nobody has become king.

Please, can anyone explain to me why this happens?

What happened to eldest inherits, you name it...Where does it state in the Medieval world that the youngest, crappiest, & most deviant shall inherit the throne?

[chunkynut]

The 5* star guy could have been the kings younger bro??

[MonkeyMan]

I have noticed some strange inheritance. If they were all offspring of the first king this makes no sense, something for a good patching is to really make a detailed map of your royal line as it is and as it will be, the one from shogun we have now really won't do. for the time being and flying in the face of convention, put all your eggs in one basket, unless you know for sure which will inherit the throne.

To be honest though, the fact he became a general suggests he was from the same generation as the king who died, otherwise he would remain a prince. Really pay attention to which prince marks your first born of the current king, particualrly if a married prince comes with some heirs when he inherits. something as simple as hightlighting the next in line in red/blue would suffice CA.

[Duke of Cornwall]

Good idea MonkeyMan.

At the moment it is not always clear which princes are brothers of the present king and which are his offspring.

It would be even better to number each Prince so as to indicate the order of accession to the throne.

C'mon CA - this must be a simple one ????

[Lord TangMo]

It was described in the manual such that those non-direct to the throne will be demoted to be only plain generals. But they still keep their royal blood, as you will see the crown figure on the right of his picture. The manual also said something like if the direct line does not exist any more this general might take over the throne too. I have not tried that or wanted to try it either. By the way, what is CA?

[MonkeyMan]

Quote Originally posted by Lord TangMo:
It was described in the manual such that those non-direct to the throne will be demoted to be only plain generals. But they still keep their royal blood, as you will see the crown figure on the right of his picture. The manual also said something like if the direct line does not exist any more this general might take over the throne too. I have not tried that or wanted to try it either. By the way, what is CA?[/QUOTE]

CA = creative assembly (the devs)

Yes you are correct but sometimes it's hard to keep track of who's a brother and who's a son until after the event of an ascention. When you lose a line, you tend to get a civil war rather than a peacefull takeover so it pays to know before you have to do this when its much easier to do some pruning.

[Odyssey of War]

Try making your own family tree from the beginning of the game (on a piece of paper with a pencil, (if you know what that is)). You know when someone is born to your king and then when he becomes eligible to be next in line, so that way you can weed out the ones you dont want to become successors. It helps to keep things straight, but watch out for civil wars that may happen by killing off too many royalty.