Increasing acumen?

[NewJeffCT]

I have finally gotten around to playing the HRE. I was very aggressive early & wiped out the Dutch, snagged Prussia & Pomerania and moved into Sweden & Norway as well, in addition to launching a crusade in Antioch and snagging Flanders from the fading French. I am the richest on the board (until the inevitable HRE civil war comes along...)but keep having kings with 1, 2 or even 0 acumen. They all get magnificent builder and steward/great steward. I need to be even richer for when the Mongols invade (I beefed them up quite a bit by modding the Mongol stats & unit sizes)

How can I build up a king's acumen? Can you do it?

[Rocket_Boy]

Does the kings acumen even have any effect? I know that its good to have a royal family with high acumen because most will go on to be royal uncles who can be given governor titles.

[NewJeffCT]

I thought it has an effect on overall kingdom income?

[thrawn]

As far as my understanding goes the kings acumen increases the overall income of your entire kingdom. Just like a governor boosts a province your king boosts your empire. With that I mind, creating trade routes (boats boats boats) or trading posts, merchants etc. should help his acumen. In theory, i havent really paid attention myself. Also keep taxes on Normal or lower, kingdom wide if you can. This may impact your kings acumen or at least give him some acumen related virtues. (I play on Normal difficulty so I have no idea if this is different than other levels, I also use version 1.1, not VI)

[Monk]

By building Trading posts (and a lot of them) your king will gain the "Trader" VnV, increasing trade income and sometimes increasing acumen. make sure to establish trade routs and build up the economy by the use of farms. And yes, as far as i know a King's Acumen increases Empire wide income.

The only real way i know of increasing a King's acumen is by way of VnVs. Right now i cant think of any but there's quit a few that increase the acumen rating of a king/general. so keep building up them trade posts and Farmlands and he's sure to get some sort of good V. if not then dont worry about it, your Kingdom wont fall cuz of bad Kingly Acumen (trust me, some of my Kings have had 1 or 2 and ive still managed)

[Simovek]

I find that making sure your govenors have high acumen is more important than the king. But I don't pay too much attention to it.

[o_loompah_the_delayer]

When your king is still a prince, put him in charge of an army with a governor in it. Then build lots of stuff in the province so the governor get buildeer, steward and with luck educated v&vs. As the Prince is leading the stack he gets the v&v's instead of the governor (ofcourse he also gets the badd stuff so be wary&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif, and voila you prince is a better king when he ascends to the throne.

The downside is you cant use the prince in battle bcos I believe he and the governor have to be sitting in the province.

[HopAlongBunny]

Getting V&V's for your princes from governors does make some nice kings http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif Downside: governor gets nothing; you might want your governor for, say, Flanders, to have the "steward" virtue instead of a prince. He may not be king for long, but governors can last forever http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif