What does Dread Factor do, and what does the Acumen of the King and Princes do?

This is not spam, I really do not know the answer to those two questions, can someone explain?

I am not sure if it is better to use the man who has no dread, or the 5 skull man as a governor.

I think that if you use a man with high dread it helps control the Loyalty of the Province he is govenor of. I usually try to find a govenor with high acumen to manage my provinces so that I can get a higher profit from it.I think that the Acumen of the King decides how much money you get per province I think it gives it a boost. I think if you put a high dread govenor in a conquered province it really helps loyalty. Well I hope that helps.

High dread scares the population into being loyal...

THanks guys

So a High Dread High Acumen Emperor/King is a great thing to have.

I really did not know if High Dread was a vice or a virtue, thanks.

Now that I know I guess I won't stop killing prisoners, unless I capture one of their big shot nobles/royals.

be careful with killing prisoners! to much killing will give your general butcher vices and the moral of your men wil go down.

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Originally Posted by Horatius

THanks guys

So a High Dread High Acumen Emperor/King is a great thing to have.

I really did not know if High Dread was a vice or a virtue, thanks.

Now that I know I guess I won't stop killing prisoners, unless I capture one of their big shot nobles/royals.

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Killing prisoners is generaly good thing. Ransoming other king is provitable(especialy early), but releasing few hundreds of prisoners for about 1500 florins isnt.Killing every enemy soldier is bloody, unfair, and mercilles way of war, but very effective, and should be considered on every occasion. So, dont bother with butcher alike vices and slay every prisoner lower in rank than king. Medieval times were cruel. Iron hand is prefered, if you want keep your kingdom safe.
As for dread and acumen....for governors always choose commanders with high acumen. Acumen rises loyalty in province, and boosts income. Dread is only addition for not having revolts. Obviously, having high dread and acumen is very good thing, but only stats realy important for all game is acumen, command and loyalty.
Piety helps if you are considering crusade or other religious pursuits. Dread for preventing rebellions. But not all factions may crusade, and huge army also helps agains rebels, for preventing or for dealing with rebel rabble.

And when capturing rebels...they are exceptions of the rule above. Dont kill them. Slay only ringleaders or be mercifull and release them all. This boosts loyalty in province and gives your buthers some positive virtues, boosting morale.

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Originally Posted by Asmodai

Killing prisoners is generaly good thing. Ransoming other king is provitable(especialy early), but releasing few hundreds of prisoners for about 1500 florins isnt.Killing every enemy soldier is bloody, unfair, and mercilles way of war, but very effective, and should be considered on every occasion.

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Right, it's always dangerous to release big army of few thousands of prisoners who will fight against you next turn.

IIRC dread gives +5% loyalty per skull with no drawbacks, so it is always good to have. On the other hand, dread-giving V&V's usually come with a loyalty or morale penalty. Soldiers don't like it when you kill off their valuable ransom; and peasants don't like it when they get punished for following their rightfull lord into battle. After all, you owed your duty to your liege lord, not to the king or the country (unles that king happened to be your direct liege lord). The concept of loyalty to a nation only developed during the middle ages.

Acumen for governors gives +10% to the income of the governed province per feather, and +2% to national income in the King.

Personally, I would save a high-dread general for rebellious provinces (Scotland, Portugal and Lithuania are the worst, but there are others). Off course, if you regularly butcher your enemies, you will have plenty of high-dread guys so this is not an issue.

Does Dread also work for governors? o_O

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Originally Posted by Vlad The Impala

Does Dread also work for governors? o_O

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Yes it does

A general's dread, accumen and piety has no effect unless he is a provincial governor. When he is given a title, all of his stats, excluding loyaly and command, are applied to the province to iincrease/decrease the happiness (% population loyalty) and income. Piety and dread increases happiness wheras accumen improves income. Piety though can work against you also. A high piety general that is made the governor of a recently conquered province of an opposing religion will actually negatively affect the happiness of that province. This also works the other way, also the higher the zeal of the province the more effect a high piety general seems to have of improving lhappiness in a same religion province.

As far as I know piety doesn't make a province more happy. On the other hand, if the zeal or religion of a province doesn't match that of its governer, they will become unhappy. However, high zeal provinces will quickly make their governor more pious.