some random questions about kings,princes, and princesses.

[chris34au]

i've looked through a lot of older threads about heirs but i still have a few questions that i was hoping that someone might be able to answer.

on Kings,

if you have a king at the start of a campaign that's say, 4 stars and 38 years old and you've played this faction enough times in the past to know that he'll die within 15-20 years and your first heir is also 4 stars, would it be a better move to use your king in battles or would it be smarter to work on building up your prince? would it depend on how many other heirs are going to be maturing before the King dies?

on princesses,

when they earn valor for forming alliances, does that have any kind of effect on your campaign? how about marrying your heirs to foreign princesses that have 2 or 3 stars? does that increase the likelihood of producing heirs with really good traits?

on princes,

is the acumen thing totally random? it seems like no matter how i play(turtling or blitzing), i still end up with a lot of heirs with 1 plume of acumen at the very start of a campaign. blitzing seems like it might help a little but i like to stay fairly small(4-5 provinces) for the first 100 years or so of a campaign. i'm not crazy about the idea of using spies or inquisitors. are there any other options for improving this or is it totally random?

TIA

[The Unknown Guy]

on the first one: groom the prince. That way you improve the bloodline.

If you have many princes, and the first ones are mediocre, make sure you send them into a certain death (or use an assasin. but suicidal missions are cheaper.

I also try to build up dread, though I dont know wheter it does something or not.

[Agent Miles]

If your middle aged ruler has very young sons ‘on the way’ then it still will pay off to develop his inheritable skills and traits. Certainly, if you have ten years before they start coming of age, then it would pay off to put some effort into him. You will benefit from his sons long before you would get any of his grandsons.

The stars of a princess only add to her survivor skills against an assassin, AFAIK. So they shouldn’t improve her progeny.

Acumen is improved by being in a province on the turn that trade buildings, roads and mines are finally constructed. This is explained in detail in FBE’s guides’ section.

[Geezer57]

on princesses,

when they earn valor for forming alliances, does that have any kind of effect on your campaign? how about marrying your heirs to foreign princesses that have 2 or 3 stars? does that increase the likelihood of producing heirs with really good traits?

Princesses earning valor by Diplomacy is pretty iffy, as they'll just end up married to first faction that has a single Prince. Better to us Emissaries for this task. The valor either earn this way is only of benefit (IIRC) in diplomatic persuasion and in resistance to assassins. Don't think it improves heirs at all.

It might be an interesting experiment: only ask for ceasefires/alliances from factions with no single heirs until the Princess has many stars, then marry the Princess to your own first-in-line heir - see what pops out sixteen years later.

[drone]

At the very start of a campaign, I might use the king in a few battles, but after a while I think it's better just to let him sit them out. Attacking with him may lead to unrest issues since he will get "stranded" after the attack if a siege follows.

As said before, groom the heirs. Once the sons come of age, send them into battle as commanders at every opportunity. This will make the heir a better king (and hence improve his children), and it will leave you with plenty of royal uncles with high command values.

As far as I know, stars on a princess only affect her resistance to assassination and diplomatic ability.

[chris34au]

thanks for all of the tips. i've tried looking through older threads to find the answers to most of these questions but i've never had any luck.

[Fagar]

I agree with what Drone said.
Use the hiers, build them up, groom them well and they will become fine kings.

I tend to find it better for the peace of the realm to keep my king somewhere in the middle of my empire as I hate constantly checking loyalty and guarding against rebellions.

[chris34au]

does acumen really matter? my first heir in an Aragonese campaign that i started the other night was a 5 star but only had one plume of acumen. if it only effect the general happiness of your faction, it's really not that big of a deal, i guess. but it seems like i rarely get more than 1-2 plumes of acumen in my heirs for at least 2-3 generations or so. i didn't know if the tax rate or what's being built in your provinces has anything to do with this or if it's totally random. i never set the tax rate above high in any provinces but it doesn't really seem to help any, as far as i can tell.

[Brandy Blue]

Only the acumen of your king and governors matter. A governor's acumen improves the income of his province by (I think) 5% per plume. Your king only improves income by (I think) 2%, but he improves all your provinces' income. If you try to choose governors for all your provinces with at least 4 plumes, except maybe places that produce almost no income anyway, it will really boost your income. Heirs cannot be governors so their acumen only matters because 1: one of them will be your new king 2: an heir who drops out of sucession and becomes an uncle can become a governor.

Mining income does not benefit from acumen.

Tax level does not effect your acumen.Tax level improves your income at the cost of reducing happiness. It also increases the chances of the governor picking up a corruption related vice. In my experience, corruption vices aren't important. By the time your governors start getting corrupt, you probably have a such a huge income that a little graft hardly matters.

[chris34au]

thanks. i knew about the governor's acumen effecting their provinces but i wasn't really sure where the king's acumen came into play. i think i'm just going to try to forget about worrying about the acumen of heirs. if an heir ends up becoming a king with only 1-2 plumes of acumen, it sounds like having governors with 4-5 plumes of acumen will compensate for the king.

[Ironside]

thanks. i knew about the governor's acumen effecting their provinces but i wasn't really sure where the king's acumen came into play. i think i'm just going to try to forget about worrying about the acumen of heirs. if an heir ends up becoming a king with only 1-2 plumes of acumen, it sounds like having governors with 4-5 plumes of acumen will compensate for the king.

Getting the acumen up is the hardest stat to groom, there's basically two ways to drive them up. Breeding with acumen as the main stat (that means maxing out influence, something that's hard while turtling) or failed assassination attemts. There's four lines of v&v for that, one gives up to +2 to acumen, while another gives negative acumen. So playing without reload you'll get +1 acumen every 4 generations on average...

The advantage is that all those former hiers will have atleast 6+ acumen, making them great governors.

[Youngie]

Im also a fan of Drones tactic's. It is imperative to get your heir's having good stats at a young age. They will become better kings and produce better heirs.

Princesses are a tricky one with me. I use to never even bother to use them. Unless i had a rotten prince who was soon to be a vunerable king. Then some forced incest was in order to increase his proberbility of being exposed. Knowerdays i marry them off in the hope that one day the allied lands will fall into my hands if ever they lose their lineage. this is rare i know, but a man can still dream

[Fagar]

Knowerdays i marry them off in the hope that one day the allied lands will fall into my hands if ever they lose their lineage. this is rare i know, but a man can still dream[/QUOTE]


That is something I have wondered at from time to time.
I have never received allies lands when their line has died out.
I knew it was stated when you married off your princesses but it doesn't seem to happen. How often if ever does this happen to other people?
I have experienced it occassionally in STW just not in MTW.

[chris34au]

Knowerdays i marry them off in the hope that one day the allied lands will fall into my hands if ever they lose their lineage. this is rare i know, but a man can still dream

That is something I have wondered at from time to time.
I have never received allies lands when their line has died out.
I knew it was stated when you married off your princesses but it doesn't seem to happen. How often if ever does this happen to other people?
I have experienced it occassionally in STW just not in MTW.[/QUOTE]


when i was playing a Bohemian campaign, i ended up with Aragon that way but that's the only time that it's happened for me and i almost always get my princesses married before they become old maids.

[Scurvy]

Its never happened to me, I just marry Princesses off to my best generals to add loyalty

I tend to let the royal line sort itself out, its fun to have really bad monarchs, especially as they can be blamed for my mistakes....

[caravel]

It occurs more often in STW, but that was based on alliances alone I believe. In MTW keeping taxes low may help. I'm not sure of exactly how it works, but I think the faction in question has to die out while one of it's princesses is married to your own faction leader. I don't think princes count. As soon as the faction dies out, you should set taxes to as low as possible throughout the land and hope for the best. The chances of them joining your faction is based on your provincial happiness.

[Trapped in Samsara]

Hi

I did, once, completely out of the blue, inherit a two or three province 'mini-kingdom' at the other end of the Mediterranean from my faction; I was Almos, I think. It was a most pleasant surprise that kicked off a couple of decades of conflit as I fought tooth and nail to hang onto these provinces which I wasn't resourced or situated to do. Tremendous fun.

Regards
Victor

[Geezer57]

i marry them off in the hope that one day the allied lands will fall into my hands if ever they lose their lineage. this is rare i know, but a man can still dream

You'll only inherit allied lands if it's one of their Princesses that marries your Prince or Ruler - getting one of your Princesses hitched to a foreigner does no good for this purpose. I use Princesses rather to boost the loyalty of my better Generals - but only after they've had a long career in diplomacy and are getting close to spinsterhood.

[Fagar]

Cheers for all the replies, it did clear up that aspect.
I always agree to marry foreign princesses if they are offered so I guess it is just a matter of luck and timing.

[caravel]

There is no reason not to accept foreign brides. The possibility of the AI gaining your lands if you're wiped out is hardly a factor is it?

When it comes to your own princesses I'm with Geezer57 - they are much more useful married to your generals. If you have one too many, then perhaps marry her into a smaller faction at the right time. But the chances of gaining lands are slim. Marrying them off to your generals is the best policy because if your royal line is destroyed, you may be lucky enough to get a civil war with the royal blooded generals vying for control of the faction. Also it's fairly obvious that marrying them to your general will improve his loyalty.