Quote Originally Posted by Psychonaut View Post
Hooah you also want to make sure your capital has either the most holdings or potential for holdings in it. A capital with 3 castles and a Marshall + Steward active will give much more money and levy than three counties spread out. Though you will get slightly less prestige.
This is not always true.

A city will produce many times more gold than a castle will. And under the usual crown laws you get a quarter of all your direct city vassals' income. This means with three spread out counties (say each with one city, one church, one castle) you'll get a quarter of the income from three cities. However, if you have just one holding, with three castles, one city, and one church, you only get the income from that one city.

You don't get any substantial tax income from holdings that are not your direct vassals. To be specific, you get a percentage of each direct vassals' total income. So say you have a count vassal who has a city for a vassal, and you have Low Feudal taxation, then the amount you get from that city specifically is 10% * 25% = 2.5%. And if you have No Feudal Taxation, you get nothing. Taxation of anything beyond direct vassalage is extremely inefficient for the top liege.

This is assuming you were talking about owning those three castle holdings.

In general, as Psychonaut said the best counties to get in your demesne are the ones with the most potential holdings. But it's also best to only have one holding (usually the capital castle) in each of those counties, and let the rest be held by vassals. This way you maximize your vassal baronies/cities/bishoprics.

Sorry, that was much longer and confusing than I intended it to be.