Do princes inherit leader's stats?

[Fairlight]

Playing as the Italians, every generation throws up another batch of useless princes with no command stars or acumen If I buff my future doge up with battles, will his sons inherit them? Or is it totally random?

Thanks in advance,
Fairlight

[econ21]

I don't think they inherit the particular virtues or vices of the king, but I think their command (and maybe other) stats go up if their father fights often and well. I think one poster worked out by trial and error that a son's stats were fixed about age 13.

So bottomline: yes, a warrior king does wonders for the royal gene pool

[solypsist]

there is such a thing as inheritence. the better your king, the more likely you'll have good princes, but not always. this is why it's a good idea to inspect your heirs and eliminate any weak ones that are in line to be king. The chances of getting bad princes increases as the game goes on since there is more and more royal blood spread throughout the kingdom, thus more unregulated inbreeding.

with regards to the question, yes: kings can and often do replicate similar stats in princes - at least for starting command and acumen.

[econ21]

Soly - how do you eliminate the weak ones? I keep reading people recommending this, but never have the heart to do it. Do you use assassins? I would hate to charge 20 royal knights into a hopeless battle, although it does sound rather in character for a the eminence grise of a medieval state...

I seem to recall Mel Gibson commenting about the weak English Prince in Braveheart that critics should have read what happened to the real historical counterpart after Longshanks died... shudder.

[Jazzman]

in theory, you can assassinate them or send them head long into the spears but it doesnt always work. I had a 0 command, 0 acumen, odd # of toes kings brother who was next in line and i wanted to extinguish him so there was no chance of him becoming king if the king croaked before his sons matured. so i send a 4 star assasin after him and he survives (heirs apparenly are harder to kill) and by surviving gets a V&V to make him even harder for assasins to kill. so, i send him to ireland with a small army to face 1000 rebels and take away the ships so he cant retreat. his army gets routed easily, i decline the ransom and assume hes a goner since i thought if they had no province to escape to they were dead. Wrong i dont know if its a bug or something but the brother shows back up next turn in the province he originated from with a few less men. So, good luck. Fortunately for me, the kings sons matured before he croaked.
the brother's still around though, imagine he would be pissed if he wasnt too stupid to realize whats going on

[Basileus]

and remember dont get your king over 7 stars of command then hes sons will come out with 0 stars most of them..7 stars gives the best heirs

[cugel]

You can't easily get rid of your lousy king, so . . . don't let worthless princes BECOME king Just dismiss the worthless buggers' unit while they are still princes (if they are in line to the throne and you don't want them to inherit). Simple as that. Once when I had a civil war and knew that my campaign was lost if I didn't reload, I simply reloaded and killed off all the princes except the one I wanted to inherit. Next turn, no civil war (This is a very cheesy tactic however and I can't claim to have won that campaign).

[solypsist]

The alternative to eliminating bad princes is to turn them into good princes, but this has to be done early on. Here's a recipe (it's been posted in the MH before, so these ideas aren't mine entirely). Then just use him in sure-thing victory battles. Otherwise....

Send an assassin after him. If he dies, great, but if he lives, then send an inquisitor after him. He'll most likely survive, but the result will be a slight improvement in his acumen and piety. Do this within 3 years after his appearance. If by this time his bad vices aren't countered by good ones, then it's time for the suicide charge. I don't know how your prince survived, Jazzman, could be a one-time bug. But the rest of the time, refuse the ransom and he's gone.

[LadyAnn]

Cheesy tactics. What kind of monster who kill your own children? Fraternicide, but not progenicide.

I would say:
1.: promote prince worthlessness by keep him at home all the time;
2.: marry princesses of weak kings, to keep the gene pool diversified;
3.: in civilwar, chose weak prince's faction.

Annie

[Lord Aeon]

Hmmm... inquisiting your leaders improves acumen? Hmph. Didn't know that. Need to try this out.

[solypsist]

Quote[/b] ]What kind of monster who kill your own children?

the royal kind of monster. who says selection has to be natural?

[Alrowan]

i tend to train my princes in battle before they become king. also i keep my king fighting if his influence is low.. nothing gets a lords more respect than a winner

[Fairlight]

Thanks for the replies I've always been a cautious, cowardly player, stuffing my Doge and his sons away in fortresses and never letting them out. No wonder they're all weird and inbred. Off to the Levant they go for some action.

[A.Saturnus]

Who says infanticide isn`t natural?
BTW, can it be that sometimes family developement is triggered? I play the Turks. They had always weak heirs and I did nothing to improve their stats (had enough good generals anyway). But then, when the late period started, I had a civil war and after that, all my heirs had 4 to 7 stars. Maybe the Ottoman Dynasty?

[Alrowan]

hehe... in a castle.. thats how i used to play. As far as the turks go, all my hiers have been strong 5-6 star generals. I guess im lucky in that respect, because now my empire has a total of 11, 9 star generals