Quote Originally Posted by bretwalda
Easy: Drag one of your assassins over the desired king. If the message where you can choose yes/no says that a heir will take over then there is at least one heir; if it says there is no heir: that's your lucky day...
What a great way to check if there are heirs!

As for your Q about what level I play, always expert, unless I am trying something new.
(The way I figure it, I have ruled thru hundreds of kings if I am not at expert level yet then I shouldn’t be playing. Some days I shouldn’t be playing .)