Please marry my sons!!!!!!!!!!

[fester]

I just cant seem to get any one to marry my offspring no matter how nice I am. I can be allied to to the faction, Offer one of my princesess hands in mrriage first but when I ask for the favour returned I get regretfully declined. I've just went to war with spain for no good reason costing me a fortune in trade just cos they pissed me off and would'nt hand over a princess. Am I doing something wrong???

[antisocialmunky]

The whole world usually hates you after a certain point except the guys on the other side of the map and don't give a crap about you.

Conversly, you could just inbreed.

[NodachiSam]

I know your pain.

What you're doing wrong is being succesful, rich, influencial and powerful. There is nothing you can do once you get to that unfortunate state where sending you a daughter would surely mean she would live in total comfort the rest of her days. Factions simply don't want to be allied with the most powerful kingdom out there. Yes its artificial and illogical but the game is that way to make the endgame more difficult I suppose.

You could just inbreed if you want, the incest vices come up randomly anyways. I'm too squeemish to do it myself.

[Loucipher]

Well, if no-one wants to marry your princes, just wait until they get on the "side-branch" (i.e. cease to be princes), then marry your own princesses to them. You shall have a "invisible spare princes", ready to take over should your main line die. Just watch their loyalty - they sometimes like to make things like that happen faster, like by means of a civil war!
Your king, even if he hasn't been married already, will wait just a couple of years before taking a wife from within a populace. Just don't get him killed before this happens - unless you have another prince to spare.
Personally, I have never had a problem with my line. Theory is that your line might die off within ten years (your king has only one son, and dies before his son matures). Practically, you have to be seriously struck by some ill-fate to actually see this happen. I always have at least two sons waiting for the crown. And should I actually have just one, then make sure there are married uncles to take over should the oddball assassin come through...

[littlebktruck]

Just ask the Sicilians. They always have a few spare princesses and they're often willing to part with a few of them.

[Ironside]

Just ask the Sicilians. They always have a few spare princesses and they're often willing to part with a few of them.

There's often one faction somewere that's willing to share thier princesses, most often the Sicilians or the Danes.
And you don't always need to be at peace with them.

[Weebeast]

I just cant seem to get any one to marry my offspring no matter how nice I am. I can be allied to to the faction, Offer one of my princesess hands in mrriage first but when I ask for the favour returned I get regretfully declined.

How would you feel if you married my sister and I married yours?

Jokes aside, non-ally factions seem okay sharing their princesses with me.

[Loucipher]

How would you feel if you married my sister and I married yours?

Jokes aside, non-ally factions seem okay sharing their princesses with me.

Hell, nothing that uncommon, actually My brother and I are married to two ladies who happen to be sisters

Jokes aside, it is true that minor factions (Sicilians, Danes and also Aragonese) seem to be real princess-spammers. Of course, they also have their host of (mostly) unmarried princes, so there you go, trade your royal kin with them all the way you like

[caravel]

Sometimes you're just hated, and that's it. As the Byzantines in my current early/hard campaign I'm finding it impossible to achieve peace or form any alliances. Marriages are not happening, my latest prince married his sister... Since I've conquered more provinces it has got worse. This is how it goes sometimes.

[matteus the inbred]

I sympathise too, at some point it just becomes impossible, and very frustrating. The Danes often leave 3-4 princesses sitting idly in more port province without allowing any of them to marry despite repeated requests. And yes, I have wiped them out for being so damn annoying, more than once!

When playing a Muslim faction, I often jump up and down with joy and amazement if I can get anyone to marry my sons, even the above-mentioned Danes and Sicilians. Catholic Kings don't seem to want to give their precious little girls away to nasty evil Turks and suchlike, and of course Muslim factions don't produce princesses. Does anyone know if Muslim factions are gifted with a slightly higher 'son and heir guarantee' to make up for the fact that it's hard to marry off sons and thus produce earlier heirs?

I can only remember one historical example of a Western ruler even attempting to negotiate a Muslim/non-Muslim marriage, that being Richard the Lionheart's effort to get his sister hitched to Saladin's brother (or nephew?). The deal fell through anyway, but she was not apparently amused...!

[Ludens]

When playing a Muslim faction, I often jump up and down with joy and amazement if I can get anyone to marry my sons, even the above-mentioned Danes and Sicilians. Catholic Kings don't seem to want to give their precious little girls away to nasty evil Turks and suchlike, and of course Muslim factions don't produce princesses. Does anyone know if Muslim factions are gifted with a slightly higher 'son and heir guarantee' to make up for the fact that it's hard to marry off sons and thus produce earlier heirs?

Muslim princes marry upon ascending to the throne. They inherit their fathers harem, I suppose. I have never been able to get my Egyptian or Almohad princes married to a Christian girl anyway.

[Asmodai]

Hell, nothing that uncommon, actually My brother and I are married to two ladies who happen to be sisters

Hehe, i sometimes think, that you was to lazy to find your woman elsewhere.

No offence bro. Joking.

I find, that in modded version politics, and marriages are extremely difficult to seal. There is relatively low problem marrying your prince or princes to your neigbour in vanilla or VI.
But i figured out, that ceasefires are more succesfull, if you propose a marriage to your enemy, rather seal it with your emissary. Maybe it was only accident not a rule...

[Csargo]

Your princesses must be to ugle have you looked at those pictures ugh!!!!!

[Loucipher]

Hehe, i sometimes think, that you was to lazy to find your woman elsewhere.

No offence bro. Joking.

Your sense of humour is really amusing at times, bro

I find, that in modded version politics, and marriages are extremely difficult to seal. There is relatively low problem marrying your prince or princes to your neigbour in vanilla or VI.

This leads me to think that the politics must be associated with internal engine of the game. I assume that no sane modder would try to make these things deliberately worse. But mods do alter the overall game balance at times, thence A.I. factions can find it more difficult to strike alliances...

But i figured out, that ceasefires are more succesfull, if you propose a marriage to your enemy, rather seal it with your emissary. Maybe it was only accident not a rule...

I'd rather consider it a rule. Diplomatic missions carried out by princesses are always more successful than those carried out by emissaries. It is even written on the info parchments, remember?
The more curious fact observed by me is the fact that when you send your princess to an enemy faction with ceasefire request, she might become married in the process (if your enemy has princes to spare or his king is unmarried, he might accept the marriage proposal). In this case your diplomatic stance with that faction goes all the way up to Ally, instead of Neutral (the marriage is considered to be a royal alliance). Sometimes, you can use this to your advantage to abruptly end some unsuitable conflict and turn against new foes (especially those at war with your new ally). As a result, your influence will often rise sky high, especially when you manage to win a war against a stronger faction, then manoeuver them into marrying your princes. With such means at your disposal, the diplomacy in M:TW takes on a whole new dimension...

[Ironside]

The wierdest thing is that if you request to marry a princess from a faction in war with you they'll still be at war with you after the marriage.

[Joshwa]

The wierdest thing is that if you request to marry a princess from a faction in war with you they'll still be at war with you after the marriage.

Or when allies of your enemies marry a princess to you, then the very next turn send word that they are siding with your enemy again!

[Asmodai]

The wierdest thing is that if you request to marry a princess from a faction in war with you they'll still be at war with you after the marriage.

I`m not sure about possibility of that. But they may break any alliance, even sealed by marriage, simply attacking you in the next turn. And in addition, if you are at war with their allies, they may break alliance with you, and remain loyal to your enemies.

I`m big fan of better politic in MTW 2.
More diplomatic actions could be usefull. More RPG style, dialog with multiple diplomatic goals. Succes depending on influence of both kingdoms and personal emissary statistics. More reliability coul also be considered....

[x-dANGEr]

Muslim princes marry upon ascending to the throne. They inherit their fathers harem, I suppose.

I don't know if they do in the game, but.. They don't in real life heh.

[matteus the inbred]

I don't know if they do in the game, but.. They don't in real life heh.

heheh. shame you can't have a nice harem in MTW. and a set of amusing harem-associated vices...

thanks Ludens, useful. I suspected that but never bothered to check...I think I managed to get a Byzantine Princess married to my Egyptian prince once, but she had one of those portraits which makes you suspect that she has to shave more than he does...and I don't mean armpits either. He got the 'Stubble-rash' vice, -1 command.

[Ludens]

Or when allies of your enemies marry a princess to you, then the very next turn send word that they are siding with your enemy again!

I`m not sure about possibility of that. But they may break any alliance, even sealed by marriage, simply attacking you in the next turn. And in addition, if you are at war with their allies, they may break alliance with you, and remain loyal to your enemies.

I used to try to convince the allies of the enemies to side with me by sending a princess, which they usually accepted but then announced that they were forced to break our new alliance because I was at war with their former ally. I think it is impossible to ally to the allies of someone you are at war with.

[Ironside]

I`m not sure about possibility of that. But they may break any alliance, even sealed by marriage, simply attacking you in the next turn. And in addition, if you are at war with their allies, they may break alliance with you, and remain loyal to your enemies.

I'm sure that my 3 generations of Vikings did find that very possible with the Irish. And there was no pathetic Irish vessels floating around, let alone dare to fight my superior ships. Did work as it kept them from being conquered though.

I suspect that it's a bug (that requisting marriage has no strings attached) and that the factions only does it when they find a peace treaty acceptable. The Danes was up for it a while in one campaign but stopped later on.

I think it is impossible to ally to the allies of someone you are at war with.

Very hard atleast. I did put quite an effort in exploring that in one campaign and found out that killing off enemies with a lot of allies does give you the ability to form alliances with the enemy's former allies, while it was impossible to get allied with them before your extermination of your enemies.

[Loucipher]

Oh, so it really works like: kill the strongest of the gang, and the rest shall bend to your will? Quite amusing, if you ask me Might be a great alliance-breaking technique...

I`m not sure about possibility of that. But they may break any alliance, even sealed by marriage, simply attacking you in the next turn. And in addition, if you are at war with their allies, they may break alliance with you, and remain loyal to your enemies.

Please remember, bro, that the first option is risky for them - one loses Influence when breaking alliances. On the other hand, if they happen to be also allied with somebody you're at war with, they can choose sides without Influence penalty. Perhaps this is the case why our diplomacy there fails - even if we manage to push somebody into a royal marriage, the very next turn they find an excuse to choose somebody else over us. On this token, I think isolating your neighbours and making sure they don't ally with themselves is the most important issue. Having all your neighbours allied with each other and not with you is a dangerous sign...

[NodachiSam]

Or when allies of your enemies marry a princess to you, then the very next turn send word that they are siding with your enemy again!

Oh I HATE that

[Aenlic]

There's a little trick to getting your sons married.

You're best chance at succeeding is to find a princess from a faction with which you are not at war and yet with whom you aren't allied. Keep track of which faction's princess you sent your agent off to see. It always seems to be the case that you'll receive a standard offer of alliance right before the proposal goes through for that faction. Turn the alliance offer down and BOOM! you'll have a marriage. If you accept the alliance offer prior to the marriage event, then the marriage will be turned down in most cases. It seems the AI factions would prefer an alliance without having to marry your offspring; but they'll take the marriage offer just to get the alliance if they're forced to do so.

A good place to look for such princesses is when two factions are fighting. Ally with the side opposite the one with nubile princess. After you're allied with the enemy of the princess you want; send your agent to propose to the other guy, then turn down his initial offer of alliance and you'll get a marriage. Now you can go after your former ally and switch sides again. Kepp this up until you run out of sons or they run out of princesses. ;)

[littlebktruck]

The wierdest thing is that if you request to marry a princess from a faction in war with you they'll still be at war with you after the marriage.

This happens a lot with sea battles. The marraige is accepted, but a sea battle occurs that interturn, invalidating the treaty.

[Ludens]

There's a little trick to getting your sons married.

You're best chance at succeeding is to find a princess from a faction with which you are not at war and yet with whom you aren't allied. Keep track of which faction's princess you sent your agent off to see. It always seems to be the case that you'll receive a standard offer of alliance right before the proposal goes through for that faction. Turn the alliance offer down and BOOM! you'll have a marriage. If you accept the alliance offer prior to the marriage event, then the marriage will be turned down in most cases. It seems the AI factions would prefer an alliance without having to marry your offspring; but they'll take the marriage offer just to get the alliance if they're forced to do so.

I also find I have most success if the other faction is sending or has just send an emissary to obtain an alliance. Whenever I spot diplomats heading for my faction leader I send an emissary after their princesses. This gives two advantages: 1) I gain a princess and thus (hopefully) early heirs; 2) my emissary gets a valour star and not theirs.