How to get high star heirs?

[caravel]

Hi, I've been reading these threads and I just wanted to ask how do I get my heirs to be good generals? I figure that the influence of my king has something to do with it, as well as the king's own star rating. However, if your king has crappy stars, even after winning many battles, he is still about 3 stars....

It's based on your kings influence. If you're not gaining new provinces and winning battles, your king's influence will be low. Get a Crusade or Jihad going and start a war, and start taking provinces.

Also, does the game kill your generals due to "old age" (since they are not shown with age) and what do they replace them with? I read somewhere that you would get "general died of old age" but I still remember my 9 star generals are still there over 100+ years. Are they replaced with exactly the same stats and v&v, or do I not pay enough attention?

That is basically cosmetic. Your general dies and is replaced by a general of the same stats. So in reality your generals are immortal. You can add the -green_generals command argument to your shortcut to cause this function to work properly. That way your generals are replaced by new generals with lower stats.

Basically I was cheating using the heirs cheat, and ended up with a load of 6,7 and 8 star heirs, then the king died, and they stopped being heirs (ie no age to die?). I worked out that these heirs were the king's brothers, and then the king had a son, so the son became the new king, and these uncles can now live for ever?

They dropped out of succession due to them being uncles, yes.

[Kavhan Isbul]

I think that high influence is half of what is needed for a heir with high command stars - if your ruler has one or two stars, your heir will never have 6 or 7, even if the ruler is the most influential one that can be. I think the amount of command stars heirs get is also dependant on the amount of command stars of the current ruler, and while influence has a huge effect, it cannot alone help you get a high ranking heir. This is why the Byzantines, Spanish and Almohads always get better heirs in terms of command - their starting rulers have defensive bonuses which get them a huge increase in stars, and once they get a little influence, the heirs later in their rule can easily get 7 or 8 stars.
When not playing with one of these three factions, I find 4-5 star heirs adequate (especially if their other stats are also decent), and concentrate on developing my generals rather than worrying too much about my royal line - high influence will insure a decent heir sooner or later, and I have titles for the purpose of boosting command rating.

[Agent Miles]

Here’s what I do to get good generals. I don’t build any of the structures that add to happiness in one (or more) of my provinces. (You can still develop them otherwise.) Every few turns I get warned that they are going to rebel. My ruler moves in with a sufficient force and defends the province against the upstarts. In this way you can quickly get a five-star ruler with some good virtues. (He usually dies before you can train him any higher.) Use crusades/jihads to max out your influence. Now your sons will be five or six-star princes.
All you need are four of the five-star and one of the six-star princes to later become generals. Build the Chancellery, which grants one of your generals an additional star, and the three other buildings that give plus two-star titles (The Admiralty, etc.). Many provinces grant an additional star to their governor (Ireland and Prussia, to name a couple). Governorships and titles can be used together. So, three of your five-star generals should be made governors of such provinces (becoming six-star generals) and then given the two-star titles (Master of the Stables, etc). The other five-star general becomes Chancellor and governor of Trebizond or Constantinople (which give a two-star boost) and the six-star general gets the other governorship. (The first three of the eight-star generals should be able to conquer these provinces for you, if you don’t have them.) You now have five generals with eight stars each. The valor of the units that they lead is increased by four. (Nine-star generals look good, but don’t add any more to a unit’s valor.)

[macsen rufus]

I also find using my heir-apparant in battles is a good plan, as he's building up stars before even reaching the throne. Also don't be afraid to "prune" the family tree. Often your younger sons will be better than your first born (because in the period between their births your king has gained influence or stars or both). When this happens, kill off your older sons, preferably in battle - but you can assasinate them, or burn them at the stake, though these latter two options will have some negative comeback. Assassinating sons may precipitate a civil war - especially if they survive

When the family tree is pruned, your bloodline will continue to improve. My current King (Norway, XL) is currently 9* including skilled defender and skilled last stand virtues gained whilst he was defending the borders when still heir apparent. The BIG danger is the "wraparound" bug reported in other threads - after getting 7, 8 star sons the latest issue has come out as a 0* - MTW goes over the top and thinks it can make a 10 - but alas it can't.....

When generals die, as stated above unless you have the "green-generals" switch activated, they will be replaced by an exact copy, keeping the same titles and virtues etc. All that changes is the guy's name. This applies also to princes - but if they die of old age they will be replaced by a new general not of royal blood. And there's little more irritating than breeding up an excellent heir to have him die before the King

"Rebel farming" as suggested by Miles is a great way to get lots of command experience, especially in defence, but where possible keep it within your initial homelands. If done too often in territories you've conquered you may find yourself with a full-blown re-emergence rather than a handful of dozy farmers with pointy sticks.

[Biggus Diccus]

The BIG danger is the "wraparound" bug reported in other threads - after getting 7, 8 star sons the latest issue has come out as a 0* - MTW goes over the top and thinks it can make a 10 - but alas it can't.....

You can avoid the wraparound issue by trying to limit you ruler to be at 7-8 influence when your heirs come to age. Anyway, the wraparound bug/feature isn't that bad; in one or two generations your ruler should be 6-8 star again.

[caravel]

You can avoid the wraparound issue by trying to limit you ruler to be at 7-8 influence when your heirs come to age. Anyway, the wraparound bug/feature isn't that bad; in one or two generations your ruler should be 6-8 star again.

It's an interesting quirk. Possibly an unintentional bug, but not a bad one. A ruler cannot continue passing on command stars forever to his heirs. Their has to be a limit. This works perfectly for the Byzantines. They are coming to the end of their days when the early period starts. If they don't expand too much their commnad stars don't alter much. If they go berserk and start rampaging into Europe, their heirs get hit by the wraparound issue/bug and you see some 0 command heirs appear. This really takes the sting out of the Kataphraktoi and the rest of their armies, and they will start to lose ground.

[naut]

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