I first really got into the TW series with MTW. Previously, I had played Shogun, but couldn't get into it for some reason. The feeling of immersion was just never there for me.

That all changed with MTW. A large part of this, IMO, was because of the numerous titles, Princesses and other agents, which really gave me the feeling of administrating an empire.

Of course, this system had its drawbacks. Towards the end of the game you would often control dozens of territories, and each had a title associated with it. Furthermore, when a governor died, his title returned to the associated province. While I enjoyed the additional immersion that came with titles, I also abhorred what sometimes felt like intense micromanagement in the endgame.

In RTW this feature was abstracted - titles were removed and ancillary characters (along with limited titles and objects) were incorporated. This removed some of the micromanagement for passive players, but to truly maximize the effectiveness your empire this mechanic still forced you to swap retinues fairly often. Furthermore, the liberal system of swapping ancillary characters brought in the immersion-killing likliehood that some of these ancillary characters could literally live for hundreds of years.

Therefore, what is needed is a system that gives a flavor of the title-system without requiring so much micromanagement. There are already enough things happening on the campaign map that we do not need to be swapping countless titles between the named characters.

From my perspective, CA very nearly got the system right in this iteration of the game. Objects are transferrable and human ancillaries are not, but there are still not titles.

Thus, I offer the following minor changes that I would like to see to the game. Keep in mind that I have not considered this in detail so am not comfortable assigning particular values to some of the following. Nevertheless...

I would like to see a limited title system. In practice it would be similar to what was in RTW (Master of Soldiers, Master of the Household Cavalry, etc.), only it would be more standardized and balanced across the factions.

Every faction should start with a few titles they can give to named characters, and some other titles should be triggered by actions in the game. For example:

Supreme Commander of the Army: Every faction would get this title from the very beginning, and should probably give a command and loyalty bonus.

More military titles could become available through conquest. For example, after a Faction conquers six provinces, a new title could become available, Commander - Army of the North, for example. This would give a slightly lower bonus than Supreme Commander of the Army. Then, after 15 or so provinces are conquered, a new title, say Commander - Army of the South, would become available. It would give the same bonus as Commander - Army of the North. Note that the conquest goals I state to trigger the titles are completely arbitrary. Also, I'm sure CA or the modders could come up with unique titles for each of the factions although they would give identical bonuses.

I also would allow for a single title for each of the Agent groupings.
For example, one of your spies could be given the Spymaster title, which would make him the foremost spy for your empire. Assasins could get the Master of Assassins title. A faction could give a Priest the Archbishop title. Diplomats could get the Royal Ambassador title, and Merchants could get the Royal Franchise title.

In the end, this only adds a small number of transferrable titles, 7 - 9, most likely, depending on the number of military titles that can be/are triggered. This will help stave off micromanagement in the endgame while still providing titles that can make your most valued named units truly distinctive, thereby providing even greater immersion.

As it is, I love this game, but I would like to see a return to a limited title system.