Heir selection

[dknight]

I just had a curious (and annoying experience) with my British Empire in MTW/Viking. I got 5 heirs, the oldest being a 4 star generals and being groomed for the throne, while others are 1~3 stars with some undesirable VnV (inbred, odd toes ...) .

Unfortunately, at the transition time, I put him in retrained queue (not sure if he got the head of the queue or not). Then whamp! , the King die, some unknown general dies (the message have an empty name : ) and another prince jumped onto the throne . I think I even lost the crown prince (his name becomes something like Henry Roos, eventhough his VnV and other properties are still the same).

Is this a known bug for MTW/Viking ? And how did it choose the alternative successor ? I mean, in my case, the new King is not even the second heir. He is somewhere in the middle. Can't remember if he is the one staying with the King or not, but it seems arbitrary to me.

[macsen rufus]

Hi, dknight - was your oldest prince actually the heir apparent? ie the top one, in red, on your heirs parchment?

Also how old was he, he could have died of old age the same year as your king, as "Roos" isn't the royal surname, so it sounds like he's been replaced by a "non-royal" successor. And it might well explain the empty dead-general name - "General, er , no, prince .... um, sorry king ..... oh, it, he's dead whoever he was"

To be honest, although you've lost a better king, you HAVE avoided a seriously corrupted game. It is VERY bad news to have your heir in a retraining queue the year the king dies. If I ever need to retrain an heir apparent, I ALWAYS put him at the front of the queue and make sure I have enough cash to ensure he doesn't get caught by an "insufficient funds" situation.

[Martok]

Yeah, it's long been known -- albeit perhaps not very widely -- that bad things can (and usually will) happen if your king dies while your crown prince is in a retraining queue somehwere. As macsen rufus pointed out, the phenomenon often causes a corrupt savegame, in which case your only choice is to reload from an earlier save point (or start a new campaign).

You were actually quite fortunate that the only thing that happened was that you lost your crown prince. I know it still sucks, though, and you do have my sympathy.

[dknight]

Phew, it's very fortunate then, as I just beat a horde of French troop (~4000, with about 50% foot knights) in Ilse de France. But I may just go back an try the battle again just to see if I can make better kills this time.

Stills, I notice sometimes the list of heir changed with the oldest one being listed after some young prince, even though they are all from the current king. I need to look more closely about the "red" then. But thanks for the helpful tips.

[Sensei Warrior]

Stills, I notice sometimes the list of heir changed with the oldest one being listed after some young prince, even though they are all from the current king. I need to look more closely about the "red" then. But thanks for the helpful tips.

That is a common experience, and sometimes annoying when you're not paying attention. It all comes down to who was which persons son. Sounds confusing, but fear not I can explain all with an example. This means I get to show off as I am guessing there are still a couple of people who dont know how this works.

King Bob I has three sons who are:
Sam (23)
Jeff (21)
Rob (19)

King Bob I dies and Sam (named Sam III) rises to the throne. Now the heir apparant is Jeff with Rob on standby.

The new King Sam III has a son named Tim. The heir's list now looks like this:
Jeff (23)
Rob (21)
Tim (1)

18 years later (sorry but I forgot the actual age a heir comes of age) the heir's list looks like this:
Tim (19)
Jeff (41)
Rob (39)

Why did Tim jump up in to become the Heir apparant? Because Tim is the current King's son, and in direct line to the throne. Tim being the current King's son takes precendence over Sam and Jeff (who are actually Tim's uncles)

Now just a little further in depth. The current King, Sam III dies in a horrible battle that year. Obviously, the young Tim will rise to the throne. Now what does the Heir list look like? It looks like this:


That's right, its blank. Jeff and Rob have disappeared, the game has considered them too far removed from the throne to be on the Heir list. Jeff and Rob will become a regular generals, and they will be given a surname that is used for the royal house line. When young Tim I gets married and starts having boys the heir list will be repopulated.

It can become much more complicated than that, but it is in essence still the same basic rules.

[Martok]

Very well explained, Sensei Warrior. I couldn't have put it better myself.

[Sensei Warrior]

Thank you, Martok. It took me awhile to post it, lots of typos. I kept track of the lineage thing during one whole Campaign a long time ago. Had the entire Royal Tree penned down, including what happened to all the ones that didn't end up king. Although the notes were lost, I learned alot from that game.

I think the only other irritating thing that can throw you is if you have an older heir who has been married for awhile before he rises to the throne. That year he'll drop off the heir list as normal, but 3 or 4 names appear all at once and different ages, usually before coming of age.

This sudden miraculous appearance of several new heirs without a 'wife has given birth to a _____' notice isn't magic. Those new names are the new King's children, they were born before the previous King died, therefore not listed in the heir's list at birth.

That little fact irritated the heck out of me when I was tracking heirs. I was like wth? where'd these guys come from. Anyways enjoy.