Longevity and infertility - the silent killers.

**caravel** · 11-27-2009, 14:36

Originally Posted by Glenn

If I have six brothers and one son as heirs to a throne, does the game cut off further births until one passes? (If so, then there is an easy fix...)

Yes there is a maximum number of heirs, but I can't remember the exact limit...

**Prince Cobra** · 11-27-2009, 14:57

I missed that. Then kill one of the heirs. Suicide missions/assassins. It is easier to kill a faction heir than the leader.

**Jxrc** · 11-27-2009, 15:28

Originally Posted by Asai Nagamasa

Yes there is a maximum number of heirs, but I can't remember the exact limit...

The numer is 6 IIRC. This includes the king's brother so you might sometimes run into trouble if one of your king has a "surge" of heirs for a very short period and live quite long .... you can indeed end up with a king (the eldest son) that is crowned at the glorious age of 50 something and with five brothers of about the same age .... Unless the AI is kind enough to give you an heir aged between 6 or 10 when the new king is crowed you can have a change of ruler every one or two years for a while ... One possible solution is, if you spot the problem in time, to send the least useful of your heirs conquer a province on its own ...

**Cute Wolf** · 11-27-2009, 16:54

Quick Remedy: Old but extremely good trick, sent your old Sultan to charge rebel pikemen as his last Heroic deeds.... frontally.... repeat with another old family members... your heir will quickly married and get some son afterwards....

**sharpshooter** · 11-28-2009, 04:01

I have wondered about infertility too. Early in the campaign producing heirs seems generally simple - making alliances, requesting princesses (even unsuccessfully, though this seems to trigger daughters rather than sons), turning down an alliance that would make life easier (e.g. Turks rejecting Egyptian alliances, Polish rejecting HRE alliances,) pursuing a robust foreign (military) policy that is still not a "bullying" one ...

At a certain point the "freeze" kicks in, and I'm unsure of its trigger(s). Unfreezing heirs (apart from the cheat) seems to get increasingly difficult as the campaign goes on. Certainly forgetting about diplomatic activity with emissaries seems to beg for the freeze to begin. I now continue to go through the motions even when I know my alliance proposal will be rejected. I have tried mating my princesses with their brothers, and all seems well, but it is not the route I prefer my future kings to take.

I wondered at one point if you needed to continue building farmland improvements, even if you have enough money and the demand seems to be only for castles. I now will have farmland improving at whatever stage of the campaign, but like so many things it is difficult to be sure of any effect.

There seems to be a mix of factors, and at some point the heirs freeze and are then very difficult to unfreeze.

It is another MTW puzzle set to make us do Hard Sums just as we might think of relaxing inside comfortable empires ...

**Ironside** · 11-28-2009, 12:06

As mentioned, the primary problem is the 6 male heir limit.

Usually in your case, it resolves itself when the Sultan dies. Next turn oldest son is married, turn after that he gets a heir. Then you go through 2-3 of his brothers before that heir comes to age.

It's not particullary common to die out due to lack of heirs (while very annoying when it happens). On this matter I've never really bothered and only lost once due to lack of heirs. That Danish king had 7 daughters before the first son and it was v2.0 with the 56 (that is the correct age right?) bug.

Requesting marriages helps of course, usually 1-2 factions will be willing to marrying their princesses most of the time. While the rest are more grumpy about it.

**Vantek** · 11-29-2009, 11:13

Sounds like 7 is the limit then...

Suicide missions FTW! Do an amphibious attack and refuse the ransom!

I once requested marriage from the same princess over 5 times (while bombarding other factions as well) before she finally accepted (likely out of sheer pity).

**drone** · 11-29-2009, 21:20

Originally Posted by Vantek

Sounds like 7 is the limit then...

Faction leader + 6 brothers/sons is the limit. When your leader has 6 brothers, take the most worthless of the brood and kill him off. Suicide mission, assassination, inquisition, whatever. Once a son takes the throne, the royal uncles will no longer count against this limit, and usually make for great generals.