Quote Originally Posted by Jxrc View Post
As a rule of thumb, I do not get concerned if my king got an heir while being 40 since 55 is not difficult to reach.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the game will not decide to mess with you a bit. No big deal if you are in a quite period with no battle or just skirmishes to fight but always a drag to reload just after a tough battle that you unexpectedly won (or boring and long battle). Seeing a long campaign end because of lack of heir despite the fact that the king has been married for 25 years is an unfair result and I have no qualm about reloading but if each reloading attempt involves re-fighting the same battle each time against countless jinettes its basically time to start another campaign.

As for king living until they are 70 or more, they can be dangerous. When he dies most of his sons will be 50 or more and if you are unlucky you will discover that your new king has no son of his own (or an heir that is just 1 or 2) and that the heir list is without anybody below 50 … It means that in the best possible scenario you will see each of your heirs (sometimes your best generals) become king for a few and disappear a few years later … If you are unlucky you can end up in a civil war or with no king at all ….
This and the below post are the exact reasons I slowly kill off any heirs older than 40. (I prefer the one-way province assault, of course, although an assassination attempt can trigger an always fun civil war) I want a long reign from whichever king ends up surviving. You can kind of roleplay it by an impatient and bored heir haring off on adventure or carving out an empire of his own.