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Hi,
i have two little questions
1) how does exactly Free Investiture work? Should i decide the heir for every bishop in my realm?
2) how is it possible to hold multiple holdings in a county? Can i remove also barons/bishops/mayors as i can do with counts or dukes? Are there any pros in having more holdings in one county of yours?
 
Hi,
i have two little questions
1) how does exactly Free Investiture work? Should i decide the heir for every bishop in my realm?
2) how is it possible to hold multiple holdings in a county? Can i remove also barons/bishops/mayors as i can do with counts or dukes? Are there any pros in having more holdings in one county of yours?

1) You can appoint a successor if you wish, if you don't, one will be appointed/created as per papal investiture.
Appointments are made by accessing the religion panel (cross button in top left)
You can appoint the same person as successor to multiple bishoprics, so if there is someone you really want to become a bishop (that imbecile grandson for example) you can heighten the chances.

2)yes, you can revoke barony titles too.
The advantage is you get more of a bonus from placing your marshal in the province to train troops, or your steward to collect tax.
Even holding Cities directly can be advantageous, despite the -75% tax from wrong demesne type if your steward is collecting taxes there.
 
General military question: It seems like most of the time that the biggest army wins. As the count of Altmark, I have a smaller army than virtually everybody. Is there anything I can do to even the odds? Techs are too slow, and I don't see a really big difference between good leaders and bad ones.

Wanted to bump this one since I've gotten no response.
 
Wanted to bump this one since I've gotten no response.

If I'm playing a low county dynasty, I always save my money to about 100 before going to war with a neighbor that's just a little bit stronger or whatever. This way I can buy a 75gold mercenary band to take out the big army the enemy has and then disband them quickly to avoid any costs (though i may keep them around for a bit longer, which is what that 25 extra gold is for). Then I just send in my troops to siege and take the county.

so, in other words, i use mercenaries a lot when i need to fill in some gaps in my forces, like my armies are engaged elsewhere and a county rebels - i just get some mercs to go after them. or if the enemy has a powerful army, i'll lemming some mercenaries and have them take out as many troops as possible before i send my units in.
 
If I'm playing a low county dynasty, I always save my money to about 100 before going to war with a neighbor that's just a little bit stronger or whatever. This way I can buy a 75gold mercenary band to take out the big army the enemy has and then disband them quickly to avoid any costs (though i may keep them around for a bit longer, which is what that 25 extra gold is for). Then I just send in my troops to siege and take the county.

so, in other words, i use mercenaries a lot when i need to fill in some gaps in my forces, like my armies are engaged elsewhere and a county rebels - i just get some mercs to go after them. or if the enemy has a powerful army, i'll lemming some mercenaries and have them take out as many troops as possible before i send my units in.

That's good advice. Thanks for your help!
 
Is there an easy way to see another dynasty's line of heirs and pretenders?

You mean to see who would be heir/pretender if a title had seniority law? I don't know of any particularly easy way to do that, unless the dynasty already has a title with seniority succession (then, obviously, you can just look at that title). The Dynasty screen will show you who the "head" of the family is--and I think that's usually the most senior member--but I don't know of any way to see the next in line.

Wanted to bump this one since I've gotten no response.

There isn't much you can do as a single count. Once you get bigger reorganizing your flanks can help a bit as can building up your baronies so you have a significant advantage in a certain troop type. But with one or two castles none of that's going to do much. So the only way is to use mercs. If you focus on getting mercs with good troop-composition and deploy them on favorable terrain, you can get an edge over someone with a larger army of default levy composition.
 
This way I can buy a 75gold mercenary band to take out the big army the enemy has and then disband them quickly to avoid any costs (though i may keep them around for a bit longer, which is what that 25 extra gold is for). Then I just send in my troops to siege and take the county.

Don't automatically disband the mercs. Mercs get reinforced in the field, so they can to some extent replenish their losses while sieging, which can be worth the extra gold if you're not able to knock out your enemy before his levies replenish and he reraises them.

If the mercs are just too expensive and you do need to get rid of them, have them assault your enemy's holding. If they win, you've won a siege and don't have to keep your levies up as long, and you may be able to afford to pay the few surviviors. If they don't, you're still not paying them, they'll slowly regroup in the hiring pool anyway, and your troops will face a weakend and demoralized defense when they siege.
 
It's around 1350 in my game, and English as a culture is nearly nonexistent. I see random people with the culture, but none of the provinces. Granted, England was ruled by Norwegians and Danish for centuries until my Irish king stole the throne. Does this mean English will never be a province culture?
 
I was watching an LP and the player's opinion was that "Discover Plots" was redundant, that the Spymaster does that anyway, and that the better way to protect yourself was to "Create Spy Network" in your home County. Now, I'm not calling for criticism of the LP-er, I'm just wondering whether the effect of Discovering Plots was worth it and whether a Spy Network was appropriate in your home county. I thought Spy Networks was the offensive move (it finds victims to blackmail etc) and Discover Plots was defensive (it enhanced my chances of discovering plots). Can someone enlighten me on the actual game mechanics involved here? Is there something going on more than what appears in the tooltip?

Second question: frankly, I've taken less to asking someone to end serious plots (e.g. murdering heirs, taking my titles) because it just gives them a chance to practice plotting. I arrest them. The plots which succeed I never hear about, so if I "end plot" all I do is expose my Spymaster's success, I don't actually stop anything (except in instances where there's a) a backer, and b) the plotter will end the plot, then I've set them back, a little).