What is the most productive use for neices and other dynastic female courtiers?

[PorkSol]

What is the most productive way for me to use my nieces? I have them in my court. They can get a regular marriage with rulers, but I don't personally get an alliance from any marriage they make.

Is there any benefit from marrying them off in regular marriages? (I guess their closer relatives would get alliances from these marriages, but I'm not aware of any other benefits. The children are essentially dead to the dynasty, right?)

The nieces aren't important enough to get a matrilineal marriage with anyone outside my court.

I can bribe claimants and invite them to court, then do a forced matrilineal marriage. The offspring would then have the claim (assuming it was an inheritable one) and would be of my dynasty. In the unlikely event that I need this claim, I could then give the child some land and press the claim.

But it is very time consuming to hunt down invitable claimants and it clogs the court with wrong culture males. I only really want to give them land if I'm going to be pressing their claim. Maybe a barony, but I don't have many of those to spare. There also aren't that many useful claims in the area I'm playing in, since most of my neighbors are pagans/muslims. I don't really need to spend 30 minutes looking for eligible claimants, only to get a claim that is so far away as to be nearly useless.

So what's the most productive to use my nieces? I've been spending way too much time micromanaging them and not getting a lot of benefits. And there are a lot of them to deal with.

[Isaios]

They are useful. (Even if you find it tedious to track down claimants, it's a very useful thing to invite some, then matri them to a distant niece (who has no claims on your titles).)

Even if you don't want to do that, getting them matri married to some random courier means that courier could be made into a Duke or Count somewhere and the offspring will be of your Dynasty. Delicious Dynasty score.

[knppel]

Dynasty expansion. Make sure to marry as many girls of your family matrilineally to either heirs or claimants, or, if you are expanding and have no boys of age at hand, courtiers of yours that you land afterwards.

[EmperorOfIberia]

I keep all relatives in my court. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies... er, family, closer.

[Isaios]

I keep all relatives in my court. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies... er, family, closer.

Keep your friends close, keep your enemies in bed. Together with your friends. To make more friends.

[EmperorOfIberia]

Keep your friends close, keep your enemies in bed. Together with your friends. To make more friends.

I don't always want my enemies to be in bed with my friends, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty, my courtiers.

[Zarine]

Make matrilineal marriage with people in your court (that you had or invited). Grant them land by conquest or the husband CB.
Way few years and enjoy the new ally.

More gamey solution, do the same with a coutier with a claim. Wait for them to have a son. Kill the father, make the son inherit the claim, press the claim. Enjoy your new vassal.

[Athos123]

I had an Egyptian Cultured Norwegian ruler with brown curly hair and dark complexion, due to my intermarrying of the daughter of my ruler's brother to a foreign court, who made his way to my court, and became marshal. After his conversion, his son ascended to be Count, with claims (Albiet weak) to the throne in Byzantine. Wicked no? I say they're useful! I generally marry my daughters to bring in fresh blood into my line, and court. (The court gets a little stale after a while...and lots of Marshals, and Spies die in the line of duty) Meaning it's a matrilineal marriage. I only use that option these days, unless it's a marriage to a King or notable Duke. (Then it's for alliance)

[Bballman23]

I don't like using the "invite, matri, press" method too often since it's pretty easy/gamey, so I often just matri-marry that kind of dynasty member to a random courtier. I figure it never hurts to have more peons with my last name running around, good potential for council members or insignificant nobles who will earn me some dynasty score. Failing that, I'll sometimes just ship them off to the best husband they can get. Might as well make the ladies happy (and ensure that no foreign kings are marrying queens or anything!).

[Leviathan07]

I like the invite-matri-press method for the very reason that is is easy.

I need to catch up with the Rurikoviches and Seljuks in dynasty score, and if you started out as an OPM in Ireland you NEED those methods

Of course I also like the normal, matri-marriage to random courtiers if I am in need of a harmless guy to become my vassal. Middle aged random unmarried courtiers with the "content" trait and no claims come in handy in those moments. Perfect candidates for those new duke titles that you hand out.

[nyah]

I know many on here avoid giving land to family members, but I like to have my dukes as members of my dynasty. So, I matri-marry my females to a high stat courtier, give him the land, and then allow their sons to inherit. This way the duchy remains in my family, but the holder has no claim to my throne.

I also try to matri-marry to princes, dukes, or heirs to try to get my dynasty into positions of power outside my realm. I'm not so interested in getting them into my court and pressing the claim myself, but it's good to have family ruling elsewhere.

[newuser99]

If I have a surplus of Kinfolk women I tend to matri-marry them to courtiers with high scores and interesting traits. (Genius, content) That way they might raise some kids that will be useful when I need to land someone down the line and I'm scanning the search-people list for my dynasty.

[NewbieOne]

They are useful. (Even if you find it tedious to track down claimants, it's a very useful thing to invite some, then matri them to a distant niece (who has no claims on your titles).)

+1

But I don't practice dynasty expansion to stretch my ruler's surname to whomever married a related female. I generally only do it with proper heirs.

[Valentinan]

Currently playing as a duke in HRE, so in addition to the above, I will marry them off for the sake of an alliance. Always nice to have another powerful player to cover your back in the topsey-turvey world of the HRE.

Also, when they go to another court mark them as character of special interest because if their spouse dies suddenly you can invite them back for a re-do.

[HelloGoodSir]

Some I will matrimarry to courtiers, the rest I marry to the best husbands that I can find. That way the dynasty picks up 100+ prestige from the marriage.

[PorkSol]

Thanks guys, that helps.

I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing some benefit of giving them regular marriages.

Shotgun matri-marriages it is.

[Jaol]

I generally only keep the ones with good stats around. I marry most of them off normally, just to clear my court so that more important characters could have more than 2 children.

But after my current game, where it seems like every male child in my dynasty dies young or has bad traits (seriously, I have 25 living members of my dynasty; 2 are male), I'm reconsidering.

[newuser99]

I don't matrilinearly marry all my daughters, but I might matri-marry the first one if a son isn't showing up...

[alexti]

They make good secret agents. Some of them will come back after the mission is accomplished. If your dynasty is prestigious, it will be easier to marry them.

[dreamer05]

Ok so my question then is how do you ever get people to accept your invitation to court? Any time I try to invite someone to my court to marry a dynasty member nobody ever has a reason to come to my court, male or female... Am I missing something??