Could you share your house rules?

[mnplastic]

Could you share your house rules, which make your games more interesting and realistic?

[Lurken]

Crusade only in crusade area, or crusade little elsewhere IF you have crusader trait. And not prestigegrab in war to have zillions of prestige in shortorder.

[Veldmaarschalk]

Don't assasinate people in your own court to reduce badboy

Don't assasinate your wife because you don't get kids with her

Don't assasinate 'stupid' heirs, but stick with them

Don't attempt to assasinate people to get a claim

Try to be as historical as possible, at least at the start. So as f.e. a duke of Apulia don't go after the Baltic pagans but take Sicily, North Africa, the Balkans first.

Don't use a bridefinder to search for brides, but find wifes first in the court of your ally, or in surrounding courts of rulers of the same level (a king in a kings court, duke in a ducal court).

[mnplastic]

Originally Posted by Veldmaarschalk

Don't assasinate 'stupid' heirs, but stick with them

But if they are kinslayers and kill my other heirs etc.? And as there is no prison in this game, killing could be regarded as imprisonment for life.

Originally Posted by Veldmaarschalk

Don't use a bridefinder to search for brides, but find wifes first in the court of your ally, or in surrounding courts of rulers of the same level (a king in a kings court, duke in a ducal court).

Good one

[CatKnight]

Not much 'imprisonment for life' really. More likely to just quietly remove them ... though I tend to agree only for a major crime like kinslaying.

Wives though .... wouldn't a ruler find a way to get his wife out of the picture if he was having trouble getting a male heir?

[Grosshaus]

Originally Posted by Veldmaarschalk

Don't use a bridefinder to search for brides, but find wifes first in the court of your ally, or in surrounding courts of rulers of the same level (a king in a kings court, duke in a ducal court).

I do it like that as well. If not surrounding then at least of the same religion, i.e. if an Orthodox in Russia and nobody around in Russia then Orthodoxes in Byzantium and only after that head to Poland and Scandinavia.

I only expand rationally, which means adjacent provinces and preferably within titles I already have.

[Veldmaarschalk]

[quote=mnplastic]But if they are kinslayers and kill my other heirs etc.? And as there is no prison in this game, killing could be regarded as imprisonment for life.
[quote]

Only have had such an heir twice.

First time I conquered a province, made him the count and then raised the regiment in that county, which was very small (some 70 men) since it was just conquered. I then declared war on the Cuman tribe, sent him with that small regiment to fight them en he died gloriously in battle.

I then let the Cumans come to me, defeated them and made a white peace.

The other time, I just kept the heir and he became king, all the other heirs where crazed to. As king he lived for 10 years, I couldn't do anything that would give me badboypoints but I was able to keep my united kingdom of Norway and Sweden together. with a good chanchellor and some gifts to vassals, and switching to elective.

[eknarx]

Don't assasinate your wife because you don't get kids with her

Don't assasinate 'stupid' heirs, but stick with them

Don't attempt to assasinate people to get a claim

But wasn't assasination a part of medieval court life? Perhabs the consequences should be more terrifying. Something like prestige is reduced to 50% or a very high chance to become kinslayer.

[eknarx]

First time I conquered a province, made him the count and then raised the regiment in that county, which was very small (some 70 men) since it was just conquered. I then declared war on the Cuman tribe, sent him with that small regiment to fight them en he died gloriously in battle.

haha well done, that's a fine way to get rid of somebody annoying

[Ivan Rogov]

Don't assasinate your wife because you don't get kids with her

Well in the past 20 years of my game I've assassinated my mother (schizop. with dangerous episodes) and my wife (had 8 kids, but then she became stressed and a leper.)

[magritte]

Whether or not I assassinate depends on the character of my ruler. If I'm merciful and honest, I won't assassinate anybody. On the other hand I had a ruler who was deceitful, cruel and crazed, so when his daughter had a stillborn child, I assassinated a random woman in my court on the theory that she was a witch. In any event, not assassinating barren wives doesn't add that much to the difficulty, since you can always just go to salic law.

One way to really make it more difficult is to not mobilize your forces until you declare war. I confess I normally have my forces ready (though I keep them within my borders) when I declare war.

Another house rule you could follow is not to change your laws except through events.

[Ayeshteni]

Originally Posted by magritte

Whether or not I assassinate depends on the character of my ruler. If I'm merciful and honest, I won't assassinate anybody. On the other hand I had a ruler who was deceitful, cruel and crazed, so when his daughter had a stillborn child, I assassinated a random woman in my court on the theory that she was a witch. In any event, not assassinating barren wives doesn't add that much to the difficulty, since you can always just go to salic law.

One way to really make it more difficult is to not mobilize your forces until you declare war. I confess I normally have my forces ready (though I keep them within my borders) when I declare war.

Another house rule you could follow is not to change your laws except through events.

I agree, I usually tie my actions to the traits of my ruler. For example if I have a sceptical ruler I will try and restrain him from crusading. A coward will try to make peace if someone declares war, and will not start one himself.

Deceitful schemers will favor assassinations and devious alliances, and so on and so forth.
Ayeshteni

[mnplastic]

Originally Posted by magritte

Another house rule you could follow is not to change your laws except through events.

And what if vassals forced not mature ruler to change ruling system and than the ruler or his strong successor change it back. Successor could be Proud, Valorous etc.

[Veldmaarschalk]

Originally Posted by eknarx

But wasn't assasination a part of medieval court life? Perhabs the consequences should be more terrifying. Something like prestige is reduced to 50% or a very high chance to become kinslayer.

Well in the east (Byzantines and Turks) it was common to either kill or mutulate other possible heirs, like brothers or nephews. But I don't know if it was that common in the western/catholic domains.

And when people were killed then it wasn't because they were 'stupid' but more because they were a possible rival and maybe even more powerfull then the current ruler. But in CK I have yet to see a player kill his brother because he has good stats. Could be wrong though but I doubt it.

[Koson]

Originally Posted by magritte

One way to really make it more difficult is to not mobilize your forces until you declare war.

I'm using this, and yes it makes for more exciting wars .

[CSK]

Originally Posted by Veldmaarschalk

Don't assasinate people in your own court to reduce badboy

Don't assasinate your wife because you don't get kids with her

Don't assasinate 'stupid' heirs, but stick with them

Don't attempt to assasinate people to get a claim

Try to be as historical as possible, at least at the start. So as f.e. a duke of Apulia don't go after the Baltic pagans but take Sicily, North Africa, the Balkans first.

Don't use a bridefinder to search for brides, but find wifes first in the court of your ally, or in surrounding courts of rulers of the same level (a king in a kings court, duke in a ducal court).

For me it's the same as Veldmaarschalk said but also not more than one crusade in 5-10 years if I have not crusader trait.

The game gets boring when you only play perfect and agressive.

[Veldmaarschalk]

I also want to make it a houserule to not marry a old spinster of 70+ just to get the money from the marriage-tax.

But that is just one exploit I haven't been able to resist yet. Especially when I need the money badly.

[CSK]

I actually never thought about that.
And another rule is not to marry heiresses of Dukes in other realms, like marring Adelaide d'Aquitaine when I'm not French etc.

[Koson]

Originally Posted by CSK

And another rule is not to marry daughters of Dukes in other realms, like marring Adelaide d'Aquitaine when I'm not French etc.

As long as they're not heiresses, I don't see why not. In RL there were lots of inter-countries marriages.

[stnylan]

Originally Posted by CatKnight

Wives though .... wouldn't a ruler find a way to get his wife out of the picture if he was having trouble getting a male heir?

Well, even though it is out of time-period, Henry VIII shows how difficult that could be.



Mostly I avoid bridefinders, and feel once a schizo has murdered one person in my court it is permissible to f12 retire them to a monastery - unless its my ruler.