However, holding cities and bishoprics can be worth it if you do not have enough noble titles to max out your demesne for one reason: You will get the full army levy of that holding instead of a percentage determined by your laws and relations with that vassal.
Gen. Marshall:
The noble titles basically work like this:
There are subholdings that belong to each county, their number vary from 1 to 7 depending on how "important" that holding is (Rome, Constantinople, Venice, Cairo are examples of 7's, 1's are to be found in such places as northernmost Norway.) mostly there are 3-6 slots total and some of them are empty and need to be built. Each subholdings can be improved by building structures for army and revenue in it, if you assign a vassal to it, he will upgrade it himself when he can afford it.
Types of subholdings are:
- Baronies, providing the best troops, but very bad income unless you build up the castle cities building which take a good number of years to repay itself. This is the standard holding for nobles.
- Cities, providing the best income but the lowest number of troops. Naturally led by a lowborn and carries penalties otherwise. Is usually taxed between 25-45% but the income falls if the vassal dislikes you.
- Bishoprics, proving a mix of income and troops, they however only pay if you they like you more than the pope. Can be held by both nobles and lowborn, but if it is their only holding they cannot marry and are removed from the line of inheriting anything.
If you as a player hold an non-barony, it only gives 25% of it's total income. Any type of holding can be a county capital (barony=county, bishoperic=prince-bishop, mayor=lord mayor) that carry the same kind of balance as described above. If you revoke a barony in one of your personal holdings with a city or bishopric capital, it revers to a count title since that is your default.
Counties are the lowest position a player can have, duchies, kingdoms, empires are basically just superior titles that have more de-jure lands and can have vassals a level lower. One could be a duke with 15 duchies and be stronger than an emperor, though the number of vassal counts may become a nightmare. Only subholdings count towards demesne limit, and a county requires at least one spent on the capital barony.
Subholdings are (usually) the direct vassals of whoever holds the county title, and they only pay taxes to that character (who may in turn, depending on your laws) pay you a percentage. Noble vassals are very rarely taxed since they need all the money they can get to improve their holdings and the relations hit is substantial. Having the mayors/bishops in the counties of your count-level vassals will not endear them to you.
You will always get 100% levy from your personal holdings and a percentage from vassals, that depend on how much they like you and your levy-law for that type of holding. Crown authority sets a minimum they provide. Upping crown authority and levy laws are double-edged, though, because they increase the likelihood of rebellions and may not be worth if it it angers the vassal enough.
In this game two stats are honestly a bit overrepresented:
Stewardship which determines your demesne limit (+technology and level of highest title) and improves your income.
Diplomacy which greatly effects your relations with your vassals.
The demesne limit is the number of subholdings (remember, you need to spend 1 to hold a county capital and thus the county) you can hold. There are no advantages in staying below it, but many disadvantages associated with holding above it: It angers your vassals and gives income penalties. The only disadvantage of filling out the demesne limit, I can think of, is if you know your successor will have to give away titles to remain below the limit. It can be annoying to take and give away titles with each succession, and unless you have a claim then revoking will anger all vassals each time you do it.
Using the banish-everything tactic i described earlier will anger all of your vassals AND your entire court AND apparently the current pope, if you do it to bishops. It can be worth it while you are still small (1-5 counties with no count vassals) since you can remove all your vassals and take all their cash that way, but as a king or emperor you will face an unstoppable rebellion in a matter of weeks. Also, no matter who you are, your court will hate you, and courtiers who hate you may plot to kill you! Also you need to imprison each one, with a chance every time that the vassal escapes capture and starts a rebellion. You get one revocation without malus from other vassals (not banish which takes all titles and money) if revoked vassal is:
1: Excommunicated
2: A known traitor
3: You have a claim on the specific title you're revoking
4: A heretic or infidel (if the relevant crown authority* is medium or higher)
* Always the direct king/empire title. Since the kingdom title for Avindian's title has not been created, the Holy Roman Empire determines Crown Authority.
