a couple of quick questions playing norse gavelkind.

[flammable888]

i couldnt find what i was looking for in the wiki.ok i am playing the norse york in old gods.im on gavelkind.should i try and reform the faith 1st or would becoming king of england be better.
if i went for england king would a son get the kingdom or should i reform 1st.many thanks.

 

[Bernard95]

Assuming you mean Jorvik, Jorvik is unique in that it's a unreformed Germanic pagan but the government type is feudal rather than tribal. This means you get out of elective gavelkind and have regular gavelkind instead which is far easier to work with.

To answer your question though, if it was me I'd want a power base built up first by taking England- especially since Scandinavia won't provide you with much since it will still be all tribal (as well as having some assurance that my realm won't be split if I'm still a duke for awhile). As long as you play your cards right, you should be able to get a clean split between all of your sons. Really all you need to hold is a duchy title with one county in it per son and then you can hold all of your capital duchy. You'll keep the capital duchy with everything in it upon succession, then your brothers will have the other duchies with the matching county in each. With any luck, if some of your brothers are still kids you might even be able to get some of the land back by plot killing them.

Then in the next generation I'd be concerned with either reforming the faith so you don't have to deal with gavelkind again, or simply converting since just being Norse culture means you can always raid (but not without making use of your Germanic cbs and conquering more of the British Isles first).

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

I mean Gavelkind's alright if you have one of the top tier title.

If you're King of Norway/Sweden/Whatever reform IMMEDIATELY.

If you can form England and it will be your first king title, do it. Do it quickly though, you don't want your Dukedom to split due to Gavelkind.

 

[joos]

DO NOT create another title that is at the same tier as your primary title if you have more than one son.

 

[flammable888]

thanks for the answers.im beginning to understand the rules of why gavelkind is a mess lol

 

[ColZimin]

It's a mess, but it's certainly workable. If you have the Way of Life DLC, the Intrigue focus and Spying On other heirs to imprison them is useful under gavelkind. Once any pretenders are of age, get them imprisoned or killed, and your main heir will have less competition.

As Joos and Sgt Flutter mentioned, having a single top-tier title is key. Do note however: if you conquer all of a second kingdom, say Wales, there's a chance that a pretender will form the Kingdom of Wales and break off on succession.
I've found that can be counteracted by transferring all county vassals in the second kingdom (e.g. Wales) to dukes in your first kingdom (e.g. England). Not 100% sure that it's foolproof, though.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

It's a mess, but it's certainly workable. If you have the Way of Life DLC, the Intrigue focus and Spying On other heirs to imprison them is useful under gavelkind. Once any pretenders are of age, get them imprisoned or killed, and your main heir will have less competition.

As Joos and Sgt Flutter mentioned, having a single top-tier title is key. Do note however: if you conquer all of a second kingdom, say Wales, there's a chance that a pretender will form the Kingdom of Wales and break off on succession.
I've found that can be counteracted by transferring all county vassals in the second kingdom (e.g. Wales) to dukes in your first kingdom (e.g. England). Not 100% sure that it's foolproof, though.

Normal Gavelkind won't create any titles upon succession.

Elective Gavelkind will automatically create titles and give them to your other heirs upon your death.

Say you control all of De Jure Norway and Denmark. You only have the title k_Denmark, Norway does not exist. You have two sons.

If your succession law is Elective Gavelkind, your primary heir will inherit Denmark, while the other worthless son will become King of Norway.

If your succession law is Normal Gavelkind, your primary heir will inherit all of De Jure Denmark and De Jure Norway. The worthless son will grab a few counties from your demesne and become a vassal.

 

[ColZimin]

Normal Gavelkind won't create any titles upon succession.

Elective Gavelkind will automatically create titles and give them to your other heirs upon your death.

Oh, didn't actually know that. Thanks for the correction!