Thanks. In my last game, I saw one Irish king had two friends and one rival, but those are the only ones I've ever seen. Do these have different chances of occurrence as different cultures? Are there any triggers, or are they purely random?
There are triggers, I think, to make them happen. I believe there is one for children in the same court. And there's a friendship trigger for wards for sure (you can become best friends with your son or other ward while tutoring them). Still random chance as to whether it happens, but they are all conditional on these sorts of things (as far as I know). No probability boon/penalty for culture though.
What is the best way to conquer Catholics as Catholic?
The quickest? Land claimants to big titles (large duchies and kingdoms) and push their claims. The most RP-y? Marry a daughter of a King (or other duchy or kingdom-level claimant) and push your own claim when you inherit as your son. The most bizarre? Switch to a Catholic heresy and go to town with Holy Wars.
I just pressed the claim to a duchy for the wife of one of my counts. I didnt realise that said duchy would be independent on success. If i go back and make her husband a duke will the claimed duchy be mine on success or do i need to give her a landed title in my realm if so what titles can you give a woman?
She needs to be landed or your dynast. On the bright side, if they have children and the husband dies first, the child-duke might pull the remaining titles in.
I've educated my heir, and he's come of age. His stats are average at best. What's the best way to groom him to take my place, when he's an adult? Do you generally put him on the council, use him as a military commander, or give him some other position, despite having much more competent candidates available?
Unfortunately, you won't be able to do much grooming. The least risky option is to fulfill his council wish (if he has one) for a free +1 to that one stat. Beyond that, the risky option is to give him second-tier titles. He'll work off the "short reign" penalty with any of his immediate subordinates before he later comes to power which might ease the transition. That's risky, of course, because landed heirs do stupid crap all the time, like marry off themselves and their children in dumb ways, generate tyranny in dumb ways, pick up stressed because they blew all their money on some festival and got stressed to show for it... Still, it's the one thing you can do to influence them after they're grown. This is basically what Achab already said, so I'm really just elaborating on his point.
Whats the point of sucsession laws if i can choose my own heir? As a jain ruler i noticed i can pick my heir...what is the point of laws then?
They still impact dynastic opinion (which really only matters if you have landed dynasts). It will also have a more dramatic impact if you switch to Hindu (or any non-Indian religion). And lastly, Gavelkind, even when you pick, will still split your lands.
It would take centuries to take enough land from France and Carpathia...
