Do you ever not go for absolutism and centralization?

[Harassercat]

Given the multiple ways for the council to annoy the player and block his ambitions, I would think there's a strong tendency to keep stripping the council of its powers and eventually go for full absolute rule. Likewise centralization is appealing for the larger demesne which also helps keep vassal factions under control. I notice even the AI favors this too and most of my vassal dukes are adopting absolute rule. It's also historically accurate because kings generally attempted to increase their power through the middle ages all the way to absolute monarchy in the 18th century.

Do you ever intentionally play kingdoms or empires with a loose power structure and weak central authority? For example, with full council authority, free inheritance and low centralization? I understand that this would get you a very high vassal limit, but on the other hand absolute rule would later open up imperial administration which compensates with the +25 vassal limit. And if you don't have an empire you most likely won't need the high vassal limit. So it doesn't seem all that balanced in game terms. As far as I can tell, the main reason to not go for absolute rule is to keep councillors out of factions, but I think non-aggression pacts are a more effective way to keep them under control anyway.

I'm thinking to play a Holy Roman Empire game at some point with full council power and minimal centralization, just for the challenge and RP reasons. Have any of you done similar things?

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

As anyone with a large religious following, I would not mind giving up absolute rule.

That way instead of spending my valuable children marrying into Non aggression pacts I can spend them on claims and alliances with other same religion characters.

In my current game as a Zorastrian however, or ruler of all Christianity like my Roman Emperor game, absolutism works better because I have almost zero need for claims with Holy Wars as far as the eye can see. No foreign rulers in my religion group. Children may as well marry into vassals.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

My realm is a fair balance, Mid Centralization, fully empowered council.

If you have Vassal Kings/Super Dukes with my set up, you'll have a quite stable realm with no internal threat.

 

[kmh42]

I had a MR playthrough from 867-1453 with full council authority and minimal Centralization all the time and a 1066-1453 playthrough with abolished council and max Centralization all the time. Both was quite fun to play. Both has its perks and drawbacks when you ask me. As a MR it's hard to get NAP with every one because on next succession you maybe playing a distant relative and you need new marriages for renegotiation. As long as you know what to do both ways a fun and interesting.

 

[StarSword]

I prefer feudal/Iqta with mid- to high crown authority and medium centralization (non-Conclave). I want to be more powerful than any two or three vassals but be able to have a large realm, and not prevent my vassals from expanding my borders.

 

[Iron Chariots]

In my current game, I became the HRE while fairly old. I gave a few powers to the council to increase my vassal limit so I'd not lose them when I died, though ultimately I'll probably revoke some of those powers. But there's certain things I'm perfectly happy with the council having. War dec powers makes the realm super stable, and certain powers I rarely use anyway and am fine with the council getting a vote. I so rarely execute people, for example, that I'm willing to spend favors on it if I really need to.

 

[Harassercat]

Yeah I could actually live with about half the council laws. The ones I care about are revoking and granting titles, and war declaration. But war declaration has a lot of implications, since you have to first remove all other council powers and you lose the very useful faction ban on councilors. If not for the demesne increase of absolute rule, and the eventual possibility of imperial administration, I'd leave war declaration to the council and only take revoke/grant titles for the ruler.

I think full council authority should have some bonus to make it more appealing - something more significant than +2 vassal limit. A sort of extra reward for having given all powers to the council, just as absolute rule rewards you with +2 demesne limit.

 

[StarSword]

Yeah I could actually live with about half the council laws. The ones I care about are revoking and granting titles, and war declaration. But war declaration has a lot of implications, since you have to first remove all other council powers and you lose the very useful faction ban on councilors. If not for the demesne increase of absolute rule, and the eventual possibility of imperial administration, I'd leave war declaration to the council and only take revoke/grant titles for the ruler.

I think full council authority should have some bonus to make it more appealing - something more significant than +2 vassal limit. A sort of extra reward for having given all powers to the council, just as absolute rule rewards you with +2 demesne limit.

Yeah, the vassal limit increase is really pointless: once you hit Emperor it's hard to reach the cap if you have even a little skill at title distribution.

 

[Mike Louis]

I play with mid centralization with the Council having war declaration powers to simulate my realm having a federal structure and being a constitutional monarchy. As for council related mods, I use my More Councillors mod along with the Factional Balance and Crown Authority Destruction mods by SM_Unlimited for a more immersive domestic political experience.

 

[Ed Mike]

Did I allucinate or at some point, there was a few "flavor government styles"?
Because I sort of remember seeing somewhere an "Angevin" something or a "Carolingian" something else as the descriptives of the rule form of an independent Anjou and Francia.

 

[Harassercat]

I'm trying to see what the value of Full Council Authority just from a gamer's perspective (regardless of flavor or RP)... if you have maximized council power, so the vassals can no longer found the "increase council power" faction, is there a notable drop in faction activity or do the vassals just step up the demands for other things? If overall faction activity goes down I can see the value in it.

The downsides are likewise notable but not too bad if you adapt to it -- I could live with the fully powered council but I'd lose the nice fallback option of replacing a malcontent with some courtier I just bought a favor with for 40g. Ofc there should ideally not be any malcontents - but sometimes a loyal vassal dies and gets replaced by his terrible brother or son who's ambitious and has all stats below 9... you know the type.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

I'm trying to see what the value of Full Council Authority just from a gamer's perspective (regardless of flavor or RP)... if you have maximized council power, so the vassals can no longer found the "increase council power" faction, is there a notable drop in faction activity or do the vassals just step up the demands for other things? If overall faction activity goes down I can see the value in it.

The downsides are likewise notable but not too bad if you adapt to it -- I could live with the fully powered council but I'd lose the nice fallback option of replacing a malcontent with some courtier I just bought a favor with for 40g. Ofc there should ideally not be any malcontents - but sometimes a loyal vassal dies and gets replaced by his terrible brother or son who's ambitious and has all stats below 9... you know the type.

No more factions, - like at all. Also, when you place vassals on the council, they can't join factions. If you join that with Viceroyal kings, you have a really solid system.

 

[Harassercat]

Hmm, no more factions actually sounds very good. It already comes with council war declaration that councilors can't join factions, so I'm used to that already; it's a pretty big plus in favor of not going absolutist. I'll give full council authority a try in one of my games. Particularly appropriate for something like the Holy Roman Empire or a Scandinavian Empire (I'd call that the "Kalmar Union" to be historic).

 

[Ed Mike]

(I'd call that the "Kalmar Union" to be historic).

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