How am I supposed to stop factions?

[Asiak]

In case no one has mentioned it. Only direct vassals can faction against you. So if you find counts plotting against you just transfer him to a Duke and he won't be able to.
I always laugh when a count is the leader of a faction only for me to give him away to a duke so then the faction has to be recreated.

 

[unfortunatecrow]

I love viceroyalties. It allows me to exercise the nuclear option if a revolt is imminent.

"You get revoked! And you get revoked! And you get revoked!

Everyone gets revoked!"

Dealing with the guys who actually refuse is easier than dealing with a full-scale revolt.

Granted kingdom viceroyalties can't be revoked for free, but since they revert to you often, you can choose to bestow them on content vassals.

 

[jpinard]

In case no one has mentioned it. Only direct vassals can faction against you. So if you find counts plotting against you just transfer him to a Duke and he won't be able to.
I always laugh when a count is the leader of a faction only for me to give him away to a duke so then the faction has to be recreated.

Don't you lose troops or money when doing that?

I love viceroyalties. It allows me to exercise the nuclear option if a revolt is imminent.

"You get revoked! And you get revoked! And you get revoked!

Everyone gets revoked!"

Dealing with the guys who actually refuse is easier than dealing with a full-scale revolt.

Granted kingdom viceroyalties can't be revoked for free, but since they revert to you often, you can choose to bestow them on content vassals.

Can I do this as King of Burgundy? I haven't seen a Vice-royalty thingie in my games yet. If not, how do I handle the annoying people who are creating factions or court power against me?

 

[Red Roo]

Educate or outright imprison their children. Hostages are your friend.

 

[Heinrich4]

Can I do this as King of Burgundy? I haven't seen a Vice-royalty thingie in my games yet. If not, how do I handle the annoying people who are creating factions or court power against me?

No, only this is only available for empires.

@OP: you should create all available king titles, and hand them out to vassals. Now transfer all dukes/county vassals to them, so in the end you will only have 10 king vassals and no duchy or county vassals. 10 vassals are much easier to control, even if they are much stronger than county/duchy vassals. Appoint 8 of them as commander, give everyone a honorary title and use councillor to improve relations. After succession just send everyone a gift.

 

[jpinard]

No, only this is only available for empires.

@OP: you should create all available king titles, and hand them out to vassals. Now transfer all dukes/county vassals to them, so in the end you will only have 10 king vassals and no duchy or county vassals. 10 vassals are much easier to control, even if they are much stronger than county/duchy vassals. Appoint 8 of them as commander, give everyone a honorary title and use councillor to improve relations. After succession just send everyone a gift.

Do you lost a significant amount of money doing that since there are even more layers between you and the moneymakers like cities?

 

[StarSword]

And the foreigner penalty...well my realm isn't unanimous in terms of culture so that wouldn't really help

Long-term, you can reduce this problem by educating heirs in your culture. Find a courtier or lord with Diligent and decent Stewardship and you can use him/her as a farm. Alternatively you can do it yourself for a positive opinion modifier with your former ward.

Don't you lose troops or money when doing that?

Yes and no. Using a duchy under a king as am example, you lose the money you paid to create the bigger title, and the counts under the new duke will pay their taxes to him instead of you. However, feudal vassals don't pay a whole hell of a lot of taxes anyway (you want money, you add burgher-ruled realms like merchant republics, and/or keep your standing high with church vassals). Too, the total levies will remain about the same and can be raised in fewer steps, and the bigger tax base of a duke means they can upgrade their holdings and get bigger armies faster (meaning more levies).

 

[Stolen Rutters]

How do you get retinues?

Assuming you have the DLC Legacy of Rome, it will be the leftmost tab in the miliary screen.

http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Retinues

 

[Llyw olaf]

Non-aggression pacts with your vassals, I'm currently playing as the emperor of Russia and all my vassal kings are connected by marriage or related, also useful for strong vassals not on the council.

 

[jpinard]

Long-term, you can reduce this problem by educating heirs in your culture. Find a courtier or lord with Diligent and decent Stewardship and you can use him/her as a farm. Alternatively you can do it yourself for a positive opinion modifier with your former ward.


Yes and no. Using a duchy under a king as am example, you lose the money you paid to create the bigger title, and the counts under the new duke will pay their taxes to him instead of you. However, feudal vassals don't pay a whole hell of a lot of taxes anyway (you want money, you add burgher-ruled realms like merchant republics, and/or keep your standing high with church vassals). Too, the total levies will remain about the same and can be raised in fewer steps, and the bigger tax base of a duke means they can upgrade their holdings and get bigger armies faster (meaning more levies).

Wow, awesome info.

 

[StarSword]

Wow, awesome info.

Well, one further thing, the opinion issue with church vassals I mentioned is Catholic-specific: a Catholic bishop will pay all his taxes either to the Pope or to his secular liege, no middle ground, and it's entirely dependent on which one he likes better. No other religion has this mechanic except Fraticelli, and then only if the Fraticelli Papacy has been established.

 

[Heinrich4]

Do you lost a significant amount of money doing that since there are even more layers between you and the moneymakers like cities?

Yeah you will lose money, but because you only have a dozen feudal king vassals (which like you) you will get much more troops this way, and you can raise instantly larger amount of troops (instead of raising 40 x 1000 troops from 10 vassals you just need to raise 5k troops from each of you 10 vassals). For money i suggest building your own demense or you should create one king-title merchant republic that gives a lot of money.

For max troops and money i do following: i only hold my main duchy with all his holdings (mostly 3 or 4 counties). Then i build in the capital county only castles. This way i get in all castles in my capital county +50% troops (for beeing capital), +50% troops (from train troops with marshal) and +50% income (from stewardship with collect taxes). In my current playthrough i have a capital county with 6 holdings (one city, one temple, one capital castle, + three castles). This way every castle has about 30 gold income/year and about 5k troops.

 

[yourworstnightm]

Sometimes when you risk the wrath of several factions at once I just check which is the least dangerous (i.e. the lesser setback, though I play with CK 2 +, in vanilla all factions are equally nasty) and agree to their demand when it fires, so I can focus on the really nasty ones (the ones that back my damn brother).

Otherwise just use all tricks in the book. Provoke vassals to rebel on their own, to weaken factions. Bribe members, give out duchies to eliminate Count faction members as a threat, use spymaster on faction leaders, marry into vassal families to keep them happy etc.

 

[Red Earth]

Kingdom of France, my realm size is I think about 200.

Who is the malcontent that is "respectfully disagreeing" with this post?

 

[StarSword]

Sometimes when you risk the wrath of several factions at once I just check which is the least dangerous (i.e. the lesser setback, though I play with CK 2 +, in vanilla all factions are equally nasty) and agree to their demand when it fires, so I can focus on the really nasty ones (the ones that back my damn brother).

Otherwise just use all tricks in the book. Provoke vassals to rebel on their own, to weaken factions. Bribe members, give out duchies to eliminate Count faction members as a threat, use spymaster on faction leaders, marry into vassal families to keep them happy etc.

The Intrigue focus is also useful. You can spy on vassals to find cause to imprison them (they can't take part in factions from jail), or blackmail them into staying out.

Another simple thing is to make sure you don't hold as part of your demesne anything that de jure belongs to a vassal. If a province is held by a count you can give him to the de jure duke, or possibly grant the province directly. Or get really sneaky and land an Ambitious courtier as a count, then transfer the county, just to give the duke something else to worry about besides factionalism.

 

[jpinard]

Wow I really screwed up my game. I had a count who was content, and then I gave him the Duchy on the other side of Burgundy. I thought that would make him weaker, so I did this with two other counts for Duchies as well. Now I have irritable people who want stuff inside and outside their Duchy. Since this is not ironman, when I get old and close to death, should I just revoke titles and make all the changes needed to clean up and fix these issues, take the tyranny hits and push my king off a cliff to get a fresh ruler going with happier people?

 

[The Duke of GTFO]

 

[jpinard]

Sometimes when you risk the wrath of several factions at once I just check which is the least dangerous (i.e. the lesser setback, though I play with CK 2 +, in vanilla all factions are equally nasty) and agree to their demand when it fires, so I can focus on the really nasty ones (the ones that back my damn brother).

Otherwise just use all tricks in the book. Provoke vassals to rebel on their own, to weaken factions. Bribe members, give out duchies to eliminate Count faction members as a threat, use spymaster on faction leaders, marry into vassal families to keep them happy etc.

How do you provoke vassals to rebel on their own?

 

[Heinrich4]

How do you provoke vassals to rebel on their own?

-Honorary title "Court jester"
-award a honorary title and then revoke it
-assign him as councillor and then fire him from council
-raise his levies and wait

 

[StarSword]

-Honorary title "Court jester"
-award a honorary title and then revoke it
-assign him as councillor and then fire him from council
-raise his levies and wait

• Find a legit excuse to imprison him (any plot on his part will do, or you can use Intrigue focus) and fail.