How do you stop demands for Elective Succession?

[JuliaArcher]

I'm relatively new to CK2 and I'm playing an extended Learning Game of Leon. I'm trying to unite the Empire, but fail because I keep having Civil Wars for Elective Monarchy.

I've read about gaming the system by using Elective Monarchy, but no offense, that is dumb and unrealistic and I don't want to be shoehorned into one style of play to be able to get anywhere.

So is there a way to stop these demands? I get like three every ruler and I'm about to lose the game because of it. I want to play more historically, which means NOT having elective monarchies (which were extremely rare in reality and are the norm in this game for some reason). If there is no way to work it, are there maybe plans to fix it and make Civil Wars less common for silly reasons like that?

It certainly doesn't help that I had the worst luck in game history when my great ruler died of Illness at age 30 despite being in great health with good stats. Now I'm a 7 year old with a Regency, which of course stops you from being able to do anything. Thus I can't arrange marriages and make alliances.

 

[gdj]

You can send your spymaster to scheme and deterr a vassal from joining a faction. If you have Conclave, a council with war declartaion committee will disallow vassals in your council to join factions (assuming your councl is content), so putting you most powerful vassals there is recommended. If nothing else helps, start revoking titles.

It really depends on how large your realm is, the larger it is the more problematic these factions might get. If you are small enough to have at the most 6 duke vassals (or 6 kings...), factions cannot appear at all if you put all 6 in your council, for example.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

Keep vassals happy! I tend to have several larger vassals, put them in on the council, and keep their opinion over 50.

Also, abuse Viceroyalties! Those prevent vassals from gaining large power bases over a few generations.

 

[JuliaArcher]

Ah, I don't have Conclave. So this is better in that expansion? Looking forward to being able to get it. Thanks!

 

[gdj]

Alternatively, make sure that your vassals hate each other instead of hating you, this will divert their attention...

 

[JuliaArcher]

They liked me, they just kept wanting different succession laws. And lower Crown Authority (currently High). When the next Civil War was about to break out, I had finally changed enough laws to destroy all the Kingdom titles I didn't want personally (destroyed Portugal, Gallicia, Navarra and kept Leon and Castille). Now they got nothing to fight over.

The one thing saving me over and over in this game is that I'm great at military strategy having played such games for three decades. Crushed over a half dozen Civil Wars.

 

[StarSword]

You control elective succession factions the same ways you control any other faction:

• Make marriage alliances with powerful vassals if you have a lot of children or siblings (bastards are useful here if you can handle having a spouse who hates your guts). Since the 2.5 patch marriage ties automatically create a non-aggression pact between affected rulers (which can be renewed if either ruler dies, as long as their successors are still close relatives by marriage), which bars vassals from factioning against their liege.
• Gerrymander your duchies (and kingdoms) so that provinces that are de jure one duchy are located within a different duchy. Willingness to join factions is partially dependent on one vassal's opinion of another, and each wrongly located county or barony is -25 opinion of the de jure liege to its de facto controller. Going along with this, never control as part of your demesne a province that should be de jure controlled by a vassal. Combine with Medium Crown Authority or above (without Conclave) and the vassals will be unable to use the De Jure CB to unfuck things.
• Murder any vassals with the Ambitious trait, and probably any with the Envious trait, and definitely any who are your rivals.
• If you have a persistently troublesome vassal, find a way to imprison him or provoke him to revolt. A vassal who is in prison cannot faction.
• Keep your armies strong. While this doesn't prevent factionalism in and of itself, it makes the faction less likely to deliver an ultimatum since they'll fear they cannot beat your armies.
• Use your spymaster and your chancellor in tandem. The Improve Diplomatic Relations chancellor mission will temporarily give you +15 each time it executes successfully (I think it's capped at four active instances), while the spymaster's Scheme mission can allow you to demand the vassal stay out of all factions and increases the chance you'll catch them plotting.

http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Vassals#Strategies

 

[StarSword]

One other thing, it's extremely useful to max out your title list. You can personally hold two duchies and as many baronies in them as will fit in your demesne limit, and unless the kingdom* they're associated with is gavelkind you run no risk of title loss on succession. More personally held castles = more troops to ward off faction demands.

* Or duchy if you're a duke.

 

[TMSaxon]

The above suggestions are all very good gaming suggestions.
One quibble that I have is your assertion that elective monarchies were rare - up to about 1100, they seem to have been the norm for most realms in Europe, with primogeniture/gavelkind only really developing when a singular family managed to hold onto a kingdom for long enough that it became unthinkable for another dynasty to replace them.

 

[Jia Xu]

Factions are overrated. Unless you're significantly outgunned, sometimes it's better to just let the war happen. Crush the rebels and redistribute titles to keep the realm quiet for a generation.

 

[josefrees]

the most obvious sign that I am not managing my demense and vassals properly is when I have civil wars constantly