Keeping an empire in check

[Smeghead]

Keeping my empire in check

Ok this is tricky to express. I reacently formed Scandinavia and I currently hold the titles of Emperor, king of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Rus, and I've been using elective monarchy in them (I like being able to chose who'll be my next character). But getting enough votes for my candidate to win in all the titles is starting to get a bit tricky with so many electors all pulling in their own dirrections.
So I'm asking for advice/recomendations for how to proceed. Should I switch to primogeniture in the titles or should I perhapps hand out some of the titles to other dynast members and just focus on remaining emperor and king in Sweden/Finland (the only places where I own holdings)?

So, thoughts? Advice?

 

[Hetzerr]

For elective succession I always pick heirs with high diplomacy and positive traits (kind, attractive etc). This, and some gold+honorary titles can help a lot to manage your empire.

 

[Smeghead]

Thats what I've been doing, but it isn't always enough, and assassinating the "problems" is so risky

 

[Kagernaut]

I would reccomend Primogeniture, for guaranteed succession to one character. However, you can keep elective and give the candidate you want (presumably your child) land in each kingdom, or just make sure he is prestigious enough that they will want to elect him regardless. If your desired heir has more prestige and titles, he will garner more support after you nominate him.

 

[JonStryker]

First off, elective is the best way to go especially in gigantic mega empires. You just have to take the easy paths

Holding more than one kingdom AND an empire is no good idea to begin with. Most of your vassals will dislike you because of that. If you want to be king of all those kingdoms at once don't create the emperor title. If you want to stay in control of an area in the empire don't create the kingdom / destroy it. De jure drifting a lot of land into the primary kingdom has become useful again as de jure vassals of the same culture won't want to gain independence.
If you only hold one kingdom and an empire there's only one election which determines the ruler for both titles. If you put kinsmen in charge of more than half of the de jure duchies you are almost guaranteed to win (99.9999%).

Another advice: If you are emperor of Scandinavia Denmark is the best place to build your demesne. Skane/Sjaelland/Jutland/Lübeck have 5 holding slots each and are coastal.

In your current setup I would either give away the kingdoms or destroy them and bribe dukes if necessary. Just make sure that every one of the new kings is a kinsman of yours. As all those kingdoms are elective now it might even be a good idea to destroy them first and then hand them out as it would have Gavelkind then.

 

[Kagernaut]

Would there be an advantage then to switch to gavelkind for a kingdom and then hand it out? All the dukes would be using gavelkind in that kingdom as well then, right? Should keep things pretty stable.

 

[JonStryker]

Would there be an advantage then to switch to gavelkind for a kingdom and then hand it out? All the dukes would be using gavelkind in that kingdom as well then, right? Should keep things pretty stable.

The election law of the counts/dukes won't change if you do that. If you can change the succession law without destroying the kingdom this would of course be preferable.
I always stay below high crown authority as I want my vassals to be stuck with gavelkind. Elective isn't optimal for a vassal kingdom as whenever the kingdom isn't inherited from by the late ruler's son the demesne of the new ruler will be bigger than the one of his predecessor.
Vassal kingdoms which are not within the de jure empire will most definitely increase crown authorithy though. Maybe that has changed in 1.08, though. I haven't checked that recently.
The fun thing about vassal kingdom is their constant internal struggle. I had a vassal queen who was usurped to power four times (!) only to lose it soon afterwards. Every child of the old king of Mauretania was king for some time

 

[Kagernaut]

So vassal Dukes/Counts choose their own laws for AI as well, but can't choose above CA just like the player? They don't follow the crowns succession laws?

 

[JonStryker]

Yes.

The kings are at first bound to the Empire's crown law. They can however raise the crown authority of their kingdom if they are not de jure of your empire. If a kingdom raises its CA to high all the dukes/counts will gain access to primo (which I generally want to prevent).
The good thing is: The higher they raise the CA the unstabler their kingdom will become.

 

[nyah]

Would there be an advantage then to switch to gavelkind for a kingdom and then hand it out? All the dukes would be using gavelkind in that kingdom as well then, right? Should keep things pretty stable.

There is a small relations boost with gavelkind, so it helps a little to prevent rebellions. Changing the kingdom's succession law won't effect it's duchies however, but I believe that when you create a duchy or kingdom its succession law will duplicate that of your primary title.

Personally, I'd destroy all of those Kingdom titles (ideally at the end of an old Emperor's reign), and I'd do my very best to get as many dukes as possible members of my dynasty, or at very least the same culture and religion. If you think you can handle it a mass imprison/banish session on your entire realm would do the trick.

 

[Miinda]

Ok this is tricky to express. I reacently formed Scandinavia and I currently hold the titles of Emperor, king of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Rus, and I've been using elective monarchy in them (I like being able to chose who'll be my next character). But getting enough votes for my candidate to win in all the titles is starting to get a bit tricky with so many electors all pulling in their own dirrections.
So I'm asking for advice/recomendations for how to proceed. Should I switch to primogeniture in the titles or should I perhapps hand out some of the titles to other dynast members and just focus on remaining emperor and king in Sweden/Finland (the only places where I own holdings)?

So, thoughts? Advice?

My instant idea would be to chose who your heir should be, and then give him/her one of the kingdoms. He is more than likely to vote for himself to take the emperors title, and when you pass on s/he already holds that title. If you notice that several of your kindoms is slipping out of your grip, then hand out more of the kingdom titles to them.

 

[Smeghead]

So far I've taken the advice and destroyed some titles (Finland and Denmark) because I would lose them upon death.