Lost playing Sword of Islam nations

[unmerged(235935)]

I just got Sword of Islam and I have to say that I a bit lost. I tried to watch some of the Let's Play videos and searching for some answers but did not find anything useful.

Here are the things that I just don't understand. I have been trying to play as a vassal in the Persian kingdom and see if I can move up and take over.

- Decadence system - I am keeping my demesne size below the max. I give away my additional holdings but I can only give 1-2 to each son. If I try to get rid of my sons, I take a -40 hit from others. So, my decadence keeps increasing.
- Since I am giving away all of holding, it seems like I am starting all over again playing as my heir. Not sure how to increase realm if I am giving my holdings away. I am increaseing tech but it is not fast enough.
- Are there any good strategies to use playing as Muslim vassal?

thanks.

 

[Fishman786]

I just got Sword of Islam and I have to say that I a bit lost. I tried to watch some of the Let's Play videos and searching for some answers but did not find anything useful.

Here are the things that I just don't understand. I have been trying to play as a vassal in the Persian kingdom and see if I can move up and take over.

- Decadence system - I am keeping my demesne size below the max. I give away my additional holdings but I can only give 1-2 to each son. If I try to get rid of my sons, I take a -40 hit from others. So, my decadence keeps increasing.
- Since I am giving away all of holding, it seems like I am starting all over again playing as my heir. Not sure how to increase realm if I am giving my holdings away. I am increaseing tech but it is not fast enough.
- Are there any good strategies to use playing as Muslim vassal?

thanks.

Don't give away your holdings. Use decisions to reduce decadence during your ruler's life, and then when your son takes over, have him slaughter all his brothers. You don't get tyranny from imprisoning or killing them.

 

[marty_doug]

I also found that your best off not giving away land to your non heir sons. One way to manage decadence is by the fact that dynasty memebers don't contribute to decadence if they have a council postion. Therefore in my game once I had gotten an heir I'd educate each of my remaining sons for a different postion on the council (except for imam as your unable to appoint that easyily). Following this process and ramadan event I was able to usally get through to till succession where unless they were still praticularly good at their job they went straight to prison with no penalty to my opinion.

This method is also good in that it stops yours unwanted (harsh but true) sons from being able to marry and have kids making it easier to manage your dynasty. Also while you can't plot for the assination of your sons you can plot against your grand kids so once your out too your second genration you can start taking a more direct approach.

 

[Namfuak]

I also found that your best off not giving away land to your non heir sons. One way to manage decadence is by the fact that dynasty memebers don't contribute to decadence if they have a council postion. Therefore in my game once I had gotten an heir I'd educate each of my remaining sons for a different postion on the council (except for imam as your unable to appoint that easyily). Following this process and ramadan event I was able to usally get through to till succession where unless they were still praticularly good at their job they went straight to prison with no penalty to my opinion.

This method is also good in that it stops yours unwanted (harsh but true) sons from being able to marry and have kids making it easier to manage your dynasty. Also while you can't plot for the assination of your sons you can plot against your grand kids so once your out too your second genration you can start taking a more direct approach.

One thing to remember is that giving your son a council position will only work so long as your realm is relatively small. It reduces the decadence gain, but eventually it isn't enough. When I played as a muslim and eventually became an emperor, I would give out kingdoms to my sons, and then give the biggest to my son I wanted to inherit, and then when they took over I would go through and kill off my king brothers as needed to give to (now my heir's) sons, and repeat the process. Since you can easily decide which son inherits, it's really easy to always get rulers with quick/genius, so you will usually have plenty of intrigue in order to make arrests work the first time, and it isn't like there is any tyranny penalty for trying to imprison so even if you have to put one king down it isn't a big deal.

 

[marty_doug]

One thing to remember is that giving your son a council position will only work so long as your realm is relatively small. It reduces the decadence gain, but eventually it isn't enough. When I played as a muslim and eventually became an emperor, I would give out kingdoms to my sons, and then give the biggest to my son I wanted to inherit, and then when they took over I would go through and kill off my king brothers as needed to give to (now my heir's) sons, and repeat the process. Since you can easily decide which son inherits, it's really easy to always get rulers with quick/genius, so you will usually have plenty of intrigue in order to make arrests work the first time, and it isn't like there is any tyranny penalty for trying to imprison so even if you have to put one king down it isn't a big deal.

yeah sorry I played as a emir/duke for most of my game so I wasn't sure if it had dimishing returns. Was playing as Edessa which meant the closest creatable kingdoms were armenia and syria both of which are christian only meaning that I didn't get a kingdom title until I took Kwisicism off the Turmids...

But following on from what Namfuak said anthoer option is to give them one county of an emirate you own as this encourages them to try and fabricate claims for the rest of the region giving you the state intrigue excuse to imprison them.