marriage strategy question

[ajoin007]

How do the more experienced players use the marriagesystem to get more counties.
So basically my question is: "What exactly do u do to find good partners so you can get that county in x number of years"

 

[Ahaz Flagg]

How do the more experienced players use the marriagesystem to get more counties.
So basically my question is: "What exactly do u do to find good partners so you can get that county in x number of years"

Pretty straight forward if you want the counties as your own, betroth your heir to a landed female when that female is very young, the AI does not seem to do this, so it is very big advantage to the player. Before I stopped using this, I was able to get several kingdoms easy peasy, hence why I stopped using it. You could also use gold for like marrying 3rd duaghter and assasinate the 2 in front. Make sure you send your betrohed can marry notice via that popup, the AI will try and change the aggreement, they consider the -30 break betrohel worse then losing their lands, pretty damn stupid the way it is setup imho.

 

[OldRanger]

Does pretty young in this case mean while they are still a child or a young adult. For example in my current game I have the opportunity to marry my heir to the 17 yo queen of Sweeden. If I do how to I parlay that into the Sweedish crown, if I decide to go that direction.

 

[unmerged(600321)]

Want to game the marriage system without cheating? You need high state intrigue for this or willingness to deal with kinslayer penalties to opinion.

Marry someone with a claim on a county/duchy/kingdom/empire (something you can beat with military). Have a son. Kill wife's father. Kill wife. Son gets "weak" claim. Assassinate ruler of county/duchy/etc, till its in regency. Then, declare war for the county/duchy/etc and conquer it whole. Your son now is rule of said county/duchy/kingdom/empire. Kill your son. You now inherit it.

Rinse and repeat. When in your 30s, marry a genius wife, get a genius son and make him your new ruler. Kill non genius sons who take priority for inheritance. Rinse and repeat.


Less gamey mechanic?

Marry your ruler (count/duke/king/emperor) to a female ruler of the same level. Your children will inherit both your lands. Or marry your heir to a young female ruler in regency, and the game lets you marry non-matrilineally usually. Adults with holdings generally won't marry your heir unless he has a similar level holding.


Somthing in between?

Marry someone with a claim to the territory you want. Have a son. Assassinate all other heirs, till wife is heir, then kill wife's father (or whoever controls holding). Don't rinse and repeat and don't conquer, just use assassinations till your wife gets the land and your heir will eventually get it as long as both your heirs are the same (similar succession laws and same first son/possibly daughter if absolute cognatic). This won't work if agnatic succession, but will work with the more common agnatic-cognatic succession. The first option is the only one of these three that works with pure agnatic succession laws.



Note: Generally best to just avoid this and just marry someone with high stewardship and the genius trait. I only did the first option in my game where I rushed to conquer the whole map as fast as possible. Its gamey and should not be done your first few games.

 

[tnick0225]

If the queen of Sweden is only 17 and unmarried hurry up and marry her!!!!!!!!! If they no longer use elective and have primo anyway. If they use elective there is a good chance the Swedes won't elect the person from a different dynasty. That happened when I tried to take over the HRE via a weird matrilineal marriage.

But basically what I do is take the heir you have and marry him to a person of his level or slightly higher by using the betrothal mechanic. usually you can find a female ruler or heir to some counties or duchies fairly easily especially if your already a Duke. But since it gets gamey sometimes and you could end up with a duchy far far away doing it this way, I try to focus on my own little area when using this, especially when CA is up to Medium as its the only way to expand in the HRE sdly.

Other than that, you just have to look at succession laws in that region and if you want to stay in your home region find females of YOUR culture. If you don't and your current ruler dies late in life the offspring your heir and his wife have will be of a different culture which could make your game a bit of a headache when the grandson takes over.

But in short playing the marriage game to collect lands and titles is a long term game tactic you won't collect anything right away, maybe ten to thirty years down the road. Although sometimes if you switch up to Elective succession you can speed the process up by leaping a generation if a grandson comes into a duchy at an early age.

Oh and as an addition if the wife's realm has gavelkind it may mess your plans up as well, sometimes it will go to her first born and your realm could end up going to the second born or vice versa so that's another thing to watch out for.

 

[OldRanger]

So how do I see the successsion they have in another kingdom? Thanks.

 

[Ritzzz]

So how do I see the successsion they have in another kingdom? Thanks.

Just hover your mouse over their primary title in the character page . It will state both the succession and top 3 in line to the title.