It seems when I marry my duke he is always asked to help a war in a far away land. Is this because I married a girl from that land and now I am almost obligated to have an alliance with them? Also what is the best way or strategy to get a wife? Should I be aiming for someone closer to my land?
Marriage Strategy?
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Depends on your goal. And yes you gain allies via marrige. As to strat, you define your goals, so there is no set way. I try to gain the best alliance I can, or to have my family members become dukes. So that is how I marry family members off. I keep 3 at home, and the rest go out. Marry women to Large kingdoms or Empires, marry sons to local duchess's. For instance, say I am playing as Denmark, I try to get family members as Dukes of Poland, Hungary, and the Germans.
Remember on helping allies for wars, you do not have to send troops. And saying yes keeps that ally happy.
Remember on helping allies for wars, you do not have to send troops. And saying yes keeps that ally happy.
Exactly.
I pay lip service to all of my allies' wars. Just saying yes doesn't harm you in any way and it gives you a nice boost to relationship with that ally. Might even be enough to drag him into your wars next time.
And unlike some of the other games, if you are allied to both sides you can deny their call for arms without penalty/breaking the alliance with either party. The idea is therefore to forge as many alliances as you possibly can.
Doesn't hurt to send, though. You get the usual prestige gains, gold from sieges. Bonus if it's against infidels and heretics (free piety).
What province or country would you look to marry into if you were playing one of the dutches of ireland?
Scotland or Wales. Scotland seems best to me, unless you have a crazy Wales, it can happen, not often but it does. For Ireland, my best way is to take the lower 7 counties, create kingdom, destroy those 3 duchies if created, and then lord mayor up the top 6, and create the 2 northen duchies. Duke of Galloway and Albany are who you want on your side from Scotland imho, The Duke of Galloway will almost always at some point become King, if he is your family, England will not be able to mess with you. Ireland can become a powerhouse, I was able to have the #5 army with just those bottom 7 and the top 6 as vassals. The AI does not upgrade as good as the human does. Plus by staying small, you will not have faction or succession issues.
If you're making marriages for alliances, be careful about sending your daughter off to marry some powerful King or Duke because though in the short term he's going to help you expand quickly, a few years down the line their son is going to coming knocking at your doors with a claim on your title.
Sometimes anyway, your daughter will only have a weak claim, and only pass on a week claim, so unless you get stuck in a succession crisis or have a regency, or have a female ascend the throne you won't have to worry about a weak claim getting pressed.
I thought that she'd get a strong claim if she was a pretender to the throne when you died?
It's still a bigger risk than it's worth in my opinion.
...however be aware you are still at war, so if you want to take actions that rely on being at peace (eg feasting) you may not want to sign up to all of them.
Other strategies of marrying could be to look for good traits to improve the chances of your children inheriting these traits, or boosting stats your ruler isn't too strong with by adding half your wife's/husband's stat to the overall. This is especially nice if you have a lot of holdings but can only maintain little demesne. By marrying a partner with lots of stewardship you won't have to give up as many holdings.
Marrying off daughters/sister/other women, try to marry them matrilineally to rulers/heirs/anybody. It is always good to expand your dynasty, especially if the offspring will become a ruler you can later call into your wars. But still, gaining a good alliance will benefit you more than matrilineally marrying your daughter to some lowborn riffraff ...
Also, if the war is waged close to your own lands, the enemy might start sieging your own holdings, even if you don't actively sent troops at him. The losses won't be huge, but it still is a nuisance.
Marrying off daughters/sister/other women, try to marry them matrilineally to rulers/heirs/anybody. It is always good to expand your dynasty, especially if the offspring will become a ruler you can later call into your wars. But still, gaining a good alliance will benefit you more than matrilineally marrying your daughter to some lowborn riffraff ...
Also, if the war is waged close to your own lands, the enemy might start sieging your own holdings, even if you don't actively sent troops at him. The losses won't be huge, but it still is a nuisance.
One thing to keep in mind though about saying yes to all calls: I don't think you can attack someone if you answered their call to arms and are listed in the war (despite having a CB).
More specifically, you can't declare war on someone if you are allied to them in another war. So in a Crusade, for example, you can't attack any of your fellow crusaders. If the King of England calls both you and the King of France to help him, and you both accept, you can declare war on neither France nor England.
This is the order I marry, from most preferred to least.
Landed wife/husband (Much preferably close to my current land.) -> Claims (Again, preferably close to my land) -> alliances (Usually they should be close to you, very powerful and a good opinion of you by default.) -> Traits. (When non of these previous marriages exist, I'll try to marry someone with good, inheritable traits.)
Hope this helped.
Landed wife/husband (Much preferably close to my current land.) -> Claims (Again, preferably close to my land) -> alliances (Usually they should be close to you, very powerful and a good opinion of you by default.) -> Traits. (When non of these previous marriages exist, I'll try to marry someone with good, inheritable traits.)
Hope this helped.
In a mod I'm currently play-testing, I usually employ the following marriage policies:
Heir / Heiress Apparent: I marry them to spouses whose stats balance out any weakness my heir / heiress have. For example, my first king's heir is a diplomat, therefore I married him off to a brilliant strategist high martial woman to "balance the ticket" sort of speak. I then give him / her the traditional duchy of the heir / heiress apparent.
Younger sons / daughters: I usually married them off to a person of the appropriate rank (one up or one down from their rank if needed). If I have a spare duchy on hand, I then make them a duke / duchess; if I don't have any spare duchies on hand however, I then marry them to a ruler of the appropriate rank.
Special Cases
Ruler: If my king / queen came to the throne as a child, I would apply my marriage policy of the heir /heiress apparent.
Ruler's mother / father: If my ruler's mother is still young enough to have children, I would marry her off to a ruler of the appropriate rank. For a ruler's father however, it's slightly different. Wait until your ruler is married, and got kids, lest your stepmother may try to have your ruler bumped off. Once your ruler have a kid and if your ruler's father is still alive, you can then safely marry him off to a ruler of the appropriate rank. Your half siblings will inherit from their stepmom and won't inherit claims on your titles.
Heir / Heiress Apparent: I marry them to spouses whose stats balance out any weakness my heir / heiress have. For example, my first king's heir is a diplomat, therefore I married him off to a brilliant strategist high martial woman to "balance the ticket" sort of speak. I then give him / her the traditional duchy of the heir / heiress apparent.
Younger sons / daughters: I usually married them off to a person of the appropriate rank (one up or one down from their rank if needed). If I have a spare duchy on hand, I then make them a duke / duchess; if I don't have any spare duchies on hand however, I then marry them to a ruler of the appropriate rank.
Special Cases
Ruler: If my king / queen came to the throne as a child, I would apply my marriage policy of the heir /heiress apparent.
Ruler's mother / father: If my ruler's mother is still young enough to have children, I would marry her off to a ruler of the appropriate rank. For a ruler's father however, it's slightly different. Wait until your ruler is married, and got kids, lest your stepmother may try to have your ruler bumped off. Once your ruler have a kid and if your ruler's father is still alive, you can then safely marry him off to a ruler of the appropriate rank. Your half siblings will inherit from their stepmom and won't inherit claims on your titles.
Also, only legitimize bastards if you are playing as a Saxon or Viking. Too gamey otherwise.
There isn't one strategy about marriages. Everything depends from You and what You need at specific moment...
1) Marriages as a road to strong alliances. If You aren not powerfull and are unable to wage wars, alliances like that may be really helpfull. This may be really important especially at the beginning. Off course You ill also have to answer when Your ally will need it.
2) Marriages as prestige boost. If dynasty is really famous within Medieval world You may aim for it. Sometimes even if You will make marriages with courtier it is more worth than marriage with less famous Duke. I remember a game that I had so famous dynasty (and I didn't start with it) that in final phase of the game I was getting over 1000 prestige from one marriage within my dynasty. I had 7 daughters and one son. Was funny...
3) Marriage for stats support. Sometimes You need that more than alliance or prestige and even lowborn courtiers are better for You due to the fact that half stats or Your wife / husband are added to Your ruler (or future ruler)
4) Marriage for claims - Sometimes You are making marriages with claimant to specific territory. Either using them immidiately or waiting for heirs (if they are strong claims - they are inherited as weak claim) to push their clams. Or even pushing claims only so next generetion - if You made marriages properly - Your dynasty (claimant heirs if he would get throne) will get strong claims
5) Marriage for throne - game is about dynasty. If Your are famous enough it isn't hard to find spouse for Your children. Especially Your sons who may hunt for female rulers who may accept marriage that put Your dynasty on throne. In my actual game in Byzantium (had few kingdoms there) I've made marriages with Queen of Sweden and after her death my family gained the throne. Also I've made marriage with Queen of Hungary/Poland. My task now is to defend her rule so her heir will get the throne - off course he is from my dynasty
1) Marriages as a road to strong alliances. If You aren not powerfull and are unable to wage wars, alliances like that may be really helpfull. This may be really important especially at the beginning. Off course You ill also have to answer when Your ally will need it.
2) Marriages as prestige boost. If dynasty is really famous within Medieval world You may aim for it. Sometimes even if You will make marriages with courtier it is more worth than marriage with less famous Duke. I remember a game that I had so famous dynasty (and I didn't start with it) that in final phase of the game I was getting over 1000 prestige from one marriage within my dynasty. I had 7 daughters and one son. Was funny...
3) Marriage for stats support. Sometimes You need that more than alliance or prestige and even lowborn courtiers are better for You due to the fact that half stats or Your wife / husband are added to Your ruler (or future ruler)
4) Marriage for claims - Sometimes You are making marriages with claimant to specific territory. Either using them immidiately or waiting for heirs (if they are strong claims - they are inherited as weak claim) to push their clams. Or even pushing claims only so next generetion - if You made marriages properly - Your dynasty (claimant heirs if he would get throne) will get strong claims
5) Marriage for throne - game is about dynasty. If Your are famous enough it isn't hard to find spouse for Your children. Especially Your sons who may hunt for female rulers who may accept marriage that put Your dynasty on throne. In my actual game in Byzantium (had few kingdoms there) I've made marriages with Queen of Sweden and after her death my family gained the throne. Also I've made marriage with Queen of Hungary/Poland. My task now is to defend her rule so her heir will get the throne - off course he is from my dynasty
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A question on Matrilineal marriages. When I marry my character and it shows the little blue flag and it states that it would be a matrilineal marriage does that mean my child born will not get my lands upon my death?
Depends on if the child is male or female, if you marry a daughter matrilineal she will stay your blood, if male the kids will be out of your main line.
So what is best way to use this type of marriage?
And if my character is male and Marries a female with this type of marriage this means my kids will not inherit my land or will but the mothers ( my wife) side can make claims later on?