Marriage... what are all the uses for it?

[Battle bunny]

So, I just bought CKII for 75% off and seeing how I hadn't bought CKI this whole idea of dynasty management is very new to me. So I'm in the process of figuring things out... One thing I don't seem to understand is what uses for marriage I am missing. Besides the obvious use of spawning children, I also realise that you can marry off princes to foreign nobles in order to secure alliances. It also seems to me that I'm somehow supposed to be able to marry into other houses so that I can inherit their holdings if everything goes right and the oldest child (or whoever is the heir) is of my dynasty. In practice, though, I don't see how that works out. Also, what's the use of marrying off females, not matrilineally that is? Maybe I can get an alliance off them, but it seems to me that it would also be an excellent way for a foreigner to inherit the duchies of my realm. If anyone could help me out comprehensively on this subject, I'd appreciate it.

 

[JonStryker]

Well marrying females non-matrilineally in fact really is rather useless. If you want to role-play a "historical" game you should do it. If you want to have the most success matrilineally marrying every single daughter is the way to go.

About marrying into dynasties:
1) Marry one of a ruler's daughters (yourself, to your heir, ...)
2) Wait until the ruler dies (or kill him right away)
3.1) If your wife inherits his throne: as soon as she dies the oldest child will inherit the throne (as long as there is one of course)
3.2) If your wife does not inherit: She'll get a claim on the throne which can be inherited by your children. You can press her claim (-> 3.1) or press the child's claim after she died.

 

[Isaios]

Spare sons can be used to marry to landed women, whoch causes their spawn to be of your house, increasing the allies you can call and the prestige of your house. Daughters are useful for making alliances, attracting claimants or matrilinearly marry them and give their husbands some lands, their spawn will again be your house.

 

[Kurospidey]

I don't agree that marrying daughters is useless. I find it rather useful. Having a powerful ally (and taking care his opinion of me is high enough) has saved my ass a lot of times. It depends on the situation though. Obviously if you're the HRE emperor you probably don't need alliances but if you're a poor duke about to get invaded by some heretics it could be really useful.

Of course you can marry your sons for this purpose too, but it's less likely you get an alliance with a powerful nation or prestige house this way. The reason is (unless you marry matrilineally) they prefer to marry their daughters to other houses and also if your daughter has good skills and age it's a plus (I don't think the AI evaluates males skills when decidding a marriage, though I'm not sure).

Summarizing, I tend to use my daughters to form alliances I can be interested in, so they can support me in upcoming wars, and I marry my heir and the next one in line with somebody who can give me land or a claim in the long term, or if nothing of this is possible, some woman with good skills, genetic traits.

 

[Isaios]

You'll get the "marry daughters for alliances" advice all the time, but it's not an "do always" situation. Stay away from Kings. Powerful ones. Or suddenly your grandchild is coming knocking to take the crown. Royal siblings are far better targets, though even there you can get into unpleasant situations if you don't pay attention to where the royal claims are hiding out.

 

[Heartsbane]

Well.... I find more often than not marriages are kinda useless, mainly because you leave a lot in the AIs hands. Even fi you land your heir and marry him to an heiress you have no control over her actions. Try marrying Duchess Matilda and see what I mean. They always either do something stupid like declare Independence when they have no chance of succeeding, or they find some way to lose their land. You will likely have to fight hard to keep them in power and even then they might just develop the homosexual or chaste traits and screw over all your planning anyway. Unify Kingdoms is especially a pain in the butt.

Marriage alliances are quite useful though. Look how much of a difference an alliance with France or the HRE makes when you are an Iberian King. Granted their contribution will be directly related to their home situation and how much they like you but a strong ally can make all the difference (like say, if you are playing as Harold Godwinson and you manage to get the HRE to join your wars with Normandy and Norway).

The randomness and incompetence of the AI often makes using your marriage strategies not worth the effort. IMO once you reacha certain point it is better to just marry for traits in most cases.

 

[Octavio]

I usually marry of my daughters to landless heirs matrilineally by previously inviting them to my court. It´s somewhat tricky finding those heirs and they might not join you anyway, but it keeps you entertained