Maybe i should change to elective

[unmerged(471935)]

I ve been playing CK2 for quite some time but i always had gavelkind or primo succession laws.

Starting as a count in Italy i became the king of 6 kingdoms.For the last 3 generations i had gavelkind and it was never a problem as i always managed to disqualify from inheritance any extra son that i didn't like so all of my tittles went to the one son with the best attributes.

My current character is quite old and he ll probably die any time soon.He only has one valid heir.The problem is that somehow that heir of mine has 6 sons and i believe it will be a bit tricky to disqualify all of them so i was thinking to change to elective or even primo.

Primo:+Very easy to maintain your tittles at one person -Sometimes the eldest is not always the best for the job

Elective: +You can pick the heir of your liking + 20 opinion bonus with vassals -If your vassals don't like you you can lose titles

I know how these rules work but i would like the opinion of some of you have tried both.Also as i mentioned i have 6 king tittles so i ll have to change the laws in all my kigdoms

 

[perpetualmuse]

Elective is much stronger than both gavelkind and primogeniture for a single kingdom and only really starts to become a problem when you end up with foreign electors. If you make your heirs high in diplomacy so that the electors like them, you will almost never lose an election.

 

[unmerged(471935)]

A question:My children are always valid candidates for any of my kingdoms.For example i own the kingdom of Castille but none of the de jure counties...Can i still nominate my favored son for the tittle of king of Castille ?

 

[Baron Jukaga]

I really like elective. In a game I'm running as the King of Castille/Leon/Jerusalem I have just nominated a brilliant cousin with the genius trait and many other desirable traits as my successor. My sons are a little miffed, but the duchies of Aragon and Outrejourdain seem to have placated them. I really like Elective, it lets you pick the most capable man for the job.

 

[Baron Jukaga]

A question:My children are always valid candidates for any of my kingdoms.For example i own the kingdom of Castille but none of the de jure counties...Can i still nominate my favored son for the tittle of king of Castille ?

You should. I own no land in the de jure Leon, yet have no problem nominating my successor of choice.

 

[nyah]

Stick with gavelkind, let the sons inherit. If there are six of them then you can easily deal with revoking or banishing each one.

 

[JonStryker]

Elective is the best way to go.
In a "normal" succession law, you'll oftentimes end up with an old heir with bad traits.
In elective you can just choose some genius-traited distant relative who's <20 years old.
Just make sure to spread your relatives all over the realm. They 1) vote for your candidate of choice and 2) produce more possible heirs.

 

[Lannock]

I haven't played with elective much but I'm thinking it might be worth considering since I recently assassinated a first son because the second son had far superior stats and traits. How do electors choose who they're going to vote for? Is it just who they like best or if I nominate somebody will they vote for the same person?

 

[PatrickT]

You get in trouble when you're holding more than 1 kingdom, or a kingdom and an empire, since vassals don't like you having multiple elector titles.

Besides that if you have multiple kingdoms and the vassals of 1 kingdom decide to have a different heir than the heir of your other kingdoms your realm will be split apart.

It is very beneficial if you only have a single large title however, like the Byzantine Empire or the HRE as an example. (Although the HRE dukes tend to clutter up inside of the realm and gather alot of votes)

 

[Beric Dondarion]

As King of Denmark a vassal kinsman of mine inherited some Swedish land, and I could nominate myself King of Sweden. Elective is great.

 

[JonStryker]

You get in trouble when you're holding more than 1 kingdom, or a kingdom and an empire, since vassals don't like you having multiple elector titles.

Besides that if you have multiple kingdoms and the vassals of 1 kingdom decide to have a different heir than the heir of your other kingdoms your realm will be split apart.

It is very beneficial if you only have a single large title however, like the Byzantine Empire or the HRE as an example. (Although the HRE dukes tend to clutter up inside of the realm and gather alot of votes)

More than one kingdom isn't per se a problem. The electors don't care whether you hold one kingdom or 25. The election process is a bit of a drag at this point as you always have to select the successor for all kingdoms seperately.

If you have an empire than holding more than 1 de-jure kingdoms will yield you a -15 per title though. What I really like about the last patch(es) is that you don't get these negative modifiers for titular titles anymore. Imho the best way to go is to first de-jure drift everything you want to directly control into your primary kingdom and then found the empire.

I never failed to get my preferred heir elected in all my kingdoms. Having mostly family members as dukes helps a lot. They seem to be VERY likely to select another family member as king especially if the current king votes for him. The fact that I pick the best possible candidate (good stats, young) helps, too. Non-family members are a bit of a wildcard. They not always follow your lead when voting. Especially when they have a different culture. One more reason to get rid of those pesky foreigners

 

[tuareg109]

Elective succession is best succession.

Imagine if England had had Elective Succession when Edward III died. Instead of his 10 year-old grandson becoming King of England, and regents and chancellors and relatives scheming for power, a living son of Edward III could have been elected, and they could have avoided Henry IV's invasion, the War of the Roses, and probably would have won the Hundred Years War.

 

[perpetualmuse]

A question:My children are always valid candidates for any of my kingdoms.For example i own the kingdom of Castille but none of the de jure counties...Can i still nominate my favored son for the tittle of king of Castille ?

The people you can elect are your children, Dukes of Castille and some people with a claim on the title.

I haven't played with elective much but I'm thinking it might be worth considering since I recently assassinated a first son because the second son had far superior stats and traits. How do electors choose who they're going to vote for? Is it just who they like best or if I nominate somebody will they vote for the same person?

They will sway towards the person you nominate, but if they don't like the person enough then they will still vote for someone else. You need your favoured heir to be high in diplomacy for elective succession and preferably to be the culture of the electors. If you have a young son who you want to be elected, you may find that no one will vote for him until his stats improve; in these cases you just have to temporarily elect someone else of your dynasty.