Miaphysite Emporer of Arabia - help! new player

[Nerhesi]

So after several restarts using my customized ruler, I have finally become emporer.

Background:

Ruler designer. Grabbed fatimid ruler of egypt, made him a genius, wrothful, brilliant strategist (holy warrior), slothful, content, duelist, etc etc - 28 starting age. Had to win back half my empire then holy warred/dejured all of jerusalem, arabia, syria, africa, cyranica mauretania to become emporer.

It took until his son was 45, in the year 1130 to finally do it and 80% of the empire is miaphysite as well.

Now for my many questions:

Slothful seems to be a lot of points for only -1 to all stats. Is there a list for the hidden effects of traits? Anyone have a link?

It was almost a vicious cycle of conquest for me to get here. Conquer some massive region, then give it all away to placate people. I just kept emirate of cairo and damietta for myself. This meant that a lot of emirs had tons of terratories and vassals. It was the only way to keep them happy because they constantly wanted my sultunate (kingdom titles). Is there any answer to this?

When I finally became emporer I managed to relax a bit and then gave away all but kingdom of egypt. Despite most of them being very happy I am constantly dealing with independance factions.

Basically, what are the best tips to ensure I can keep my terratory as emporer. Should I have given away any kingdom/sultunate titles at all? I'm also using gavelkind and simply marrying second sons matrimonially or making them bishops .

Should I keep low noble taxes, max levies and medium crown law?

Thanks and thanks!

 

[Nerhesi]

Quick addendum:

On medium crownlaw, despite the description my vassals are constantly declaring war - I assume this on other vassals? I can't quite tell - I'm almost sure they're fighting eachother but I don't know... Can dukes declare vs dukes that are reporting to other kings without the kings (or emporers) themselves being involved?

Thanks again

 

[Ols]

Honestly you may have had less trouble if you kept your kingdom titles and destroyed them, as then they'd have far less power and nothing to hate you for. When I have a particularly troublesome region I revoke the duchy/emirate and replace the ruler with a doge/wali-emir, who generally give me no trouble for the rest of the game so long as I placate each incoming ruler when the old one dies. Making dukes with more than one ducal title is generally a bad idea. They tend to continue to expand, demand to become kings and eventually plot independence or plot for the empire in time. If they rebel, revoke the ducal title, and put a reliable duke in their place. If you don't want a republic, try placing your heir in charge so you'll inherit all the titles back when your heir inherits the empire. Try to go up to high crown authority, and institute primogeniture, when possible. Your vassals will be annoyed, but inheritance wont spread angry brothers with claims around your realm. With regards to your final question, dukes cannot declare war against dukes who are vassals to another king in your realm. Your king protects his segment of your realm from any threat from anyone who's not his vassal. His realm will not lose land unless he is involved or if the threat is someone from outside the realm who you lose a war to.

One last thing - elective might be helpful if the genius trait was passed to someone outside the line of succession but within your dynasty. By using elective you can breed various unlanded branches of your dynasty to become backup heirs if your sons have terrible traits. Because breeding for strong/attractive/genius can sometimes require inbreeding, you may need to switch to other branches of the dynasty when negative traits start cropping up. Elective may be a problem with uncooperative vassals, but usually you can get a string of incredible rulers as a result.

 

[illapa]

Crown Authority works on DIRECT vassals. Your kings wont be able to attack each other but those kings' dukes can attack each other. Same with your own dukes. Factions are part of the game they are going to happen just don't be a tyrant and send gifts to your king's HEIRS that way when the heir becomes King he'll love you. At least that's what I do because sending gifts to the King themselves is expensive, though often necessary. Make sure you only have 1 Kingdom for yourself and that you don't own your vassal's dejure claims. Also don't be a tyrant and you are begging to get !@#$% hard by keeping it gavelkind try to get it to primogeniture if you can or elective if you think you can get enough votes.

 

[_krampe_]

...send gifts to your king's HEIRS that way when the heir becomes King he'll love you. At least that's what I do because sending gifts to the King themselves is expensive, though often necessary.

This sounds like a big waste of money, gifts increase the opinion only for two years. Maybe if the King is very old but its still like playing roullette.

 

[Nerhesi]

Destroying the titles sounds fascinating, I have an idea then...

After I am emporer, can I simply destroy all my sultunate/kingdom titles to ensure they don't "want them"? am I still emporer at this point?

 

[KPJ]

Yes, and yes. However, you get a -50 relations hit for destroying titles to everybody who would be under that title. (So if you destroy Sultanate of Egypt the Emir of Cairo, Alexandria, etc. will want your head).

Also, a neat tip is to educate the heirs of your vassals. You get a longer term 'mentor-student' bonus than the gift, and the chance to bring them to your culture.

 

[Jamey]

This sounds like a big waste of money, gifts increase the opinion only for two years. Maybe if the King is very old but its still like playing roullette.

Gifts definitely last longer than 2 years. The CK2 Wiki says that it is 60 months (5 years), which seems more accurate.

Gifting heirs is not a bad thing to do. Pausing and gifting vassals right when they inherit is a really good thing to do (as the gift amount is still going to be based on their old income).

 

[unmerged(494787)]

Also, crown authority doesn't prevent wars from vassals refusing to get their titles revoked, wars from plots, and wars from factions, and possibly a few other things. What it will stop is two neighboring brother dukes declaring war on each other over their titles. Doesn't do anything about them trying to assassinate each other, however, so be careful about handing out titles.

(And sometimes, even if the ducal title is primogeniture when you hold it, it'll switch to gavelkind when you hand it out. Particularly annoying for me, as I like my dukes to hold all their counties for RP reasons. That, and it stops the inevitable faction wars from the second or third sons.).

 

[Nerhesi]

Help! That didn't work - haha, I destroyed the titles. They created them, were really pissed, and became independant anyways. Bastards.

 

[unmerged(494787)]

Don't destroy Ducal Titles (if that's what you did.) Especially if you handed out the majority of the duchy to them. Those are easy to make (requiring only gold). It's far easier to prevent them making King-level titles, especially in the east where De Jure areas tend to be huge.