Noob questions about marriage strategies...

[jaxpac]

Some noob questions here from my first game.

1. I was some random German count and married my sons kind of randomly to some people from neighbouring areas. After doing this I got a succession warning saying that my heir had lost his succession. What happened?

2. What benefits can I get from arranging a marriage? I understand you want more heirs, but assuming that I have a choice of a few courtiers with substantially similar stats and attributes, how do you decide who to marry?

3. Is there some reason why every marriage I arrange seems to result in a plot from one spouse to kill the other? Is this something wrong with my choice of partner, bad luck from one game, unavoidable, etc.?

4. Is it good to try to marry everyone in your court as soon as possible? And if not, what are the reasons to wait?

5. It seems as though you can marry your children to other close relatives. I didn't try this but it seemed like the option is available. Does this work and if so what are the pros and cons?

 

[jaxpac]

I'll give one bump since this has fallen to the third page and likely won't be answered otherwise. If no answer this time I'll let it die, I promise...

 

[Answermancer]

I'd love answers to these questions as well, this is my first real attempt at a Paradox Grand Strategy game I'm a bit lost about how to make "good" choices for my many characters

Although I did make a betrothal between my 44 year old sister and 1 year old son, so that was pretty great.

 

[Featauril]

1. You might have agreed to a matrileneal marriage for one of your sons, or married your daughters normally. Both of which end your dynasty in those lines, meaning their children aren't considered your dynasty and you can't continue as them if they're your heirs (which they can be).

2. You get an alliance, and you can get an inheritance. For instance, I married one of my sons to a daughter of the count of Mecklenburg; all his other heirs must have died, since the daughter became the countess. The son is my vassal, and his son (my grandson) will inherit both his father and his mother's holdings. When that happens I will have gained another county as a vassal.

Otherwise, I use matrilenal marriages to attract very high quality courtiers to my land (20+skill) to serve in my council.

3. Spouses want their children to inherit. If they're married to the second in line, they'll try to murder the first in line, or his children. Etc.

4. I only marry people from my dynasty. The more you wait, the less desirable your daughters become; with the men, if they start early you can be sure that they'll have heirs. Benefit of waiting is that you can wait for a truly good match to open up.

5. Marriages between relatives is historical, and just like history you have chances of getting inbred children. It's a very bad trait.

 

[InnocentIII]

1. I was some random German count and married my sons kind of randomly to some people from neighbouring areas. After doing this I got a succession warning saying that my heir had lost his succession. What happened?

Tough to say with just this information. Did your son leave your Court to go to another court? Need more info to answer, but far too many marriages end up matrilineal with (IMHO) too little warning to the player. Was it a betrothal? Did the wife already own land (true story - Heir to the Kingdom of Ireland left for Germany because his wife was a Baroness! normal marriage wtf?).

2. What benefits can I get from arranging a marriage? I understand you want more heirs, but assuming that I have a choice of a few courtiers with substantially similar stats and attributes, how do you decide who to marry?

Try to keep your own culture, if possible. If your kid's guardian is Italian your kid becomes Italian even if you're as German as apple strudel. Look for an alliance, I mostly look for good Job Title (Midas Touched, Mastermind Theologian) as a tiebreaker, or even top priority. I think a DLC to allow us to easily search for lesbians would be a top seller.

3. Is there some reason why every marriage I arrange seems to result in a plot from one spouse to kill the other? Is this something wrong with my choice of partner, bad luck from one game, unavoidable, etc.?

That's marriage! Honestly, I don't know. I'm back below 50/50 of wives trying to kill me, but not by much, so I'm nobody to go by.

4. Is it good to try to marry everyone in your court as soon as possible? And if not, what are the reasons to wait?

If there are good prospects, don't wait. However, if the pickings get slim, after a few years they should pick up again. Also, keeping a few women as jailbait Council-member bait helps. If your Steward dies and you don't have a good one, matrilineally marry her to a good steward.

5. It seems as though you can marry your children to other close relatives. I didn't try this but it seemed like the option is available. Does this work and if so what are the pros and cons?

The pros are that we've all had good-looking cousins, the cons are that you're a terrible person just for reading that. Really, I have no idea. Shoot for the inbred trait and see if you can get cute little fifty-pound descendants who won't shed.

 

[jcinq4]

5. I've married my Irish King to his half-sister based purely on godly stats and suffered 0 repercussions 3 generations latter. It's probably more likely to get an inbred trait it you do it more than once.

 

[jaxpac]

So if you marry your son to someone in another province he leaves and won't inheret from you? Because in question 1, I was marrying my sons off to people in other courts. Is this not a good idea?

 

[MXD]

5. I've married my Irish King to his half-sister based purely on godly stats and suffered 0 repercussions 3 generations latter. It's probably more likely to get an inbred trait it you do it more than once.

Two things, I think

First, if we go purely by great-grand parents scale, they're 4 out of 8, and it doesn't go above 50% no matter how « great » we add. That's a lot, but I could be more. Pretty sure some historical monarchs were worst in that regards.

Second... what I gather is that not all "inbreds" gets the "inbred" trait.

 

[MXD]

Rule of thumb : If sons marry in other court, their wife joins your realm, unless you go for a matrilinear marriage.
The only way he leaves your realm is that he inherits some piece of land.

 

[erekose123]

as German as apple strudel.
I think a DLC to allow us to easily search for lesbians would be a top seller.
jailbait
The pros are that we've all had good-looking cousins, the cons are that you're a terrible person just for reading that.

made my evening, +10 internets to you kind Sir.
Also, very nice answers from you and Featauril.

 

[Shn]

If you marry your son in a regular marriage then normally his wife will join your court. If the woman you marry him to holds a title and your son hold none I think he will go join his wife's court though.

Your heir will inherit no matter who they marry or where they are unless something else changes to make them no longer your heir. What is the exact message you got? What succession laws do you have? If it's elective it could be some of your vassals changed their vote at the same time.