On Empires, Factions, and Kingdoms

[Adaption]

A few Questions, mainly on the indepth details of CK2.

I'm new to factions, while this method of forming factions to arrange demands makes sense, I find it incredibly hard to fight against, as fighting plotters meant imprisoning the leader at first chance or removing him somehow.
Now I have to be extra crafty using excommunication, assassination, plots, to remove the faction leader. Is there an easier way to get rid of Factions? I find I am a terrible and inflexible diplomat, so I'm not sure what I should do.

After sucking so bad at successions, war, and politics and having exams and end of year assignments to deal with, I finally got my first Empire, Hispania. I have all these de Jure Kingdoms, and the De Jure Empire. Do I destroy the Kingdom titles around the time my Empress might kick it so my heir doesn't have to deal with the negative diplomatic impacts of destroying so many Kingdoms or is it more beneficial to keep them? Or will lesser vassals try to create them?
I would like to remove all these Kingdoms so I can make the power of my Empire more absolute, however, I'm not sure if such a move might end up causing problems later on.

 

[Gqarz]

With empires, I like to hold a kingdom title or two and give out a couple others. It simplifies the problems inherent with succession. If you are worried about succession, then you can imprison some faction leaders right before you think your empress is at the end of her rope. The troublemakers will be where they can't do any harm and they tyranny dies with her. If your heir is married and educated how you want, then there isn't all that much reason why you shouldn't give them a good title or two so they can build their own prestige/piety for a while before you die. If they can get a few hundred prestige, then nobles will like them more. If I have a troublesome heir coming to the throne, I like to imprison troublemakers, leave a couple titles to be created, leave a large stockpile of money for hiring mercenaries in defense of the crown. If my heir is a REAL jerk, and I have another heir, I'll assassinate him.

 

[perpetualmuse]

I'm new to factions, while this method of forming factions to arrange demands makes sense, I find it incredibly hard to fight against, as fighting plotters meant imprisoning the leader at first chance or removing him somehow.
Now I have to be extra crafty using excommunication, assassination, plots, to remove the faction leader. Is there an easier way to get rid of Factions? I find I am a terrible and inflexible diplomat, so I'm not sure what I should do.

You can imprison people, but also just trying to get their opinions of you high enough will be sufficient to make them leave a faction. You can also use your spymaster for this if you want.

After sucking so bad at successions, war, and politics and having exams and end of year assignments to deal with, I finally got my first Empire, Hispania. I have all these de Jure Kingdoms, and the De Jure Empire. Do I destroy the Kingdom titles around the time my Empress might kick it so my heir doesn't have to deal with the negative diplomatic impacts of destroying so many Kingdoms or is it more beneficial to keep them? Or will lesser vassals try to create them?
I would like to remove all these Kingdoms so I can make the power of my Empire more absolute, however, I'm not sure if such a move might end up causing problems later on.

If you destroy the kingdoms, it's possible a Duke will eventually create it anyway, but if you keep your Dukes all to a single duchy then they will never be able to do this. Sometimes it's just better to actually make someone King if it's a large kingdom and especially if it's far away and hard to manage a lot of Dukes that aren't de jure vassals. With Hispania, I'd probably just keep them until you got into so much trouble that you had to give them away to appease the vassals rather than face a huge revolt. Most of the time this will never happen because it's relatively easy to keep de jure vassals happy as an Emperor. You can also give one or more of them to your heir. If you have your dukes all set up in a tidy way, with medium crown authority that makes it unlikely they could ever become King and your ruler becomes incapable or is obviously about to die, then it probably is still a good opportunity to destroy the kingdoms though.

 

[unmerged(161019)]

A high diplomacy skill is more important than ever now with factions. You also have to be a lot more careful who you give titles to. I tend to give new duchies and kingdoms to lowborn courtiers who like me and have no title claims (never give them to family members who may be able to claim your title!).

The more I've played empires with this new faction system, the more I've found it easier to maintain my realm by giving out Kingdom titles (I always hold on to one). You have less vassals which makes it easier to keep everyone happy, but the downside to this is if you are having problems keeping people happy, Kingdom revolts are pretty nasty. That's why your diplomacy skill is so important now--it makes keeping your vassals happier which reduces the chance they will create or join a faction.

 

[GenghisCan]

Can vassals of a duke/king join factions of an empire or is it just the direct vassals of the emperor that can join them?

 

[icedt729]

If you're in Hispania, I'd keep Aragon and maybe Andalusia for myself and hand out Galicia, Leon, Castile and Navarre. They're small as far as kingdoms go so the risk isn't as great as handing out the crown of, say, France to a vassal. It makes for much easier management and you do benefit from the extra prestige of vassal Kings in the long run.

 

[unmerged(161019)]

Can vassals of a duke/king join factions of an empire or is it just the direct vassals of the emperor that can join them?

Only your direct vassals can join in factions against you. Which is why it's important to properly delegate vassals (ie don't have a Duke direct vassal that should be the vassal of one of your King direct vassals).