On the uses of marriage

[unmerged(451439)]

Hello!

Not only am I a total beginner at CKII, but the game also happens to be the first Paradox installment I've played. Anyway, I am trying to wrap my head around one of the basic - and seemingly most important - mechanics of the game: marriage.

I'm wondering of someone could please elucidate a bit on how marriage can and should be used strategically. Beyond the obvious fact that it is important to make sure that I've got an heir, the uses of marriage are obscure to me. For example, is it important to make sure my siblings and members of court and council marry? How can I use marriage as a way of gaining new territories?

As you can see, I don't even grasp the subject well enough to know what kind of questions I should be asking

 

[Nikolai]

Well, first and foremost: Marry for kids. So young girls are great. Great stats is a boon, as I think the genes can be inherited to a degree. Never paid attention to that, but it was so in CK1 at least. If she has a good education, she can give that on to the kids if she educates them. But she can also be used to get alliances. Marry the daughter of the emperor, and you are in a golden alliance! And with the right inheritance laws and some.....strategic accidents, your kids could inherit some valuable land.

Oh, and WELCOME to the forums!

 

[Nikolai]

If your siblings don't marry, they will not get kids. No kids means less family. And family = alliances and spare heirs if you are unlucky and die early.

If you marry your courtiers, you can gain valuable courtiers with high stats too. They go to the male's court. In the case of matrilinearly marrige, I think they go to the woman's.

 

[Aernil]

1.) secures your dynasty
2.) spreads your dynasty
3.) You can get really powerful alliances with marriages
4.) see below

On inheriting:
If you for example have a daughter to marry away and you want to have a chance of inheriting something, you can go several ways.
a.) Marry into a Duchy/Kingdoms/Empire with Elective Law. It can happen that your daughter/son survives his/her spouse and is elected to rule.
b.) Have a Matrineal Marriage with a ruler to get their lands for your dynasty
c.) Marry your son to the oldest daughter of a ruler. If she is the only heir, you inherit their land (or just kill off all male heirs)

Edit:
you also can marry into some really powerful claims

 

[RobRoy3]

Can you spam marriages, as you could in (at least early versions) of CK1?

 

[unmerged(451439)]

Thanks for the quick and great advice! So, it is basically a good idea to scour the courts of Europe for people with good stats and try to invite them to my court (so I can proceed to arrange marriages)?

 

[Pode]

Can you spam marriages, as you could in (at least early versions) of CK1?

Little need to, the new dip interface tells you what the likely response to your offer will be, so you don't actually send ones that will be rejected. I've seen exactly 2 maybes so far in all my games. Went ahead and sent those, just for old times spammy sake.