Please Help Me Move Forward

[Ratlegion]

After nearly 250 hours in this game, I still tend to suck.

I am King of Ireland. When a daughter decided she wanted to be shackled, I killed another man's wife in England that had a weak claim on his country, brought him over and matri married him to the daughter. His claim can be inherited only through war. He now has a son of my dynasty.

If I'm understanding the situation, if I win England for this man, he will be independent because he isn't of my dynasty and I'm not de jure ruler over England. When his son takes the throne, how can I merge the countries back together? Am I really going to have to go through another marriage/assassination scenario to force the kingdoms to merge manually, or am I missing something simple? And what is the point of having dynasty members as independent kingdoms besides alliances.


While we're at it, besides improving relations, and making a duke deal with rebellions in his de jure, are there any other benifits to transferring vassals? When it says A desires control of X, Y, and Z, is that referring to direct control? Or is it saying he desires those direct vassals he doesn't have?

 

[Kimberly]

Was it your daughter? If so stick all your heirs in bishoprics (or kill them, if you prefer) until your daughter becomes your heir--assuming you use primogeniture. Because she has a son, and the law is male-preference, her son will be your heir instead. Upon your death he gets Ireland and you play him, upon the English king's death he gets England.

If he's not a close relative, well, that kind of messes things up. Having a permanent ally is still is very useful, and your dynastic prestige increasing because of it, but you'll have to go through a bunch of trouble to actually get the English crown. What might be better is to invite claimants to English duchies, instead, and install them in England--if you give the claimants land or they are of your dynasty, they will remain your vassals once they get their duchy. You can then revoke the land you gave them, if you wish. Once you control enough of England, simply usurp the crown of England, or let the duchies drift into the Kingdom of Ireland.

As for your second issue, I find it is generally best to keep the de jure structure the way it belongs. Counts should be vassals to their de jure dukes, and preferably not own land outside of the duchy of their de jure duke. Dukes should own land in the de jure dukedom they hold, and preferably only hold one ducal title. This reduces the amount of wars in your kingdom, and keeps the dukes happy, as well. Other people try to mess the de jure structure up as much as possible to create unstable vassals that are easier to control, but as long as you ensure no individual duke becomes too powerful (holding many different duchies) just keeping your dukes happy is the better strategy.

 

[Ratlegion]

Thanks for everything. Now if only I can remember it 3 games from now.