Rookie succession question

[unmerged(15337)]

I'm playing as the Staden family, Dukes of Brandenburg. I'm about 60 years into the game and had my first confusing succession. Up to now, it's been father to son each time, very straightforward. Brandenburg has semisalic primogeniture, which it had at game start and I never changed.

My current duke, the grandson of the original duke, has a son and daughter. I fixed the son up with a nice German girl as soon as he turned 16. Unfortunately, he committed suicide -- on his wedding day!

So for some time the succession order was the duke's uncle (the duke had no siblings), and after him the uncle's two sons, that is, the duke's first cousins, in order of birth. One of those cousins in turn has some sons and they came next in line.

This changed, however, when the duke's daughter married and they had a baby boy. So this young grandson of the duke is first in line, then the uncle, the cousins, and so on.

Now, in the broad sense, I really don't care who is next in line. In game terms of course it may be more challenging with a child ruler, but I would accept that. The problem is that when the duke died, succession went to the grandson but the game itself passed on to the uncle. So instead of a child duke with a 6 province duchy, 5 in his personal demesne, I got the uncle, the count of the other province.

Experimenting with the succession laws, I saw that I could change it to full salic and then the grandson is out of the succession. That's a possible way to manage the situation, but what I don't understand is why can't I keep playing with whoever is the next Duke of Brandenburg? Doesn't it defeat the purpose of starting with a duchy if the game will switch you over to a mere count? In short, why doesn't the game succession follow the same law that the realm uses?

 

[ssj18vegeta]

I think because you're playing a dynasty, not a country. So it's game over once someone not of your own dynasty gets your titles (i.e. the grandson, which has a different last name). You can go around this by just loading the game up as that grandson.

 

[Zsrai]

The game is about dynasties, not countries, technically. What happened is the next person in the succession order of your dynasty was the uncle, so you changed to him. There is no reason to stop playing though, you can play as the uncle and reclaim the rightful Staden lands from whatever dynasty his great nephew is!

Also, you can use what happened to you to inherit lands from the AI. Marry their firstborn daughters to your sons (or any daughter, and use assassins.)

 

[Jak9090]

or just reload as the new duke

Edit:sorry noticed someone else already mentioned this.

 

[unmerged(15337)]

Thanks for the replies. My reading of this is that the game essentially follows Salic Law for your dynasty in terms of who is your principal character. So if you want that to match the transference of titles, you have to have your realm follow Salic Law as well. Correct?

I'll admit that the challenge of taking the uncle as Count of X and then reclaiming his "rightful" Duchy would make for a great game -- for a more experienced player. For a rank beginner such as I, I want to make sure I keep playing the more powerful state. So I am leaning strongly toward changing the law to salic and then replaying that last section. Of course there's no guarantee the duke will die at or near the same time, but he's got to go eventually!

Thanks again for the replies and advice.

 

[TempestDK]

Thanks for the replies. My reading of this is that the game essentially follows Salic Law for your dynasty in terms of who is your principal character. So if you want that to match the transference of titles, you have to have your realm follow Salic Law as well. Correct?

I'll admit that the challenge of taking the uncle as Count of X and then reclaiming his "rightful" Duchy would make for a great game -- for a more experienced player. For a rank beginner such as I, I want to make sure I keep playing the more powerful state. So I am leaning strongly toward changing the law to salic and then replaying that last section. Of course there's no guarantee the duke will die at or near the same time, but he's got to go eventually!

Thanks again for the replies and advice.

Yes, just change to salic inheritance and your dynasty will never die out. The game will produce a random character of your dynasty, with bad stats, popularly called the country cousin. It is a good law for a beginner.