Serene Doge (Merchant Kingdom) create Vassal Doge (Merchant Duchy)?

[fromar]

I am playing as the king-level Serene Doge of Venice, and I won Saxony in a crusade. What happens if I create a duchy-level merchant republic far away?

• Do another 5 families arise?
• Will their trade posts try to compete with mine (we are very far away, so I'm not worried, but I'm curious).
• What if I grant the new republic to a family member?
• What if I grant the new republic to the head of a rival family?

 

[Zooboss]

I am playing as the king-level Serene Doge of Venice, and I won Saxony in a crusade. What happens if I create a duchy-level merchant republic far away?

• Do another 5 families arise?
• Will their trade posts try to compete with mine (we are very far away, so I'm not worried, but I'm curious).
• What if I grant the new republic to a family member?
• What if I grant the new republic to the head of a rival family?

A Merchant Republic will never have a vassal merchant republic. They'll just be regular republics with open elective succession so titles will not stay in the family. Or at least not reliably so. A random courtier will be chosen as heir. Or generated upon inheritance.

 

[fromar]

Oh, interesting. So as a kingdom level merchant republic, is there any reason to create a vassal republic? Would I be better off with feudal vassals?

 

[LeSingeAffame]

You'll get a -30 opinion modifier with your feudal vassals. Keep republics as vassals, and let the gold flow. If you need men, you always have mercenaries available

 

[Simmy93]

Feudal rulers can have many however the general rule with Republics is they will buckle and bugout if there's multiple patrician families involved, especially when it comes to trade posts. Many duke or king level republics are fine as feudal (of course limited by % of realm size) but a merchant republic will never spawn new merchant republics.

 

[fromar]

Thanks for the info. So what is a non-merchant republic? Is it just a duchy-level republic without great families or trading posts?

 

[Patroclusmega]

Thanks for the info. So what is a non-merchant republic? Is it just a duchy-level republic without great families or trading posts?

It's what happen when you give a no-coastal duchy to a mayor, it is an elective succession, can create tradepost only on Trade route (as Silk Road, I'm not sure if you need Horse Lord dlc or if only having the patch is okay) and have no -30 opinion penalty versus other republic. You can mod it to add functionality however.

 

[Zooboss]

You'll get a -30 opinion modifier with your feudal vassals. Keep republics as vassals, and let the gold flow. If you need men, you always have mercenaries available

This, or you could use retinues in addition to mercenaries. Merchant Republics can get quite a bit of retinue size by way of upgrading trade post garrisons and the House military building.

 

[fromar]

What if I grant the new republic to a family member? Does it get mixed up with the merchant republic five families issue?

 

[Zooboss]

What if I grant the new republic to a family member? Does it get mixed up with the merchant republic five families issue?

They'll have the republic and upon their death a random courtier will inherit it.

 

[Waffen9999]

What I did as Venice, mainly because I just like the look, was to create republics by giving them to the other Patrician families. So, I have 4 vassal republics that just generate the next head of the family as the leader. Looks nicer that way to me. The only way to get a regular republic to have a noble is to have the person marry someone, and hopefully have a son who will eventually succeed them. Of course, they have to be a noble to begin with.

 

[HandicapdHippo]

Funny thing about regular republics is that as long as the mayor has male courtiers one of them will be the heir, this means that if you give married kinsmen with kids city's its fully possible to keep it under the control of your family, I had a republic game where a few regular republic duchy vassals might pass out of my dynasty's control for a few decades but because I had so many kinsmen filling up their courts one of them would end up heir sooner or later.

 

[Waffen9999]

Indeed, it seems they don't typically try and marry their courtiers, but you can constantly marry random women into them and they'll go from there.