So, what do you do with those when you get them? Give them to someone ASAP, or can they be more profitable on your hand? Which buildings to focus? Cities in particular seem to be a good source of pikemen.
Still worth it to keep holdings like cities and churches?
- Thread starter Beagá
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Because of the wrong holding penalty, I'll recommend handing them out, particularly to vassals who need that bit of opinion boost. Churches can be given to bishops for piety gains.
These holdings provide 25% of their base tax revenue when held personally. When in the hands of a mayor they make you 25% of their base revenue when held by a mayor at normal taxation (35% for a bishop at normal taxation). Keep in mind that the remainder of the holdings taxes are going to the mayor/bishop and being used exclusively to upgrade the holding. Additionally you must consider the opportunity cost of holding a city or bishopric. Instead of holding a city/bishopric you could hold another county capital giving you the taxes from the castle you directly hold as any holdings beneath it.
In short, you're comparing:
25% base tax for the city/bishopric if you hold it
Vs.
25/35% base tax if you dole it out+the rest of the income going to developing the holding+the extra revenue you get from holding an extra castle+the extra income you get from any cities or bishoprics beneath that castle.
In short, if the goal is to maximize profit, only hold castles as county capitals and only build cities within counties (didn't discuss that last part but that's also true).
My personal recommendation is to use the "create minor vassal" button by right clicking on the holding.
Although, if I have a breeding pair of courtiers with good traits, I like to hand it to them so they can have more kids.
One big exception: Personally holding towns and bishoprics in your capital county is way more profitable than giving them out if you usually keep your steward on "collect taxes"-mission in that county. The direct income will be way higher than anything a mayor/bishop would pay you. This us especially useful in the early part of the game.
Ah, I actually kind of think the opposite. I like to have more randomly generated vassals to find one for mat-marrying women in my dynasty to.
That, and vassals can also sit on your council, they have their own councils and so on. There are more advantages in handing out IMHO.
What I tend to do is give city holdings to Dynasty members. That way your dynasty's prestige increases (1 per barony IIRC). If your relative has kids and they grow up, they'll inherit the city (Elective open means it will go to any courtier that qualifies if any, otherwise it goes to a randomly generated one). I did this several times and had cities stay in the family for at least 4 generations (before the endgame). Same with churches, although that dynasty branch usually lasts one generation, still get +1 dynasty prestige (which is viewable on the family tree screen).
There doesn't seem to be any disadvantage to this, mayors usually don't have the resources to challenge you for claims, and if the mayor inherits your titles (and you play as him) you can give the city away and start the process over again. Also the +5 same dynasty bonus helps too.
There doesn't seem to be any disadvantage to this, mayors usually don't have the resources to challenge you for claims, and if the mayor inherits your titles (and you play as him) you can give the city away and start the process over again. Also the +5 same dynasty bonus helps too.
In particularly undeveloped counties, I will sometimes hold on to these holdings for a while and put my steward there on Oversee Construction. AFAIK that bonus only applies to holdings you directly own, so you can hold on to that city for a few years, and get it a jumpstart on building. I find this especially useful to build things that the AI often neglects.
Well, there IS a disadvantage. You're not using those family members for something more useful.