Tips on granting land?

[chL41]

Regarding land, is it better to hold your demesne at max with few vassals (as a smaller nation) or split it up mores through duchies and keep a relatively small demesne?

Similarly, who is it best to land? I used to try to land family members but they often have negative relation bonuses because of progeniture. Thus, I think my next kingdom I'll focus on getting my dynasty on OTHER kingdoms' lands, but keep them mostly out of mine. This probably extends to your own sons who are not the heir?

 

[Arimahn]

Generally speaking you'll want as many castles to yourself as possible but I'd say don't "max out" on them. If your heir turns out to be an incompetent slob the demesne limit will go down.

It's a good idea to grant land to people who aren't ambitious or have other "bad" traits that might make them unruly. In fact I believe the best people to grant titles to are the ones that have the "Content" trait since it gives you +50 relations with them.

 

[Zer00]

I try to keep a duchy or thereabouts as my demense. Most of the baronies as vassals. I'm usually one or two under the limit which works out fine with incompetent rulers or ones with the infirm trait. Also, I have duchies (and their corresponding territory) that I give to my heir each generation.

I prefer to give out land to relatives in the end, mostly for flavor. The bonus you get for content vassals and the like only tends to last 20-30 years until they croak and their ambitious heirs take over. I'd much rather raise my dynasty score if I'm going to end up dealing with rebellious vassals anyways.

 

[Bertouch]

Keep as much as you reasonably can to yourself, if for nothing else than the income it provides. It also helps prevent ambitious vassals from trying to get stronger than you. If you can, go for either eldest relation getting everything, or oldest male child; avoid spreading titles about when your ruler dies. If you must give something away, give it to someone who likes you, and who is content, and not envious, ambitious, or paranoid.

 

[themrwho]

I am still looking into this but for now here are the best practices I have:

* ALWAYS be the strongest in the realm (don't be like King of France: 'King of Paris-only') in terms of highest number of demesne (good for depth in case of an extended war), highest income/troops (highest # of castle type baronies)

* Try and grant land to people who have Content (+50) trait // Do not grant land to people with Ambitious trait as well as others (possibly envious etc. can't remember which ones now - check the excellent traits spreadsheet)

* Try and keep your demesne together, under two duchies so that if it comes to worst, and you fight all vassals at once, you can merge your armies together before attacking/defending (if you have 1 vassal between each of your holdings, difficult to defend)

* Definetely a good idea: keep a war chest (I start with 200 gold, increase to 1k, 2k, 5k as time goes) this is not to be spent on anything but kept it treasury at all times, so even if UFOs land on your all holdings at the same minute, you can still fight back effectively using a concentrated force of mercenaries

* Potentially a good idea: keep a single far-away county (perhaps of city type-- need to test this and see if rebellions will be manageable due to no-border issue) so that none can easily conquer your all provinces at the same time (thus war does not auto-end). provided that you've kept war chest full per above, you will have time to fight back when your enemy sails to your far away county/barony.

* Land distant relatives as they have +5 relation however they should not be 'pretender' or close relative -- still testing this

* Keep two layer of demesne,
the inner demesne: 6 baronies (6 castles) this is the fallback level when/if your underaged heir inherits. This must be the strongest/fully upgraded counties, ideally with 3 castles or more on each, located next to each other
the outer demesne: 6-7 baronies (one or two could be city) the 'claim back' level when your underage heir is crowned you distribute these to NEW lords (they have single county each) and once your heir reaches 13 county level again when he is 16 and marries a high steward lady (so that he does not have penalty anymore). try and obtain these back asap.

 

[Arimahn]

While we're talking about granting land: I conquered the city of Pisa, which is obviously the wrong demesne type for my duke. But how do I make someone a mayor for the city? When I grant random courtiers the city they get the "Wrong demense type" penalty too and hate me for it.

 

[beatoangelico]

While we're talking about granting land: I conquered the city of Pisa, which is obviously the wrong demesne type for my duke. But how do I make someone a mayor for the city? When I grant random courtiers the city they get the "Wrong demense type" penalty too and hate me for it.

right click on the city, there's an option to make the city your vassl and eliminate the penalty

 

[themrwho]

If you're below your demesne limit, simply ignore the warning message and keep it as it brings a lot of gold.

Looks like that "Wrong holding type penalty is now increased to 66%" is not true, today I noticed I am having 50% hit not 66% which is 12base, reduced to 6base which is still better than castle. Maybe I am missing something here?