Titles: to create or not?

[DarkPhoenix]

I have some more questions:

Only emperors can create kingdoms and only kings can create duchies? Or a powerful enough duke/count can create a kingdom/duchy?

You need to be a duke with at least two duchies to create a new kingdom, and of course own/control enough of the de jure land (this is true for both duke and king titles). Usurping works as usual for both (claim needed, weak or strong depending on the situation)

If I create a duchy and give it to a count who is a direct vassal of (let's say) the king of Sicily (who's my vassal), the duke would still be a direct vassal of the king of Sicily? And what happens if I give him a kingdom instead of a duchy?

It seems they will become your direct vassals, but to prevent an angry king of Sicily you can (and should imho) just transfer the new duke back to him. If you make him king, all of his land will be de facto part of his new king title - this will cause some anger between the two kings. Also, I think he needs to be at least a duke to grant him a king title.

I have usurped the kingdom of France and the kingdom of Aquitaine, if I give the titles away would those kingdoms become independents or would they be my vassals?

Independent if you are a king yourself, vassals if you are a emporer. But very rebellious vassals if you are not the de jure liege.

 

[Swxpert]

The obvious answer is not to create the Duke titles but the game knows that too so unless you plan on holding all the counties in said duchy be careful, the A.I will also create titles and that can piss you off much more because then you don't even get the prestige of creating them. I personally like to keep my vassals fighting with eachother by giving them the wrong duchy. (I.E give the duchy of york to the count of kent and the duchy of kent to the count of york) also keep the actual land that each duke holds to a minimum if your dukes all have 1 or 2 holdings apiece then chances they will be plotting for a long time before actually making a move on you.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

I don't know, I usually create at least all the duchies - except in the rare case where my personal demesne stretches over more than two complete but tiny duchies (e.g. as King of Greece while holding full duchies of Achaia, Athens and Krete), where you'd want to avoid the "too many duchies" penalty. This is still a game about feudalism, so it seems strange to me to avoid some in-between steps. Also, as mentioned above, creating the duchies yourself makes sure you get the prestige, and the opinion bonus, and relatively weak dukes (just give them as little land as possible in their own duchy, e.g. one out of three counties).

King titles are a completely different beast - here you want to make sure that the guy is actually still your de jure vassal or loyal enough, otherwise an independence faction isn't very far away... but at least in huge realms like BYZ kings are totally worth it: they keep loads of squabbling dukes away from you, and being able to raise 20k troops at one single point simultaneously is awesome.

Running a realm with all de jure duchies created is a lot of gardening - in most of the time it works like a charm and looks pretty. But setting it up once isn't enough, you need to take care of it. Prevent "multi-dukes" early on, stop or prevent marriages (with all means possible - plot, excommunicate, revoke, the whole barrage), and most importantly: make use of your 70 year and beloved kings popularity to clean up your realm. You're going to die soon anyway (and this will reset all tyranny opinion penalties), so revoke problematic titles and restore the de-jure-structure as good as possible. Your heir will thank you...

This worked well for me in many earlier playthroughs, and even right now in my first purple-blob game ever as BYZ: All duchies created, and I have Croatia, Georgia, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Bulgaria, Taurus and Sicily as king level vassals. It has worked like a charm over the last 100 years.

 

[unmerged(604918)]

Running a realm with all de jure duchies created is a lot of gardening - in most of the time it works like a charm and looks pretty. But setting it up once isn't enough, you need to take care of it. Prevent "multi-dukes" early on, stop or prevent marriages (with all means possible - plot, excommunicate, revoke, the whole barrage), and most importantly: make use of your 70 year and beloved kings popularity to clean up your realm. You're going to die soon anyway (and this will reset all tyranny opinion penalties), so revoke problematic titles and restore the de-jure-structure as good as possible. Your heir will thank you...

This worked well for me in many earlier playthroughs, and even right now in my first purple-blob game ever as BYZ: All duchies created, and I have Croatia, Georgia, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Bulgaria, Taurus and Sicily as king level vassals. It has worked like a charm over the last 100 years.

Thanks for the tip. I was wondering how could I restore the dejure structure without too much penalties. Just waiting for them to rebel and them take away titles wasn't working. I might try that, but my vassals only become problems during successions, so I can leave them alone whhile I fight the muslims and keep both eyes in the Golden Horde, who just grabbed Poland.