what is the point of any succession law but elective?

[Jadelith]

I never use any succession law but elective, since you can always choose the 20 year old nephew who is a strong genius grey eminence, and not get stuck with the misguided warrior drooling imbecile that is your son.

I have played the game around 120 hours, and I've never lost an election (~100 of which was with elective), and I've never even *tried* to win an election; you pretty much automatically win.

what is the point of having primogeniture / seniority / open succession (even open/turkish succession is far worse than elective)? I understand gavelkind has a demesne bonus, but considering you lose half your demesne when you die, that also looks quite bad.

I'm playing primogeniture since I'm now leaning towards elective law being an exploit.

 

[Rozmarzony]

Some can say primo is also too easy, exploit too?
But hey, it's paradox game, play as you want, still what is the point of this thred?

 

[Ols]

Seniority is "too easy" when you've spread your family into loads of independent realms.

 

[Jadelith]

the point is elective law should be much more unpredictable; as it is, elective is simply superior to other succession laws as you are simply picking who your successor will be. you can always have rulers with 20+ diplomacy, which makes it very easy to keep your realm stable. you will never have a mediocre, or even a so-and-so ruler, since you can always pick the best one, and he/she will be elected

I'm not sure how you can call seniority "too easy"; you will pretty much always have the short reign penalty. primo is not bad, but you can get stuck with bad rulers quite a bit.

 

[A_Dane]

If you wanna roleplay a family line, primogeniture can be quite fun, and you won't have to ever worry about it.

Personally, the reason elective is superior is simply because you can take it right away. It can however be a pain when you're trying to keep together 2 or more realms, where your vassals aint of your culture.
But yes, in general a lot of things regarding interpersonal relations, and especially in regards to elective realms, could use some fleshing out.

 

[unmerged(26764)]

Elective is great so long as most of your vassals are of your dynasty and culture. Once you expand into a super-empire though, it's pretty hard to keep things this way. It's easier at that point to just go primo.

All the laws have their appropriate use. It's mostly about what stage of the game you're in, and what your realm looks like.

 

[Vizier]

Elective that easy? Are you kidding or am I playing a different game? My three-province County is struggling to elect my chosen heir as the next Count, because, for some mysterious reason, his mayors and bishops are trying to put his sister or his ex-Marshall—who hates his guts, by the way—into power. If my leader dies, his sister will inherit and all my scheming to stage a coup de lit (pardon my French) for the Duchy of Toulouse will come for naught. So yeah, election in my current game is working as well as it should.

 

[Ols]

I don't think it's wise to go for elective until you've got a kingdom. If you have it before then, it's more of a stopgap measure that'll make it hard for you to get a desirable family member.

 

[grommile]

I'm not sure how you can call seniority "too easy"; you will pretty much always have the short reign penalty.

Have you ever actually played the Premyslids?

 

[Prime624]

Elective that easy? Are you kidding or am I playing a different game? My three-province County is struggling to elect my chosen heir as the next Count, because, for some mysterious reason, his mayors and bishops are trying to put his sister or his ex-Marshall—who hates his guts, by the way—into power. If my leader dies, his sister will inherit and all my scheming to stage a coup de lit (pardon my French) for the Duchy of Toulouse will come for naught. So yeah, election in my current game is working as well as it should.

Lmao! That's what I feel like.

Primogeniture is more stable and predictable you never have to deal with a changing heir, and dying at the most opportune time. Your son will be your heir.

 

[Yenzen]

Not only do I find it easy to keep electing Perfect People, you can also avoid the troubles of a child heir. I've not had a regency because of being underage in most games after working my dynasty up to speed.

 

[guv311]

For the most part elective kind of ruins roleplaying for me especially if I choose a historical figure. I like seeing the sons of the kings I play becoming kings themselves instead of electing some nephew or a grandson of my brother and what not, I like direct lineage succession. Besides, once your realm grows to a certain point Elective can get hairy if you have dukes who don't want your heir and much prefer your other kins to succeed which isn't a problem in terms of you staying in power since usually its another dynasty member but I don't like that way.

 

[JonStryker]

Elective that easy? Are you kidding or am I playing a different game? My three-province County is struggling to elect my chosen heir as the next Count, because, for some mysterious reason, his mayors and bishops are trying to put his sister or his ex-Marshall—who hates his guts, by the way—into power. If my leader dies, his sister will inherit and all my scheming to stage a coup de lit (pardon my French) for the Duchy of Toulouse will come for naught. So yeah, election in my current game is working as well as it should.

Elective succession is usually awesome. But only from the duke level up.
If you're a count you gonna get problems as all those mayors and bishops are allowed to vote


-> Be a count -> become a duke -> then change to elective

 

[Grubnessul]

Not only do I find it easy to keep electing Perfect People, you can also avoid the troubles of a child heir. I've not had a regency because of being underage in most games after working my dynasty up to speed.

In my Sweden game, everyone loved to elect kids...

 

[generalolaf]

Gavelkind is a cakewalk if you're rich. Just build a new Temple for every son.

 

[kingsword]

I really don't see how anything other than elective is any good. Just went through near a full century of imbecile father-son rule on primogeniture. Pretty much as soon as I went elective, got a genius with 35 martial in rule. Destroyed a 100K Aztec stack for 1300 piety and 600 prestige for the battle. Thanks, elective law!

 

[unmerged(75409)]

Elective law has its pitfalls. Read the fine print and you notice what it is...

Under elective law, the only people eligible for voting are characters who are vassals of the realm title, plus children and siblings of the ruling monarch. This is nice, *UNTIL* that day when you have a child king with no siblings ruling over multiple kingdoms, and you notice that none of your family people have land in BOTH realms. This means you cannot nominate the same guy to all your kingdoms - you have to bite your nails that your child king makes it to adulthood and manages to sire at least one heir.

Guess how long it takes until the guys at the top of your secondary kingdoms succession chain figure this out... that they can take over YOUR kingdoms if your child king dies. And start making assassination attempts on your child king.

Hereditary rule at least gives you a sure fire lock on keeping the kingdoms together, once you have harmonized the succession laws.

 

[Yenzen]

I've been able to elect nephews, cousins and other distant relations. It seems connected with having a claim, and thus most of your family within two links will likely have one anyway.

The trick with elective, anyhow, is only having a secondary king title when you need the land, then destroy it shortly before you die.

Absolutely worst case, you revoke a duchy in the other kingdom and give it to your far-off dynastic heir.

It also opens to massive abuse of matrilinear marriages: Just find a guy who's 2nd in line for a title who hates his father-liege, invite him, marry him to your daughter. Soon enough you can inherit a whole kingdom by electing their kid.

It should, in general, be harder to secure the vote in medium-large sized realms.

 

[tuareg109]

Elective succession is best succession. It has literally never failed me, I've seen no ways it can go wrong.
Protip: It's super-best if your primary title is a Titular Title, and you have no other titles of that rank. When it's Titular, you choose your successor, that's it. Nobody else gets to vote.

Elective that easy? Are you kidding or am I playing a different game? My three-province County is struggling to elect my chosen heir as the next Count, because, for some mysterious reason, his mayors and bishops are trying to put his sister or his ex-Marshall—who hates his guts, by the way—into power. If my leader dies, his sister will inherit and all my scheming to stage a coup de lit (pardon my French) for the Duchy of Toulouse will come for naught. So yeah, election in my current game is working as well as it should.

AHAHAHA his Mayors and Bishops hate him! Point and laugh!

 

[Tokie]

Only bad thing is you can't do some tyranny in your twilight years, must always be a lovable king.