When you acquire your first province Should I change law?

[nyah]

A ducal+ title is a Duke/King title. Make sure all of your vassals are counts, so you don't need to take care of the pesky electors. Having bishops as vassals is better because of the open succession of bishoprics as well as the investiture mechanics so they don't inherit claims from their predecessors, since they almost always don't have any family. There are a lot of bonuses that can be gained as well, such as the paragon of virtue ambition, which gives a +50 opinion provided you reach 500 piety. To make someone a vassal simply go to their diplomacy screen--->grant landed title. To make someone a bishop vassal with free investiture, go to the religious tab(cross) and click appoint successor under the bishopric you want that person to take over. After that, simply wait for the current bishop to die/assasinate them.

Ignore all of this. It's just a gamey way of playing.

There's nothing wrong with gavelkind. It's easy to deal with the lost titles when you're small, just revoke them all or imprison/banish everybody. Try to get a duchy title before your count dies.

 

[dorukdorucu]

Ignore all of this. It's just a gamey way of playing.

There's nothing wrong with gavelkind. It's easy to deal with the lost titles when you're small, just revoke them all or imprison/banish everybody. Try to get a duchy title before your count dies.

I agree that it may be gamey, howevr we are discussing different strategies here, so why ignore it?
Also, just revoking/imprisoning/banishing may work in a small realm, however try doing it in let's say...France. You get huge negative opinions with every single feudal vassal who already hate you for other reasons. Compare it to bishops who you can please simply by going on a crusade/fighting a couple holy wars, or even by having a good trait or two AND can replace with whoever you want when they die and you can easily see that it's much better. Even more since you can tax them more and raise more levies without angering them too much.
Also, my suggestions ARE NOT for small realms like counts/dukes. It's easily understandable as i have mentioned duke and king titles. I agree with your suggestion to get a ducal title before the count dies though. It's just that gavelkind should be avoided, not at all costs maybe but avoiding it is much better than trying to deal with 10 sons getting 1 county each.

 

[markmid]

Primogeniture all the way! My first task in the game is to get that set up. Great way of playing the dictator

I keep all the upgraded provinces for myself, and if there is any trouble I am in a great position to simple take more titles off those who rebel. Also a tip is to have a few doges, not many just a few where you build extra cities, some people recommend 1/3, it just depends on your tolerance for rebels.

If you want another gamey tip, and you are stuck with no targets - when your ruler is about to die, as in over 50 ish start imprisoning baron titles left and right, you'll weed out the rebels this way and have plenty of money from banishing them after they are imprisoned to pay for mercenaries and the like.

You can always do this to those vassals you think might be trouble when you have a new ruler coming in, lets you fight them when you're ready on your terms, if they escape capture and rebel. If your lucky you won't have to fight them at all, this will lower all vassal relations and eventually get other nasty things happening to you, but you get a clean slate with a son or daughter coming in anyway.

 

[nyah]

I agree that it may be gamey, howevr we are discussing different strategies here, so why ignore it?
Also, just revoking/imprisoning/banishing may work in a small realm, however try doing it in let's say...France. You get huge negative opinions with every single feudal vassal who already hate you for other reasons. Compare it to bishops who you can please simply by going on a crusade/fighting a couple holy wars, or even by having a good trait or two AND can replace with whoever you want when they die and you can easily see that it's much better. Even more since you can tax them more and raise more levies without angering them too much.
Also, my suggestions ARE NOT for small realms like counts/dukes. It's easily understandable as i have mentioned duke and king titles. I agree with your suggestion to get a ducal title before the count dies though. It's just that gavelkind should be avoided, not at all costs maybe but avoiding it is much better than trying to deal with 10 sons getting 1 county each.

It's just that the OP mentioned that he'd gained his second county and was faced with the lost inheritance notification. It's clear that he was talking about a small realm.

Ten sons is very rare.

Gavelkind isn't a game-breaker even when you're large. I always play with it now even with a large realm, mostly because it adds an extra challenge, but it's fairly easy to deal with everything it throws at you.

I just don't see the point of trying to cheat the game by using elective with no dukes so nobody can vote and only bishops so nobody rebels. You might as well use gavelkind and find some console cheat to revoke any titles you want back.

 

[Lessing]

There is onjectively, no gamey way of playing when you stay in the confines of the game's rules. All is fair within the rules. Otherwise the rules must change.

 

[dorukdorucu]

It's just that the OP mentioned that he'd gained his second county and was faced with the lost inheritance notification. It's clear that he was talking about a small realm.

Ten sons is very rare.

Gavelkind isn't a game-breaker even when you're large. I always play with it now even with a large realm, mostly because it adds an extra challenge, but it's fairly easy to deal with everything it throws at you.

I just don't see the point of trying to cheat the game by using elective with no dukes so nobody can vote and only bishops so nobody rebels. You might as well use gavelkind and find some console cheat to revoke any titles you want back.

It is %100 legit and none of it is cheating imo. Since the game actually allows doing what i do, it can technically not be considered cheating, maybe a little bit of exploitation but no cheating. Cheating is breaking the rules to do something the rules don't allow. What i'm doing is basically centralizing the country by giving vassals less authority and less power. It's not cheating, just a different way of playing.