Wives having children while the husband is away

[dorukdorucu]

They can always make it so spouses move together, right?

 

[TheLionHeart]

Maybe only not have children when leading armies, to make going on faraway invasions and crusades more risky for your dynasty. Since bringing your wife along to besiege the walls of Jerusalem with you is just a bit silly.

 

[Baron Jukaga]

So I wanted to keep a queen of mine from having any more kids. The logical move was to have her husband lead an army to fight a war on the other side of the country while she stayed on the throne back in her county.

Unfortunately, she still got pregnant. Either the queen was fooling around and nobody in her court had enough basic knowledge of the birds and the bees to realize it, or the game mechanics trumped logic here.

This seems like a glaring problem to me. If a husband and wife are separated, the wife is not going to have his baby. I don't think it would be particularly gamebreaking if this was enforced. Are there no mechanics for this? I'd always assumed that at least if a partner was in prison that no children would be born, but does the game go entirely on the concept that the stork is where babies come from?

I feel your pain, but consider this: when playing as a vassal, your liege will have you running all over Europe basically 90% of the time if you have a decent stat or two. You might never knock up the wife playing as a vassal.

 

[Baron Jukaga]

As others have said, there are lots of situations where couples are separated (both own land, councillers) where you don't want to have the game giving them no children or putting in odd rules to bring them together - so the game simply assumes occasional visits to see each other.

This. In my internal story engine if the King of France has me training levies in Paris I assume he lets me go visit the wife every couple of months or so.

 

[rbc1989]

If they didn't have children while my character was away I would have had hundreds of game overs. Somehow my character always ends up on my liege's council or being a general of his armies.(Usually retinues nowadays.) Which basically means my character is never home. Also historical some lords took their wives on part of their military campaigns so I don't see how it wouldn't be possible...

 

[Tufto]

It's clear how these magic pregnancies happen.

Scene: the Imperial camp. Emperor Konstantine XXVII emerges from his tent, slightly red-faced.

EMPEROR: Servant! Come here!

A servant runs up.

Servant! I have a task of the utmost importance to you.

SERVANT: Anything for you, oh Imperial Majesty!

EMPEROR: Good. I need you to take this jar full of... let's say very curdled milk, and take it back to Constantinople. You must ride through hill, desert and dale, through mountain and blizzard, through tornado and earthquake. If you cannot carry it, then find someone who can. Just make sure this gets to the Empress, and fast.

SERVANT: Why, sir?

EMPEROR: She must have this curdled milk before I return from campaign. It's vital for the future safety of the Empire.

SERVANT: OK, sir!

EMPEROR: Oh, by the way, you'll need this mini-fridge.

SERVANT: Mini-fridge, sir?

EMPEROR: Yes. The curdled milk needs to be kept very cool, for highly confidential Imperial reasons.

SERVANT: But, sir, what is a mini-fridge?

EMPEROR: Not exactly sure. Some of our archaeologists working in Argos found a large number of them a few years ago. But the important thing is that the curdled milk must stay in the fridge at all times.

Now fly! Fly before we finish this war and I and all my soldiers teleport home! Ride like the wind!

 

[AttilaTheFun]

in my experience, it seems like war (or at least, commanding an army) DOES reduce fertility--as emperor of ERE, my wife popped out a child a year without fail during peacetime, then there was like a four-year pause while I was off fighting the Turks, then three more in a row.

But hey, maybe it was a coincidence.

Easiest way to prevent pregnancy? death. Or castration.
Second easiest? Imprisonment.

 

[NewbieOne]

It's a simplification, the same as when your ruler and his wife are both landed and each reigning in a different place all the time (the man can move with armies, the woman will always be stuck reigning there unless she's in jail somewhere, probably impossible for a character than doesn't have a liege, outside a claim war). Some time, now and then, they just find the time to visit with each other. Same as characters skipping from leading a battle in the Holy Land to defending a castle in England on the same day.

 

[ASPGolan]

yeah, do you really need an event for going home for scoodly - pooping? The fact that you're at war for the last 5-7 years, and leading the army the entire time, or in a diferent realm than that ruled by your wife, shouldn't mean that you didn't go see the little woman and the kids back home at all.

 

[1alexey]

Maybe only not have children when leading armies, to make going on faraway invasions and crusades more risky for your dynasty. Since bringing your wife along to besiege the walls of Jerusalem with you is just a bit silly.

Well, Richad actually brought his sister, and wife, which he married during the crusade, on Cyprus, so, that is in fact what has happen.

 

[StephenT]

Well, Richad actually brought his sister, and wife, which he married during the crusade, on Cyprus, so, that is in fact what has happen.

King (Saint) Louis IX of France took his wife on the Seventh Crusade to Egypt in 1248, as well.

This is a quote from the eye-witness account of the Sieur de Joinville, who also went on the crusade, after the Christians were forced to surrender Damietta:

At sunrise, my lord Geoffrey of Sargines went into the town, and delivered it over to the Emirs. They hoisted the Sultan's ensigns on the towers. The Saracen knights took possession of the town, and began to drink the wines; and soon they were all drunk: so much so, that one of them came to our galley, and drew out his sword all bloody, and said that, for his part, he had killed six of our people.

Before Damietta was yielded up, the Queen had been received on board our ships, together with all our people who were in the town, except those that were sick, who were left behind. The Saracens were bound by their oaths to take care of them, and they killed them all.

The King's siege engines, which they were also to have taken care of, these they chopped in pieces. And the salted pork, which they were to have kept: because they eat no pork, instead of taking care of it, they made one pile of bacon, and another pile of dead bodies, and set fire to them; and they made such a huge bonfire that it lasted through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Joinville also refers in another section to "the Countess of Artois, who, being with child, had been left behind when her husband sailed in the spring" - with the strong implication that if she hadn't been pregnant, she'd have gone with her husband on the crusade.