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There are some particularly important features about historical appanages which don't seem to be addressed in the latest Tinto Flavor. I think the mechanic needs to be adjusted to take these into account. The key principle here is that appanages are dynastically intertwined with the royal line, and their gameplay should reflect this.
Appanages should not be easily annexed outside of suitable dynastic conditions
The most dangerous feature about appanages to the French crown was the fact that, once granted, they persist until the cadet branch goes extinct in the male line. In many ways the results end up looking like a slow-moving gavelkind (i.e trainwreck). For their part, the Capetians were saved from the worst of it by pure luck, as many of its younger branches died out while the senior line lasted some three centuries.
Nevertheless, the royal line kept finding out the hard way that, while it may feel natural for a king to grant fiefdoms to younger sons they love, after two or three generations the crown often ends up with an unruly vassal that sometimes sides with foreign enemies. The feeling of kinship is gone by that point.
Appanages should always keep track of the cadet branch it was granted to. Instead of just having some pro forma waiting period before France can start annexing appanages like any other kind of vassal, there should be suitable (and uncommon) dynastic conditions which need to be met before any annexation process can even start.
One is that the appanage must not have a legitimate male ruler from the cadet branch it was granted to. This should be the foundational principle behind appanages : so long as there is still a legiimate heir in the male line, the crown cannot just take the appanage away. At least, not without armed force and a huge hit to legitimacy, and doing so should scare the hell out of other appanages.
The suitable dynastic conditions I can think of are if the succession ends up with
1) a female ruler (if the Salic law ever changes in France, then even this should no longer qualify), or
2) one outside the cadet branch (this should definitely always qualify, although I'm not sure how it would happen).
The appanage should also have a chance to contest any annexation with warfare. It would be natural for foreign powers seeking to weaken France to ally with appanages fighting annexation. Valois Burgundy after the death of Charles the Bold is one of the main examples.
Appanages should always have an important role to play whenever the senior line falls into trouble
If the French king dies without a direct heir, then the appanages would be the natural claimants for the throne. Different appanages should have the opportunity to support this or that claimant, and contest it with civil war. Regardless of who wins, the remaining appanages should retain strong claims on the throne afterwards, for at least a few generations.
Again, appanages are not just any old vassals. They are the uncles and cousins of the royal line. If the royal line should somehow go extinct, of course it is the appanages that would step up to get first claims on the throne.
On a related note, appanages should be similarly important for regencies. The model case is the regency of Charles VI leading up to the Armagnac-Burgundian war, fought between the appanages of Orleans and Burgundy.
When the French crown falls into a regency (Charles VI was schizophrenic), then appanages can contest each other for control over the regency. Warfare should not be the only means to do this, but it should be on the table.
Philippe the Bold and Louis of Orleans struggled with each other to grab royal resources during the regency of Charles VI, but they never erupted into open warfare. Once Philippe died, his son John the Fearless was more brazen and ordered the murder of Louis, setting off an open civil war. The opposing sides started doing things like violently seizing control of Paris. Eventually the Dauphin fell under the control of the Armagnac side, who ordered to assassination of John the Fearless, his son Philippe the Good allied with the English as a result, and the conflicted merged into the war between the Dauphin and England.
What the game needs here is a regency mechanic in which control can be divided between various appanages like a pie chart. Having control means being able to, among other things, redirect the royal treasury into your coffers, so this should be a big deal worth fighting over. If the king should die, then the appanage with greatest control over the regency would naturally be in the best position to claim the throne. Finally, it should be possible for appanages to go to open warfare with one another for control over the regency (this is different from fighting to seize the throne for yourself), and even to call foreign allies into the fray.
What appanages should do for EUV
Playing an appanage should come with an aspect of CK-like dynastic competition and backstabbing. You are playing a member of the royal house, with all the family tensions implicit. Sometimes everybody is on the same team, but other times you may be waiting on the sidelines for a chance to help your favorite cousin take the throne. When this opportunity arises, the game should provide appanages with multiple avenues (both peaceful and not) to gain power (including economic power, trade/industry monopolies, etc).
With the right mechanics in play, I think appanages could potentially be the most interesting form of domestic/internal gameplay that EUV can so far implement. But without this, they feel like ordinary vassals with a different name tag slapped on.
The game needs an attractive reason for an overlord to create appanages. One idea : more effective control
This should not be a situation where every human player absolutely wants to annex every appanage they can as soon as they can. That is not proper game balance. There needs to be some real benefit aside from some boost in legitimacy, which is not nearly enough. There were good reasons for French kings to create appanages in the past, and the player should also have convincing reasons to create appanages in certain situations.
One idea I have in mind is that appanages should give you a way to extend control more effectively to regions distant from the capital. I would impose an onerous limit on how much land the French crown can effectively control at the beginning of the game, essentially as a limitation of feudal methods. This should incentivize France to create appanages, because having a friendly appanage with full control over Burgundy may well give you more money (through vassal fees) and soldiers than you would get by holding Dijon directly but weakly, at the cost of having an independent appanage control those troops.
Later on, as France advances to more modern bureaucracy, its feudal-era control limitations will fall away. Then the appeal of having appanages should decline, and the crown should have more incentive to integrate them directly into the royal domain.
Appanages should not be limited to France
There is no reason is particular for only France to have access to appanages. They should be open to any nation with the right set of laws about dynastic inheritance. Any feudal ruler seeking to extend firm control over an unruly region should have an incentive to create an appanage there. Even China should be able to create appanages, although that would be silly because appanages would offer no advantage in the face of Chinese bureaucracy. This should be a sandbox feature.
Appanages should not be easily annexed outside of suitable dynastic conditions
The most dangerous feature about appanages to the French crown was the fact that, once granted, they persist until the cadet branch goes extinct in the male line. In many ways the results end up looking like a slow-moving gavelkind (i.e trainwreck). For their part, the Capetians were saved from the worst of it by pure luck, as many of its younger branches died out while the senior line lasted some three centuries.
Nevertheless, the royal line kept finding out the hard way that, while it may feel natural for a king to grant fiefdoms to younger sons they love, after two or three generations the crown often ends up with an unruly vassal that sometimes sides with foreign enemies. The feeling of kinship is gone by that point.
Appanages should always keep track of the cadet branch it was granted to. Instead of just having some pro forma waiting period before France can start annexing appanages like any other kind of vassal, there should be suitable (and uncommon) dynastic conditions which need to be met before any annexation process can even start.
One is that the appanage must not have a legitimate male ruler from the cadet branch it was granted to. This should be the foundational principle behind appanages : so long as there is still a legiimate heir in the male line, the crown cannot just take the appanage away. At least, not without armed force and a huge hit to legitimacy, and doing so should scare the hell out of other appanages.
The suitable dynastic conditions I can think of are if the succession ends up with
1) a female ruler (if the Salic law ever changes in France, then even this should no longer qualify), or
2) one outside the cadet branch (this should definitely always qualify, although I'm not sure how it would happen).
The appanage should also have a chance to contest any annexation with warfare. It would be natural for foreign powers seeking to weaken France to ally with appanages fighting annexation. Valois Burgundy after the death of Charles the Bold is one of the main examples.
Appanages should always have an important role to play whenever the senior line falls into trouble
If the French king dies without a direct heir, then the appanages would be the natural claimants for the throne. Different appanages should have the opportunity to support this or that claimant, and contest it with civil war. Regardless of who wins, the remaining appanages should retain strong claims on the throne afterwards, for at least a few generations.
Again, appanages are not just any old vassals. They are the uncles and cousins of the royal line. If the royal line should somehow go extinct, of course it is the appanages that would step up to get first claims on the throne.
On a related note, appanages should be similarly important for regencies. The model case is the regency of Charles VI leading up to the Armagnac-Burgundian war, fought between the appanages of Orleans and Burgundy.
When the French crown falls into a regency (Charles VI was schizophrenic), then appanages can contest each other for control over the regency. Warfare should not be the only means to do this, but it should be on the table.
Philippe the Bold and Louis of Orleans struggled with each other to grab royal resources during the regency of Charles VI, but they never erupted into open warfare. Once Philippe died, his son John the Fearless was more brazen and ordered the murder of Louis, setting off an open civil war. The opposing sides started doing things like violently seizing control of Paris. Eventually the Dauphin fell under the control of the Armagnac side, who ordered to assassination of John the Fearless, his son Philippe the Good allied with the English as a result, and the conflicted merged into the war between the Dauphin and England.
What the game needs here is a regency mechanic in which control can be divided between various appanages like a pie chart. Having control means being able to, among other things, redirect the royal treasury into your coffers, so this should be a big deal worth fighting over. If the king should die, then the appanage with greatest control over the regency would naturally be in the best position to claim the throne. Finally, it should be possible for appanages to go to open warfare with one another for control over the regency (this is different from fighting to seize the throne for yourself), and even to call foreign allies into the fray.
What appanages should do for EUV
Playing an appanage should come with an aspect of CK-like dynastic competition and backstabbing. You are playing a member of the royal house, with all the family tensions implicit. Sometimes everybody is on the same team, but other times you may be waiting on the sidelines for a chance to help your favorite cousin take the throne. When this opportunity arises, the game should provide appanages with multiple avenues (both peaceful and not) to gain power (including economic power, trade/industry monopolies, etc).
With the right mechanics in play, I think appanages could potentially be the most interesting form of domestic/internal gameplay that EUV can so far implement. But without this, they feel like ordinary vassals with a different name tag slapped on.
The game needs an attractive reason for an overlord to create appanages. One idea : more effective control
This should not be a situation where every human player absolutely wants to annex every appanage they can as soon as they can. That is not proper game balance. There needs to be some real benefit aside from some boost in legitimacy, which is not nearly enough. There were good reasons for French kings to create appanages in the past, and the player should also have convincing reasons to create appanages in certain situations.
One idea I have in mind is that appanages should give you a way to extend control more effectively to regions distant from the capital. I would impose an onerous limit on how much land the French crown can effectively control at the beginning of the game, essentially as a limitation of feudal methods. This should incentivize France to create appanages, because having a friendly appanage with full control over Burgundy may well give you more money (through vassal fees) and soldiers than you would get by holding Dijon directly but weakly, at the cost of having an independent appanage control those troops.
Later on, as France advances to more modern bureaucracy, its feudal-era control limitations will fall away. Then the appeal of having appanages should decline, and the crown should have more incentive to integrate them directly into the royal domain.
Appanages should not be limited to France
There is no reason is particular for only France to have access to appanages. They should be open to any nation with the right set of laws about dynastic inheritance. Any feudal ruler seeking to extend firm control over an unruly region should have an incentive to create an appanage there. Even China should be able to create appanages, although that would be silly because appanages would offer no advantage in the face of Chinese bureaucracy. This should be a sandbox feature.
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