How to keep up loyalty when your ruler dies

[luitzen]

Does anyone have hints how to keep up the loyalty of your vassal when your ruler dies? There are always several of them which try to break free and whenever you try to keep them in line, your other vassals rise up to you because of your reputations.

And where exactly does 'from traits' come from. Whose traits are we talking about?

 

[jordarkelf]

Both the character's traits and his liege's are taken into account. For example suspicious people do not like trusting people, so if the liege is trusting and the vassal suspicious, it will negatively affect loyalty.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

When ever you get a new ruler, pause the game and sent gifts to your most disloyal vassals. Also lay low for a while (don't declare war, revoke titles, or assasintate people), so that your vassals loyalty goes up again.

And if your new ruler has low piety, create a bishopric.

 

[Anthropoid]

If you are say Philippe de Valois age 29 and your son, Henri is 17, is it possible to work it so that you give opportunities to improve his prestige and piety by the time you croak?

I had a game that I quit on in which I played up to about 1105. I had about 7K ducats 5K prestige and maybe 500 piety as Philippe when he died and Philippe II took over (Duke of Champagne, Count of Orleans, Sens and Troyes). He only had a Prestige of maybe 400.

I did not anticipate what was going to happen, and much like the OP describes the whole damn kingdom fell apart at the seams. Virtually every noble house in Europe DoWed France!

I had given Philippe a couple titles, in fact all that I could give him without effectively passing on the reins of power and direct control over France's demesne, but it seems like he got less prestige for having been granted those titles than I had got from creating them in the 1st place? Dad's accumulation of something like 30 additional vassals b/w 1085 and 1105 probably helped in that 7K prestige too.

What I can see though is that, with this brilliant engine it is effectively possible to expand too quickly relative to how well your dynasty can retain control. Wonderful game.

 

[unmerged(7537)]

It helps when your heir has a ducal title and vassals of his own, that will increase his prestige much faster. I like to reserve at least one full duchy for the dynasty heir.

But gaining prestige is more a long term solution. Short term, the best solution is to bribe your most powerful/disloyal vassals with plenty of gold.

 

[unmerged(84239)]

If you lower the scutage to 0 (if your law allows you), it helps with +1% loylaty per month.

 

[luitzen]

Another related question: after conquering Russia with Nubia my reputation is now tarnished and some of my vassals change loyalty by -4.0/month. How long does it take to improve my reputation and is it possible to influence it in any way.

My current king is 31 years old and didn't have any problems with inheriting the throne. He's king over Nubia, Arabia, Egypt and Rus.

 

[unmerged(158620)]

Improving your rep is based on your piety. The higher your piety the faster your rep will inprove. You can create a bishopric to get a boost as well. Giving back titles will also help, so if a vassell rebels, beat them and revasselize them and give up the title to their land will improve you rep.

 

[luitzen]

My king died and now everything is fine again.

 

[luitzen]

This becomes a topic for spewing questions

How does a diocese bishop contribute to your realm?

 

[unmerged(84239)]

This becomes a topic for spewing questions

How does a diocese bishop contribute to your realm?

1. one time piety boost (which also helps with bad reputation)
2. when you have more then 0 piety, the bishop gets a monthly loyalty bonus
3. the bishopric cannot be inherited (the pope will just name an other bishop if the guy dies)
4. sometimes you get back the land (free of BB), when your bishop gets elected pope
5. the bishop doesn't revoke vassal titles (only necessery if you - like me - want to keep your starting counts alive. Dukes will revoke titles when they get kids)

Gameplay-wise a bishop is a duke with a loyalty bonus for positive piety.


EDIT: heh, this is about bishoprics and archbishoprics. Not the court guy. Reading comprehension: 1...

 

[kadvael56]

How does a diocese bishop contribute to your realm?

Diocese bishop modifies and triggers events. Besides that, if he has a diplo-skill above 7, he does influence children's ecclesiastical education by his personal stats.

Also if you control pagan/muslim/jewish provinces they can help converting it.
From another thread I found this description:
One proper diocese bishop should be a martial cleric, who is not zealous, sceptical, heretic, or excommunicated, and who has a good health (doesn't have illness, pneumonia, or plagueinfested as traits). He should have loyalty above 90% and piety above 10. It also helps (but isn't required necessarily), if he has a diplomatic value at least 7, and at least some positive personality traits (such as energetic, reckless (very good!), temperate, valorous, wise, just, honest, generous, merciful, forgiving). And it's preferable, if he doesn't have too much negative traits (like coward, lazy, indulgent, vengeful, arbitrary, maniac (very bad!), indulgent, cruel, proud, selfish). All this influences diocese bishop's capability to get the conversion job done.

A bishop who is heretic can start converting your courtiers, it can be fun but not the best thing for your kingdom .

But usually the pope will send you lazy, lustful, sceptical guys .

 

[Eternal]

Remember that a disloyal vassal isn't necessarily a bad thing. Transfers of power are a good time to start a little housecleaning. Bribe the poor, out-of-the-way, rather loyal vassals and antagonize those that are too big, too rich, too disloyal (that are bound to be a constant nuisance) by asking them to mobilize and revoking titles. The idea is to get them to revolt, that way you can get prestige in the peace and give their territory to your heirs.

About building a powerful heir, yes you want to give him many titles but depending on your inheritance law this could backfire if he dies before you do. Remember to give him the occaisonal gift so that he can build things like churches and castles in his demesne.

 

[unmerged(7537)]

5. the bishop doesn't revoke vassal titles (only necessery if you - like me - want to keep your starting counts alive. Dukes will revoke titles when they get kids)

Not true. I had archbishops revoke their vassals' lands in my lastest game as Hohenstaufen.

 

[unmerged(75851)]

Mass-bribing of your vassals has benefits- they pump the money into their economies improving their tech research, the amount of gold they give you, building roads and having more troops on hand.

Revolts aren't always a good thing, they cause pretty nasty stability hits. (and this game can be terrible about increasing stability while it decreases it fairly easily) Generally assassinating a guy's spymaster then assassinating the guy (if he's rebellious and causes too much trouble) is a good idea.


Early in the game it's most important to focus on building a strong, healthy economy. With lots of money you can handle lots of troublesome things.

 

[unmerged(84239)]

Not true. I had archbishops revoke their vassals' lands in my lastest game as Hohenstaufen.

Well, AI ruler revoke titles when they have a kid.
When you marry your girl to your priest, and later give the guy a duchy, he will revoke count titles. But since they don't marry on their own, it is a very rare thing for them to revoke titles.

 

[unmerged(7537)]

Well, AI ruler revoke titles when they have a kid.
When you marry your girl to your priest, and later give the guy a duchy, he will revoke count titles. But since they don't marry on their own, it is a very rare thing for them to revoke titles.

The thing is, he didn't give any counties away. He just sat there on his two province demesne for the rest of the game.

 

[luitzen]

I have now plenty of money in my Nubia game, only problem is that the Prince of Beloozero can mobilize 60k troops and his loyalty is difficult to keep up at times and the Prince of Sames holds 10 principality titles and whenever I try to revoke one of them, I need to bribe the prince of Beloozero for a lot of money.

What is your advice, do you want lots of counts as vassals or would it be better to have only a fiew counts as vassals and give the counties to your princes?