Loyalty of captured settlements

[CountMRVHS]

Is there any way to "prepare the ground" for your invasion, in terms of lowering unrest or cultural penalties of recently-captured settlements?

As the Men of Alba, I've just started to turn my greedy expansionist eyes south toward the Northumbrians. Things are going well, but I wonder if I'm missing any special tricks to ease the loyalty problems. In BI for FATW, for example, you'd start by sending agents and generals into the target province in order to change the religion/alignment to your own faction's. But in this case, both my faction and the Northumbrian faction are Christian, so the religion isn't an issue. But culture penalties and unrest are pretty sizeable, even after exterminating.

Not that I'm complaining -- I very much enjoy the more realistic pace of conquest. I just want to be sure I'm using all strategies at my disposal.

Does it have something to do with the "Insular Christian" vs "Roman Christian" thing? And if so, is there any way to actively address the unrest apart from the usual (destroy buildings not of your culture, build your own buildings, train up a garrison, use good governors, etc, etc)?

[Aradan]

Insular/Roman christian: Your generals have a small chance per turn to be converted from one to the other, if they stay in a settlement of the opposite kind of christianity. Apart from that, not much you can do about it.

Spies and characters still work the same here as in FATW, and they can help a lot. Characters will get the 'local governor' trait when they stay in the settlement the title of which they have, which will boost law there. Viking characters also receive a 'dread' trait after enslaving/exterminating a settlement that fades away slowly and gives them law/tax bonuses. Of course be mindful of enemy characters in the region as well.

Each region however has a fixed law penalty (among other things) depending on owning faction, so saxon regions have an aversion towards Celts and vice versa. Culture penalties per se are hardcoded, so you need to increase the ratio of your culture's buildings/other culture's buildings in the settlement.

Hmm, can't think of anything else.

[CountMRVHS]

Thanks -- so that explains why one of my old generals suddenly became a Roman Christian!

I'm very much enjoying the system of titles. It's mostly intuitive -- leave a general in a settlement and he'll get the title (assuming no one else has it); then next turn he'll get the *effects* of said title, and if he stays put further he gets the nice Local Lord bonus.

Now that I've built up to the highest tier of buildings, I'm seeing some new titles being distributed to my family. Olach (Boon Companion) was one, and something like "Sait" was the other. I assume these have to do with the presence of some high level buildings I've made.

Good times. Although I'm afraid I've reached the point where my trusty Light Horsemen are no longer going to cut it... Looks like it's time for me to throw together some elite units to face the frighteningly powerful West Saxons!

[Aradan]

Apart from titles, the only other ancillaries in the game are princesses/bishops (for diplomats) and the 4 ancillaries that existed in vanilla VI, and are tied to high-tier buildings. Glad you like the title system, that took a bit of work to get right.

I think Mormaers are going to suit you against the heavy saxon troops.

[CountMRVHS]

Ah yes -- speaking of the princesses, what are the conditions under which they will appear in an emissary's retinue? I've had a few emissaries but no princesses yet. Should I be keeping them in a royal settlement, or is it just a random percentage chance every turn that a princess will appear?

And yes, Mormaers are sweet!

[Aradan]

Princesses are available from city+ settlement levels in several key-settlements like Elmham, Maelmin, Ribe, Leicastir, Dinas Emrys, Temhair Na Ri, Uintanceastir, Dunadd, etc etc. The settlements where princesses are available say so in the regional info building. The max number you can have depends on the number of settlements you have, with 10 being the max.