Is the better King's authority a balance of dread and chivalry

[NorseThing]

I had been watching a Star Trek episode. I do not remember the title, but the premise is what interested me. Captain Kirk is separated into two Kirks by a transporter malfunction. The separation divided his personality into an aggressive side and a gentle side. The premise of the story is that one cannot survive without the other and that neither is a good decision maker or deserves to command a starship such as the Enterprise.


In Total War we seem to be a bit obsessed with either chivalry or dread as a preference for command. What if we focus on a balance rather than specialization of maximizing one or the other attribute in our heirs and likely heirs.


I was thinking of Prince Louis of France to test out the ideas. He already starts with 4 dread and my tendency was always to push it higher. Perhaps this is in error. Perhaps the best balance for command is to balance the two attributes. The current king is only 40 so there is time to remake the Prince with other attributes without being in a rush.


So what does go into a high authority rating for a King? Command is an obvious attribute, but what else goes into it? Active in the field is probably better than sitting in castle. Of course, completing a variety of buildings and knocking off the local stray bandit army is probably a good idea. What should go into creating authority? My guess if I were the designer would be a balanced approach tied to lots of activity. Although history is filled with examples of all varieties of leaders that were effective. So what path should I take to groom Prince Louis to be a future king with great authority?


As long as we are on the subject, how effective is it to increase authority of an existing King such as King Henrique of the HRE. He starts out at age forty with a respectable chivalry rating. Would pushing the chivalry rating down (doing dreadful actions!) increase his authority? Or is it best to use the chivalry rating to boost a castle towards a population suitable for the next castle level (Fortress)? I have always leaned toward the population growth. I seldom had more than one one general (may not even be a family member) at a time with more than 3 dread points. And I never seem to like adoption on the dread side of the possibilities.


In the case of the heir or likely heirs, I am not certain if this is so important over a higher authority rating. Castles grow at an acceptable rate due to farming and a modest chivalry boost, but the authority affects the game every turn. Is the fortress so important to speed the process up by 4 or 5 turns really a better play strategy?

[Gigantus]

The balance of dread and command is zero - no authority at all.

Both extremes have very high authority, but different side effects, mainly in diplomacy.

Fastest way to get dread is to get your assassins work overtime. I usually 'fix a rebel stack with two watch towers (they really love those) within their movement range and then use them as training exercise to level up my assassins which then eventually pushes up the dread - not 100% sure if it was already during the training or when killing merchants and other agents of 'normal' factions.

[Azorica]

Isn't the public order bonus from chivalry also higher? As well as having an increased chance of attracting knight orders?

[Gigantus]

I don't think it's the attribute directly but rather the underlying\included effects that get bestowed when the level changes. Example from 'Drink' trait:

    Level Paralytic
        Description Paralytic_desc
        EffectsDescription Paralytic_effects_desc
        GainMessage Paralytic_gain_desc
        Epithet Paralytic_epithet_desc
        Threshold  32 


        Effect Command -5 
        Effect Authority -5 
        Effect TaxCollection -10