How to forge an alliance via marraige?

[Raawr]

So i'm trying to marry some of my princess' off so i can forge an alliance with a few locals, but i'm not sure exactly how one does this. I approached a foreign princess with one of my own and managed one that way but whenever i try to repeat that process with another princess the option never appears. I understand sometimes the foreign faction heir might already be married so the option might not always come up, but i don't wanna have to wander all over the world finding out who can be approached to ask. I know to marry an individual general the princess has to approach him directly, or the city he resides in.

So my question is, who/what do the diplomat and princess have to approach for the certain options to appear (marry my faction heir off/marry my princess off to a foreign heir, etc), any city/captain/princess?

[N3rull]

I know I managed to 'sell' my princess to an Heir by approaching what I believe was a faction's regular general with a diplomat. So basically yes, that should be easy.

The problem is, that:
- you don't have any access to information about foreign royal families
- even the cute ring from original medieval's character details screen, which indicated whether the character is married, was removed.
- a princess has to be married to the faction heir specifically, who is usually the oldest son of the king in case of AI factions
- generals often have 'bride presented' events occuring, particularly heirs, and
-- AI usually uses these options

Here's the problem's storyline: the first step to get a new faction heir for a faction is the death of their King, which typically happens by the age of 60 as he is very valuable and battle deaths in AI auto-resolved battles don't come often at all. Of course, you may cause the death of the leading general in battle by surrounding the wretch with spearmen, but that means you don't want an alliance with this faction.
So, once the King dies near 60 years old, his oldest son is usually 41-43 years old and is obviously married and has children. That son's (the next king's) oldest son is then typically 21-25 years old AND BY THAT TIME HE IS EITHER MARRIED OR WILL BE MARRIED IN 1-2 TURNS.
Given the facts I listed above and the CAPITALED point of the story, you have near zero chances to enter marriage alliances later than in 1-3rd turn of the game, because I believe all christian factions begin the game with unmarried heirs.

All in all, your princesses are basically screwed.

This could be corrected by either
returning to original Medieval's scheme of marrying any royal family's member (which wasn't too realistic), or
by letting the princess marry any of the King's sons (who were all considered "princes"), or
by giving the player at least basic information about the marriage status of each faction's King, Heir Apparent and the next heir apparent (somehow), or
by adding a diplomacy option of "promising a bride". It was something practiced in Medieval times that two Kings promised their children to each other a few years beforehand. One could make such a declaration and then accept/deny such action once the marriage is available. Denying would hit reputation.

Marriage alliances were important tool in Medieval times, but are useless (un-usable) in M2:TW... hello, CA

[Pyrebound]

It happens when you have a princess and you start diplomatic relations with faction that has unmarried heir. You get offer "Marry princess to faction heir" available.

[Raawr]

So basically i just have to enter negotiations with as many factions as possible (my diplomat OR princess approaching anyone/anything from a foreign faction be it general or city) and hope that they're not married or the leader just died so the new heir might be unmarried. So yea, does seem a bit silly as you're left just wandering about the map with absolutely no idea about the marraige status of foreign family members and if it's worth approaching them.

The one time i did manage in this game was about turn 20-25 i think, am playing Sicily and managed to snag the Milan faction heir with my 4 charm princess while my 7 charm princess was wandering around europe over and over trying to find a hubby.

Edit:

So what happens if you have several princess' and you approach a faction with your diplomat and actually manage to get the "Marry princess to faction heir" option, does it just select the eldest princess who might or might not have decent charm rather than the princess of your choice?

Also i was under the impression that after you'd married an heir and he became leader, after a certain time their land would become yours. I cannot remember where i read this or after what amount of time it was meant to happen.

[Exarch]

y'know, when i firsst started playing M2:TW
i was under the impression that when u married off a princess to another faction's prince, then that particular faction's territories became ur own , as in history....
or vice versa

[Samir]

and which history would that be Exarch?!

Historical marriages (daughters as well as sons) were used to legally claim the throne of a country in case the male part of the reigning family died and only daughters or noone was left, or in the case that females were not allowed to succeed the throne.

Though you had noone to sue for this right and had to enforce it militarily (either by war or just based on a show of force). most of the time this right was objected by local nobles, or other countries kings/queens/etc.

Most monarchies had a political procedere to find a new king in case the old ones family died out. Examples can be found in Bohemia (marriage alliance that worked), Poland (election of the king by nobles), Hungary (Marriage and election), Spain (war), Austria (political solution Maria Theresia), HRE (election)

[The Sweeper]

Your princesses can also steal generals if they aren't married. There's a success rate like assassination, spying, merchant acquisition missions and the like, and if she succeeds I think you get the general into your family, but she can fail, or you might even lose her to the general's charms, and your poor daughter will be lost forever.

[pwijnands]

Your princesses can also steal generals if they aren't married. There's a success rate like assassination, spying, merchant acquisition missions and the like, and if she succeeds I think you get the general into your family, but she can fail, or you might even lose her to the general's charms, and your poor daughter will be lost forever.

Better lost forever than paying 250 per turn them (that's 5 diplomats).

[Samir]

I think only the princess can marry herself off to a faction heir, or the diplomat can marry off your "first" princess (the one highest in relation with your king, either by age or degree of relation)

and forget about the land becoming yours after a while. it wont happen, neither ingame nor in history. Think about it if that would have been the case in history, every reasonable king would have killed all his sons so that they dont marry afraid to loose his country... (what do you guys smoke?! Though I admit that the idea would be great in reality and would have prevented a lot of wars )

[Razbojnik]

Try to do it during first turns of the game.I always suceed.

[N3rull]

Shortly.
1. I love people who don't read posts above. They think they discover untold news, when it's all already been said.
2. Razbojnik - the problem is that marriage alliances were an important tool throughout the whole Medieval period, not just the "first few rounds".
3. A marriage ally could get some of his other ally's lands when their family extinguished. In the original Medieval:TW.
4. If a part of a royal family tree of one Nation was from another royal family (say a bride), then in some cases the latter family, being relatives of the bride's children, could claim to have some rights to the first Nation's lands.
It didn't happen often, but it DID.

[Razbojnik]

Shortly.
1. I love people who don't read posts above. They think they discover untold news, when it's all already been said.
2. Razbojnik - the problem is that marriage alliances were an important tool throughout the whole Medieval period, not just the "first few rounds".
3. A marriage ally could get some of his other ally's lands when their family extinguished. In the original Medieval:TW.
4. If a part of a royal family tree of one Nation was from another royal family (say a bride), then in some cases the latter family, being relatives of the bride's children, could claim to have some rights to the first Nation's lands.
It didn't happen often, but it DID.

I only use marriage alliances to secure on my flank,while hammering faction on my other side.So it is not for long anyways.

[Exarch]

i had my norman prince marry a polish princess....
of course after a few rounds, when the norman prince became king, we went to war against poland.
His queen wasnt very happy about that, i can tell you, especially when we besieged her father's castle, sacking the settlement inside

[N3rull]

Whatever way you use or abuse the marriage alliances, the fact persists - the way they are, they are unusable in mid game, which sucks.

I personally like playing the game to its deepest. I like forming alliances with a number of factions and help them out. I like seeing my relations with them at perfect. I like seeing my rep go up over time. I like seeing that sometimes AI factions allied with me would actually help me out.
A game of "me against everything" which quickly turns into "everything is mine" is boring for me. A game of "superpower me who manipulates the whole known World, which thinks is independent, at the smallest move of the little finger", that's fun. Like the USA wants to be today.
And in that sort of game the lack of mid game marriage alliances hurts.

[Flipcharmer]

Whatever way you use or abuse the marriage alliances, the fact persists - the way they are, they are unusable in mid game, which sucks.

I personally like playing the game to its deepest. I like forming alliances with a number of factions and help them out. I like seeing my relations with them at perfect. I like seeing my rep go up over time. I like seeing that sometimes AI factions allied with me would actually help me out.
A game of "me against everything" which quickly turns into "everything is mine" is boring for me. A game of "superpower me who manipulates the whole known World, which thinks is independent, at the smallest move of the little finger", that's fun. Like the USA wants to be today.
And in that sort of game the lack of mid game marriage alliances hurts.

I feel the same way. I get bored when it's "Me vs. World" scenario. I want to be able to control the world behind the scene. Have a nation at my disposal to "help" me out, serve as a meat shield, help me corner an enemy and backstab them later on my whims . It's too bad that marriage alliances during mid or late in the game is based purely out of luck.

I just hope that there are more diplomatic options in the next game!

[Dark Highlander]

Whatever way you use or abuse the marriage alliances, the fact persists - the way they are, they are unusable in mid game, which sucks.

I personally like playing the game to its deepest. I like forming alliances with a number of factions and help them out. I like seeing my relations with them at perfect. I like seeing my rep go up over time. I like seeing that sometimes AI factions allied with me would actually help me out. A game of "me against everything" which quickly turns into "everything is mine" is boring for me. A game of "superpower me who manipulates the whole known World, which thinks is independent, at the smallest move of the little finger", that's fun. Like the USA wants to be today. And in that sort of game the lack of mid game marriage alliances hurts.

I agree absolutely.

This could be corrected...
...by adding a diplomacy option of "promising a bride". It was something practiced in Medieval times that two Kings promised their children to each other a few years beforehand. One could make such a declaration and then accept/deny such action once the marriage is available. Denying would hit reputation.

That is a cool idea, I really like it.


I'd also quite like to see the option for a general to seduce a princess. (It would be quite limited, by proximity and territory, but it'd give us something to do about all those loose women.)

And they really should have increased the aggressiveness of AI princesses in the seduction area I think, they'll sit around outside settlements bowing every turn (trying to bribe the inhabitants maybe?) but I've never seen one try to pinch a general. - Has anyone?

[foolfromhell]

If the Faction Leader is unmarried, you can have a princess marry him.

In my Milan campaign, I had only ONE general left since the other 3 died of the plague.

He was unmarried and Venice came to me and asked to marry a Venetian Princess to my Faction leader.

[Nikodemus]

in my newest Vanilla game, i have marriage alliance with Spain,France,HRE, and Scotland...all of this in around five turns from the start.