Tips for maintaining a good bloodline

[Carpathian Wolf]

I first wanted to make a thread to ask a bit about the logic (or lack there of as i'll shortly explain) concerning how the crown gets passed down. I was playing my French campaign (which may have to be deleted. Please help rectify this injustice in the Vista Screwed me thread) and my King had 3 sons. The first one you started out with in the campaign, a louse, a total tool, and pretty much useless and is already assigned to be heir.

That isn't a problem since I guess it was already set. But then my King has two other sons while in the crusades. Both of them are young, both went on the 2nd crusade, they get married, children soon after. While the first son adopts some disloyal drunk loser I put in Toulouse and a matching disloyal drunk loser who's also adopted I put him in the castle by it. Those two are there to make sure that Portugal and Spain who are so deep in my pocket it's a technical 3 day, don't invade. They're basically paper weights.

But again loser son (number 1) doesn't have a wife, and I don't have the heart to marry any woman to the useless bastard so he meets a tragic death when he bravely but foolishly charges a rebel band alone.

I think to myself, well now I should have one of the 20 year old brothers, young, healthy, experienced in war be king! But no, drunk idiot number 1 who was adopted becomes the king and the heir becomes the other drunk idiot. They aren't even related by blood? What the hell is going on?

So then drunk idiot (somehow king) also meets a tragic death as he bravely but foolishly charges a bunch of rebels and I have this feeling the other guy will too.

I'm serious this is probably how civil wars got started back then all the time. What factors does the AI use?

Also please add tips for maintaining a good family and blood line, that sort of thing.

[Johann von Bremen]

I guess the AI chooses the "first son" of the current king to be the heir to the throne. Doesn't matter if they're related by blood or not; so long as he's the first born son, or if he's the husband of your first born daughter, or if he's the first pathetic chap you've adopted. So long as he takes the number one spot among the current king's "children", chances are he'll be the heir...

As for tips? I don't know if I could help. You see, it's inevitable to see your bloodline having some bad apples in the future. Some of your generals may end up getting corrupt or being a gambling once you have a lot of money, some of them might have a "foreign fruitcake" while away in a glorious campaign far from home. But to keep these in check, try to participate in crusades if you can, be chivalrous in battle (free prisoners), be a good ruler (build churches, gov't buildings), etc. I guess the mistake you've made was that you adopted the two pathetic s in the first place. Never adopt a loser! Keep waiting until another one shows up! Then again, the quality of the generals worthy of adoption varies for each campaign you start...

In the end it's all a matter of luck. Maybe you should restart your campaign and hope for the best.

[Samir]

some things that help with your family

first of all, no adoptions. small but exclusive family.

keep track with whom you are related via marriage alliances!!!!!

if you marry your princess to the byzantine heir and their daughter marries your faction heir who is her cousin or uncle dont be surprised to get 2 headed kids who drink and curse while wasting all the money in the treasure box.

I try to marry off a whole generation into local nobility, the marriage proposals you get from your own factions nobility for your kids and the next generation can marry throughout europes ruling families again.

use your family members wisely and often!

participate in important battles. nothing worse than to fight off an army of 10.000 invaders with a Captain Murphy and his gang. not only participate in the battle but fight with your troops. you get the best traits from killing people on the battlefield.

choose one way for a family general and keep it. Dread or Chivalry. either one, dont hop between the two.

I personally dont like family members to govern cities or castles. money comes in fast anyway after a while and they are much more useful on the battlefield than in some bar.

choosing your heir

the smaller you keep the family and the more you care and work about their traits the better your family will be.

you can choose your heir. not actively however. you sometimes have to kill a unsuited son sometimes but take care, because some at first bad looking dude gets a tough hero after his first two battles or so. usually especially if you try to kill this dude and he survives you get a mean son of a

anyway. its all about the time that the heir enters the family. its basically numbered down according to their appearence into the family and they have to be of age (so born sons dont count until they become an available unit)

I'm serious this is probably how civil wars got started back then all the time. What factors does the AI use?

hehe, +rep for that one you probably dont even know who true that is

[yong]

Never adopt family members with your king or heir unless they have really good stats.

Use your heir and his sons on the battle field. Don't leave them in a town to get drunk, fat and lazy.

[Silent Assassin]

Never adopt family members with your king or heir unless they have really good stats.

Use your heir and his sons on the battle field. Don't leave them in a town to get drunk, fat and lazy.

Thoses are good tips, having your King and Heirs in battles, gives them better traits and usualy their sons will get some of theses good traits

[King_Arthur]

I first wanted to make a thread to ask a bit about the logic (or lack there of as i'll shortly explain) concerning how the crown gets passed down. I was playing my French campaign (which may have to be deleted. Please help rectify this injustice in the Vista Screwed me thread) and my King had 3 sons. The first one you started out with in the campaign, a louse, a total tool, and pretty much useless and is already assigned to be heir.

That isn't a problem since I guess it was already set. But then my King has two other sons while in the crusades. Both of them are young, both went on the 2nd crusade, they get married, children soon after. While the first son adopts some disloyal drunk loser I put in Toulouse and a matching disloyal drunk loser who's also adopted I put him in the castle by it. Those two are there to make sure that Portugal and Spain who are so deep in my pocket it's a technical 3 day, don't invade. They're basically paper weights.

But again loser son (number 1) doesn't have a wife, and I don't have the heart to marry any woman to the useless bastard so he meets a tragic death when he bravely but foolishly charges a rebel band alone.

I think to myself, well now I should have one of the 20 year old brothers, young, healthy, experienced in war be king! But no, drunk idiot number 1 who was adopted becomes the king and the heir becomes the other drunk idiot. They aren't even related by blood? What the hell is going on?

So then drunk idiot (somehow king) also meets a tragic death as he bravely but foolishly charges a bunch of rebels and I have this feeling the other guy will too.

I'm serious this is probably how civil wars got started back then all the time. What factors does the AI use?

Also please add tips for maintaining a good family and blood line, that sort of thing.

Hmm the same things happens to me. I usually send them in a boat and attack a strong ship. But the rebel idea sounds good.

[Viking Prince]

If you are playing a Catholic faction, do not wait for a Crusade to be called. Call for a location of convenience that furthers the goals of your faction. Use the Crusade as an opportunity to improve your prince and other youthful family members. Two short stacks each lead by a family member is better than one big stack that includes two family members. (I try and not cheat by simply calling all to the Crusade on the turn of resolution and keep it to those who are really on the Crusade.)

[Silent Assassin]

If you are playing a Catholic faction, do not wait for a Crusade to be called. Call for a location of convenience that furthers the goals of your faction. Use the Crusade as an opportunity to improve your prince and other youthful family members. Two short stacks each lead by a family member is better than one big stack that includes two family members. (I try and not cheat by simply calling all to the Crusade on the turn of resolution and keep it to those who are really on the Crusade.)

Viking is right here but you can also use crusade to your advantage, some could say it's cheating but I say it's strategy. If a catholic faction is excommunated because they are attacking you, call a crusade againts them if you can this will hurt them much and you won't be penalized for it on the contrary you will get good traits for your general that will participate, money, experience to units if you win the crusade, hurt the economy and Reputation of that faction and be loved by the pope.

I don't do this if a faction is excommunated and they aren't attacking only with thoses who as treated me.

[Carpathian Wolf]

If you are playing a Catholic faction, do not wait for a Crusade to be called. Call for a location of convenience that furthers the goals of your faction. Use the Crusade as an opportunity to improve your prince and other youthful family members. Two short stacks each lead by a family member is better than one big stack that includes two family members. (I try and not cheat by simply calling all to the Crusade on the turn of resolution and keep it to those who are really on the Crusade.)

I tend to do that. I check every turn for a crusade and I use it to pick up some cities and castles I want on the way.

[Muagan_ra]

Too bad you can't direct assassins against your own faction. Would be useful, realistic and very, very medieval.

I do have an idea though, if you don't mind some bloodshed - if you can work out who needs to die so your preferred Candidate is the heir, you could have them take a stroll around wherever the Papal Inquisitors are lurking. If they're anything like they are with me, the poor blokes will be good as dead (if they have low piety). Or I suppose you could charge them all into an enemy spear wall.

I'll second the Crusade suggestion. A successful Crusade can turn an unimpressive General into a beacon of Chivalrous military might.

[DeMolay]

Too bad you can't direct assassins against your own faction. Would be useful, realistic and very, very medieval.

indeed that would be nice , it was possible in the first Medieval total war if i remember correctly

[Theseus1234]

i've recently found myself adopting close to zero candidates because of this reason. my king in my antioch kingdoms campaign is out crusading against the seljuk turks while his only son and heir is "pacifying" rebellious cities. now, my king is a pretty chivalrous guy, but his son is a MEAN mother, and since i "accidentally" killed his drunken and ignorant brother, he's all i got. i find i'm being more careful with my nice guy so i have a chance at more songs until my heir's sons are of age (12 more years...ugh) and then my prince will be the spearhead of the major assault. moral of the story, keep the line pure as it's nice to know your king is from a long lineage of generations before him. it's also a nice plot twist to have another line succeed a dying one, but that takes some careful planning. it's important in the beginning to protect your royal line so you have lots and lots of sons! then, at that point, kill off the ones you don't like and hopefully that golden child will reveal himself

[Carpathian Wolf]

I kind of run into an issue with knowing what to do with which generals. I want to have all my generals to have good traits so I try to make armies for many of them but that's too expensive. I suppose it's good to split up adminstrator types and the ones that lead battles.

Does anyone bring more than one general in an army?

[France]

Only one gen per army. If you wanna bring two generals, bring two armies.

[Viking Prince]

Only one gen per army. If you wanna bring two generals, bring two armies.

Good for role playing purposes also -- never have two captains on a ship to butcher the analogy.

[Robot Sonic]

I spend a silly amount of time trying to keep a pure blood faction and the proliferation of female children means i am muddying my thoroughbred family genes. I know the generals that come into the family are good apart from the affore mentioned drunks and money wasters etc, but i want the familt name to remain pure. Does anybody know if there are any codes to ensure mostly male children? Information on how the game decides whether to have female kids or male would help also i think. Im using the Stainless Steel Mod, which i think is awesome by the way. Im a brit so i choose the English and the family name is Plantagenet or something. I ended up with a regent at some point and expected my dead kings heir to soon be crowned so i sunk my regent in a cog on a rebel fleet along with some useless prince i had. Not only did this not make my dead kings son the prince or king, it also buggered up the family tree screen so i could only see the pic of a dead king and his slapper french wife!! 4 days of hardcore battling to get me there so i was somewhat dissapointed. Are there any files that can be altered to make more sons than daughters be born and is there a mod to choose my faction heir like it had in Rome?

[priam11]

I find that altering the files so that they come of age when they are 12. It gives a better chance to maintain that family tree when the king has a grandson.

[Robot Sonic]

I find that altering the files so that they come of age when they are 12. It gives a better chance to maintain that family tree when the king has a grandson.

Hey Priam, where is the file located and what is it called? Thanks. Ill also change the value that makes the years take more turns.

[Platomasso]

I once tried to kill of my faction heir, rambaldo the ugly, who let every town he set foot in start an instant riot and who was to stupid to control his army knife let alone his army, but i just could not get him to die. He escaped every battle I sent him in and after 7 battles he was cruelly deformed, brutally scarred and loyal as can be..! Finally loaded him on a ship only to have it win a heroic victory! I then and there banished him to the most eastern part of russia to let him die alone...

[Moon]

descr_campaign_db
it's in the Data folder and this is the relevant part.
<family_tree>
<max_age uint="90"/>
<max_age_for_marriage_for_male uint="75"/>
<max_age_for_marriage_for_female uint="40"/>
<max_age_before_death uint="105"/>
<max_age_of_child uint="10"/>
<old_age uint="60"/>
<age_of_manhood uint="16"/>
<daughters_age_of_consent uint="16"/>
<daughters_retirement_age uint="40"/>
<age_difference_min int="-10"/>
<age_difference_max int="30"/>
<parent_to_child_min_age_diff uint="12"/>
<min_adoption_age uint="20"/>
<max_adoption_age uint="30"/>
<max_age_for_conception uint="50"/>
<age_of_manhood_close uint="14"/>
<max_number_of_children uint="4"/>
</family_tree>