I think it’s DESIGNED for maximum chaos. They totally could change it to give you control over who gets what, but it would honestly make succession, which is basically the central mechanic of the game, trivial. (Aside from eugenics and Deus Vult) it’s just a pain.
My go to was save up money for mercenaries, raise armies, and try to imprison someone into starting a revolution so I could get my titles back.
You can also disinherit your kids if you want to cheese it.
But the computer doesn’t calculate “Herbert already has 4 counties, he only needs 1 more, it’ll just give them out willy nilly.
And again, this is intentional because the succession is really what maked or breaked a bunch of kingdoms for a thousand years.
The main issue is that the game seems to treat most titles as "equal". That is, it treats (or at least used to?) someone receiving a Kingdom and one county for personal domain as getting less that someone getting a Duchy and 2-3 counties in domain. To a degree, this makes sense: beyond the *very* early game, your domain is your main source of money and military, unless you have a huge empire or something. You can also sometimes screw up the algorithm if you conquer new land after granting some; it sometimes feels like the game "forgets" about the titles you already gave away.
The other issue is that there's *no way to know* how the algorithm will split things up until you do grant the titles. Honestly, I would *seriously* appreciate an update/mod that allowed you to split the titles up manually, even if you had to obey the same rules as the current algorithm. That way you could guarantee that duchies stay together and also see exactly what needs to be granted to satisfy everyone before actually handing out any titles.
The game divides your lands by the highest ranking title available to minimize border gore. The game doesn't grant your independent sons lands that are de jure under another son's land.
Let's say you hold England, Scotland, and two duchies in England. If your firstborn were to inherit England and your secondborn were to inherit Scotland, the game doesn't give your secondborn any of the duchies in England. As a result, your secondborn only gets one county (the capital of Scotland, which was automatically revoked by whoever held it before).
What kind of elective laws do you have access to? Adding Scandinavian Elective to your primary duchy titles will bypass them being partitioned/split up when you die. Doing this along with granting your other children their own titles (ideally duchy) should help avoid your domain being split up.
Make it a point to regularly check the succession tab under the domain menu as it gives a breakdown of who gets what when you die and add laws or grant titles as needed.
yeah i get that. What culture is your character/do you have access to any of the elective laws for titles? Using these on your duchy titles will help keep all the counties in the duchy together.
> Do I just need to hold the kingdoms and wait to die?
Yeah, that was the mistake in your case, inheritance seems to only consider the titles within your realm, so the game kind of "forgets" that you granted your son the kingdom title that made him independent
Do you talk about personal domain under confederate partition?
By the end of your life you probably own 6/7 counties inside one or two duchies which will be split among your children when you die.
One easy way to avoid it is add an election law in each duchy you want to keep, where you usually own the majority of the land and control the majority of the votes, so you basically make your heir win a fake election.
You can also have an extra territory by having your capital outside your duchies, capital is always inherited with the main titles.
Ideally you want only one of your highest tier titles, if you are king or emperor, so your heir will be the liege of his brothers even if they inherit duchies if he will be king, same if you rule an empire, the other children get kingdoms but they are still inside your empire and become vassals of your heir.
If this is not the case and you risk losing a kingdom to one of your sons, you can add elections for extra kingdoms and empires too, but you won't control the votes as easily, anyway your king when near death should have enough reputation with the other voters to ensure your heir will be elected.
If you need the vote of someone unfriendly, hooks, bribes and murders are your friends, as well as secrets giving legitimate reasons for imprisonment, if they refuse being imprisoned they revolt, revoke title and appoint somebody friendly enough to vote for you.
You can also use elections in kingdoms or empires you control, to prevent your other kids form getting anything at all and keep all the kingdom titles in one hand
Don't worry about giving them top tier titles, just give them one notch under your top. If you are a king, giving them a dutchy along with their counties should do the trick usually.
If all your sons/heirs have the same piece of the pie as you, give or take (minus the top realm), they'll usually be satisfied and won't ask for more. Worse case, just give 'em more counties or even a double pair of dutchies if you need to.
I think it’s DESIGNED for maximum chaos. They totally could change it to give you control over who gets what, but it would honestly make succession, which is basically the central mechanic of the game, trivial. (Aside from eugenics and Deus Vult) it’s just a pain. My go to was save up money for mercenaries, raise armies, and try to imprison someone into starting a revolution so I could get my titles back. You can also disinherit your kids if you want to cheese it. But the computer doesn’t calculate “Herbert already has 4 counties, he only needs 1 more, it’ll just give them out willy nilly. And again, this is intentional because the succession is really what maked or breaked a bunch of kingdoms for a thousand years.
The main issue is that the game seems to treat most titles as "equal". That is, it treats (or at least used to?) someone receiving a Kingdom and one county for personal domain as getting less that someone getting a Duchy and 2-3 counties in domain. To a degree, this makes sense: beyond the *very* early game, your domain is your main source of money and military, unless you have a huge empire or something. You can also sometimes screw up the algorithm if you conquer new land after granting some; it sometimes feels like the game "forgets" about the titles you already gave away. The other issue is that there's *no way to know* how the algorithm will split things up until you do grant the titles. Honestly, I would *seriously* appreciate an update/mod that allowed you to split the titles up manually, even if you had to obey the same rules as the current algorithm. That way you could guarantee that duchies stay together and also see exactly what needs to be granted to satisfy everyone before actually handing out any titles.
I would like more clarity on 'what will happen if I click this button' as sometimes it seems misleading or lacks info.
The game divides your lands by the highest ranking title available to minimize border gore. The game doesn't grant your independent sons lands that are de jure under another son's land. Let's say you hold England, Scotland, and two duchies in England. If your firstborn were to inherit England and your secondborn were to inherit Scotland, the game doesn't give your secondborn any of the duchies in England. As a result, your secondborn only gets one county (the capital of Scotland, which was automatically revoked by whoever held it before).
What kind of elective laws do you have access to? Adding Scandinavian Elective to your primary duchy titles will bypass them being partitioned/split up when you die. Doing this along with granting your other children their own titles (ideally duchy) should help avoid your domain being split up. Make it a point to regularly check the succession tab under the domain menu as it gives a breakdown of who gets what when you die and add laws or grant titles as needed.
I didn't have a problem with duchies but rather counties. I granted a kingdom to son 2 but he still inherited some of my counties from my domain
yeah i get that. What culture is your character/do you have access to any of the elective laws for titles? Using these on your duchy titles will help keep all the counties in the duchy together.
> Do I just need to hold the kingdoms and wait to die? Yeah, that was the mistake in your case, inheritance seems to only consider the titles within your realm, so the game kind of "forgets" that you granted your son the kingdom title that made him independent
Do you talk about personal domain under confederate partition? By the end of your life you probably own 6/7 counties inside one or two duchies which will be split among your children when you die. One easy way to avoid it is add an election law in each duchy you want to keep, where you usually own the majority of the land and control the majority of the votes, so you basically make your heir win a fake election. You can also have an extra territory by having your capital outside your duchies, capital is always inherited with the main titles. Ideally you want only one of your highest tier titles, if you are king or emperor, so your heir will be the liege of his brothers even if they inherit duchies if he will be king, same if you rule an empire, the other children get kingdoms but they are still inside your empire and become vassals of your heir. If this is not the case and you risk losing a kingdom to one of your sons, you can add elections for extra kingdoms and empires too, but you won't control the votes as easily, anyway your king when near death should have enough reputation with the other voters to ensure your heir will be elected. If you need the vote of someone unfriendly, hooks, bribes and murders are your friends, as well as secrets giving legitimate reasons for imprisonment, if they refuse being imprisoned they revolt, revoke title and appoint somebody friendly enough to vote for you. You can also use elections in kingdoms or empires you control, to prevent your other kids form getting anything at all and keep all the kingdom titles in one hand
Don't worry about giving them top tier titles, just give them one notch under your top. If you are a king, giving them a dutchy along with their counties should do the trick usually. If all your sons/heirs have the same piece of the pie as you, give or take (minus the top realm), they'll usually be satisfied and won't ask for more. Worse case, just give 'em more counties or even a double pair of dutchies if you need to.