Best Succession Laws Ck2
The best succession laws are the ones that don't split your realm upon death (so Gavelkind is ruled out) and carry the least amount of risk.I rate Primogeniture the highest because it's the easiest to manage. You know that your firstborn son is going to be your heir so you can make sure he gets the best mentor and a good wife etc. If your firstborn has bad stats, you can always use intrigue focus to get rid of him. If I can't pick Primogeniture from the start (due to crown authority), then Ultimogeniture is a good alternative, just keep having children until you get one with good stats. The issue here is you need to stop having children (imprison/kill/divorce your wife) at around 30-40 years old otherwise you risk being stuck in a long regency.I rarely use the other succession laws, but Tanistry is good for unreformed pagans (it's not too difficult to switch to a celtic culture assuming you're Norse). Even though the AI seems to vote randomly in Tanistry so you probably won't get to play exactly who you wanted to, it's still better than Gavelkind.
CK2 Succession Games: Habsburg & d'Ibelin - Seperallis - Click here for the old thread (why you want to, I don't know.) CK2 SUCCESSION GAME First things first: what is a succession game? Each player takes a character in the dynasty. When your character dies, you send the save game to the next player, who plays the next character. This article covers how to avoid succession crisis. For a guide on succession laws go here: Succession Laws For new players who need to deal with succession crises (e.g. Huge vassal revolt risk, vassals declaring war one by one) or anybody who could use some help in getting this stuff in order.
Some people like Elective Monarchy, but unless you hold the majority of the votes or ensure that majority of the voters are of your dynasty, there's always the risk that you can lose your titles, even if all the voters love you. Not to mention that when you have mutiple king titles, it can be a bit of a pain to make sure your heir gets everything. Agnatic-cognatic elective is my favorite since it's essentially a free pick.
So long as your lords are of the same culture and like you, they will almost always vote for you. As a bonus, since it's available at limited crown authority and for some reason the AI rarely adopts an elective system, it means your vassals will mostly be stuck with gavelkind, which keeps their powers weak, the borders clean and your dynasty in as many holdings as possible.Turkish succession is also great because again, it is basically a free pick based on which son holds the most land.
At least in my experience, Muslims also seem to gain fewer bad traits when landed and left to manage themselves, so the usual concerns about an heir immediately becoming a maimed, stressed, depressed, slothful celibate are allayed.I don't like primogeniture because I always end up having to execute useless sons, and it's terrible for your dynastic lands: since it's usually agnatic-cognatic, it allows women to gain too much land, which they then immediately piss away by marrying the first lowlife not of your dynasty.Ultimogeniture seems okay for what it is. I vaguely remember the Mongols having access to it by default.
I don't know if it's still that way, but if you're playing a Mongol that could be vital before you reform Tengrism. But like primogeniture, I'd probably end up executing far too many of my children.I've never thought about trying seniority. I don't like the idea of playing as characters who I haven't educated myself.Gavelkind is designed to be terrible, but there are ways to game the system to work around that. I like seniority succession actually. You never have to worry about non-dynastic heirs (unless your whole dynasty dies out I guess) even if your current character dies early or fails to reproduce. You can send your dude into battle to get prestige without worrying about him dying.The big disadvantages are that you end up with short reigns (invest in Majesty!) and you probably won't have educated your heir personally. It leads you to a strategy where you have to groom your whole dynasty for succession.Eugenics is the name of the game.
Your entire dynasty, not just your current children, are your gene pool. You have to look at all the males and ask if you'd want to play them, because you probably will at some point. If not, kill them, order them to take the vows, or at least marry them matrilineally so their children are someone else's problem.And if a shitty old fart does inherit it's not a big deal.
He'll probably die soon. You can always move things along by sending him into horribly mismatched battles over and over.
Problem: once you die, your sons will split up your lands. Since you have more than one top-level title (duchy, in this case), your multiple sons will split into multiple independent realms.Solution 1: MURDER. You have too many sons.
Make terrible things happen to all but one of your sons. Cross your fingers and hope your sole surviving son doesn't die until after you do.
('Terrible things' include assassination, putting them at the head of a far-too-small army and sending them to war, making them the court chaplain and sending them to proselytize to the pagans, and rarely-available plots to kill.)Solution 2: TREASON. If you only have one top-level title, then your oldest son gets that title, and your other sons will end up as vassals to your oldest son. It's time to become King of France. You'll need either a majority of the counties in France, or a claim on the French crown, or permission from the Pope to invade France (which will probably involve excommunicating the French king first). But before you can take that final step to acquire the French throne, you'll need to be independent from France itself; this can be made much easier if several other dukes are attempting to declare independence at the same time.
(Try joining or starting the Faction for Independence?)Note that your lands will still be split up among your sons, but at least your eldest son will be your other sons' liege. Your eldest son probably won't have a full demesne after the inheritance kicks off, but maybe you can pick up some counties elsewhere, via holy wars or pressing claims.Solution 3: WAR. Your sons will end up as independent nobles from each other (as vassals of the King of France), but they'll all have strong claims on each other.
Your eldest son will end up with all your money and the best lands, so have him go to war to reclaim the rest of your former lands! Make sure he gets enough money to hire mercenaries, and it will be even easier.Note that if your liege has Medium Crown Authority or higher, you won't be able to do this. At Medium authority, wars between vassals are prohibited.Solution 4.Peaceful discussion? Once per generation, you may change your inheritance laws.
Best Succession Laws Ck2 1
If all of your immediate vassals have a positive opinion of you, and they aren't at war with each other, and you've ruled for at least 10 years, then just change your inheritance law to something else. Primogeniture requires High crown authority, but you should always be able to get Elective. (Elective has its own troubles, but you should be okay for at least this one generation.) Primogeniture is the easiest succession law to control, but your pretenders will dislike you (a net -50 opinion penalty!), and you'll lose the +5 opinion bonus you had with your other vassals, but it's (usually) better than splitting up your lands. Also, switching out of gavelkind will reduce your demesne size a bit.For more details, wander through the and sections of the CK2 wiki.