Then start improving the surrounding areas, if you want to. Instead, spend your money on buildings and founding new cities, castles, and temples in your capital county only until you have no room to do so any more. So it doesn’t make sense to invest in anything else until you’re sure you’re going to be able to hang onto it across the generations. The only lands your primary heir is guaranteed to keep (short of murdering all of their siblings, which is also a valid playstyle) are your primary Empire, Kingdom, Duchy, and County titles-one of each.

Unless you play as a culture that has a different succession method, such as Celtic Tanistry, you’ll be stuck with this state of affairs until at least the 1200s.

In layman's terms that means when you die your lands will be roughly divided between all your eligible children. (Image credit: Paradox Interactive ) Focus on one county, especially early onĪlmost all realms begin with the Confederate Partition or Partition succession law. And by then, it’s often too late to really do anything about it except fight a bloody civil war against the malcontents. You’ll usually only be informed about this when they’ve created a rebellious faction close to presenting you with certain demands: Invariably it's lower taxes, independence, or a different leader on your throne.

Check on your vassals’ happiness regularlyĬrusader Kings 3’s pop-ups tell you a lot, but not when your vassals are unhappy. You’re always accumulating progress in some way, so try enjoy the story even if the borders of your kingdom fracture or shrink. Unlocking new legal innovations in later eras will also allow you to create more stability by, for instance, getting rid of that pesky partition succession and letting your main heir keep all your land when you die. And with the addition of dynastic Renown, you’ll unlock perks for your whole dynasty over the years that you get to keep forever, no matter what your house’s current fortunes hold. Vassal’s will contribute, but holdings under your sway provide the best benefits.As long as your dynasty doesn’t die out, and you don’t lose your last county, you can always rebuild. This indicates that title has one of your holdings on it, and you want to maximize how many holdings you directly own to increase your taxes and levies. You can select any available titles and gift as many as you desire to a single person in a one go, but remember to keep an eye out for the building icon next to some of your titles. You can grant titles either by right-clicking on a character’s portrait and selecting the option towards the bottom, or by clicking on your realm’s banner next to your character portrait in the bottom-right of the HUD (it’s also in your character sheet, just below your avatar and traits). Titles are passed on based on your realm’s succession laws, so take those into account when handing off a duchy to one of your subjects: if their heirs don’t fall under your house and start to marry into other dynasties you risk losing that territory when the title is handed down to someone who doesn’t consider you their liege. You don’t want to give someone a title equal to your highest title lest you want them to become and independent nation, and you want to spread the wealth around a bit to avoid one family consolidating too much power. Since these people will remain your vassals the land will still count towards your realm, but you’ll need to be mindful of who you’re giving all this power to.

Crusader kings 3 succession