Crusader Kings 2: Elective Monarchy

In the previous post, I had to do something to stop the split of my realm. The Tanistry electors voted for different heir for my 2 kingdoms. In the end, I chose to switch succession law to Elective Monarchy:

The ruler and each lower rank vassal (i.e. dukes if the ruler is a king) can nominate a successor from among themselves and legitimate children and siblings of the ruler. Dukes are valid electors in both Kingdoms and Empires. Elective Succession is very popular with the vassals, but they will not approve if their liege personally holds too many elective titles.

The applicable opinion bonus/penalty are as follows:

Oldest child -30
Other children -10
Members of dynasty -5
Vassals +20

Yes, there is a huge opinion bonus from vassals. In fact, it's the largest given by any succession law and I believed that contributed significantly to the stability of my realm.

Unlike Tanistry, you know the main reasons for electors choosing your nominated successor or not. They are:
(1) Their opinion of you; and
(2) Their opinion of your nominated successor.

Hence, one strategy is to groom your dynasty members to have the trait Grey Eminence i.e. high in Diplomacy skill. I didn't do this at the outset (I was focusing on good old Stewardship) and so sometimes had trouble getting them to vote for my choice. If I could live with their choice, then I would switch my nomination too. If not, I tried bribing them with gold and/or created new duchies. The latter usually works but usually becomes a problem in the long term.

One funny incident was this: I really wanted this person to be my heir. I was outvoted by 2-1. So I gave one county to my chosen successor, created a duchy and bestowed that upon him. I was expecting him to nominate himself and thereby resulting in a 2-2 vote. FYI, in the event of a tie, the current ruler's vote breaks the tie. However, shockingly, he voted for the chosen successor of the electors. Lol, goodness.

I started an ironman game and went for this succession law a.s.a.p. My strategy is to groom dynasty members to have Grey Eminence trait, marry the ones with good stats with spouses great in stewardship (preferably Midas Touch), and grant duchies only to dynasty members (so that even if the majority nominate a duke, it'll likely to be a dynasty member). Once a while, after taking into account of the risk of doing this, I had to create or revoke a duchy title to tilt the votes.

A significant problem I encountered was the slow expansion of realm compared to, say, Primogeniture. The latter can expand faster via inheritance. I'll discuss this a little more when I post about this ironman game (plenty of frustrating scenario lol).


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