Favorite/Least Favorite forms of Succession and Why?

[Rowley]

Just curious about what thoughts people have on the topic, since most often it's complaints.

My favorite succession law is Feudal elective. I'm not sure why a lot of people have so much difficulty with it, given that as far as I typically see it just boils down to not ****ing off your entire realm or being a tyrant. It's even pretty easy to manipulate through various means, such as murdering the other people in line that get a significant number of votes, raising my chosen heir with a focus on diplomacy (given that voting preference does greatly depend on how much the choice is liked) or filling my realm with members of my own dynasty so that it doesn't matter who they vote for.

I will acnowledge that starting as certain nations makes it extremely hard though, such as either of the Francias. Huge, pre-existing Kingdoms and Empires are always a giant disorganized mess, which is why I prefer to start as a Count and piece together my own Realm so that I know where everything is, establish clean borders, and keep primarily people of my own culture.

As for my least favorite...the predictable ol' Elective Gavelkind. You can game it or manipulate it by controlling your number of heirs, but that's not terribly fun. If you play it legitimately, you're going to have a terrible time unless you can form an Empire very quickly, and even then it can be a throbbing ache.

[My Name is Mud]

Elective Gavelkind is totally made up nonsense and I have no idea why it exists.

[Neshamah]

Feudal Elective ASAP.

[al_x_ator2411]

Still in my 1st playthrough and I've basically only experienced feudal elective because the lords forced me into it very early on (I don't own conclave and they had already lowered my crown laws so they had nothing else to faction for). I honestly thought that I had lost the game! But since I had already spread my dynasty all over the realm (just for the prestige) elective served me just fine. It it kept serving me. There were a couple of mediocre rulers (but with high diplomacy) over the years but the top title was never lost.

Of course, if one plays ironman, it can get pretty risky. After each succession there is a period of a few years when an old lecherous ogre with high diplo gets the most votes. If the new ruler dies young (quite common) before he has managed to steer the lords towards the desired heir, it can lead to a bad succession or loss of top title.

[Marcus]

Elective monarchy for me - always! I have always had the best candidate become emperor!

[Gnome Boy]

1. Feudal Elective
2. Ultimogeniture
3. Primogeniture
4. Gavelkin
5. Tanistry
6. Elective Gavelkin
?. Seniority

I like feudal elective the best, since I like to make my dynasties BIG with thousands of relatives and elective encourages that the most. There are no pretenders and you get a big bonus from having many landed dynasty members. Also it allowes you to have your genius strong 16-year-old 3. grade cousin to inherit instead of your imbecil 50-year-old sons.

Ultimogeniture and Primogeniture are both fine, since they make the game relatively safe. However I prefer Ultimogeniture since it allowes me to change my heir if desired. I also get younger heirs which leads to higher long reign boni. You get a few regencies, but honestly I don't understand why everyone freaks out about them. They are easy to handle.

Gavelkin is OK for small realms, since it gives extra demesne. However you want to keep as few children as you can, and only one son. This, sadly, keeps my dynasties small, since the only way to grow is to marry daughters matrilineary.

I don't like tanistry since it always lets some old ♥♥♥♥ with 0 diplo and steward inherit.

I dislike elective Gavelkind the most since it destroys your realm, even if you only have one son, since your vassals will prefer your idiot brother as heir. And so your realm gets dividet.

I have never played with seniority, but I guess it should be fine if you are not norse.