Wondering about title creation

[hardy_conrad]

I've noticed every now and then I'll get a message telling me I can create the duchy of something or other. Presumably it's related to having enough counties to activate that possibility? The main thing I'm curious about is why I keep getting the same duchies over and over again, I swear I've created the same one about eight times by now. Does the person I give it to matter? Is there maybe some kind of squabble amongst my vassals that breaks it up? It's actually not a bad thing exactly as it lets me rapidly ramp up legitimacy and prestige, provided I can afford to keep doing it. However if I want to get the most out of the game, and I do, I probably ought to have some sense of what's going on under the hood so to speak.

[AC Denton]

Titles can be destroyed as much as they can be created.
If you create a duchy and grant it to someone, they can lose it to someone else in a war. They can also be forced to dissolve the title by their vassals in a dissolution war.
Alternatively, they may simply just choose to destroy it on their own, to avoid rebellions and such - less common, but it happens.

All this is more common in the earlier centuries of the game. Things get more stable later on but it can still happen.

Grant titles to dynasty members that can hold it. Children are less likely to hold onto their title for example. Someone with high diplomacy or martial is more likely to keep it.

You may also consider the "Loyal Subjects" culture tradition, which makes people of your culture more loyal - as you will ideally be granting titles to dynasty members who share your culture.

[hardy_conrad]

Hmm, I'll to keep those factors in mind. Thanks for the explanation.

[armyissue69]

When you have a contested area, let the owners of the lands decide to create the title and not trouble yourself. When it comes to title management AND vassals, best to reduce vassals if you can create a title and dish it out to someone.

An example might be... you are an emperor and have a bunch of duchies in a kingdom, you could grant the kingdom to a vassal that encompasses those duchies and reduce your overall vassals. Same works for duchies over counties.

All in all, your vassals WILL create the titles on their own. Don't waste your money unless it has an advantage to you (reduce overall vassals, managing lands more efficiently, gaining needed opinion, etc)

[AC Denton]

Originally posted by armyissue69:

All in all, your vassals WILL create the titles on their own. Don't waste your money unless it has an advantage to you (reduce overall vassals, managing lands more efficiently, gaining needed opinion, etc)

This too. Early game, you only want your titles, don't create titles for vassals. They will make them themselves. Late game, make all the titles you want. if your economy is built correctly, making new titles is no problem financially and creates stability. It's just early on you want to keep them weak and distracted from uniting against you. Early game, only make new titles if you need the prestige or to grant your primary heir something etc.