Dynasty AI inbreeding solutions?

[BanDHMO]

I've been giving land in my kingdom to family as I expanded, so that I will always have surviving dynasty members in power to play as. But I'm noticing that many of my AI dynasty members marry each other. It's leading to inbreeding traits and crappy stats for a lot of them, despite me going out of my way to marry my own characters and their children to geniuses, shrewd, brawny, or attractive people.

I'm assuming the AI does this because it's jockeying for a political advantage/claims/inheritances through marriage and therefore picking people inside the realm, who are all related. Is there any way to limit this? Should I leave some of my dynasty members unlanded and give more land to non-relatives to rule?

[that guy]

There's really no way to limit this since to the AI, marrying dynasty members make a lot of sense:

1. Do not have to worry about titles being inherited by non-dynasty member.
2. Non-aggression pacts within same realm is preferred (since you as their liege deal with exterior threats).
3. Our dynasty is a prestigious dynasty!

[KG]

It can help a lot if your ruler practices exogamy. Lots and lots of exogamy. IE have a mountain of children with as many different, unrelated wives/concubines/lovers as possible. The resulting children can be married off to help freshen up the family gene pool.

Best to start practicing this as early as possible.

P.S., putting "gene pool" next to "family" in a sentence is yuk. What did the Habsburgs have, anyway? A gene puddle?

[BanDHMO]

I suppose I could invite good men and women from all over the world into my court and arrange marriages with my vassal's children, like I do with my own. They will probably accept since being a liege in a marriage proposal is a big bonus. But that'll get tedious real quick.

Come to think of it, though, it's not such a terrible situation, strategically, yuck factor aside. If the main branch of the family, which I control and marry to the best candidates regardless of prestige implications, remains in control of the top title and grows stronger in genes, while the other branches managed by AI grow weaker, that just means it will be easier for the ruling branch to keep them in line. And in the catastrophic event that the main line dies out, I'll still have lots of landed dynasty members to play as, though they will need a few generations of non-inbreeding to recover.

[Azunai]

don't bother with keeping your dynasty gene pool clean. the number 1 rule for running a big empire is to keep your vassals weak. doesn't matter if they are your kin or not.

in fact, kinsmen are often more dangerous than other minor houses (since they get your dynasty prestige bonus at birth and may also have claims to stuff etc.)

so it's actually not a bad thing if some of your vassal kings are inbred imbeciles. they'll have a hard time keeping their titles against various ambitious uncles, brothers or cousins. and while they are busy consolidating their own power, they are *not* focussing on overthrowing you.

keep your own line of succession clean. don't bother with landed kinsmen. their main use is to rack up dynasty prestige so your newborn sons start with a ton of free prestige right away.

if your main line should die out and you end up playing an inbred idiot from an off branch, there's always a chance that your wife will be unchaste and your heir is actually not your true son but rather a secret cuckoo bastard who isn't even related to your messed up gene pool :)

[Platonov]

inbred idiot mean civil war against you so not good. Some opportunist can cut to size your empire.

[avil]

Originally posted by Platonov:

inbred idiot mean civil war against you so not good. Some opportunist can cut to size your empire.

Only if it's your heir.

[Gorgeous_Joe]

Some would call this a game breaking mechanic as it can potentially ruin the game and destroy your dynasty but you could also say its one of the most realistic aspects of the game as a LOT of Royal families suffer from interbreeding.

It is a HUGE problem the better you do at the game especially if you seed all the kingdoms with your own blood.

Just marry into the Byzentium Empire and open that can of worms instead.........

oh and don't forget your prestige/score is affected by your bloodline ruling land.......so sure you can conquer the world (Euroasia) but expect to be playing as an inbred drooling dwarf by the end of the game