What is the best form of succession?

[Kalvix]

I'm getting confused, I had the gavelkind one that just made me lose a large chunk of my kingdom when I died, so I tried tanistry and that has ended up with some random brother I had forgotten existed cos he was married off for being useless being voted in as the new ruler.

Is there a better system? or while you're still in the tribal system is that about the best you can expect.

[Kalvix]

Bah and now the successor keeps changing constantly, what does it take to just pass it onto 1 son :( or do I just need Gavelkind and kill every other son I have to avoid this crap.

[dv]

Gavelkind and elective gavelkind are not exactly good. For a christian tribal, tanistry is the best option.

You can bribe electors to vote your way (i.e. buy a favour and call in succession support). You probably cannot afford that, though.

Reformed pagan tribals can use eldership succession which is similar to tanistry.

After the change from tribal to feudal, more and better options become available.

[ajacous]

turn your goverment type into feudal and change the succession to primogeniture. It's the best one

[Kalvix]

ah ok, ye I kinda assumed they'd vote my way as most of them liked me, then they voted in a random cousin and ended the war I was in to gain land, though mainly because my stupid brother poisoned me (though I did poison him right back).

Dammit life as a ruler was hard...

[John Baller]

Tanistry is the most reliable succession you can normally get as tribal. Depending on the situation, gavelkind could be better if you use it correctly. Gavelkind gives you 30% more demesne than other succession laws, so that is also something to consider.

If you use gavelkind, you usually want to only have 1 son. You can do that by imprisoning/divorcing your spouse after having a son and/or making bastards, while only legitimizing girls. You can then marry an infertile 45+ woman with high stats for the attributes instead.

Alternatively you can expand your demesne rapidly and hand out titles to your other sons. I haven't used gavelkind for a while, so I am not 100% sure, but i think the way it worked was that granting titles going to them from the alert at the top to lesser sons starts to count towards the gavelkind title division. If you keep expanding and granting only the bad titles you don't want to hold in your demesne, then you wont lose anything on succession.

[simeon369]

Originally posted by Kalvix:

ah ok, ye I kinda assumed they'd vote my way as most of them liked me, then they voted in a random cousin and ended the war I was in to gain land, though mainly because my stupid brother poisoned me (though I did poison him right back).

Dammit life as a ruler was hard...

if they are "Malcontent" they will always Go for the option that gives them more power, there should be a little symbol next to them that will let you know when you mouse over it..

[bri]

It depends a lot on how big you are/plan to get. If you intend to stay small enough to control the election completely then elective is the best. If you want to blob out then primo or ultimo (preferably with meritocracy) will be safer although you can end up with drooling idiots if you're unlucky.

[Das Boot]

Meritocratic Primogeniture is the best succession system, because it keeps your realm together under one heir whom you can choose.

You can get that in the gavelkind system by never marrying, seducing a lot of single women, and only legitimizing one of the resulting bastards. That way, since you only have one heir, your throne isn't divided.

[bri]

Originally posted by Das Boot:

Meritocratic Primogeniture is the best succession system, because it keeps your realm together under one heir whom you can choose.

You can get that in the gavelkind system by never marrying, seducing a lot of single women, and only legitimizing one of the resulting bastards. That way, since you only have one heir, your throne isn't divided.

Up to a point, yes. However there will be a time when that approach will net you a game over between the chosen child ascending and them getting a new heir. It's definitely best to get away from gavelkind ASAP if you want to avoid the hassle of reuniting your realm periodically.

[Myll]

Primogeniture, and then don't worry at all about how many kids you have. In fact, you can have so many children, that you end up with plenty of help in wars from Allies. This is a significant advantage over the aforementioned strategy of Gavelkind and then only have 1 child (not much chance to Ally, high risk of lack of succession).
Granted, the Primogeniture takes some work to move toward, but that should be one of the first big goals of any CK2 game.
If you don't want the sons to compete, turn most into church/temple leaders or city mayors, or marry matrilineal out of the local area. I don't do any of this, actually, I simply have fun with the Intrigue and taking back holdings after my close relatives do something illegal. When you have numerous allies, it becomes a matter of "which one" to pick to put down the latest revolt, and then proceed to regain more free land, and redistribute it to your next Primo Heir.

[Captain Skinny]

Two things, fist, Primogeniture is good but Ultimogeniture is better. With Primo sometimes you become king at 50, with Ultimo you become king at 19. The only balance is the occasional regency, so pick wisely. Its really nice having that long reign bonus in your 20s.
Second, man do I hate Gravelkind. Its so stupid. But remember this: bishops can't inherit. I have 1 heir and 6 bishops as sons.

[Merkatz]

The Republic Seniority Elective Succession is best succession..

Outside of Republics, I prefer Ultimogeniture. You get young leaders that can rule for quite awhile and it's great for genetics. Keep popping out those kids until you get a strong, beautiful genius. Just make sure you always have a 'good' designated regent. Regencies are common in Ulti so make sure you've got someone with decent stats that loved your last ruler.

[Captain Skinny]

Originally posted by Merkatz:

The Republic Seniority Elective Succession is best succession..

Outside of Republics, I prefer Ultimogeniture. You get young leaders that can rule for quite awhile and it's great for genetics. Keep popping out those kids until you get a strong, beautiful genius. Just make sure you always have a 'good' designated regent. Regencies are common in Ulti so make sure you've got someone with decent stats that loved your last ruler.

Yes, this. I almost always use my wife/mother as regent, because she will almost certainly never screw her child.

[dv]

Originally posted by Cynocephalus I:

I almost always use my wife/mother as regent, because she will almost certainly never screw her child.

Queen/King mother/father (i.e. spouse of previous ruler) is a perfect candidate for the job. You handpicked the character a generation earlier so he should have good attributes.

During a regency, there is no spouse bonus to attributes so the spouse is a candidate for regent, too. However, spouses are not as loyal as parents.

IMHO the best succession law is feudal elective. One can buy the election to get the perfect candidate into office.