Prestige Hit VS Genius Trait?

[SidmanII]

I just started my first Ironman game as Fairhair of Ostlandet. I instantly divorced my wife since she didnt have good stats, education (skilled tactician female, really?), or traits. Fairhair always starts as quick which is nice but I want to breed genius in. I was able to find the perfect bride who is genius, 16, and lustful. But because she is a courtier -200 prestige will hit me like a truck since I'm a duke. Should I or should I not marry her?

[Optimus Princeps]

I would, you should be able to get some prestige back when you get married and imo 100-200 prestige is not a huge amount. Win a war and you will be back to where you were again.

[Rowley]

You could always seduction focus her and repeatedly seduce, and later legitimize the child if you get lucky enough to have one. Higher chance of getting her pregnant than the randomized one from being married.

But to answer the question more directly, it depends on what you'd otherwise use that prestige for. The relation modifier isn't that great for 200 prestige, though you should consider what you would spend that prestige on, -if- you would as a measley low grade Duke.

[Red Dragon]

Quick and genius exclude each other, but quick & strong or genius & strong is possible though unlikely. I think the chance of passing on one good congenital traits was 15% per parent.

There's no feeling like the unbounded joy when you get a strong genius male heir and then the absolute horror, when you discover he contracted lepra around age 19 and a few years later he dies before ever getting to reign for even a year. Alas, all attempts to couple him with the lustiest wench were fruitless as well.

Take the prestige hit, nothing like the highs and lows in this game when you discover you've fathered a genius and the bittersweet moment the sun dawns on his epic reign.

[Victim of the Demiurge]

Originally posted by SidmanII:

I just started my first Ironman game as Fairhair of Ostlandet. I instantly divorced my wife since she didnt have good stats, education (skilled tactician female, really?), or traits. Fairhair always starts as quick which is nice but I want to breed genius in. I was able to find the perfect bride who is genius, 16, and lustful. But because she is a courtier -200 prestige will hit me like a truck since I'm a duke. Should I or should I not marry her?

for genious 16 and lustful you should give up a duchy and 200 gold if necessary

[SidmanII]

So here's how that playthrough went. I took the advice here and married her, then I discovered you guys were right and that I was able to make up the prestige in 3 subjugations. However, 6 years later she dies of pnuemonia and none of the 3 sons Fairhair had with her had either genius or quick. By this time I've subjugated all of Norway and had raided barely enough gold to form the kingdom of Norway. I then took a strong woman as a wife and another strong woman as a concubine since the wife who died earlier was the only genius germanic woman. Then I realized I got super ♥♥♥♥-punched by a glitch that used up my once-in-a-lifetime subjugation on one of those lowly counts in Norway despite having the "become king of Norway" ambition. I even triple checked to be sure I was subjugating only Norwegians. So I couldnt subjugate either of the major guys in Sweden or Denmark. Then I settled on a prepared invasion of Wessex since it clearly said on the diplo screen the petty king only had 1k troops to my 3k troops plus event spawned troops. When I declared invasion and landed with my total of 9k troops the Wessex petty king pulled a 12k troop army out of his sleeve, destroyed my entire army, and made Fairhair incapable. I later learned that every single catholic on the British Isles was allied with him so I guess prepared invasion acts like a holy war. I surrendered, Fairhair died incapable a year later and his uncle inherited. That guy wasn't that was mediocre and died of sickness months later leaving the throne to my 11 year old son who everyone hated. Thats when I decided to quit that playthrough and the next time I play as a germanic pagan I'll subjugate someone big outside my de jure kingdom first because I wholly believe that all my troubles began when the game ate up my only subjugation.

[Varainger]

I don't get the Norway part here.
First you say:

"By this time I've subjugated all of Norway"

then you say;
"Then I realized I got super ♥♥♥♥-punched by a glitch that used up my once-in-a-lifetime subjugation on one of those lowly counts in Norway despite having the "become king of Norway" ambition"

?? You had already subjugated all of Norway. Where is the glitch ?
I guess i misunderstood something.

Reading your story was well worth it. :)

[SidmanII]

The glitch is in the first few years into the game one of those wars of subjugation in Norway ate up the once-in-a-lifetime subjugation instead of drawing from the infinite pool of subjugations one gets with the "become king of X de jure kingdom" ambition. So I was intending to use the infinite subjugations only on Norwegian counts and save the once-in-a-lifetime one for the Duchy of Sweden (says Svithjod in-game). But the game ate up the once-in-a-lifetime subjugation instead of one of the infinite de jure kingdom subjugations. It could either be bad priority of when to which one in the coding or maybe because of the slight chance I subjugated a count in Sweden or Finland by accident.

Looking back I guess I could've been more clear at first but I realized it was starting to look like a wall of text and didn't go into much detail. And thanks for reading my Tale of Harald Fairhair the Unfortunate. :)