Fabricating Claims not working?

[Nubnut]

So I've been sitting on my Byzantine Empire game trying to fabricate a claim on some territories in Ferrara (Going to rebuild the Roman empire) but I've not gotten a single claim in the 75 years now that I've been trying. I've had my chancellors, who over the years has had anywhere from 10% chance a month to 18% chance a month sitting there at all times, and still nothing.

Have I just experienced the worst luck known to man kind or am I missing something?

EDIT: I think it's also worth noting that in those 75 years of constant claim fabrication my chancellor was never once detected either.

[CookieMagic]

It's all random number generator. One time I have a ruler at 25 years old healthy inherit the lands then 1 day later die from natural causes.

[BadIdeas]

It took me 40 something years to get a claim in ireland, the entire time i had the max claim rate of 19.38% yearly

[Phat Ninja]

Though this shouldn't matter in theory, I have found that occassionally recalling your councilors and reassigning them - even to the same job and location - seems to trigger success (or failure) shortly thereafter. Of course it's all random so there's no way to prove correlation.

That said, Fabricating Claims is (in my opinion) the worst way to gain new territory. It costs money (a lot since it's a multiplier of your monthly income) and prestige and there are other (in my opinion better) uses for a Chancellor. As an Emperor you have the ability to press Count, Duke, and King claims and vassalize the resulting ruler, so find someone with a claim on the County of Ferrara, Duchy of Ferrara, or Kingdom of Italy, land them, and press the claim against whoever currently holds the title in question. Not only will you gain the desired territory but you'll have a new vassal with high opinion of you and maybe some claims on even more land.

[markdb92]

For some land you have no choice but to fabricate claim for such as venice and the Uk since they are not next to you land wise.

[Bennywhise]

I'm with dyer wolf on this one. I marry my relatives to other people who have claims on some lands and start the war that way. Then, through assassinations, I ensure the land will belong to me once.

[Nubnut]

I actually ended up doing just that, got someone who had a claim on Tuscany, then one on Ferrara and another on Verona, and by that time I had enough land that I could usurp the kingdom of Italy and do de jure claims on the rest.

The Roman Empire is almost reformed! (And I did in fact get the fabricate claim about 10 years after I posted this).