How can I deal with weak heirs as Poland/Commonwealth?

[mayaknife]

It's 1540 and I've just formed the Commonwealth. Ever since forming the PU with Lithuania my heirs have all been weak claims. I'd hoped that would change when I formed the Commonwealth, but apparently not.

Is it normal to always get weak claim heirs as Poland/Commonwealth, or am I just unlucky? Is there any way around it?

Between the weak heirs and spending 5 legitimacy every couple of years to get my heir back in favour with the Sejm, my legitimacy is always hovering near zero. That's even with maximizing my Papal influence and using it to buy legitimacy whenever it gets to 60.

I expect things will get easier once I've abolished the Sejm, but that's still 70 or more years off. In the meantime I cannot afford any royal marriages, because of the 5 legitimacy hit, and I cannot afford to acquire provinces through war, because the overextension will push me into a civil war.

It seems like my only choices are to sit on my hands or take the civil war. Anyone have a better idea?

[shoki]

It's your government which gives you the heirs.
If a foreign heir wins the election it's a weak one. If your own heir wins it's a strong one.

I only played poland once since the change, but i don't remember any troubles at all. I just let a foreign heir win every time and sit on low legitimacy without any problems. Maybe pick humanism ideas for less revolt risk and to prevent some disasters.

[Surimi]

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's the reverse. If your own heir wins, it's a weak one. If a foreign heir wins it's strong. I'm guessing it's because the Sejm don't like the idea of the monarchy becoming hereditary.

Civil war is actually very easy to deal with. Just let it happen and let the rebels sieze your capital. They're replace your king (generally with a worse one, unfortunately) and the civil war is over for ever.

It's kind of like the peasant war, where all you actually have to do is accept the peasants demands (and take a huge prestige hit, but it's better than actually dealing with the peasants war).

[mayaknife]

Since posting I've found ways of making at least *some* forward progress. Legitimacy cannot go below 0 so all I have to do is wait for it to hit zero (or close to it) and then grab all of the marriages that I need with no additional penalty.

The civil war only advances if OE is 10% or more. That means that I can go to war and take provinces just so long as they don't sum to more than 2 base tax (because you get 4 OE for each point of base tax). That basically means only taking one province per war. Slow, perhaps, but better than standing still.

I like the idea of just letting the civil war happen and getting it over with, though, so I think I'll give that a shot.

Thanks for the help guys.