How to keep vassals weak in Crusader Kings 3?

Are you struggling to maintain control over your vassals in Crusader Kings 3? In this article, we will discuss strategies on how to keep your vassals weak and prevent them from challenging your authority. By limiting their territory, using weak vassals as buffers, keeping them busy, and maintaining a strong military, you can ensure stability within your realm.

However, it is important to understand the potential disbenefits of weak vassals and also how to empower them strategically. Lastly, we will explore the importance of vassal stances and how catering to their preferences can help maintain a stable realm.

How to keep vassals weak?

1) Limit their territory: Avoid granting too much land to individual vassals. If a vassal becomes too powerful, they may pose a threat to your rule. Instead, distribute land among multiple vassals to prevent any one of them from becoming too strong.

2) Use weak vassals as buffers: If you have vassals who are weaker or have lower skill levels, you can strategically place them between more powerful vassals. This can help prevent the stronger vassals from consolidating power and potentially rebelling against you.

3) Keep them busy: Assign powerful vassals to your council positions. This way, they will be occupied with their council duties and have less time to focus on building their own power base or plotting against you.

4) Maintain a strong military: By having a strong military force, you can deter vassals from rebelling or challenging your authority. This can be achieved by investing in your military infrastructure, raising levies, and ensuring you have capable commanders leading your armies.

5) Utilize marriage alliances: Arrange marriages between your vassals and other powerful families. This can help create alliances and strengthen your realm, making it more difficult for vassals to challenge your rule.

Why to keep vassals weak?

Weaker vassals are less likely to challenge your authority or create factions against you. They have fewer resources and less influence to gather support for rebellions or civil wars.

Weak vassals are easier to manage and control. They are less likely to demand council seats or make excessive demands, allowing you to maintain stability within your realm.

Fragmenting vassal power and keeping them weak can lead to internal power struggles among them. This can divert their attention and resources away from challenging your rule, as they focus on their own conflicts.

Creating powerful vassals can lead to succession issues, as they may have the potential to form new kingdoms upon your death. Keeping vassals weak reduces the risk of creating powerful vassals who can challenge the stability of your realm after your demise.

Disbenefits of weak vassals in CK3

The main disbenefits of having weak vassals in Crusader Kings 3 include increased risk of factionalism, limited military support, reduced income and taxes, inefficient governance, and increased risk of external threats.

How to help vassals to be powerful?

One of the most straightforward ways to empower your vassals is by granting them titles. This can be done by giving them control over additional counties, duchies, or even kingdoms. By doing so, you increase their power and influence within your realm.

Assigning powerful vassals to important council positions can also help them gain more influence. Councilors have the ability to shape your realm’s policies and decisions, and by giving your vassals these positions, you provide them with a platform to exert their influence.

If your vassals have valid claims on other territories, you can support their efforts to expand by declaring war on their behalf or using diplomatic means to press their claims. This can help them gain more land and increase their power.

By arranging marriages between your vassals and influential characters, you can strengthen their alliances and increase their standing. This can provide them with additional support and resources, making them more powerful.

Supporting your vassals financially or through other means can help them build up their armies, improve their holdings, and increase their overall power. Sending them gifts, granting them loans, or providing them with artifacts can all contribute to their growth.

Vassals weakness vs Vassal Stances

It could be a good idea to prioritize certain vassal stances over others in Crusader Kings 3. By understanding the preferences and dislikes of different vassal stances, you can strategically focus on actions that will please the majority of your vassals and minimize the risk of factionalism and civil war.

For example, if you have a significant number of Courtly vassals, you can prioritize actions such as granting court positions, creating new titles, and inviting them to feasts and other activities. On the other hand, if you have a significant number of Zealot vassals, you can focus on building and upgrading Temple holdings, learning new languages, and going on pilgrimages.

By catering to the preferences of specific vassal stances, you can increase their opinion of you and reduce the likelihood of them joining factions or rebelling against your rule. However, it’s important to strike a balance and not neglect other vassal stances entirely, as this can lead to discontent among those vassals.

There isn’t a specific vassal stance that is universally good to keep weak. It depends on your specific goals and play-style. However, considerations can include keeping:

• Parochial vassals weak if you want to maintain more control over your realm
• Zealot vassals weak if you want to focus on religious aspects
• Minority vassals weak if you want to promote cultural diversity and acceptance.

Ultimately, the goal is to maintain a stable realm by keeping a majority of your vassals satisfied, while also considering the specific requirements and preferences of each vassal stance.