- Your female children should be married for alliances
- Pick alliances carefully; you will be called into war
- Allies should be close to your own territory to be useful
- Consider marrying your female children matrilineally to ensure that children are born to your dynasty
- Arrange marriages for courtiers to get more children in your court
- Educate those children to maximize their skills and get a steady stream of highly skilled councilors
- Arrange marriages for male court members with characters from outside your realm to gain their spouses as additional court members
- Arrange matrilineal marriages for female court members with characters outside of your realm to gain their spouses as additional court members
- Try to keep as many congenital traits in your court as possible to ensure availability for future marriages
- Culture has minimal impact; faith has a high impact on the willingness to accept a marriage proposal
- Consider claims potential spouses hold
- A pressed claim will be passed down as an unpressed claim to children; unpressed claims end with you
- Fertility goes down dramatically with age; choose young spouses
- The list of all possible spouses is usually too long to show all the possible candidates; use the filter function
- Choose your main spouse mainly by her skills
- The skills of the main spouse should improve your worst skills; you can assign them to assist with a certain area
- Prioritize congenital traits when choosing a spouse (use the filter)
- Children have a small probability to inherit those traits
- If you’re able to combine all 3 trait groups in one child you can use the “Strengthen Bloodline” decision
- “Strong Blood” modifier for your dynasty
- Health: Small Boost
- Chance of inheriting good congenital traits: +40%
- Chance of new good congenital traits: +400%
- “Strong Blood” modifier for your dynasty
- Keep an eye on the prestige gain/loss associated with marriage; decided by the characters standing/influence
- Utilize perks and traits to increase the willingness to accept marriage proposals via opinion increases
- Dynasty Legacy “Desirable Match” from the Glory tree will increase the marriage acceptance chance by 30
Useful perks for marriage proposals
| Lifestyle | Tree | Perk | Effect |
| Diplomacy | Diplomat | Defensive Negotiations | Fellow vassal opinion: +15 Independent ruler opinion: +15 Can propose one Alliance without a marriage |
| Diplomacy | Family Hierarch | Befriend | You can use the Befriend Scheme (Befriend rulers of children you want to arrange marriages with) |
| Diplomacy | Family Hierarch | Flatter | Befriend Scheme Power: +30% |
| Martial | Gallant | Promising Prospects | Marriage Acceptance for yourself: +50 Marriage Acceptance for your Close Family: +25 Marriage Acceptance for your Extended Family: +25 |
| Learning | Scholar | Open-Minded | Different Culture Opinion: +15 Ignore Negative Culture Opinion: Yes |
| Learning | Scholar | Apostate | Different Faith Opinion +15 Faith Conversion Costs: -75% |
Useful traits for marriage proposals
| Lifestyle | Tree | Trait | Effect |
| Diplomacy | Diplomat | Diplomat | Diplomacy: +3 Independent Ruler Opinion: +20 Personal Scheme Power: +25% |
| Diplomacy | Family Hierarch | Matriarch | Fertility; +20% Stress Loss: 20% Close Family Opinion: +15 House Opinion: +10 |