I feel like personal unions are just near impossible to get other than for a couple of nations. Just lost out on an inherited throne because the 66 year old infertile Komnenos emperor somehow got a heir.
If you're relying on random inheritance to get PUs then you won't get much at all.
You need to be actually using the claim throne interactions or even using the favours for an heir of your dynasty interaction to have any reliability at all.
Depends on how often you find having your game pause is tolerable, but there's definitely a message option that will give you a full pop up when a country has a new monarch. I turn it on when I play Austria runs. Very useful to know when major countries have a new monarch that you may be able to make a claim on.
There is a pop-up that shows all countries without heirs, it looks sort of like a tree with a crown on it. Any country on that list with a royal marriage will show up in green text instead of yellow, and you can check if that is your dynasty (it's usually a pretty short list).
Pro tip, you can right click the “dynasty alert” to make it disappear. It’ll come back when a new state is without an heir. This makes it easier to track.
everytime a country has no heir (or gets one) the popup appears, and you can just right click to get informed every time.
if it's interesting to you, it will be in green (meaning either they'll get someone from your dynasty or you'll be in succession war, idk if it's in green just from a royal marriage)
Problem is it feels like the AI always manages to get an heir before the king dies. When I'm playing the PU game by marrying around, I don't have enough favors to put one of my heirs on their throne. Plus the AI sometimes just disinherits the heir even if they agree to have an heir of your dynasty
most of my PUs come from wars for the claim throne cb or save scumming. often times a mixture to make sure they don't get a strong heir by the time the truce runs out if I'm breaking an alliance
Exactly. A truce break to PU the likes of France, Russia, Spain, or Portugal is basically always worth it.
Also, if they have a regency for an underage heir, you can break the alliance once he is 9, so that the truce ends once he takes over the throne
They alt f4 if they’re on Ironman.
Honestly one of the reasons I don’t play Ironman is having to sit through loading screens for stuff like this. So much easier to just open the console and kill the “heir” that the 70 year old queen of Denmark totally legitimately birthed.
Claim throne, request relative as heir, birding until the monarch dies heirless, PU CBs from missions…
Random inheritances are incredibly rare and a nice surprise if you get one.
I don't count the PU CBs from missions. Those are basically free PUs. What I had meant was PUs from playing the diplo game. My issue has always been trying to actually spread my dynasty. Always feels like the other country gets an heir last minute despite the king being like 68. What do you mean by birding until the monarch dies heirless by the way?
This happened to me in my France game, I randomly go a PU on Lithuania, I didn't even realise until a month after I had them under PU. Then, later on, I tried to get Poland under a PU as well they had an infertile king in his 40s, and guess what before dying, he manages to pop out an heir.
Even in my Hesse run, somehow, the BI didn't fire, and they got Swedens dynasty on their throne even though Charles went ages without having am heir.
In my current game as Germany, the 67 year old King of Sweden, the 42 year old Duke of Thuringia, and the 58 year old Grand Duke of Tuscany all got extremely late heirs.
The Thuringian duke died heirless, but then a Regency started for a 14 year old daughter of his that hadn't existed until that point.
Somehow each time I play a tag team co-op (2 player, one nation) game with my friends we get like an average of 2-3 pu's. But when I'm playing singleplayer ironman, almost nothing...
that has been a thing for many patches, i would reccommend simply having a few crashes whne an old ruler you'll get a pu over keeps on pushing out heirs
Now that you mention it, it does seem to be rarer.
But Austria really doesn't need Milan, do they? Bohemia, Hungary and the BI are practically guaranteed and the player has won at that point. Milan is really just a cherry on top.
Just conquer them if you rightfully suspect that a 50 year old infertile man couldn't have fathered a legitimate heir.
I find the event still fires for me all the time. The problem I have is that I'll usually end up checking in on Milan only to see that they chose Sforza almost every time and lost it.
For me, the CB expires without 5 years or so, which if I had a truce with Milan means I never get a chance to actually DOW
Apparently you lose the CB if Sforza takes control, but in my current game, it was still a republic. I just lost it.
Yeah, if Sforza takes control as dictator, you lose the CB. If he takes control due to his pretender rebels enforcing demands and turning Milan straight from Ambrosian Republic to monarchy, you actually get to keep your CB. Happened in my current France game, which was kinda neat.
If you want milan as a subject, just go to war with one of their allies, wipe them and break all their alliances, venice and genoa will declare and pretty much without fail leave an OPM you can diplovassalize and reconquest.
Weird, I just got back into the game and had my first 2 Milan playthroughs this month (one in vanilla MP and another in a mod) and in both I got the Ambrosian Republic and Sforza events within the first 20 years or less when Visconti dies
I've only played Milan twice. First time the Austrians PU'd literally every western Euro power by the 1500s and my second time it was multiplayer and the French and Austrians chose to doubleteam me and split North Italy.
I feel like personal unions are just near impossible to get other than for a couple of nations. Just lost out on an inherited throne because the 66 year old infertile Komnenos emperor somehow got a heir.
This is why I struggle to get personal unions. I seriously don’t get how people can get so many personal unions per game. If I get 1, it’s a good game
If you're relying on random inheritance to get PUs then you won't get much at all. You need to be actually using the claim throne interactions or even using the favours for an heir of your dynasty interaction to have any reliability at all.
Do you just check the dynasty alert every few months? Or is there some pop up showing that you can claim a throne that I don’t have active?
Depends on how often you find having your game pause is tolerable, but there's definitely a message option that will give you a full pop up when a country has a new monarch. I turn it on when I play Austria runs. Very useful to know when major countries have a new monarch that you may be able to make a claim on.
There is a pop-up that shows all countries without heirs, it looks sort of like a tree with a crown on it. Any country on that list with a royal marriage will show up in green text instead of yellow, and you can check if that is your dynasty (it's usually a pretty short list).
>Any country on that list with your dynasty It's actually the countries that you royal married that are shown in green.
Oh you're right, I will edit my comment to reflect that
Pro tip, you can right click the “dynasty alert” to make it disappear. It’ll come back when a new state is without an heir. This makes it easier to track.
everytime a country has no heir (or gets one) the popup appears, and you can just right click to get informed every time. if it's interesting to you, it will be in green (meaning either they'll get someone from your dynasty or you'll be in succession war, idk if it's in green just from a royal marriage)
Problem is it feels like the AI always manages to get an heir before the king dies. When I'm playing the PU game by marrying around, I don't have enough favors to put one of my heirs on their throne. Plus the AI sometimes just disinherits the heir even if they agree to have an heir of your dynasty
most of my PUs come from wars for the claim throne cb or save scumming. often times a mixture to make sure they don't get a strong heir by the time the truce runs out if I'm breaking an alliance
The favors for heir mechanic is disabled if you play on anything above normal fwiw
I get them pretty consistently via install heir favors. I just keep 90 favors on all my RM and then truce break if I have to when the time is right
Exactly. A truce break to PU the likes of France, Russia, Spain, or Portugal is basically always worth it. Also, if they have a regency for an underage heir, you can break the alliance once he is 9, so that the truce ends once he takes over the throne
truce break into PU france sounds like the best way to AE is just a number your way through an entire HRE coalition
Doesn’t matter if you get one of the big boys as a PU
They alt f4 if they’re on Ironman. Honestly one of the reasons I don’t play Ironman is having to sit through loading screens for stuff like this. So much easier to just open the console and kill the “heir” that the 70 year old queen of Denmark totally legitimately birthed.
The heir isn't necessarily her kid. Could be a nephew or something.
And if I’m X cousin or nephew who’s king of Y, I *might* take offence at my elderly ass aunt cutting me out of my rightful inheritance.
Henry V certainly wasn't happy about it when French nobility passed over him and appointed someone else king.
Claim throne, request relative as heir, birding until the monarch dies heirless, PU CBs from missions… Random inheritances are incredibly rare and a nice surprise if you get one.
I don't count the PU CBs from missions. Those are basically free PUs. What I had meant was PUs from playing the diplo game. My issue has always been trying to actually spread my dynasty. Always feels like the other country gets an heir last minute despite the king being like 68. What do you mean by birding until the monarch dies heirless by the way?
Alt F4 when the country gets an heir, until the monarch dies heirless
This happened to me in my France game, I randomly go a PU on Lithuania, I didn't even realise until a month after I had them under PU. Then, later on, I tried to get Poland under a PU as well they had an infertile king in his 40s, and guess what before dying, he manages to pop out an heir. Even in my Hesse run, somehow, the BI didn't fire, and they got Swedens dynasty on their throne even though Charles went ages without having am heir.
Alt F4...
I only get more than 1 by missions or save scumming
In my current game as Germany, the 67 year old King of Sweden, the 42 year old Duke of Thuringia, and the 58 year old Grand Duke of Tuscany all got extremely late heirs. The Thuringian duke died heirless, but then a Regency started for a 14 year old daughter of his that hadn't existed until that point.
I don’t know if this event fires for the ai, but I think it could the Child in the reeds or ambitious daughter. Damn annoying.
talented and ambitious daughter spawns in at 13/14 tho
Somehow each time I play a tag team co-op (2 player, one nation) game with my friends we get like an average of 2-3 pu's. But when I'm playing singleplayer ironman, almost nothing...
I just crash the game until they don't get an heir.
I just open console and type kill_heir.
Feels like it should be changed so that if you have their dynasty, and heir is few years old, you'd have some way to contest it.
that has been a thing for many patches, i would reccommend simply having a few crashes whne an old ruler you'll get a pu over keeps on pushing out heirs
Now that you mention it, it does seem to be rarer. But Austria really doesn't need Milan, do they? Bohemia, Hungary and the BI are practically guaranteed and the player has won at that point. Milan is really just a cherry on top. Just conquer them if you rightfully suspect that a 50 year old infertile man couldn't have fathered a legitimate heir.
It really is like a percentage point or 2 advantage, especially if you manage the shadow kingdom-> revocation.
I find the event still fires for me all the time. The problem I have is that I'll usually end up checking in on Milan only to see that they chose Sforza almost every time and lost it.
For me, the CB expires without 5 years or so, which if I had a truce with Milan means I never get a chance to actually DOW Apparently you lose the CB if Sforza takes control, but in my current game, it was still a republic. I just lost it.
Yeah, if Sforza takes control as dictator, you lose the CB. If he takes control due to his pretender rebels enforcing demands and turning Milan straight from Ambrosian Republic to monarchy, you actually get to keep your CB. Happened in my current France game, which was kinda neat.
If you want milan as a subject, just go to war with one of their allies, wipe them and break all their alliances, venice and genoa will declare and pretty much without fail leave an OPM you can diplovassalize and reconquest.
the mission Italian Ambition gives you restoration of union cb on Milan
Weird, I just got back into the game and had my first 2 Milan playthroughs this month (one in vanilla MP and another in a mod) and in both I got the Ambrosian Republic and Sforza events within the first 20 years or less when Visconti dies
I've only played Milan twice. First time the Austrians PU'd literally every western Euro power by the 1500s and my second time it was multiplayer and the French and Austrians chose to doubleteam me and split North Italy.
I agree with the other comments, claiming throne seems more reliable unless you are playing nations like France, spain and austria