Maintaining a Dynasty, Part 2

In my review of Crusader Kings 2, I mentioned that the difficulty (and the uniqueness) of the game came from the fact that your own vassals and children will squabble over what is left of your empire when you kick the bucket.  Assuming you've overstretched, or you know your citizens are ready to pick up the pitchforks, here are a few things to keep in mind both before and during a crisis.

You've seen part 1.  Here's part 2, what you can do during a crisis.


Money
Mercenaries are dirt cheap.  To get the edge early on in a succession crisis, start throwing them at all rebelling pretenders.  Similarly, there's no penalty for hiring assassins to go after your vassals.  If someone starts becoming a problem, don't raise levies from your other vassals if you can avoid it -- it'll just start a cascade of rebellions.  Only dip into your own populace once your coffers run dry, and then you can let the blood of your peasants flow forth like a river.

Cheap, Populist Cash-ins
Indulge the peasants, and your vassals.  Drop tax burdens down as low as you can possibly afford.  While a civil war can be costly, stopping a loyalty cascade can save you significant amounts of money in the long run.  Make sure you've got the church's backing, because if the Pope likes you enough, you can excommunicate the pesky rebels.  If you've been evangelizing, you've suddenly created a nasty rebellion in their provinces.  If the peasants prefer you to their new lord, they'll start banding together and causing enough havoc that you should be able to mop up in no time.

Titles for Everyone
 Vassals on the fence?  Start throwing counties at them until they love you more.  Reserve Duchies for the ones you trust to have your back in the next crisis.  Create a hungry legion of newly-titled courtiers to fill the power vacuum once you stomp the rebelling vassals and strip them of their title.  Let them fight the long-term war while you focus on mopping up.

Friends in Low Places
How loyal is your spymaster?  I tend to marry mine to ensure a close connection, or throw one of my daughters or sisters at him if it's a male.  If he's not particularly loyal, he will kill you.  If he is, start putting him to use.  Remember, if you have a rebelling vassal that happens to have a fatal accident, his successor ends the war and goes back to being your vassal.  And, to boot, you don't suffer the loyalty cascade from failed attempts on a rebelling vassal.

Wag the Dog
Afraid of a particular duke near the edge of your realm rebelling, but don't have the forces to muster?  Declare war on one of his neighbors, and raise levies in surrounding territories.  Let the enemy do your work for you.  There's also nothing that gets your peasants to love you quite like throwing them to their deaths in a war with little to no purpose other than distracting from domestic issues.  Declare a holy war!  Join a crusade!  If your pesky vassal happens to be sent to the front line, it has everything to do with his martial skill and nothing to do with his political leanings, right?

Wait and Plot
Even if you do lose a significant chunk of your kingdom, the goal of the game is survival -- not conquering.  If you can't win a war, stabilize what you would keep and hang onto it.  Fighting a civil war is expensive.  Find a way to undermine your brothers and take what you can.  Push into wars only if you know you have enough in the coffers to win.  In four to five years, you'll have another shot, either when you kick the bucket or when your brothers do.