地产

A holding is a property that can be bought by or given to a character. Holdings provide income and power base to their owner.

Holding mechanics

• Except for the capital of the state, each territory includes one holding.
• You can give a holding only to a family head, at a cost of 40 gold. The beneficiary will gain 5 loyalty, decreasing at a rate of −1 per year. If the beneficiary is the ruler, an additional cost of 5 corruption will apply.
• You can revoke a holding at a cost of −5 loyalty, decreasing at a rate of +2 per year.
• Heads of families can also buy holdings at their own expense.
• Characters that are not heads of families can earn holdings via plots or events.
• If a character dies, their holdings are inherited by the head of their family.

Power base

The sum of the power base given by all the holdings owned by characters in a country is approximately equal to 50. Each holding gives the same amount of power base to its owner, with a maximum of 10 per holding.

So, if a character owns 10 holdings in a country with 21 territories, they should receive 25 power base. Indeed, the capital of the state doesn't have a holding, so the character owns 50% of the holdings in the country, which means that they earn half of 50 power base.

In small countries with fewer than five holdings, the total power base will be under 50, since a holding can only give a maximum of 10 power base.

Revenues

A holding is a source of monthly income for its owner. The more a territory is worth and populated, the higher the income of the holding.

Proscription

If the country has at least 40 tyranny and the head of a great family is imprisoned, you can proscribe them at a cost of 30 tyranny. They will be executed and their family will lose all its holdings. Their family won't be considered as a great family anymore.

Civil war

In case of civil war, the territories where a revolting character has holdings will always join the rebels. This includes territories within the capital region!

Strategy

Holdings are important in the balance of power between the great families of your empire. If left unchecked, the heads of great families could try to buy more and more holdings to snowball wealth and power base. Mark the heads of great families to keep track of their activities, and find opportunities to revoke holdings; befriend them for increased loyalty.

You should be careful when you grant a holding to your ruler because of the corruption; if removing the corruption is critical, remember that setting wages to High (in the Economy tab) will remove the 5 corruption in 50 months (as well as remove the same amount from your officials and governors). Also, note that while every holding grants the same amount of power base, their income is highly variable according to the wealth of their territory. So if you play a monarchy, try to preempt big cities and highly productive territories. If you play a republic or a tribe, try to preserve equilibrium between the families since the ruling family will change at one point or another.

If a family becomes too powerful, you can revoke their holdings to try to contain them. If the situation becomes really serious, you can bring the head of family to a trial to imprison and proscribe him. But be aware that if you lose the trial, a civil war might occur.