Crusader Kings 2 Siege Speed – Does Army Size Affect Speed of Siege in Crusader Kings 2?

I think the reason your levy decreased is due to your heir's vassal-leige relationship score being different than your original king's. It could also be that your levy base providing buildings are not in your heir's personal demense.

The levy system is actually kinda complex but once you have a feel for it I suspect it'll make sense.

I originally said (in comments) that I thought this was related to titles, and it's not quite right. There's a few things at play.

If you don't give your sons any land then you can end up with the "unlanded sons prestige penalty". You need to give your first son some lands (but not the 2nd or 3rd as it'll increase a chance of war on inheritance). This shouldn't affect your levy though, except as it may indirectly affect your relationship with your vassals.

I came across a pretty decent description of the levy system [here].1

If you lose any of the following, you'll see a bad drop:

• Castles give 225 base Levy (150 HI, 60 LI, 15 LC)
• Churches give 130 base Levy (45 HI, 45LI, 40A)
• Cities give 115 base Levy (75LI, 40A)

Here's where you could be losing levy... especially note that if the castle isn't in your personal demesne you'll take a hit.

You raise 100% of the Levy in your own holdings. Since castles give the most and best types of troops you want to have castles in your demesne unless you don't want to use only mercenaries and vassal levy.

The following is what I was talking about with the V-L Relation

Relation with your vassal and Levy Laws determine how much of the vassal levy you can raise. Crown Authority sets the minimum levy you get and Levy Laws set the maximum:

Crown Authority → 0 min /10% min /20% min /30% min /40% min Feudal Levy Law → 60% max / 70% max / 80% max / 100% max (225) City Levy Law → 50% max / 65% max / 80% max / 95% max (115) Church Levy Law → 50% max / 60%max / 70% max / 80% max (130)

You always get the min levy set by crown authority but the actual amount up to the >maximum is determined by vassal-liege relation (VLR). Relation is transformed into >percentage value (P) according to the following formula:

P = ((25 + VLR) x 0.69)/100

Now when you apply P to the maximum levy set by law (MXL) you get the percentage of >troops (PT) you get from the holding:

PT = P x (MXL/100)

Multiply by the number of levy (NL) in the holding and you get the actual troops (AT) >you can raise:

AT = PT x NL

Hope this helps and good luck! Sorry about any confusion!

Here's how it works: If you are their liege, the gains from the war are part of your kingdom. It doesn't matter if they're your king, duke, earl, or even mayor, bishop, or count.

To claim a duchy from somebody else through war (when you don't have a casus belli that lets you claim it directly):

1. Find out who* has a claim on it by opening the duchy information screen and clicking on "Claimants" to see who has a claim on that kingdom.

2. Invite one of the male claimants over to your court. (If nobody will come over, or there are no male heirs, you'll have to find another way to get that duchy. Note that if one of your courtiers marries a female claimant that you can't legally give a title to, that female claimant is not your vassal and the newly-conquered duchy will not become part of your kingdom, even if you give your male courtier a title.)

3. Give that claimant a landed title. Any landed title will do, even a city, church, or castle.

   Note that if you land the claimant a city, gaining him a Duchy will found a vassal merchant republic instead of gaining you a new feudal vassal if you are playing version 1.9 of the game or later. Merchant republics are generally considered awesome to have as vassals due to their revenue and tax bonuses, but this might disrupt an existing merchant republic that is already earning you revenue.

4. Go to war with the ruler of your choice, using the "Claim on duchy X" as your casus belli.

5. Once you win the war, that claimant will be your duke.

I'm guessing that this will also work with kingdoms if you're an emperor. So far, I've claimed two duchies this way: once by giving away a county to the claimant, and once by giving away a bishopric.

*As revealed in this other answer, you can't actually press the claim in war unless the claim is strong, or the claimant is a pretender (2nd or 3rd in line), or there's already another war going on over the title, or the current holder of the title is a woman (and you have a male claimant) or a child (so there's a regency). You can only use "any claimant with a pulse" if the title is disputed or the ruler is a child; you can only use "any male claimant with a pulse" if the ruler is female; otherwise, you'll need to pick up one of the pretenders or someone with a strong claim: you'll need to do slightly more research to find who they are, and they're often harder to invite to your court.

(Note: if there are three or fewer male claimants, then it's almost certain that they're the heir and pretenders. Just grab one and go on your way. Figuring out the exact claims is more important when there are four or more male claimants.)