Handling Melting Pot Events
From Crusaderkings
"Melting Pot" events are coded events in which the culture of a province changes to a new one.
For instance, to mimic the Norman conquest of England- and the merging of the cultures- many provinces are coded to turn English.
So what's the purpose of these events? They allow a new culture to form. Unfortunately, actual cultural conversion base events require your ruler to possess the culture he wants to spread (along with at least one province with his culture and land/trade connections to that province).
While you may have Essex turn English on day 2 of the game and have English grandchildren ready to spread English culture, this is not always the case. In some game the AI may end up with almost all of England as Norman as Norman culture enveloped all the melting pot events and spread.
Thus, if you want to spread English culture then you must prepare carefully....
1. MONITOR ALL PROVINCES FOR CULTURE CHANGES
When a culture turns English in a province, try to give that culture to a dynasty member and let it be his capital. Remember, capitals give a 15% for their culture to be the culture of your children. This is the -only- way in which an English courtier will ever pop up.
2. MARRY LUSTFUL WIVES
You're going to want lots, and lots... and lots of kids. Sometimes the first kid might turn out English- other times, you can have 8 Norman brats and not one English wife.
For dynasty members trying to produce an English heir, marry a young wife with the lustful trait. Check her siblings- the more siblings one has, generally, the higher their fertility rating as that means the parents likely had high fertility stats. Get a young courtier, marry him off quickly to a high-fertility wife then give him a province.
Remember, you're trying to mate not to produce super-stats but simply to produce an English heir.
3. BEWARE INFERTILE RULERS
Sometimes diseases pop up which render a ruler infertile. If this is the case then it's a waste of time to have them control the capital of an English province. Revoke the province and give it to another dynasty member.
4. ASSASSINS CREED
Assassins can be very handy. If an English brat has 6 older Norman brothers then you can kill them all off to make sure he's the heir, ready to take over your kingdom. Also, as divorces were virtually illegal back in the medieval era, assassination was often the only way to pick up a new spouse.
5. ELECTIVE LAW
This law is great- it allows the most flexibility in picking new rulers. When you have an English ruler in a province- load him up with as many provinces and Duke titles as necessary, and take some titles away from the competition if needed. He should be next in line for the throne.
6. PROTECT ENGLISH CULTURE CAPITALS.
Raise Peasant and Clergy power to 35/35 or 55/35 or 35/55 to slow down conversions here. Do the same for provinces targeting this one for conversion.
7. FINALLY!
You now have an English King on the throne. Beware though- if the next heir isn't English then English culture will stop spreading or worse, another culture will spread into English territories.
Keep planning.... carefully.... to make sure each future ruler is English.
In time your realm will become more and more fully English and this will become less of an issue and a hassle.
8. GAMING THE SYSTEM
I know this all may sound a bit gamey but hey, not all countries start out with the right culture from the get-go like France with French culture or Brittany with Breton culture. And if you don't plan at all then you might never get to enjoy the benefits of spreading your nation's culture.
Do what you got to do to spread your culture.
9. BENEFITS?
From a RP perspective it's quite fun to make your culture dominant.
In game terms, the province owner or a cultural conversion receives a 100 point prestige bonus. The province will also be of the desired culture for an import to EU 2/3 or For the Glory. (note- FTG importer not finished yet, HttT EU3 still in progress)
Most of all though.... and many players don't realize this.... same culture provinces enjoy a 10% decrease to MTTH for tech spread between provinces! Even a pure power gamer with no interest in culture will see the benefits of spreading one culture afar.
