Questions regarding Civil Wars and Difficulty Level

[RodriguesSting]

1 - It seems a civil war is rather predetermined. You will know immediately by who is your faction heir. And the civil war apparently has only one outcome that doesn't include the complete destruction of your campaign: the legitimization of the usurper. So, should the player try to... "get rid" of the usurper via our usual means, or would it be better to just roll with it? After all, realistically, the nobility would at least try to do something about it, specially as a civil war would demand a second side of counter-conspirators.

2 - In EB2 I usually played the campaign at Hard, not necessarily because I wanted the AI to get more bonuses, but because on Medium, they wouldn't buy mercenaries, that were an important part of the mod. In this one, the AI will also not make use of everything it can on Medium?

[Jurand of Cracow]

ad. 1 - exploring the Civil War system is still a work bo be done. Gameplaywise, I'd find making killing the usurper un-historical, but other ways to prevent him from becoming FH (buffing up other's Authority by giving them ancillaries or by winning battles) I would find ok.
ad. 2 - I've got no idea how the game on Medium would behave. There're a few mechanisms for Hard and especially for Very Hard, they're usually well discribed here.

[RodriguesSting]

I am playing as the HRE, and the starting situation, at least on KC, is a sure-way to a civil war with that one general set up to be an usurper. I tried to buff the hell out of the Emperor's son-in-law, he even did two crusades (set up by me), and the title still went to the usurper. My biggest grip with the problem is that the Usurper apparently got his own family tree, which is neat. But it only becomes visible AFTER the usurpation. I like doing whatever I can to get the best heirs possible, and it is kinda upsetting not even seeing who is his son.

Anyway, thanks, and I would be thankful for a rough guide on inheritance, regencies, and civil wars.

[Jurand of Cracow]

HRE is so powerful at the beginning that the challenge of playing this faction is to find a way to cope with the usurpers. This is the feature, not a bug.

Having said that I keep on admitting that for a long time we haven't dealt much with the regencies / civil wars. It would require a lot of work. I'll get there at some point, but the time is not ripe yet.