My impressions of Freeholder gameplay so far

So, I started playing CK2 back when Legacy of Rome came out and only after reading the Game of Thrones novels I found out about this mod and fell in love with it. I still play vanilla regularly, but I always come back to the mod. I know that many people that play the mod don't really play vanilla, but I would advise otherwise: it is by comparing the mod with the base game that I came to fully appreciate the amazing work done in it.

Now, to the topic at hand: the Freehold mechanics, and how amazing they are (taken from playing the Ghiscary Wars submod). They are sometimes wonky and buggy, but I never really imagined someone could pull this off in the CK2 engine. So, it basically works as a regular merchant republic but, instead of serving for life, the patricians and other high valyrian characters can get elected to serve as a councillor for for 5 years, after which they choose to receive a colony (a temporary duchy or kingdom title) or a command (a conquest CB that transforms the conquered kingdom in a colony for you to rule). The Head Archon is the sovereign of the Freehold and he can only be chosen between the five patrician families, which represent the most impotant dragonlords in the Freehold.  In the next elections, you can choose to stay in your colony, at the risk of having someone else choose to rule it in your stead, or dying, when the colony title reverts to the Head Archon.

This creates a very unique gameplay experience - the closest to playing as a version of the the Roman Republic I've ever seen in a CK2 mod - drastically different than playing as a feudal lord or a regular merchant republic. First, aptly for a republican form of government, it diminishes the player's incentive to try to usurp power by force. Normally, if you are playing a merchant republic and get elected out of office, you have a strong incentive to kill or depose the current Doge, since the only opportunity to get into power is the current leader's death or forced resignation. With the Freehold's mechanics, you can afford to bide your time, accumulate prestige and money and, even if you get ellected to a regular councillor position instead of the Head Archon, you know you can get yourself appointed to a powerful office while you wait for the next election (this is especially true in the Ghiscary Wars submod, since only Volantis is colonized at the start, and you can colonize/conquer and rule over Lys, Tyrosh, Myr, Pentos and the others). The second great incentive against provoking a civil war comes, unsurprisingly, from the dragon mechanic. Valyrian civil wars are a CARNAGE FEST. Think of the Dance of Dragons times ten. Here, it isn't the dragons of only one family, it is an ENTIRE COUNTRY filled with dragon riders, Seriously, everyone and their mother owns a dragon. See that count there, without a dragon? Seems like an easy pick right? WRONG. It turns out you didn't check his courtiers and vasslas throroughly enough, and his physician's lowborn wife has tamed one of the oldest and biggest dragons in the Freehold. Dragon battles are uncertain and deadly, losing a dragon duel could not only cost your character's life, but the losing side usually get it's army wiped. It is common to see 10k-20k stacks turning into dust after one side loses the dragon duels. This, combined with the reduced rate at which levies replenish in the mod, could mean game over for you.

Secondly, despite CK2 being essentially a dinasty simulator, this was the first time I was actually just attached to my family, and not its titles. Since you will probably change your holdings every five years, you have no reason to get attached to them in the long term. This creates some interesting interactions. Most of the time you have no incentive to develop the colony you're governing, since you may not be the master that will reap its rewards, and will focus on spending on short term benefits. That is also a case of emergent gameplay that seems to reflect a real world characteristic of republican governments. As a roleplayer, I usually spend money on a building or two, to pretend it's some sort of propaganda for my ruler's family, but from a gameplay perspective developing your governed colony will do little to improve your chances of getting elected when your term is over.

These were a few impressions from playing as one of the patrician families. Next, I will try to play as a non-patrician freeholder and see how it changes gameplay, apart from not being able to get elected Head Archon. Now, I would like to expose a few problems/suggestions:

1- The players could benefit of some transparency on the weights chosen that determine who will get elected Archon, even if just as a tooltip. Rarely the elected Archon corresponds to the "next Doge" displayed in the republican screen. This means that campaign spending is pointless (my family gets elected every ten years and I've never spent a single gold on it) and the weights must be other than just Age + Prestige + Campaign Funding of the vanilla succession. I like there is an uncertainty to elections, but knowing what goes into the system's calculations could at least allow you to make an informed decision when designating your heir, which is an important part of republican gameplay in CK2.  

2- The AI rarely creates colonies. When you create a kingdom title or sometimes when you conquer new territory as the Head Archon, you can choose, as a decision, to turn that title into a colony. That means it will get selected to be governed by ex-councillors and will revert to the state on the owner's death. In my game, the AI has created three kingdom titles: Elyria, The Lands of the Long Summer, and Qohor, and not once it has turned them into colonies, instead granting them to landed characters. What that means is that these characters essentially become vassal kings, and these titles will never revert to the freehold nor be governed by freeholder. I don't mind that happening sometimes, but I feel like the AI should create colonies more often, especially if the Head Archon is a patrician, since it should see the benefit of being able to govern the conquered province after his term ends.

3- For future updates: rework the Ghiscary Wars. Currently, they are invasion wars. That means you will usurp the Empire of Ghiscar and all conquered terrain. From a lore perspective, the bookmarked wars were only colonial disputes (county conquests for Gogossos and Zamettar) and it was only in the fifth one that the valyrians destroyed Ghis and absorbed Slaver's Bay into the Freehold. I would suggest turning the wars in the current bookmarks into county conquests and scripting an event for a "fifth war" with Ghiscar, culminating with its capital's destruction (like what happens in the scouring of Lorath in the Andal Invasion bookmark) and turning the Ghiscary kingdom titles into Valyrian colonies. 

4- Removing northtern Essos from the De Jure setup of the Valyrian Empire. This one is a personal complaint of mine, but I don't like how the AI tends to conquer random duchies in northern Norvos before colonizing the free cities region. It is very bordergory and sometimes not very immersive. I would suggest, if possible, making those regions as conquest options from outgoing councillors after Valyria controls the Free Cities and then letting them naturally drift into De Jure Valyria or adding it through scripted events.

Sorry for the long post. These were just some personal impressions I needed to get out of my chest and discuss with you guys. I would like to know your impressions as well and if you agree with my post/ have another perception you would like to share.