One clan gets too many fiefs

[Susel]

Not sure that this is a bug, more likely some logic that I don't understand, so will post it here for a discussion, but I hope developers will be able to comment on this either. Sorry if it was already discussed.

I've started my play through on 1.5.2, it is day 1020 now.
I play for Vlandia and I have a clan that is gaining too many fiefs... and no, this is not Derthert with his dey Meroc.
This is imperial Impestores clan that joined us around day 400-500 and were the main clan to get a new fief since then, almost not participating in any wars.
Now they have 7 fiefs and will undeniable be voted to get the 8th one.

Here is my little investigation.

Spoiler: Since I have a lot of save files, I can approximately restore the history.

I will point out the prosperities of fiefs in case it matters.

Before day 475 Impestores were given a town (524) and a castle (357) and were favoured to get another castle (807) in a row.

I had 3 poor castles in the opposite parts of the map + a voting for a new town (that I wanted) got bugged for many months so I used the Everything Has its Price perk to get rid of my current castles to win this new castle (Takor) from them and started working on surrounding towns. Later we expanded on Sturgia, I was able to use my influence and good relations with Derthert to get 3 more towns close to each other (Balgar, Varnovapol, Omor, not in a row) and stopped even participating in new votes which was pretty fair. During the same time Impestores got 2 more fiefs.

On day 664:
dey Meroc - 5 fiefs (4066 + 4529 + 4028 + 1663 + 632),
Niki Tin (me) - 4 fiefs (4180 + 3476 + 4329 + 740),
Impestores - 4 fiefs (0 + 664 + 442 + 1279),
and there are also old Vlandian clans with one town (1791) or one castle (1190).

Since I knew I won't get new fiefs soon, I bought a town with 0 prosperity from Impestores to try to rebuild its economy (it's 350+ now). So they left with 3 fiefs.

Later around day 900 we had the first war with Khuzait. We took a town and a castle, they were both given to a newcomer imperial clan who defected from us right after that bringing them back to Khuzait. Oh, ok... We took them back and now they were both given to Impestores (with 3 fiefs 1297+960+381) ahead of 5 clans with 1 fief: 1491 (vlandian), 1366 (vlandian), 1655 (vlandian), 1332 (imperial) and 2141 (imperial).

Now it is day 1020, Impestores have 5 fiefs (1888 + 1108 + 1198 + 1450 + 350) and there is the second war with Khuzait. We just took a town and 3 castles and 3/4 of new fiefs are also going to them (600 + 231 + 1187 (current voting)) despite the fact that we still have 4 "poor" clans with a single fief (only the first of those 5 got the second fief). Two vlandian clans don't participate in voting at all, two imperial ones do, however nobody is voting for them.
There are also several non-vlandian clans with 2 castles...

The map after the voting will look like this:


And even after that with 8 fiefs they still participate in the next voting (but only voting for themselves): the choise is between them, dey Cortain who own Tepes Castle and one of two "poor" imperial clans.
Not only it bugs me that I don't understand the principles, but also I hate the idea that they will one day defect to Khuzait with 1/5 of our land like the previous imperial guys did.

So, the question is: how are the voting contestants chosen, why there are ones with 7 fiefs and ones with 1 fief, and why everyone votes for the former?
I guess there is some geographical snowballing like giving too much priority for the neighboring fiefs owners. Is it so?
And can it be the Everything Has its Price perk that changed some in-game logic?

 

[**Iphicrates**]

On my recent Sturgian playthrough Ragavand kept giving all newly conquered settlements to his own clan (do I have to mention that I was the one responsible for taking all of these cities and castles and haven't gained a thing). What a c**t of a king. Funny thing, he wasn't even going against other lord's votes, almost all of the nobles were actually voting for him.

 

[Apocal]

So, the question is: how are the voting contestants chosen, why there are ones with 7 fiefs and ones with 1

Posting from my phone so forgive any mistakes and slapdash nature. The full rundown is courtesy of @Bannerman Man

Factors that affect Merit Score (if you get on the ballot):
Ruler bonus
Bonus if you LEAD the army that took it
Fiefless bonus for clans with no land
Poverty bonus for broke clans
Distance of two nearest fiefs (fiefless get 1, which is high/good)
Clan strength in parties
Clan tier

Voting has some other factors though, different system.

 

[Susel]

Posting from my phone so forgive any mistakes and slapdash nature. The full rundown is courtesy of @Bannerman Man

Factors that affect Merit Score (if you get on the ballot):

Following these points in my game it is:
Ruler bonus - No.
Bonus if you LEAD the army that took it - No. Only 1/4 of the clan members even participate in this war. The rest are just roaming the map.
Fiefless bonus for clans with no land - Definitely NO! 7 fiefs already!
Poverty bonus for broke clans - No. Clan leader has 38k gold, however I guess having many low-prosperity fiefs may hurt the income.
Distance of two nearest fiefs (fiefless get 1, which is high/good) - Yes! Two closest fiefs are theirs.
Clan strength in parties - Low-Average (4 parties)
Clan tier - Tier 5.

So it seems that the distance factor overweights all the rest. As soon as there are no fiefless clans and if your kingdom is expanding in one direction, it is possible for one single clan to get all new land, or at least to participate in all votings.

 

[Susel]

Funny addition:
I've checked the possibilities to get a fief from the clan and put it into the voting:
For everything there is 0-2%, for all Impestores fiefs it is 0%, while we have one Sturgian clan Ormidowing with 8 members and 2 castles, and it is 55+% to strip them of both fiefs... If I get 1 fiew from them in the middle of the voting from OP, they appear in the ballot but with 40/30/30 for Impestores. If I get 2 fiefs from them (one even goes to me without me doing anything), they are the 69% to get the castle.
(Lol, and it is 65% to strip them of it right after it! Nobody loves sturgians in my kingdom...)

So using this simple political mechanism, and spending only 300 influence, I got a fief, a ton of +relation (I can suggest to strip a clan from a fief and vote against it ? - it will still pass, but I get +10 relation and no -rep for suggesting it ), and the new castle goes to the better (from my point of view) owner. Win-win!