A somewhat extensive guide on the decisions you can make to be an absolute, rule-by-decree dictator and win the war against Rumburg.
Guide Contents
- Guide to Absolute Dictator
- Introduction
- Dictator Path
- Military Victory
Guide to Absolute Dictator
Introduction
I want to preface this by saying this is going to be a rough guide and I am going from memory when I am writing this. I still enjoy this game and as I play through I may update this to include things I am forgetting or incorrect about. But suffice it to say I have managed to defeat Rumburg with no allies and while pursuing either planned or free market economics, closed or open immigration.
I will discuss the dictatorship path first. If you don’t care for this in your gameplay I suggest skipping to the military decision making process. With that being written, enjoy!
Dictator Path
If you want complete dictatorial powers the easiest way to accomplish this is to begin life from a wealthy family and attend law school. I read that this comes in handy when convincing Judge Edmonds into supporting whatever you want.
Second, being wealthy gives you plenty of cash to lobby people and eventually bribe Judge Garaci (this is SUPER IMPORTANT. On a recent play-through I had blown through all my money only to get my dictator constitution to pass the assembly but then fail through the court all because I did not have money to bribe Garaci…on top of that they will investigate you for supposedly abusing your power.).
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I have managed to become a full dictator as a capitalist and a communist by following common sense things.
In the very beginning of the game in your first conversation with Lucian and Petr, choose everything that gives you more power and choose everything that displays your dictatorial tendencies. Do not go along with any reformist nonsense.
This will set thing into motion to get the most extreme proposal on the table. If you go soft and wimpy you’ll get a soft constitution and have to answer to the assembly. We of course want to avoid this. Sordland is not going to get any better with a bunch of bleeding heart panzies!
After this of course take the deal with Koronti. You can always betray him later especially if you go full communist. In my playthroughs I have never refused to work with Koronti so I can not say if something better happens such as getting closer to Tusk.
Moving on…
You are then met with the first infrastructure proposal. Since we do not care about allies this is up to you. I have done both and never had an issue with mobilizing the army though if you want to be more certain about the war with Rumburg, build the highway but like I said in my experience I have managed to win even with crappy infrastructure near the border. Keep in mind though if you want to own a Vinyard or invest in a business opportunity it will not be possible because Gus Manger apparently shills hard for the train project with the elites.
After this, you will eventually meet with Lucian once more (and I think Petr and Nia) and go over the proposal and hear the complaints from the bleeding hart reformists. In this meeting do everything as you did in the first meeting. Do not compromise (this is important because you can compromise later on if necessary on things more trivial)! Nia will be upset when she finds out that you had a different draft drawn up and she will be very alarmed. As far as I know there’s no way she will support you after this so don’t count on her because apparently she has ‘principles’ or something like that.
Eventually you will have another meeting where you will have specific reform options to select from that will then be proposed to the assembly. Pick everything that increases your power. Rule by decree for example is awesome so don’t pass on that. I also keep the threshold at 10 percent because it is the perfect number that enables the USP to hold power and to work with the NFP but if you’re going Communist you will probably want to decrease it to get them into the assembly later on. Give the president the ability to remove judges and take away their immunity. Leave the person of honor alone and give the president absolute immunity as well.
Now, here comes the interesting part. You have to convince Gloria Tory, Albin Clavin, and depending on the gameplay you’re going for, either Frens Ricter or Oswald Mosley (I mean, Kesaro Kiebener!) to support you. Gloria is a principled Sollist and is not someone you can bribe. Tell her that this is all for Democracy and as stated do not try to offer her anything or bribe her. If necessary, offer to allow immunity for the Justices and then tell her you can not offer any more concessions. She should tell you she is in a good mood and get on board with supporting you.
Talking to Calavin is easy. Either bribe him or offer him to be your VP in the next election. Of course this game only covers one term so it is a meaningless offer. I’m not aware though of any potential consequences of this. I find that bribing him is the most common thing I do. The same is true of Frens Richter. I have gotten him to take a bribe in exchange for support.
I’m not aware of any way you can convince them to support you without bribing them if your constitution is obviously meant to make you a dictator. If you are looking to be the honest dictator who never commits a crime I’m not sure there’s a way. But honestly bribing is pretty awesome if you ask me so who cares?
If you are going down the young Sord route you will have a meeting with Kesaro Kiebner. His support is essential so just agree to anything he wants. He usually wants you to pass a unified language bill. Even with open immigration he can support you. He is actually the easiest to convince of everyone. In the meeting, he will offer an alliance between the NFP and the USP. I normally take it. I don’t believe you have to go with it but if your goal is to establish a cool militarist state you should do it. You end up getting enough people in the USP pissed off that they leave the assembly and you pick their replacements! But once again this is up to you. It is not necessary after the bill passes.
After these meetings you will eventually get the option to lobby for support of your amazing constitution and to spend money on it. Depending on how much money you have you should spend as much as possible. As long as you have 1 credit left over you can breath easy. I think on my last play through I spent 4 on lobbying and had 5 in total money.
After this you should be set for a successful vote.
On the day of the vote, Soll shows up in an attempt to sabotage you. I have lost at this point in the past and one thing I realized is that you NEED Rumburg as an adversary because If you lose you will be investigated and impeached if you were ‘abusing’ your power… but with a war looming you avoid this. The investigation gets suspended and you’re safe…
Anyway, about Soll in the assembly generally speaking I just ask Gloria to speed up the process and as long as you bribed and lobbied enough you will win. Sometimes the vote is amazingly in your favor. I think that is because in the past I did compromise on some things… I cant say forsure but it seems the more extreme you go the less votes you will get but as long as you convince the three blocs to support you and if you pile money into lobbying efforts you should win.
Now here is the hard part.
Nia of course and her group will not support your attempt to make Sordland an amazing place. She wants a watered down feel good constitution so she’s out. There are two remaining groups that can support you. One group is led by Justice Edmonds and the other by Hawker’s right hand man Garaci.
Here is where your legal training comes in handy. You will be offered a meeting with Edmonds. Of course you need to take it. At the meeting, be very nice, stand up and greet her, don’t order food until she arrives, allow her to order first, and order a salad as she does.
She is not someone you can work out a deal with or bribe. You have to give thoughtful answers to her questions. At first plead with her to support you. Then she will get legally inquisitive. When she asks what the purpose of the court is, tell her that it is to guard the constitution. When asks what you think about judicial review, tell her it is necessary to strike down unconstitutional laws… she should then say ‘you know what, I think I can support this.’ From then on be very nice. Boom you have 3 votes.
Now comes the easy part. You will get an offer from Kiebner to set up a meeting with Justice Garaci. This happens after the successful vote of the constitution. When Kesaro asks about the court and your prospects tell him it is not looking good. He will then set up a meeting with the Justice. Once you meet wi
Military Victory
Going back to the beginning, I recommend as a campaign goal supporting an increase in either law enforcement or the military. When it comes time though you should increase both of these at the expense of education and healthcare. I should say though that I have in the past increased 3 of the 4 and managed to get myself into a strong economy though with some debt. In fact I have never completed a game without debt.
When it comes time for the budget, increase law enforcement and military funding. I usually will do the same with healthcare and ignore education. As Lucian says, an uneducated populace is more easily managed anyway!
After the increase in funding for the military Iosef and Valken will meet with you and both will argue for a difference in military spending. As a rule of thumb, just think this way: agree with Iosef. Agree to the equipment upgrades. After this, he will pull you into another meeting at a later time and ask you to stop conscription. Agree to this. This is how you end up with a professional army. He will also ask if you want to upgrade the army, airforce or navy. In my experience I pick army but I have also picked the airforce and either choice has worked for me. That being said I usually pick the army.
This will allow your army to be professional and practice their craft free from other considerations involving the reserve pool.
Next, a traitor will arrive from Rumburg. Grant asylum to the defector. This allows you to know about the nuclear facilities in Rumburg which is crucial later on.
Next, when it comes to law enforcement, you can either fund the court system or the police. This is up to you but you should pick one or the other and not divide funds because you get cool choices based on your decision. If you go with Nia, she will offer to create an anti corruption police force. This is not a good idea for you if you have been taking bribes or giving bribes. (if you are playing a game and are going after the old guard you should go with the anti corruption police if you want to investigate them.. I notice that if you investigate the old guard with the secret police nothing comes from it aside from trying to poison Orso Hawker…I’ve only been able to do this once and ended up getting his dog instead of him and you just end up in jail).
Usually if you’re going full dictator you will want the secret police. They come in handy and can help bury embarrassing stories. When they ask who to investigate it is up to you but keep in mind the secret police are best suited for investigating the oligarchs or the opposition and the judicial police are best for investigating all three but remember you don’t want to get caught.
After the departmental issues you will eventually have the option to invest in infrastructure or production. I recommend production with the Conriat industrial city. Following that, you will have another option to establish an arms industry. Be sure to do this. This will allow you to wage war with no interruption to your supplies.
Do not make an alliance with United Contana or Arcasia. Doing so in my experience makes a war impossible but I could be wrong about this. I’ve just never experienced a war if I am allied with a superpower but I have read different from other players.
Events will then happen where one of your planes is shot down. Retaliate eye for eye. I have seen players mobilize the war machine but I haven’t tried this so I cant speak about it. After this you will head for a kind of UN meeting where people complain about their issues. You will join in and complain about Rumburg. In your dialogue say you want to also express your concerns. When you see the option to discuss Rumburg, take it and mention their nuclear weapons program. This is critical because apparently you end up getting nuked during the war if this is not made clear to the world. In response to the nuclear program the world will sanction Rumburg and they’ll give up their nuclear ambitions.
After this meeting the Queen will give you a call and make a demand for territory. Tell her to go pound sand. You have the option to give up territory but what kind of leader does that?!
After this conversation you will eventually be summoned to a meeting by the general staff and the minister of defense. This is where you will make your war plan and the following seems to work for me.
First, take the pincer option that Iosef offers. After this choose to move on Tzarsbourgh. You will then have the choice of advancing to the capital or to assault Dome. I’ve never assaulted Dome so I don’t know how it goes. I always went for the capital.
Once the meeting ends you will begin getting news reports on the map. Remember how you ended conscription? Big deal. You still have a large reserve to draw from and over a million Sords are mobilized.
After this you will get the results. It should go without saying you can make regional allies and just decide to not call upon them. If you play as a communist or more left leaning though and manage to ally with Valgsland and Wehlen, Hegel and Smolak end up at the armistice signing with the Queen it is entertaining.