Lord Of War

Lord Of War

Possible if

• Start date is January 1, 1007.
• All game rules allow achievements.
• Regular or higher difficulty.
• Not using custom difficulty.

• Original country is  Republic of Tobuck

Achieved if

• Maximum money ending achieved

has_country_flag = TBK_max_money_achievement

This award utilizes the unique mechanic of Tobuck available in the first year of the playthrough. Your objective is to launder enough money from selling your post-war stockpile of weapons that Pea Shooter ends up having 100 million in overseas funds. You only have until the end of the year, before you are forced to leave. With many possible decisions, some of which are not apparent without experimentation, it may be difficult to achieve that. This is one possible path that may yield the desired results.

There are three major randomness factors involved in the process; how long relevant civil wars will last, whether the AI accepts your offer to sell them weapons, and how often Chiropterra will try to launch slave raids against you.

AI paths

Before starting, it's worth setting certain paths for certain nations. Primarily, the  Colthaginian Republic ought to be set for a civil war. Their Harmonic path should ensure that their war will be as long as possible. Other than that, play in historical mode.

Before unpausing

Allocate all four military factories towards producing rifles. You want to have a big surplus of them for a decision that unlocks later.

Then, open your occupied territories menu and return one of the states back to the  Kingdom of Warzena. This will eliminate a potential route where  Chiropterra may launch a slave raid against you, leaving only an easier to defend strait between them and your island. Station all your divisions there, transporting them on ships. This is not enough to guarantee a successful defense, but it gives you a fighting chance. Even prolonging the border conflict means that they might not have enough time to attack you the second time.

You start without a free civilian factory, but there is a chance you get one through trade. Queue the construction of a coastal fort in the province next to the strait, although there is no guarantee that it will ever finish constructing even level 1.

In terms of research, take Electromechanic Engineering, Support Weapons I, and National Standards. Don't take Bolt-Action rifles; you will need a lot of rifles, not good rifles. Beyond that, there is not much time to research anything else that could make the difference by the end of the year, so take whatever you feel might be useful.

Order of Focuses

1. The Art Of The Deal
2. The Three Warlords
3. The Rules Of Good Business
4. The Facade Of Democracy
5. Checking The Supply
6. The Business Of Gun Running
7. Streamlined Procurement
8. The Loveable Drunk
9. Greasing The Wheel Of Democracy
10. Expand Guard Jurisdiction
11. Erstwhile Partner
12. Peace and Prosperity
13. Clean The House
14. To Each Their Game
15. Meeting With The Banker
16. Their Pay Day
17. Our Pay Day
18. Three Hurrahs For Tobuck
19. Quality Products
20. Goodbye, And Thanks For The Bits

Focuses 2-4 unlock decisions to prolong the warlord suspicion mission deadline. Focus 7 reduces the political power cost of selling weapons. To Each Their Game and Meeting With The Banker should only be taken after you get the event signifying that you are at 25% or less stock remaining (which unlocks additional powerful decisions). Once you reach 85 million saved overseas, take the final focus, which adds the final 15. The first and last focus each take 1 day to complete, even though the UI says 0 days. Make sure you have actually earned the award before picking an option in the event "Zarantia Sweeps In".

Decisions when at 100-30% stockpile

The decision tab is where most of your attention is going to be focused. You will unlock additional decisions as you progress down the focus tree. Contrary to what common sense might tell you, you are not supposed to be conservative with your stock. You need to reduce your remaining stock down to 25% as soon as you can; do not bother with the decision that restores it. Once that happens, you will gain access to a series of decisions that are much more effective at generating funds.

Use any decision that prolongs the warlord suspicion mission as soon as it becomes available, until the deadline moves to January 1008 (this should happen on September 21, after taking the decision "Praise the Warlords" for the last time). Do not worry about tanking your stability and party popularity. Even the one-time decision to send the president that costs 15 political power is worth taking.

For maximum political power efficiency, postpone any gun sales until you have completed the focus Streamlined Procurement. As a bonus, this will "waste" the bonus stockpile that you would get by completing the focus The Business Of Gun Running.

Decisions to supply weapons to nations in civil wars are very powerful as they deposit the funds directly in your overseas account, but they are also very risky. Before picking one, save the game. Reload if they refuse and pick a different nation. Repeat until someone accepts. If nobody accepts, do something else and try again some time later. Prioritize nations that are closer to capitulating.

Vasile shuffling the papers is not worth it; it takes a long time to complete and costs a lot of political power.

25% stockpile and less

In August, if you set the AI paths correctly, a civil war in the  Colthaginian Republic will erupt. After a successful sale to either side you will likely end up dropping below 30% of stockpile, triggering the event "Critical Stockpile". This in turn will unlock a new set of decisions which can generate a lot of unfiltered funds quickly and without having to spend any political power. Use them from now on, saving political power for the money filtering decision that you should unlock in early September after the focus Meeting With The Banker.

Selling ancient artifacts costs stability and party popularity, which you need to prolong the warlord suspicion mission. Wait until you are certain you have extended it enough. Opening the port and selling the best-condition firearms decisions should be taken whenever available.

Be aware that the focus Their Pay Day lowers your unfiltered funds by 10 million, while the focus Quality Products takes 5% from your stockpile; make sure that you have generated enough unfiltered funds for both filtering purposes and the former focus, and not to deplete your stock completely before finishing the latter.

Filtering money

For filtering money, using the bank unlocked after the focus Meeting With The Banker is the most efficient. It costs 25 political power to take, but in only 15 days it can convert 20 million unfiltered money into 10 million in overseas funds. The default one available from the start takes 25 days to complete and only converts 15 million unfiltered into 5 million overseas, but you don't need to spend any political power. Be aware that you cannot run both at the same time.

That focus requires that you have accumulated 10 million in overseas funds, which you will have to achieve either through selling weapons to civil war nations or using the default filtering decision. You should try to do the former rather than the latter.

Potential bugs

• Sometimes the UI for showing remaining stockpile will show 0% or 5%, even though your actual number may be higher. It will likely return to showing the correct value once you take another decision that alters your stock. This is a visual bug; it won't trigger the "Critical Stockpile" event or prevent you from selling guns. Nevertheless, try to keep a mental note on your actual stock.
• Save before you lower your stockpile below 30%. If you don't get the event "Critical Stockpile" within a week of reaching 25% or less remaining, try reloading. If nothing seems to work, use the console command to trigger event tobuck_start.33
• If you don't see the new money filtering decision after the focus Meeting With The Banker, saving and loading should make it appear.