Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-27713488-20170401033120/@comment-27713488-20170401033330

Fluid-decanter wrote: 'This post was originally part of the discretionary funding page, before being transplanted here due to being subjective and not really fitting in a mechanics article. It was written by an anonymous user.'

This section of the game is very opaque, and the true outcome of many of these investments is yet to be revealed. If you're just looking for some hints, here is a simple guide (as of 0.25.2):

Total % available: 350%

Double Noble Campaign: 20% 2nd House: 45% Aram Border: 95% Guild Fees: 115% National Trade: 165% Elven Improvements: 215% Country Merc Regs: 315% Succ Brothel: 325% Doom King Statue: 335% FANCY WALK or Magic Standarization: 345% Shrine?: 350%

Infrastructure does surprisingly little for the cost, skip it. The outcome of Border Reinforcement is unknown, but we'll probably be fighting both countries at some point due to simple geography; take Aram sooner and leave Ardoheim for later, as there will probably be more funding rounds later and Ardoheim isn't an immediate threat. Succ Immigration is tempting and may have long-term benefits, but the other options have better immediate returns. The shrine is cheap and boosts your Religion score, though it costs you some Sarai affection. Religion score seems limited in usefulness, but there are also relatively few ways to boost it. Magic Standardization is strictly better than FANCY WALK (you probably don't need the extra Acceptance if you've been running things well), but come on. How can anyone say no to Fancy Orcs? Take Fancy Walk when it gets down to 10%--you need 10 Orc Discipline for this, so invest in Orc Intelligence first, then Discipline, and then finally Evolution. It will be 10% after returning from Zirantia.

Country Merc regulations is a bit of a gamble, as it's unclear how much +5 army size matters at this point--but we are probably going to war soon. Take City Regulations and spend the rest elsewhere if you are confident in your army. The other choices are pretty straightforward bang-for-your-buck options (especially the Succubus Brothel, heh).

A major goal in the aftermath of the Battle of Yhilin is to have more than 25 Victory Points while simultaneously having 0 Chaos and Collateral Damage. It does not seem possible to gain that from the battle, so you'll inevitably spend at least 20% of your budget cleaning up the mess. It's possible to end up with 20~ VP and 0 Chaos/Damage, which means that a Double Noble Campaign is all you need to seal your control of the nation.

Unfortunately, the relative weight and importance of the Social/Economic/Yhilin variables is not clear. Higher is better, clearly. Acceptance has various thresholds which allow further social engineering of Yhilin; 30, 40 and 50 seem to be key numbers. If you run things well and take Acceptance boosts whenever they're presented (definitely use the various guides), these investments will let you clear 50 relatively easily. Especially if you take some of the investments in the Second House of Petitions...