I feel that this can be considered as a spoiler. So, just in case. Contains major game mechanic and a fool-proof strategy (100% success rate, 5 sample).
Some analyzing:
The game actually starts at month 2, as the introduction is counted as an month. (I was kind of surprised by greeting with peace while expecting for month 16.) The intro event gives 500K, the game initializes at 100K, and each month provides for another 100K, for 700K starts in month 2.
There are four events in the game:
- Economic support: Accepting: -700K, +20% Coop Declining: -50% Coop, -30% Power
- Army buildup: Accepting: -400K, +10% Coop Declining: -10% Coop
- Independence: Accepting: +10% Coop, +10% Power for proposed nation, -30% Coop, -10% Power for targeted nation Declining: -10% Coop for proposed nation, +10% for targeted nation
- Claim: Accepting: +10% Coop, +20% Power for proposed nation, -30% Coop, -20% Power for targeted nation Declining: -20% Coop for proposed nation, +10% for targeted nation
And there is an option for requesting cash: +100K for -10% Coop.
And my personal simplification: I consider 100K as one point, 10% of Coop as one point, and no point for Power. (There really isn’t anything about balance of power or whatever, since I always choose option that does not change the power meters.)
So the game start with Almatstan’s 4 Points, Ardoirre’s 7 Points, Estenmont’s 6 Points, Kaccia’s 5 Point, and 7 Points in Beorland’s bank, for the total of 29 Points.
And for each option (with each month’s income considered): Economic Support: -4 / -4 Army buildup: -2 / 0 Independence: -1 / +1 Claim: -1 / +1 And Request: 0
For Economic Support, I always choose bailing them out; for the other three, I just reject their request.
My last playthrough (the only I recorded) has 5 Economic Supports, 3 Army buildups, 4 Independences, and 2 Claims. So: 29+(-4)5+03+14+12=26… (Kind of surprised to me, actually. Barely anything changed?)
Of course, it required a good balance of “Economic Support” events: Something like Great Depression will definitely lead to war, but all three other event will have -10% to -20% of Coop, which Economic Support helps (by taking other powers’ money and gift to the one).
The mechanic of Requesting Funds becomes a method of transferring Coop… Which makes the total Coop level… also a money tank? It certainly is a powerful tool.
It is a Game Jam entry, though, and extra time will always help.