Pushing the meta-analysis angle, Korundi betraying you for Lukomir makes the game very hard. It’s nice to not need Rhetoric 60 to have a private chat, but cheaping out on Rhetoric leaves you with a displeased electorate. Losing Intrigue 75 for the combined Intrigue + Operations check that follows makes it extremely difficult unless you were angling for it from the start. Alienating Korundi also needs very tight early choices.
I still talk as if the palace is standing by to blow us both out of the sky, even if I didn’t need to make that promise or have Korundi make that promise. Not that my counterparty would have been very keen on me running away empty-handed, anyway.
I might try another grandmaster Intrigue run. I was a bit disappointed at seemingly not finding anything new about my friends, or any of the special characters you couldn’t normally run a background check on.
Lukomir having non-default stats was quite interesting. I wouldn’t expect there to be a way to get him on-side before Mazarin instigates things. There not being any flavour stats for Ethexae, Yukow, Korundi, Muistis, and Big Brother suggests that might be significant. If I go counterclockwise to denounce Oletko and make a good impression on Oberod, not stopping for any social phases, or spending exactly one social phase to get Lorkas to skip the initial Deep Space on the return, I get to Myrkka I in time to have its social phase on Turn 10, which is exactly too late. Though my friends have flavour stats. I wonder what happens if I have advisors in their preferred position before trying to recruit them, if it’s even possible.