I just went for a vote-maxing run and won the election 27 votes to 3. Holdouts were Lukomir, Milan, and Khdarr (presumably). 22 of those were pledged votes and then I got 5 out of 6 undecideds to break for me. I didn't use blackmail at all, but I did max my allure and made significant use of "charm and flatter" to either nudge people into friendly so that I could secure their vote without a quest, or to at least get neutral voters leaning positive. I ended up securing Zolot, Radomil, Krovos, Three Rocks Nestled, Rippling Eternity, Chapadoc, and One Bite via doing their quests (in that order), Eve via marriage alliance, and Stoyan, Mirielle, Erilotti, Oberod, Ozara, and Lorkas by adding them to my cabinet. I had the cabinet planned from the start with the goals of getting high stats, not including any pair of enemies, and grabbing people that Lukamir likes to target early (which is why Oberod is there).
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it's possible to get 29 votes with careful planning (I'm assuming it's not possible to keep Lukomir from entering the election and voting for himself). It seems difficult to get Milan's quest done (although I haven't mapped out all the exact stat requirements) before Lukomir snatches him up, but he could probably replace Lorkas in the cabinet as Logothete of Culture. The polling ability of high media is great for planning, but it isn't actually necessary once you have a full route mapped out and already know how everybody is going to feel about your actions (Lorkas is the only person in my current cabinet that doesn't get along with Milan, and I have not seen Lukamir prioritize her at all). Khdarr was "neutral" when I visited her in person on turn 30, and she was showing up as positive in my turn 34 poll, so I'm pretty sure I just barely lost her vote (technically I guess I could have lost Robe & Starlight instead, but they were more solidly positive when we last talked). It would probably be possible to swing her just by making a different decision on one or two of the issues she cares about. There may also be some way to get her to guarantee you a vote or to at least give you a quest, but if so I haven't found it yet. Alternatively it might be possible to add her to the cabinet, but Heru II is a pain to get to early.
My current route was "Beeline to Draug for Stoyan and his enhanced movement. Get back to Myrkka I by turn 10 to grab Zolot. Head to Myrkka II, then Mau, then Tharkas I and II, collecting cabinet members. Swing over to Heru III to grab unsympathetic electors, before returning to Myrkka 1 to grab Ethexae and be there for turn 24. Head over to the rest of Heru (grabbing Sinniparrt on the way), and end in Tharkas III (saved for last b/c Sola is basically free)."
I definitely think the threshold for an achievement should be higher than 20.
Gave it another try adding Milan and Khdarr to the cabinet (replacing Lorkas and Mirielle), and got 27 votes a different way. This time nobody pledged for Lukamir, but Muistis and Rejit went for him in the election. Not sure what changed their opinions compared to the previous run. Unfortunately neither of them give me quests, so there isn't a quick fix that way. I still think 27 is probably beatable, but it seems pretty hard without knowing which policy decisions are going to please which electors. Before I try this again, I'll probably want to do a max media run where I just imperial poll every turn to see what impact my main storyline decisions are actually having (particularly on the electors I can't win with quests)
New record of 28 votes. Managed to flip Muistis back by rewinding to turn 28 of my previous attempt and welcoming the Mau first in the jubilee, and then not doing Rippling Eternity's quest (apparently he'll vote for me without it, and it seems like something that would upset non-Heru. The third elector got approved in the epilogue anyway). Rejit was the only vote for Lukamir (besides Lukamir himself ofc). I might need to go back and test out the requirements for Milan's quest again. If it's actually possible to get both Zolot and Milan via quests before Lukamir grabs them, then I can just absorb all of Tharkas Prime's electors into the cabinet to secure their votes.
Alright, so it turns out that we can outwrestle Milan with just 30 reflexes, 30 unarmed, and 70 wrestling, along with the strength booster from Stoyan. It's possible to get all of that by turn 10 while still hitting the 10 music and 50 invention that I'm using for Zolot, and they're all stats that my last run eventually gained anyway for Radomil and Lorkas' wrestling quests (who knew that wrestling was such a key stat for an empress). So at least in theory it should be feasible to get the full Tharkas Prime cabinet while still denying Lukamir all his pledged electors. I think it's very likely that it's possible to get 29 votes.
Mostly the same as my previous run, except I got Milan via wrestling and added Rejt to the cabinet. The one hiccup was that the previous run grabbed Zolot and Milan on turn 5 and then rushed down to Heru II to get Khdarr. The new route doesn't have enough stats to grab Zolot and Milan until turn 9, which means that by the time I could get down to Heru II, Khdarr was already hostile and wouldn't return my calls (the need to grab early wrestling also means that we can't get the stats to make a good first impression early on). Fortunately, economics isn't that important a stat, so I was able to just delay Heru II and leave Khdarr's cabinet position empty until after the turn 28 jubilee, by which time I had the rhetoric to make a good impression and Khdarr was willing to talk to me again.
A round of applause for you! Holy shit, this is incredible.
Imagining Lukomir in this world is so funny to me. He must be absolutely humiliated.
Probably too tricky to be an achievement, haha. It'd be fun if there was special dialogue for doing this, though. Some kind of reaction from Lukamir maybe. It'd be funny if he read the room and flipped to you, giving Zorana a unanimous 30.
Yeah I don't intend to set the achievement THAT high (and who knows, balance adjustments might end up invalidating it, though you should probably save your path to test later!) But it's cool to know!
