The Bludish Dream (Guide and Comments) 3.0.7 (May be out of date for 3.1.0+ playthroughs!)

This is a rough guide to get the Bludish Dream achievement (originally written for 3.0.7). The advice here, if taken correctly, should work in subsequent versions of Suzerain, although I am marking it as outdated as of the 3.1 updates.

For whatever reason, even though pieces of information that help guide players towards this end exist online, I never found a coherent enough post that detailed all the crucial decisions exact enough to get close to unlocking this one (hence this guide).

I divided this guide into three parts: 1. The core decisions that the achievement requires, 2. The other supporting decisions that, while aren’t stipulated, are almost certainly needed to be factored in to get this achievement, 3. A section on my own thoughts regarding this achievement.

Keep in mind that decisions within this guide are not in an entirely chronological turn order, due to the complexities in the steps involved.
If you’re only skimming through, do what it says in bold and consider what is underlined too, but please think about key decisions as they come up and read through the relevant advice here if you’re unsure (as not to skip over some crucial decision that prevents getting this achievement - I've made those mistakes a few times when going for specific outcomes).
If you've played Suzerain a few times or even a lot, hopefully you'll already be familiar with a lot of the decisions and how they work together!

It is also worth noting that this guide follows a reformist democratic pathway to changing the constitution, as it was impossible (and probably still is) to pass more authoritarian reforms while successfully going for this achievement.

As you’ll note in some sections with some of the feedback I've received from comments, there are some choices that could result in a better way to obtain the achievement. I've attempted to clarify where these deviations could be. Regardless, if you follow all the advice here you will be able to get it.

1. The Core Decisions

As the achievement stipulates, we must A. create the Bergia Autonomous Zone, B. amend Articles 6 and 7 of the Sordish Constitution, and C. establish the Minority Rights Committee (sign the Minority Rights Act) in order to ‘achieve’ the Bludish Dream. While this seems straightforward, we have to be deliberate in our entire approach (pretty much until the last turn of the game) to achieve all three components as some decisions will impact the viability of progressing the others.

A. The Bergia Autonomous Zone

To create the Bergia Autonomous Zone we need to listen to Justice Minister Nia Morgna’s solution to the issues caused by the current Governor of Bergia, Phelix Bron. When asked in a meeting during Turn 6 by Nia and Lileas Graf (the Interior Minister) to address Bron’s mismanagement of the Bergia region, which is hinted at in earlier turns, we must side with Nia’s plan to work on the Autonomous Zone.

Do not pick Graf’s plan to fully integrate Bergia into Sordland, choose to do ‘nothing’ via preserving the status quo of Bron’s governorship, or opt to ignore both minister’s plans in favour of amending Articles 6 and 7 (as Nia will not work on plans for Bergia and it is not possible to get the option to unilaterally change Bergia’s status later if we are pursuing a reformist constitution).

Once we give Nia the go ahead, she will begin working on this and present the Act for us to sign - after we’ve met with Chief Strategist Lucian Galade and Vice President Petr Vectern - during Turn 8. We can change our minds at a few occasions regarding our decision to change the status of Bergia, but cancelling our decision at any point will prevent getting the achievement, so don’t stop it!

B. Amending Articles 6 and 7

Linked to this puzzle is amending Articles 6 and 7 of the Constitution, which becomes possible in Turn 7 when talking to the independent politicians Fetih Ejall and Mansoun Leke during a private meeting. In order to get this meeting, we have to be very pro-Bludish in our overall decisions (we will discuss this later) and side with Frens Ricter and the PFJP’s plan of action during the Victory Day meeting. I believe it may be possible to get the meeting with Ejall and Leke having only followed one of these roads, but for the sake of consistency it is better to do both these things.

When Lucian mentions meeting with the Bludish leaders, accept the invitation from the Bludish politicans, be supportive and commit to their plan to add amending Articles 6 and 7 to the existing constitutional changes.

This does complicate matters however as the USP becomes annoyed at these last minute changes, particularly as our MPs do not want to change the wording of either amendments.
Keep in mind that if we have failed to convince Speaker Gloria Tory (and the conservative MPs) of the existing changes to the constitution, along with Albin Clavin (and the progressive MPs), during Turn 4, the next steps will fail (so ensure both factions of the USP have already agreed with our pre-existing constitutional proposals and changes – agree to remove stuff in the draft to please them if that's what it takes).

Anyway, to convince our party members (that have united under Speaker Gloria Tory in the meeting before the vote), be diplomatic, explain the reasons for these changes (some variation of getting rid of the Bludish Freedom Front), and agree to do some of the things she wants.

To successfully keep Nia working on the Bergia Autonomous Zone, as Gloria will demand that this stops, say we cannot stop work on the Autonomous Zone and agree to do the following two actions.
First, agree to revert the Energy Protection Act back to 10% (so we have to have either have kept it at 20%, raised it to 49%, or repealed it entirely earlier at the meeting during Turn 3, so do not reduce it at the earlier EPA meeting (Turn 3) when given the option).
Second, agree to arrest Fetih Ejall, who has self-admitted links to the BFF.
Taking these actions will see the USP agree to the entire constitutional changes (assuming we haven’t taken other actions to lose their support).

Frens will burst in shortly after, annoyed, so agree to the PFJP's demands for recognition to get them on board (fulfilling the promises doesn't seem to matter). However, according to a comment by Crummy Wizard (which you can read for yourself), apparently blanket agreeing to do this causes problems with attending the Aaschraf Anniversary later on, amongst other things. This guide will assume we fully agree with Frens here going forward, regardless of these bad outcomes.

If we’ve made the right decisions in the configuration and passing of the new constitution through the procedures, the first two steps of this achievement are done!

C. The Minority Rights Committee

The last part, establishing the Minority Rights Committee, seems more straightforward but is arguably as complicated as the other steps. In order to do this, we ‘simply’ have to be approached by Mansoun Leke during Turn 9 where he asks us to support his Minority Rights Act, which creates the aforementioned Minority Rights Committee.

Although theoretically we should be very popular with the Bludish people, giving them autonomy and recognition in the updated Constitution means they’re happy but not sycophantic towards our administration. Additionally, given Petr’s assessment of our administration’s popularity in a Cabinet meeting (near the end of Turn 7), we need to avoid as many negative developments as possible to maintain our general popularity with everyone. If we inadvertently trigger any major problems, this will typically result in social unrest and Leke will not approach us, thus voiding all the hard work we’ve done towards the Bludish Dream.

To prevent this (assuming we gave into Frens' demand), we need to do two main things in particular (assuming that our general popularity is good enough at this point).

First, in Turn 7, call off operations against the BFF at the cabinet meeting. Although this seems counter-intuitive and will infuriate Lileas, having our security forces clash with the Bergia forces, in the efforts to destroy the BFF, will cause repercussions for our administration later on. If we let the new Governor in Bergia handle things, the BFF will gradually lose relevance with the Bluds and will also not cause problems that we have to respond to.

Second, when we are considering attending the Aaschraf Anniversary, we must decline to go to the Aaschraf Anniversary. Although Lucian wants us to go, even with the threat of the BFF out of view, siding with Frens means we will never personally get the credit we deserve for helping the Bluds. I discuss this in the last section of this guide, but this is an achievement killer because this only makes segments of Sordland get angry and protest (somewhat counter intuiatively in my opinion). Anyway, if that occurs, Leke avoids approaching us entirely and our efforts were for nothing. Comments have said it's possible for the anniversary event to go well following a more socialist playthrough, but this guide isn't following that path so don't go if you're following my advice.

Assuming we leave Bergia mostly to its own devices and maintain decent popularity, come Turn 9 we can agree to Leke’s proposal and sign the Minority Rights Act into law. Shortly afterwards, with all the parts satisfied, the Bludish Dream achievement should be unlocked - though you might have to play a bit longer for it to trigger properly!

2. Other Crucial Decisions to Factor in

If you’ve read the first part of this guide, or played Suzerain enough, you’ll know there are a deceptive amount of choices that can, if not thought-through properly, lead to some very catastrophic outcomes if not balanced or thought through correctly. Given all the intricacies of the decisions we need to make for this achievement, there are numerous exterior choices to the core components of the Bludish Dream that need to be considered to successfully pull it off.

Each are difficult to separate, so I’ve done my best to group the subjects together as best as possible. Not as convenient as a turn-by-turn playthrough, but hey, otherwise we might as well just edit the files for the achievement if we can’t be bothered playing the game...

Anyway, lets start at the prologue.

Early-game + General Economic Strategy

Firstly, as I’ve found this extremely useful when starting games, I want to link to a very good Reddit post evaluating the choices we’re presented during the prologue of each game by Jistiesep: https://www.reddit.com/r/suzerain/comments/11bjdcd/choices_in_the_prologue/?rdt=40318

As already stated, it's not feasible to do any of this achievement with a more authoritarian reform of the constitution. Therefore, it's important to side with the reformists in the opening decisions. Let’s pursue democratic reform in Sordland!
Additionally, in order to get enough support to reach our end goal, it's important we prioritise a good and consistent economy. Personally, I thought a free market economy would achieve prosperity better, as well as provide more opportunities to accumulate personal wealth, so I strongly recommend a wealthy start with an education in economics, coupled with joining the student council (as noted, apparently you can do this achievement being more of a socialist, however the advice in this guide wasn't written for that in mind).
While having decent relations with the USP is important in the Prologue, we don’t need to be overly supportive at the cost of other support (though we can shove our family aside). Support Edward Alphonso once he's in charge, make Sordland a better place, and advice Alphonso to step down when prompted.
Getting in good with the Bluds at the beginning is a little hard, though there are a few choices you could make. Although we could improve our image by letting the refugees through, we probably shouldn’t antagonise the military by doing that (it's always held against us).
Maybe joining the Red Youth could also help with them too. I did going for the achievement, though I don’t think this is a must (having some preexisting support from the common workers could help our overall popularity, but you can choose yourself).

For election promises, choose to prioritise either Health or Education, something that will ensure popular support from the public.
I chose Health as later on, when negotiating the constitutional changes with Gloria Tory, the Conservatives would not support me if I pursued any privatisation of healthcare (we can get away with Education privatisation to help fund something while funding health with more government funds to improve that - so no privatisation needed in that case).
As stated (for this guide), support a market economy as we need the support of the business community in Walter Tusk and Marcel Koronti to remain popular in the Assembly and with the general public through control of the media (so meet with Marcel and take his deal during Turn 2).
Remain neutral between the East and West international alliances. For the sake of simplicity (and good relations with the military and wider world) we don’t need to get overly involved in international affairs more than what's required.
Keep immigration relaxed – helps with our overall economic strategy and this is generally popular with the public too! We don’t need to change our minds on this at a later meeting.

Now the prologue's over, it’s important we do enough things to position ourselves in the best path for the achievement. Given the starting perimeters here, we must: maximise our personal wealth for later lobbying the assembly (and bribing a supreme court judge, Heron Garaci), maintain the support of the USP and the PFJP for constitutional changes, keep the public’s support for our administration, all while preventing any early crises from torpedoing our pathway forward.

One of the most critical objectives, if we are to have any shot of succeeding in any game, is to avoid the Turn 5 Black Tuesday economic crash event, which occurs if we have over +7 or -7 for our government budget. As we want to see returns on our investment of +3 wealth into the electronics company for later use (do the maximum investment from personal wealth when asked during Turn 1), we have to carefully manoeuvre each potential spending decision for best use and to avoid big problems. Because there’s no way we will ever be at risk of having a surplus, we just need to be careful not to go beyond -7 government budget.

Economically, to ensure maximum best outcomes, we need to invest in a mega-infrastructure project, ideally given to Underhall Construction, as this will please the Oligarchs under Walter Tusk.
As mentioned before, we should do everything Tusk asks to ensure his support, while remembering to take his big bribe at the first meeting with him (always ask him for more before accepting his offer), as this will be useful later on.
If we did not study economics at university, the Oligarch’s requests for support becomes more challenging to fulfil (which would be a big problem for our strategy if our background and approach was different).
Anyway, while our budget might be tight to promise and fulfil a large tax cut on large businesses, we can balance this with an increase on small businesses (though Ecomony Minister Symon Holl isn’t thrilled about that, but anyway...).

Thankfully, Marcel is less much demanding for what he gives us. Just remember when the economic meeting comes up at the beginning of Turn 7 (which serves as a semi-showdown between him and Tusk), we can placate Marcel by telling him we’re not thinking about privatisation (‘going’ for a ‘balanced approach,’ even though we’re not), tell him we’re not going to interfere in the affairs of the Oligarchs, and then choose to do a little to big (but not total) privatising of the Nedam Mining Group (leave the Sordish State Corporation alone as privatising anything from them will turn our party against us).
At the following meeting, simply split the shares between him and Walter, leaving us to reap their support in the upcoming votes, while clawing back some government debt. In theory siding with Marcel gives us everything we need still, however it is not necessary to choose him over Water.

While we want their help and resources, we also need to do enough popular things for the people, like signing the Worker’s Rights Act and giving the public stimulus money (instead of doing nothing or bailing out businesses). As a reminder, choosing a different starting background may muck up our ability to choose the stimulus option!
Anyway, thanks to our relations with Alphonso, who is now head of Gasom energy, we should co-invest with Rizia (helps save budget, a pragmatic compromise) and ask Gasom to pay their workers more and tell the protestors about it before leaving on our Narbel trip. When Turn 5 rolls around, having done this (and having successfully avoided the Black Tuesday crash), we can take an investment opportunity from Gus Manger, the Minister of ‘everything,’ to buy into FC Anrica. This costs us some personal wealth (we get half back later), but this should help our overall popularity with the public (I never tested if this actually did increase popularity, but it certainly didn't hinder my playthrough in unlocking the achievement).

As an aside, at the end of Turn 6 we can cash out the government’s shares in Gasom (which are usually not great if we didn’t fully invest in them and repeal the EPA entirely - don't do that for obvious reasons!). We could keep or extend them, but given it will be returning to 10% it makes much more sense to get the maximum payout of them before the reduction. Whatever the case, it’s fine to cash out our GASOM shares to help keep government debt down (while also getting ahead of the EPA’s return to 10% as part of Gloria’s demands regarding Articles 6 and 7).

Keeping Popular + Mid-Game

To more serious public relations, after the murder of Bernard Circas (during Turn 2) we should attend Circas’ funeral and visit towns undergoing clashes between the Red Youth and Young Sords (when prompted to respond to the nationwide situation) in order to calm tensions and maintain general support (so don’t ban either group).

Women’s rights comes much later in the game, but it is probably important to be supportive of women’s rights, if not to keep Monica happy, along with the rest of Sordland.
Just make sure to deny giving Monica the speech at Benfi (we don’t want to make Curtan Leste angry) and jeopardise our support for the constitution vote (in reality, we can let her do the speech and have it taken away when negotiating with Gloria Tory for the constitution, but we don't need to bait her in the first place). Apologise to Curtan when she acts out and promise her your support afterwards towards legislating women’s rights into law... and follow through on women's rights reforms).

Speaking of our most reform hungry Minister, we can agree to Ciara Walda’s reform of the education system during Turn 4 without much consequence, though don’t outright ban creationism in schools to avoid negative backlash (merely allow evolution and creationism as a compromise in Turn 6).

When it comes to what should be funded in health and education (also Turn 6), I did new hospitals and rural schools (though I’m not convinced, from what I’ve read elsewhere, about the game’s logic that the choices matter greatly unless paired with other things).

Throughout most turns, but especially in the early turns, we can ignore and veto bills that decrease our budget (like the regional investments) as they do not help us move towards our achievement.
Having said that, we could invest in Bergia which would help us with Bludish support, but I didn’t have enough budget to do so. Depending on another economic strategy, you may be able to do that. If that's the case, later on, during Turn 6, we can invest in the Sarna agricultural zone in Bergia for Bludish support (though this is probably better paired with other things for the economy). In any event, it's generally a good idea not to go wild with spending beyond what is necessary later on to avoid late-game unpopularity and economic issues. If we've kept presidential decrees once our new constitution has passed, feel free to pick from the limited options left, although it is not necessary to choose from any of the four available decrees.

Speaking of keeping support high with the Bluds, veto anti-Bludish bills that pass the Assembly (the Religious Harmony Bill and the Unified Education Language Act). While each sound like they might be helpful the effects of both will enrage the Bludish people, making it impossible to go for the achievement.

I also vetoed the Electoral Campaign Finance Bill on Turn 1, which harms our general public support slightly but helps us a bit with Bludish support (it’s also in line with our democratic reformist tendencies).

Also, when the Day of Descension occurs, which is an important religious day for the Bluds, make sure not to muck the ceremony up – though it can be a little amusing to ‘forget’ what to do.
To summarise Lucian’s simple explanation: touch the altar with right hand, kneel, right hand, sceptre to the archpriest, sword to a disciple. Simple right?

At the budget meeting (Turn 4), we should honour our promise to increase whatever we promised (healthcare in my case), along with funding whatever else we can get away with. Because of the overall numbers and strategy I used, I was weary to decrease the military budget in order to fund either education, or something else – though it might be possible to get away with this (depending on how good we want relations with the military to be and what we can fund in place of that).

Constitutional Changes (and Passing it)

Before we end the budget meeting, we should also increase the law enforcement budget and agree to increase funding for Nia’s Ministry of Justice (she asks to do this in Turn 5). This is important to do as of our pressuring of the supreme court with the PFJP to hear the discrimination case against the Bludish people (in order to get a meeting with the MPs to push for changes to Articles 6 and 7) really upsets the justices (resulting in no clear path to possibly succeed when the court votes).
Doing that allows us to form the Anti-Corruption Police, who, if we start investigating the Old Guard, will put enough pressure on the 'reachable' justices to vote the ‘right’ way (as we cannot garner enough support for them otherwise in light of our ‘meddling’ from joining a statement).
We don’t have to keep investigating them later on when prompted again after the new constitution is passed, but remember do not to start any investigations into the Oligarchs at any stage as this will lead to our impeachment for all the well-meaning collusion we’ve done in the name of bettering Sordland.

Still, this won't result in enough votes to pass the Supreme Court's vote, so we need to garner Justice Heron Garci’s support.
We can do this either by getting Lucian to set up the meeting – 50/50 chance if he reaches out that way – or more reliably through directly reaching out (bribe him ourselves for a meeting, -1). Then, during the meeting generously bribe him (-2) for his support (we should have enough personal wealth if we maxed out each opportunity to gain more PW). As you probably already know, the reason we don't go for the smaller bribe is he will convince another justice to side with us for giving him more.
Because we didn’t take sides between Walter and Marcel earlier, I don’t think we can rely on Marcel’s unnamed supreme court judge friend, hence we should do both methods of the ACP investigation and bribing Garci to be safe for the supreme court vote. In theory if we side with Marcel over Walter, we still need Garci's vote, so make sure to bribe him not matter what.

Assuming we’ve followed all the advice so far, we should have the necessary votes to pass it for both vote checks. Hopefully it should have been obvious throughout this guide, but we can’t do anything too radical in putting our new constitution together during the Turn 3 meeting (there is some advice about this in some comments).

Whatever ends up getting included, as previously noted, we need both Gloria and Albin to agree during Turn 4 to have any hope of successfully negotiating the inclusion of changes to Articles 6 and 7 later, so agree to their demands for changes if they raise any objections. Some changes are better than others, but if we fail to convince both of them, the party will never agree in the subsequent meeting about further changes (Articles 6 and 7). Thus, it’s probably a good idea when having the first meeting with Gloria to include something ‘radical’, like abolishing the Member of Honor rules, so we can look good by agreeing to remove it. However, unless we botch our talks I don’t think that is a must.

Or... alternatively, if they kick up a fuss (which it's just easier to avoid altogether by agreeing to their demands), *offer* them something else for their support.
I don’t recommend this for Gloria, but apparently she will let us keep the impeachment of judges if we promise her a seat on the supreme court (assuming that was selected).
If that is part of the constitutional changes, theoretically we could (also) collude with Justice Garci to get his support by letting him become the next Chief Justice, instead of needing to bribe him. However, we would then need to impeach Chief Justice Orso Hawker, which may prove to be a pain. For the sake of simplicity, I didn’t do any of this and you don’t have to either.
Anyway, Albin will just about support anything for the promise of becoming VP... but unless anything is already too wacky he should already be supportive of the changes (especially as we supported the Worker's Rights Act).

As a reminder for when we are dealing with Frens and the PFJP, we should be diplomatic and agree to acknowledge the PFJP in return for supporting the constitutional reforms. He will make mention of a potential alliance in the Assembly with our party, but it’s not crucial to follow through on that after the vote. Asking him about his Arcasian adventure, if we got that intel from the Hawker on Turn 2, isn't necessary (but I always enjoy doing that anyway).

To ensure that the first vote passes, given all our personal wealth acquisition, we should spend the maximum amount on lobbying the assembly (-4) to ensure all our support holds.

Thanks to our pro-Bludish stances, some independent MPs like Leke will support us too.

In the end, the first vote through the Assembly should total 179 ayes to 72 nays (assuming we get Gloria to speed up voting and don’t make a fool of ourselves before the votes have been turned in) - comfortably reaching the 2/3rds majority requirement to pass.

Finally, we need to convince Justice Edmonds (and the other 'centrist judges') to support the changes. This meeting happens shortly afterwards (during Turn 7) with Nia helping to set up a meeting. Make sure to be as respectful and clear as possible with her about why we’re pursuing the changes. As difficult as this sounds, being at all rudely forceful or slimy will never work to convince Edmonds of any changes, even as we wait for her to order her salad and also copying her salad (pretty sure this is just a meme, but doesn't hurt to get on her good side by showing her we're a fellow salad eater).
If you’re stuck as to what dialogue achieves this, see 999Catfish’s Reddit comment for help in convincing her: https://www.reddit.com/r/suzerain/comments/167ofpt/okay_how_do_i_convince_edmonds/

Late-game, Foreign + Military Relations

On foreign relations, as previously stated, we don’t really want to get very involved. Thus, we should not enter any military alliances (just say we’ll take any advice to if requested, but don’t act on it), which also means not participating in anything that could paint Sordland in a negative way (like Wehlen’s Operation Beartrap or taking sides on the Heljiland issue).

Due to our capitalistic orientation for this guide, we should ignore a trade deal with Valgsland and merely agree to have simple trade deals with Agnolia and Lespia individually to help our economy recover. Reject all deals with Welhen - we don't need to work with them at all (although apparently with another strategy you sort of can and still work towards the achievement).
We can take the Arcasian aid package on Turn 5 (the event which happens if we’re in debt but have avoided the Black Tuesday crash), as this may help our economy do well enough until we get to our end goal (although I don't believe this is absolutely crucial).

It’s extremely important in our dealings with Defense Minister Iosef Lancea and General Valken Kruger not to praise the superpowers or trash our military, or they’ll think we’re a threat. I don’t think this actually matters for the achievement itself, but if you’d rather not finish the game in exile or in jail thanks to a coup (especially if you let the refugees through in the prologue), just be respectful to Sordish independence and self-reliance. Just don’t listen to their advice to close our embassy in Dome or retaliate when Rumburg shoots down our plane (although, according to a comment by marthur1003, it is possible to achieve the Bludish Dream while also going to war with Rumburg, but we're not going down that path for the advice here - so don't overly antagonise any foreign nation!).

Although I’ve read consistent advice that recommends always reforming the military structure, we don’t need to change anything if we’re not planning a war or increasing funding, so we can keep everything as is with the military and Gendarmerie (ignore Lileas' transfer plea).

Because of the links of the BFF to Rumburg and the fact that later on we’re not bff’s with every Bludish person, it seems better to just maintain the military budget just in case and not risk causing any other problems too (if not also for role-playing purposes and having to avoid other funding other demands they request for their budget decrease).

When dealing with Rumburg, we should not do anything to provoke them as we want the international community to eventually sanction and isolate them for repeatedly bullying us. Although this outcome technically happens after the Bludish Dream completes, because the BFF has ties to Rumburg it’s probably better not to provoke Rumburg unnecessarily as they might cause problems for us, even though our relations with the Bludish people will be better towards ever by the end.

During Turn 8 we can arrest Iiana Vance, the spy, have her tried while blaming ourselves and Petr for the scandal event, which also conveniently means we can appoint Lucian to be VP when Petr resigns (which keeps a lid on the well-meaning corruption we’ve engaged in).
When the Kyrute journalist interviews us during Turn 9, call Iiana Vance out by name to ensure Rumburg is kicked out of OMEC (assuming Sordland's other conduct in international affairs and our interview answers are satisfactory).
We must also agree to take in the Rumburg whistleblower, Mr Hailstone, during Turn 7, who will later help us get Rumburg sanctioned by both the ATO and CSP if we call out their behaviour and secret nuclear program at the Alliance of Nations meeting (during Turn 10).

By this late stage though, it shouldn't matter much with how things are working out for us internationally as the Bludish Dream has well and truly been achieved (at least by the game’s achievement system once the MRA has been signed).

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As for my ending...

Because I annoyed Lileas Graf so much by attempting to join with the PFJP and change the USP’s party manifesto, also making a hash of the economy which was now in a full recession, along with some other things I did to annoy her... I got kicked out of politics.
Endorsing the PFJP seemed to hurt them more as the USP still won, though maybe redirecting the ACP onto the NFP could have had lopsided support to my old party.
Whatever happens... Rayne is certainly out of the presidency after four stressful and thankless years.

Franc never got to go fight Rumburg, but at least we can hang out with Petr and our family more.
Regarding our relationship with Franc, which should be fairly obvious, unless you want an obvious scandal to go out on, don't send Franc to Holsord University because of one, privatisation costs (think that would have left me without enough money to bribe Garci after the heavy lobbying), and two, the obvious scandal it would cause. Let that be a lesson to everybody – if you don’t study, you won’t cross the line at all!

3. My Thoughts (and complaints) on the ‘Bludish Dream’

So originally, this section was a bit of a whinge with complaints at the game logic with how difficult and broken this achievement was to get.

Typically, as I tried quite a few times to achieve the Bludish Dream, I would just be able to pass the constitutional changes and autonomise Burgia, only to run into trouble getting the Minority Rights Committee part satisfied. This is because the Aashraf Anniversary would seemingly always screw everything up – though this was kind of connected to the effects of completely going after the BFF instead of cancelling the operation against them. Either going or not going to the anniversary, depending on my decisions (of which there didn’t seem to be a lot of wiggle room for in even getting the first two parts of the achievement done), would trigger major unrest from the Bluds or the wider public.

Although I can see in terms of both the game’s design and story logic that this should not be an easy thing to accomplish altogether, I wasn’t and still am not convinced that this part of Suzerain is put together particularly well. I don’t believe, at least consulting the patches from versions 3.0 and onwards, that this issue I experienced was ever a ‘bug’ within the game (though it certainly felt like it as it was routine). This means, as I’ve since accepted, that all the decisions here should be the way they are presented with their outcomes – with no other workarounds or explanations presented (except for improving upon the general state of Sordland – which I wasn’t really able to do much on).

In a nutshell, yes, as others have pointed out there some amount of wiggle room to make the public more on-side with our administration and legislative changes... perhaps through changing approaches. Regardless of that, in my view there’s not great reasoning for why things were unravelling the way they were here.

As highlighted by feedback, it seems that these issues were mainly caused by giving a lion's share of credit to Frens and the PFJP for the passing of a new constitution, also in part improving the lot of the Bludish people through the new articles. This, in turn, has a negative impact on Anton Rayne receiving the appropriate props for doing both those things and more, especially for the Bluds. Given that we never actually see what the 'lion's share' of 'credit' is given in universe (unless there's a newspaper/report commentary in game I kept missing), this does not explain in my view the lengthy troubles I experienced trying to do all these things for the achievement, in the way I've described, to eventually getting it (and write down all the advice for it). If anything, this just makes Frens look even more smarmy than he can come across at times. I know everything can't be explained with such a complex series of branching decisions taken in a game like this. However, considering this is all as intended logically - as best I can see - either something needs better explaining within this portion of the game or the game's decision weights need re-calibrating for this.

*Reflecting back on this in 2025, one explanation could be that the rest of Sordland feels like the administration is bending over backwards, fairly or unfairly, for the Bluds, which would be an acceptable explanation if it's written in properly to the game*.

Regardless...

Giving the Bludish people everything they wanted – acknowledgement and autonomy – but yet they still cause problems thanks to the BFF. Okay. Sure. I can understand this given some real life parallels with them still having the separatist militants as part of the anniversary crowd. But it’s just not realistic that we’re invited there as the guy who has arguably done the most for the Bluds, barring that we can only do so much, with their most significant political leader (Mansoun Leke) welcoming us warmly, only to get chased out at the end – despite giving the crowd the most sycophant speech ever (and not going only annoys them if we still were targeting the terrorists).

Yes, we did have Fetih Ejall arrested (there was no way around that), but then for Leke to cowardly stay away from suggesting the committee due to the unrest? Come on.

Political calculations can change, but quite a few significant decisions are undertaken during our time in charge of Sordland - despite protests or other concerns.

Arguably and annoyingly, this is something I think he even says regarding the constitutional amendment changes, what better time is there to take advantage of pushing something forward? Even if his committee doesn’t go far or might not even be accepted by the Assembly before we sign it, which really setting up any committee might not result in anything meaningful (it’s never even followed up again apart from to brag about during our re-election campaign), why suddenly is he strategising or looking through an optics-lens instead of being the bold pragmatist in approaching the most powerful figure in the country – an incredibly sympathetic president at that?

From that point of view, Leke and the Bluds just seem like they really need those rural education institutes to connect the dots in their wacky thinking... I’m not asking for much giving them greater autonomy to just have one last conversation to help them further!

As for the unrest that was being caused by the BFF or other groups... it’s a bit crappy that despite improved government departments and the media deal I had with Marcel Koronti that no one seems very competent at spreading and getting good news outside of whatever their personal fiefdom is.

Granted, maybe I chose and had some predestined bad allies as part of the story of Suzerain. Maybe that's why I feel that the story of Suzerain is very engaging and compelling overall... though in achievement hunting circumstances it can get a bit annoying at times.

I think that’s kind of why I have extremely enjoyed Suzerain over the years as a whole however, whatever my complaints have been here. It is ‘just a game,’ but I really credit it for giving me a greater perspective and appreciation on how difficult it must be to actually be in politics and to hold power. A lot is really out of our control when you think about it, even being in quite a powerful position. Although it’s not everything, at the end of the day how much we can do and how far we can go can be, at least in part, determined by a certain level of wisdom, knowledge, and willingness to act – all of which goes beyond ourselves and takes on a new meaning (as I often neglect to read some of the impacts of my decisions after they’ve happened during the games... oops).

End of Guide

This was a bit more than i was expecting to have written for this guide - both advice and complaining!

Thanks for reading any part, or perhaps the entirety, of my guide! I hope it was somewhat useful.
If it was, give it a thumbs up, comment, etc., if you feel that way inclined.

As you can see, I've had some feedback and added/clarified things to this guide since 3.0.7. Feel free to add tips or advice if you think there's anything else that would help someone get this achievement in a different way.

A’Morgna west core, vectern sis da!

[Tricky Dick]

Thanks for your feedback! It's nice to see that a more socialist and war run can still result in getting the achievement. I've updated the guide to reflect that, along with a few clarifications and wording changes. I've trimmed back and streamlined section 3 as well - even though it's more superfluous commentary than anything.

[marthur1003]

I got the Bludish Dream in my socialist non-aligned war run and I was able to visit the Aaschraf Anniversary after arresting Fetih Ejall without destroying worsening the situation, yeah a few people insulted Rayne but everything ended well. Don't know if it is a 3.0.8 fix or what but I could do both things.

[Tricky Dick]

So 3.0.8 has been released. As far as I would assume, unless there are bugs in this or any subsequent patches/releases, the advice should stay the same for this achievement.

[Tricky Dick]

Thanks for the feedback, that's good to know!

[Crummy Wizard]

As long as your constitution is democratic enough (8% election threshold helps), you must call Ricter's bluff and not give in. If you do, he'll take credit for the whole constitutional reform. That's likely part of why you've been having issues with the anniversary event. If the only bad things you've done to the Bludish are:

* Protect your border during Wehlen's OBT (the negotiated trade deal, not the original)
* Arrest Fetih Ejall
* Complete Graf's anti-BFF operation

Then you are fine to attend the anniversary as long as you haven't made yourself unpopular to the Sordish general public. Leke will show up to propose the minority rights act which you can pass as a decree right then and there if you haven't weakened presidential decrees. Leke always shows up to propose the minority rights act unless there is some major unrest going on.

Giving in to Ricter's demands means you will not have a second term unless you use secret police to dispose of him.

[Tricky Dick]

Yea I think initially I did see a post that the new achievements were a little buggy after 2.0 came out (apparently passing the amendments cleared this achievement)
Think one I went for when they started doing the Rizia updates didn't unlock properly until this patch, but I think they're all fixed now.

[Stoichi]

I remember managing to do this in my first 2.0 run while also getting elected as well. I did it in Torpor Mode as it had just come out and didnt really care about achievements then. I remember doing it as a left wing reformist though, so I feel like that's likely what helped me keep the party leadership. I also remember taking Koronti's deal at the beginning, helping me win the elections. I've also never actually encountered the same problem with the Aashcraf Anniversary? I always did the usual stuff where you hug Leke and all that and it ended up fine for me. I havent done this in a very long time but I'm sure there has to be a way to still get elected while doing Bludish Dream in 3.0.7.

[Tricky Dick]

Thanks for the feedback! Good to know there's a bit of leniency in the decisions you took. Yea unfortunately it seems impossible to get reelected, though maybe someone could figure out a way.

[Dna423]

Had a few issues with getting the autonomous zone past the assembly but appointing Gloria as a judge gave me enough support.
Did attend the Aaschraf Anniversary (got booed at the end) but no unrest followed as long as I cancelled the BFF operation.

Didn't get re-elected despite having high opinion reports? Maybe I Shouldn't have gone crazy over the moon lol.

Thanks for the guide!