@BlindSwift
It is in fact possible to get Total Victory, Victory, and the Decisive Blow achievements in the same run, when the nobles have been warned of Sobik’s death. This was a Tactics Marshal, and Elya had Strength 4 at the end. I’ll do a more detailed write up later.
My write up: How I did it
First, i announced the King’s death in Chapter 1. In Chapter 3, I ordered the knights to attack the archers and then retreated immediately, and earned Butchery Upon the Walls. In Chapter 4, I used Tactics to even the load of the illness, trained the retinue in regimentation, did not allow Milon and Lada to retrieve the missing troops, got the maximum amount of resources (11 free points and 2 points of heavy cavalry) from Baron Ciril (Elya had Strength 5 going into the negotiations and Strength 4 at the end). I used that to recruit 2 points of archers, 1.5 points of light cavalry, and 1 point of retinue. In Chapter 5, I built defenses and chose to use the archer trap strategy (only requires defenses. This variant of Total Victory was doable with a Leadership Marshal as well). I dispersed the retinue amongst the infantry, and kept all the riders in reserve. I then saved Dismas, and my archers retaliated against the attack to great effect (Elya was the one who gave the order, as the queen). I then attacked the rebel foragers. During the battle, I ordered my light cavalry to attack the rebel camp, and later reinforced them with a quarter of my heavy cavalry reserve, disrupting the rebel’s plans. I also went out and personally joined the fight. The archer trap worked seamlessly, I set every cavalry I had on the routed rebels, and earned a total victory at the Atiming. In Chapter 7, I took the short route (I had enough light cavalry to beat back the attackers). I was always honest with Lord Moren (and received 0.5 points of heavy cavalry) and recruited 2 points of Rangers, 2 points of retinue troops, and 1 point of light cavalry and trained the retinue in the second level of regimentation. In Chapter 8, I seized Rade’s siege weapons (you probably can get Untouchable here instead, but I am looking ahead to book 2 in this playthrough) and slew Vuk in single combat (my Marshal is a woman of average height in plate wielding a poleaxe. I’ll let everyone figure out how to win with their own Marshals—any Marshal can win any (winnable) fight in this game). I then elected to face Rade in a final battle (with the coming patch, I suspect that this write-up will allow me to pull off the Tactics path and bleed Rade dry, but without the patch, it won’t work as well as I like). I chose to distribute my retinue evenly to increase army cohesion. I put my rangers with my archers and set them on the initial charge, then used the rangers/archers to soften up the right flank cavalry, then ordered them to move back so they could fire more easily over the infantry before I sent my cavalry to engage the cavalry on the right flank. I then got the archers into an archer duel with their rebel counterparts, got my light cavalry to prevent an attempted flanking, and got my heavy cavalry to face their counterparts as well (I don’t quite remember the exact choices here, but this is a rough idea). At the Marshal’s big moment, I chose to join the infantry (due to my high army cohesion (regimentation II ftw!) I was thumping the rebels while receiving minimal cohesion losses—the retreat option was grayed out). This has the dual bonus of saving Roach the horse and being a good use of my poleaxe. I then chose to use the tactics option to exploit the weakened enemy line. After that, the rebel cohesion was 71, and my retinue (the text specifically said Krorid veterans, which I did have, but I recruited men-at-arms rather than more veterans on top of those who joined up by default) were the ones that broke the rebels’ line and caused the rout. I then chose to deal a decisive blow with my heavy cavalry. I wonder if this guide will work once the patch is live.
Achievements earned: Belos’s Sally, Butchery Upon the Walls, Broken Hearts, Harsh Reality, Cleanse the Soul, Disrupt their Plans, Total Victory, Undefeated, Victory, The Decisive Blow, Mercy for Traitors (it has been confirmed by the author that both Kanton and Krorid have a big taboo on kinslaying. Vedran’s death at the Marshal’s hands was only permissible because it was plausibly self defense), Total Loyalty, Ending 2
You can earn Warrior Queen instead of Disrupt their Plans/Total Victory and still earn Victory/Decisive Blow in Chapter 9 (don’t attack the rebel camp in chapter 5, then go out to personally fight in the battle). You can also kill Vedran for Princeslayer (heading into Chapter 6 of this run, I had Vedran’s respect at 4, so our final fight was him attempting suicide-by-Marshal in an attempt to atone for his betrayal (he was knocked unconscious instead of killed). Others, with lower relationship with him, probably have more vicious final fights with him).
While you can earn A Family Prone to Treason/Ending 3 by following this guide, Elya will have at least Strength 4 at the end (which is the magic number that gets the flavor text changes that reflect her newfound strength and wisdom, allows her to handle herself in sticky sociopolitical (and military) situations, and allows her to give a rousing speech and command the loyalty of all the assembled vassals at her coronation), so the throne of Kanton will not be comfortable for you if you choose such a path. Or maybe that’s why you chose it.
