Ethiopia's exile path and Crusader King IV achievement

[eastcoastceojam]

I'm trying for Ethiopia's "Crusader Kings IV" achievement using the Exile path, and I could use some advice. I began by defending for more than 2.5 years, getting the War Escalation to level 9 and eliminating 600k Italians in the the process.

Then, in Nov 1938, I decided to let Italy capitulate me, so I can become a Government in Exile hosted by the United Kingdom.

The last step should be to get my legitimacy to 99, complete the "The Heir of Solomon" focus, and get Jerusalem from my gracious hosts in London. The problem has been trying to retain my legitimacy while in exile. Here's my focus tree in early May:

On May 1st, after completing the American Radio address focus, and taking a couple decisions, my legitimacy was at 40. A few weeks later, it dropped to 30 with no explanation. I was able to add 5 legitimacy through another decision, now I'm at 35 legitimacy as you see below.

But then a month after that, legitimacy drops another 10 when this event fires:

Then, after clicking the event, I lose another 10 legitimacy only a single day later! Is this working as designed or a bug?

I was hoping to wait until Germany declares on Poland to call the UK to war with Italy, giving me time to finish the exile focuses. But with this low legitimacy, and the fact that Italy can take 10 legitimacy from me via decision every 180 days, I don't think that is going to be possible.

Let me know if you can help me right the ship.

 

[Thaldoras]

When I did it. I let myself get capitulated quite early and spent a long time building my legitimacy up.
When I got to the last focus my legitimacy would drop and that would cancel the focus. But after trying another time I managed to get it done.

The biggest problem with going the capitulation path is that it is a 50/50 chance for the UK to accept (I am working from memory, maybe things changed since then). There is no way to influence the chance of the UK accepting. This makes it incredibly frustrating.

Honestly. I would just go and win the war with Italy, balkanize Ethiopia and then reintegrate it with the horn of Africa decisions. By that point you have enough industry and strength to push to Jeruselem and complete the decision. Way less of a headache.

 

[eastcoastceojam]

I went back to an old save right after I had Ethiopia capitulate to Italy, and tried a different approach.

I instead spent time rebuilding my army, and then moving it to Allied Somaliland with convoys I purchased from a decision unlocked by the Ferengi focus. I was able to ferry 12 Chitet divisions to Allied Somaliland by August 1939, right before the "Make Formal Request to the British Government" decision completed.

Here's how things looked 1 day before the UK joined my war against Italy- my legitimacy is at 25:

After two weeks of fighting, and re-capturing one of Ethiopia's core states, my legitimacy shot up to 51. No legitimacy boosting events fired during this time, so I assume the gain is mostly from fighting against a common enemy. I have a huge amount of war participation from the 2.5 years of fighting I did before going into exile:

Now I just have to hope that the Allies can knock Italy out of East Africa before Germany takes Paris and creates Vichy France.

 

[eastcoastceojam]

OK, scratch my earlier optimism. This exile path is a total waste of time.

I finally got up to 100 legitimacy, and was 40 days into the focus before the one that transfers Jerusalem, and it gets auto canceled. Since the Italians didn't put up enough of a fight in East Africa, I am unable to continue down the focuses that require Ethiopia to still be in exile.

Instead, I guess I will just follow the Bittersteel guide that was posted a few days ago:

 

[jacekgk]

Bittersteel's guide is very, very cool I have done this achievement by exile path, but I remember, that I had a big headache to counting legitimacy.