Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

Started by JasonPratt, September 17, 2018, 05:04:17 PM

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JasonPratt

Quinctius picks up his 3rd knight automatically; 5 personal cash remaining. Normal vote tally up to 18. Aristocrats currently lead in total Influence, so activist knights will add another 9 votes.

Next up, Tripoli's militarists roll 1+2, so draw a Scenario:



Family #20, the Terentians, activate. I thought the Sulpies might be the crappiest family of senators in the game, but I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

So, if anyone wants a Mil 2, Ora 1, Inf 1 senator with shady loyalty, well, he's currently cheaper than Sulpicius!

Manlius spends his 5 cash on an automatic fourth knight. Since he isn't in Rome, this doesn't help the voting tally yet, but thanks to the Militarist abilities he does increase his Mil to 7! -- which could come in handy very soon!

I'll pause here in case Tripoli wants to try persuading the new senator, which he'd presumably try with Aelius, since one way or another he's got the best Influence, Oratory, and cash combo to work with.

Relatedly, I haven't gotten a clarification from Tripoli on Aelius' cash distribution, as far as I recall -- either there's 8 in Faction cash and Aelius has 10, or there's 3 in Faction cash and Aelius has 15. Tripoli changed his plans somehow halfway through typing, one way or another, and typed both 10 and 15 cash for Aelius. This should be settled now before continuing!
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Tripoli

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 14, 2019, 07:41:40 PM
Quote from: Tripoli on January 14, 2019, 11:53:06 AM
25 to Aelius who donates it to the treasury for the influence.  Another 15 to Aelius on general principles.  ;)  And remainder (48-5-25-10=8) to faction cash.

While your math is correct, I can't tell whether you want me to distribute 15 to Aelius or 10! -- if you want to donate 15, it'll be 3 cash left over.

Whoops. 10 to Aelius.  Sorry for the confusion.
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" -Abraham Lincoln

Tripoli

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 15, 2019, 08:01:59 PM
Quinctius picks up his 3rd knight automatically; 5 personal cash remaining. Normal vote tally up to 18. Aristocrats currently lead in total Influence, so activist knights will add another 9 votes.

Family #20, the Terentians, activate. I thought the Sulpies might be the crappiest family of senators in the game, but I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

So, if anyone wants a Mil 2, Ora 1, Inf 1 senator with shady loyalty, well, he's currently cheaper than Sulpicius!

Manlius spends his 5 cash on an automatic fourth knight. Since he isn't in Rome, this doesn't help the voting tally yet, but thanks to the Militarist abilities he does increase his Mil to 7! -- which could come in handy very soon!

I'll pause here in case Tripoli wants to try persuading the new senator, which he'd presumably try with Aelius, since one way or another he's got the best Influence, Oratory, and cash combo to work with.

Oratory of 1 and Loyalty of 6?  Sounds like a former supervisor of mine.  Sorry, not interested.... ;D
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" -Abraham Lincoln

JasonPratt

I'll process the Plutocrats next then, this afternoon.

If anyone has designs on Terrance or Sulpy, drop me a line early, if you like! -- or for that matter, let me know if you won't be trying to persuade him either, so I'll know to move along.  O:-)
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JasonPratt

The Frog's Plutocrats roll 5+6, drawing a Scenario card: a red-text Faction card, face down to his hand with his other three. (I've sent him a private chat message telling him what it is and the conditions for playing it.)

Acilius Sponsors level-3 Games, and Fulvius spends 5 of his cash buying his 3rd knight. Fulvius has 3 cash left over. Plutocrat vote tally goes up to 16. Acilius spends 18 cash, with 10 left over. His Popularity increases 3 to -2. Unrest decreases by 3 from 1 to 0 (the minimum).
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
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RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

AzTank's Conservatives also roll 5+6 (rather improbably), drawing a Scenario card:



Philip the Fifth, of Macedon! He goes to the Curia for now, but he boosts any of the four (!!) Macedonian Wars by 6 strength. Relatedly, y'all can look forward to four Macedonian Wars on the way! :D  -- in themselves an existential crisis for the Republic! For now though he lurks gathering his forces...  :coolsmiley:

AzTank didn't give me any instructions on what to do for his round, so I'll pause here since one of his senators does have a decent chance at Persuading the new family Senator if he wants him...
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#1011
Malize's Populists don't have quite enough influence and Ora to feasibly try Persuading the new trash-level Senator, and he left me instructions (some of which I've already processed), so I'll continue on... he rolls a 3+4=7, so that's a Random Event: 1+2+3=6, which in the Early Republic means an Evil Omen!



As the card notes, most dice rolls will now worsen by 1 until the start of the next Forum Phase. (Exceptions include the 3d6 roll for Random Events, and the 2d6 roll for whether a Player draws a Scenario or rolls a Random Event: that's the "Initiative roll".) The Republic's Treasury instantly loses 20 Talents, down from 51 to 31!

Moreover, the PontMax, Acilius of the Plutocrats, gets socked for 20 Talents to be paid from his personal cash!

Since he only has 10, he loses that cash and also loses the PontMax Office!! Upon any senator losing that office, he also loses 5 Influence down to a minimum of 0, or in this case down from 11 to 6. The Plutocrat total Influence goes down 5 to 40. Thanks to the Omens, and being unable to deal with them, Acilius will immediately get a Major Suspicion marker.

Since Acilius was unable to pay the full 20 Talents, his Faction must make up the difference -- plus an extra 10 Talents! But the Plutocrats only have 8 Talents remaining! -- so not only do they lose that cash, the Faction Leader Claudius also immediately gains a Major Suspicion marker!

Naturally this means electing a Pontifex Maximus will be an early Mandatory Business in the upcoming Senate Phase... (Acilius could be elected again, by the way.)

But that isn't all! -- any remaining Evil Omen cost must be immediately deducted from Rome's cash! Fortunately this does not include the extra 10 Faction penalty, so the remainder will be 20 - 10 (paid by Acilius) - 8 (paid by the Plutocrat Faction Treasury) = 2 Talents. Rome's cash goes down again from 31 to 29.

Notice that one Evil Omen could theoretically wipe 40 Talents from the Treasury. In fact, if another one gets rolled, that's exactly what will happen since there will be no PontMax yet (and his Faction) to try to offset half the costs involved to try to propitiate Rome's gods: in Latin, to get them to lean toward Rome. In Greek the term is hilasmos, and roughly means to smile upon or be happy with them again.

(This is a bit of trivia I picked up in my theological work.  :nerd: In Christian theology, no one has to reconcile God to sinners; God reconciles sinners to Himself and to each other, in effect propitiating us and our sins! This helps explain part of the attraction of the new faith, not long after the timeframe of this game; although by a few more centuries later many Christian theologians, especially in Rome, will have begun interpreting atonement in reverse of the New Testament grammar again -- back toward God needing to be reconciled to us, and thus back to the idea of us, or Christ, propitiating God. This interpretative crux, somewhat literally ;) , remains a factor in Christianity today -- much to the annoyance of some theologians like myself! But we're slowly working on it.  O:-) )

Meanwhile the new Fabian Statesman spends all 5 of his cash on his first minion, increasing the Populist vote tally to 26.

Except wait! -- the Eeeeevil Omen makes that one notch less likely! He'd need 6 cash now to be certain of a knight!

The math works out now that Fabius needs 6 or more on a 1d6, with 5 cash adding 5 to his roll, but the Omen subtracting 1. So Fabius' die roll modifier equals 4 this Turn. That still means a 2 or more will win... but he rolls a 1. (Twice! -- I rerolled it because the TTS roll mechanic looked a little squirrely the first time, and I wanted to be fair.)

So in fact, Verrucosus loses his sacrificed 5 Talents, and does not gain a knight, and the vote tally remains 25.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
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JasonPratt

#1012
Last around the table for this Turn's Forum Phase, Erax's Progressives roll 3+6, so not another Random Event (whew! This is what the Omen card text means about not affecting "Initiative rolls", notice.) Instead he draws...



...ohhhh, great, another one of the Successors: Antiochus the Third! He has started planning on a Syrian War, which you can expect to be upcoming now, and which basic strength he'll increase by 5.

(Odd. The code is correct, and the imageshack photo was showing up a minute ago. Not showing up for me now...)

Of course, he and/or Philip V might die of natural causes before then (during an Aging roll of the Population Phase), but guess what? -- the Eeeeeevil Omen makes that one notch less likely! More on that soon.

Plautius intended to buy an automatic knight with his 5 cash but that danged Evil Omen is going to screw with his surety, like it did for Malize! Fortunately Plautius rolls a 4, plus 5, minus 1, equals 8, which is equal to or greater than 6: and that's a win. Plautius picks up his first minion, and the normal vote tally goes up to 7. (Any Progressive activist vote trigger, will add another 4 to that.)

This will end the Forum Phase, once I hear back from AzTank about whether he wants to try to Persuade the new Senator.

For that matter, Flaminius of the Progressives would have a maximal chance of it (9 or less on a 2d6, even with the Evil Omen knocking off a point, and even without spending any bribes!), if AzTank doesn't want to try. So I'll pause to hear from both of them.

To be fair, Cato of the Populists would have some chance at it, 3 or less on a 2d6, even though he has no cash to bribe with. So if AzTank decides to pass, or fails his attempt, Malize might as well try.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

ArizonaTank

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 16, 2019, 07:36:53 PM

AzTank didn't give me any instructions on what to do for his round, so I'll pause here since one of his senators does have a decent chance at Persuading the new family Senator if he wants him...

I will attempt to persuade...do what I have to do to max my chance.
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
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Erax

#1014
Quote from: JasonPratt on January 14, 2019, 07:54:09 PM
On adjustments now...

Cato of the Populists donates his 10 to the Republic. Influence up 1 to 5; total Influence up to 19. Republic cash up 10 to 16.

Plautius of the Progressives donates 20 to the Republic, 1 Influence to 3, total Influence 21. Republic cash up to 36.

Aelius of the Militarists donates 25 to the Republic, up to 51 cash; up 2 Influence to 20, total Influence up to 24.

Tripoli can clarify how much he's keeping and how much else goes to Aelius as we move along.

I just caught this, republic cash should be 6+10+20+25=61. Also Aelius had 12 Influence, so 12 -> 14.

Also also! The Republic had 107 talents, plus 10 from the above, -20 for Omens so it went down to 97. And then -2 to 95.

JasonPratt

Will double-check those immediately this afternoon! -- thanks!

(Jeez, you'd think I recently had a lingering stomach blurgh...  ::) )
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

On Aelius, what happened was that a neuron was already focused on Manlius receiving a new minion, so I upped his influence by 2 instead of Aelius.

Manlius should have 18, and Aelius should now have 14.

Also, I keep forgetting that total influence isn't affected by whether or not a senator is in Rome. Votes are affected -- Manlius' new minion can't help vote any more than any of his other knights. So the Militarist total Influence is 42 (18 for Manlius + 14 for Aelius + 10 for Julius). But current voting power is 12 (Julius 3 Ora + 5 knights; and Aeilius 4 Ora).

The Republic income glitch came about because I was just sure I could add 25 to 36 by myself, sigh.... and so I forgot to carry a 1 or something and ended up 10 short.

Worse, when I was figuring out the Omen penalty I not only used the 51 instead of 61 figure, I shouldn't have been using 51 at all!! -- I had completely somehow overlooked the 3rd income segment, and the cash picked up at that time!

Current tally is indeed 117 -20 -2 = 95.

...I genuinely believe my math has been getting noticeably worse..  :buck2:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Having fixed (and saved) that: AzTank instructs Furius (his Faction Leader) to try Persuading Terentius.

Furius Influence: 9
Furius Oratory: +3
Furius adds personal cash: +3 bribing
Terentius' cash: -0
Terentius' Loyalty: -6

Currently Furius will win if his 2d6 total rolls 9 or less, which is the maximum possible chance. (Natural totals of 10, 11, or 12, automatically fail.)

I'll pause here to allow counterbribes from Faction Treasuries. Only I.I.'s Aristocrats, and Tripoli's Militarists, have any Faction cash to counterbribe with, 10 and 8 respectively. Furius has no more personal cash to add to the bribery attempt.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

malize

If no one else is successful and if there are no possibly negative outcomes other than failure then I'd let Cato take a swing at the persuasion

JasonPratt

Quote from: malize on January 17, 2019, 10:51:03 PM
If no one else is successful and if there are no possibly negative outcomes other than failure then I'd let Cato take a swing at the persuasion

The only possible negative outcome would be if you sacrificed cash on the bribe and failed -- then he'd keep the cash. But Cato doesn't have any personal cash, so...

On the other hand, if AzTank fails, Terence will have 3 extra cash, which will scotch Cato's chances completely. So at this point, with AzTank having confirmed he's going to try, and that he'll pay to maximize his chances, it's a moot point: Cato has no chance one way or another. Sorry.


I have at least one reason not to continue with the Persuasion roll yet, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Maybe early afternoon, though, since I'm planning to let the crew off early for the weekend as a reward for them finishing this week in powering through a heavy work schedule before and after (and somewhat during) the holidays.  :coolsmiley:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!