Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[JasonPratt]

TURN TWELVE -- COMBAT PHASE
---------------------------

Arguably the most clutch battle in the game so far:



Dictator Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus of the Conservatives, and his Magister Viribus Manlius, Faction Leader of the Militarists, versus Hamilcar and the First Punic War!

The Romans are bringing the 1st through 22nd Fleets for their Navy; the 1st through 3rd, and 10th and 11th, Seasoned Veteran Legions; and then the 4th through 7th, the 9th, the 12th through 16th, and the 19th and 20th Legions. (phew!)

The Legions are being transported by the Combat Fleet in order to attempt a Land Battle under Scipio and Manlius. Consequently, the Fleet is leading with the 18th through 22nd Fleets, with the first 17 Fleets each responsible for transporting and protecting a Legion (Fleets 1st through 5th bringing the five Veterans.)

First, the Naval Battle! Preparations:
Roman Navy Fleets: 22
Scipio's Mil: +5 (all used)
Manlius' Mil: +9 (including Militarist knight headquarters ability, all used)
1st Punic War Base Naval Strength: -10
Hamilcar's Mil Skill: -3
Evil Omens: -2
Die Roll Modifier thus 22 +5 +9 -10 -3 -2 = +21! This is complete overkill, guaranteeing a Naval Victory with no losses, if Rome passes the random D/S roll. Scipio's special ability nullifies the D13, and S11/14 results normal to the 1st Punic, but Hamilcar's D8 and S12 remain.

If the 3d6 roll totals 8 or 12, the War will continue with some level of massive casualties for Rome. If anything else, Rome wins the Naval War permanently, no losses.

(At this point I became completely distracted for more than an hour, trying to find and use the great dice-rolling tool used by Cyrano in his TTS games! Having found it, but having learned that it does not like rolling custom dice, such as the nice bone and Roman numerals I found in the mod, I fixed the problem and continued.)

The dice roller throws 1+4+5 = 10, which isn't a D/S result! 10 would normally be a Stalemate with 3 Fleets lost, possibly also some Legions in this case; but +21 is an automatic no loss Victory! (

Naval Victory over the 1st Punic War! Punic Fleet is permanently Defeated. Unrest -1 from 2 to 1. No Fleet or Legion casualties to Force Pool. Fleets never level up to Veteran.

Scipio's Inf and Pop each go up by the War's Base Naval Strength 10 / 2 = +5, from 30 to 35, and from 3 to 8, respectively. (This generates an extra Influence point per the Aristocrat special ability, for I.I. to distribute to Quinc or to Val, who have 25 and 23 already.) Total Aristo Inf goes up 5 to 83. No Popularity lost, due to no casualties; similarly no Mortality chits drawn. Master of Forces never gains Inf or Pop from Victory.

[JasonPratt]

Plenty more than 5 Fleets remain for the Supply line, so the Army lands and prepares to attack immediately under the same Force Commander team. To recap the War:



(This is just the prior pre-war photo, since there were no casualties. Just pretend there's a Naval Victory marker, and that Scipio's stats have been increased.)

Total number of all Legions: 17
Total Veteran Legions: +5
Scipio's Mil: +5
Manlius' Mil: +3 +6 knights (Militarist ability)
War's base Land Strength: -10
Hamilcar's Mil: -3
Evil Omens: -2
DRM = 17+5+5+3+6-10-3-2 = +21 (again, coincidentally). Scipio nerfs the War's D13 and S11/14 results again, but Hamilcar's D8 and S12 remain.

3d6 is 2+5+6 = 13! -- edged past an automatic Standoff result! Normally a 13 would be a no-loss Stalemate, but +21 is an automatic no-loss Victory!

Unrest -1 to 0. Rome gains this War's 35 Spoils, up from 37 to 72. Two new (undeveloped) Provinces are added to Rome: (the island of) Sicilia, and (the islands of) Sardinia et Corsica. Governors will need to be voted for them next Turn! Hamilcar retreats to the Curia to brood, preparing to join the next Punic War already on the way next Turn -- but the 1st Punic War is now permanently Discarded!

Scipio as the Commander (not Manlius as Magister) gains half the War's printed Land Strength of 10/2 = +5 (again) to Inf and to Pop, up from 35 to 40 and from 8 to (the Pop maximum) 9. Total Inf goes up 5 from 83 to 88. (The Aristocrat special ability generates a second extra Inf point for I.I. to distribute to either Quinc or Val, now 2 point total to distribute in part or together.) No casualties, so no loss of Popularity and no chits pulled from the Death Bag. The oldest surviving regular Legion in this War is the 4th, and it becomes a Veteran! Scipio earns its Loyalty chit.

Manlius sails back to Rome immediately, his duty done as Master of Forces. Militarist vote tally goes back up 2 + 6 knights from 12 to 20.

Scipio sails back to Rome with the Victorious Navy and Army.

This ends the Combat Phase.

Congratulations to the Players for working together to navigate the Republic through this dangerous trial!  :clap:

[JasonPratt]

TURN TWELVE -- REVOLUTION PHASE
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Players can donate or trade Intrigue cards for a little while with automatic arrival.

No one needs to discard down to 5 or less cards.

Some Players do have playable Intrigue cards this Phase, and I have alerted them already by p-mail. If you didn't get a p-mail, you didn't have a playable card (perhaps yet). If playable cards are traded, I'll allow a little lag time for being able to play them immediately (assuming they still can be). By the nature of such cards (Concessions and/or Statesmen), I'll need to know distributions before I continue on into the Mortality and Revenue Phases starting Turn 13!

Scipio is sailing and marching back to Rome with his Victorious Navy and Army. I.I. must decide (1) whether to retire the newly Vet 4th Legion; and (2) whether to try Rebelling against the Senate, or to hand back the Legions and Fleets to the Republic. I'll need to know before I continue into the new Turn. (You can also test the allegiance of any or all Legions for free, to see who would follow you, but this will have to be done publicly even though not an actual Rebellion yet.)

Once these choices are settled, this will end Turn Twelve.

[Erax]

I play my concession to Flaminius.

[IncompetentIdiot]

No revolt; both influence points to Quinctius.

[malize]

I'll play arms concession on Aurelius

[ArizonaTank]

Grain concession to Paulus

[JasonPratt]

I can vouch that this is everyone with card plays, so this finishes out the Revolt Phase, but I'll need to wait until tomorrow morning to process.

[JasonPratt]

I.I. declines to revolt, sending all his units back to the Active Pool, including the newly Vet 4th Legion.

I.I. gives both of the Aristocratic special ability extra Influence points to Quinctius, up from 25 to 27; total up from 88 to 90.

Clockwise around the table, AzTank grants the Sicilian Grain Concession to Paullus Macedonicus.



This gives the Conservatives, through Paullus, an extra 4 cash during the Revenue Phase (with the usual Minor Suspicion), plus an option to reduce 2 Popularity during Droughts for double the income, which can be further multiplied for each additional Drought level!

Malize grants the Arms Concession to Aurelius.



This is the first Concession in play which doesn't trigger during the Revenue Phase! Instead, it automatically triggers (with the usual Minor Suspicion) whenever the Senate Raises Legions, giving 2 Talents to Aurelius for each Legion. (This doesn't mean Legions now cost 12, only that Aurelius receives 2 of each 10 Talents that would normally go to the bank.)

Relatedly, Erax gives Plautius, who already has two Tax Farming Concessions, the Ship Building Concession!



This similarly generates 3 Talents for Plautius, immediately received (with the usual Minor Suspicion), off each Fleet Raised by the Senate!

This ends the Revolution Phase, and also ends Turn Twelve.

[JasonPratt]

TURN THIRTEEN -- MORTALITY PHASE
--------------------------------

Congratulations to the Players, for keeping the Republic alive into the 13th Turn!

There is a strong but not certain probability that we will enter the Middle Provincial Era this Turn; and if not this turn, then surely next Turn. But first, the usual preliminary phases.

The Immanent 2nd Punic War goes Active, and Hamilcar returns immediately from his plotting in the Curia pile to lead it:



This is the first War to threaten the Roman heartland, and thus to risk destroying Tax Farming Concessions! It is also the first War in this game to attack a Roman Province, Cisalpine Gaul under the current circumstances, although this won't happen until the Combat Phase, and can be forestalled by being attacked by a Deployed Force. This is a stronger War than the 1st Punic, and won't gain as many Spoils for Victory, and it still needs several Fleets assigned for Supply to attack it; but you won't have to Defeat a Navy first. Like the 1st Punic, you'll gain two whole Provinces for Defeating it (basically two halves of Spain)! -- but also like the 1st Punic, it threatens three inherent D/S results (plus Hamilcar's two previous D/S results, which cannot be avoided).

The 1st Illyrian War remains Inactive for now.

To the Death Bag! -- after a vigorous shuffle, we pull....

...family #5, the Claudians again! Tragedy strikes for the Plutocrats once more! The Claudian family rushes a new scion into the Senate again, to retain Faction Leadership of the Plutocrats, but he's untrained and so loses all chits, including the Roman Consulship! Total Influence goes back down 5 to 25. Vote Tally goes back down 2 to 12.

The Death Bag continues to be increasingly lethal to Player hopes and dreams... (and to the combined strength of the Republic to survive!)

This ends the Mortality Phase; my condolences to the Frog.

[JasonPratt]

TURN THIRTEEN -- REVENUE PHASE
------------------------------

Segment one of the Revenue Phase, the Faction Incomes!

I.I.s Aristocrats: 4 starting cash; +8 personal cash; +3+1+1 senator incomes; +4+4+3 knight incomes; +2+2 Tax Farming; +3 Harbor Fees;
= new Faction Total 35 Talents. (Note: the normal vote tally here should be 14, not 6, now that Scipio has returned to Rome. This will be fixed in the pre-Senate snapshot.)



Tripoli's Militarists: 0 starting cash; +0 personal cash; +3+1+1 senator incomes; +5+6 knight incomes; +2+2 tax Farming;
= new Faction Total 20 Talents.



The Frog's Plutocrats: 0 starting cash; 0 personal cash; +5+1+1 senator incomes (Plutocrat special ability); (+3+2)x2 knight incomes (Plutocrat special ability); +1 priest income;
= new Faction total 18 Talents.



AzTank's Conservatives: 30 starting cash; +16 personal cash; +3+1+1 senator incomes; +1+1+2 knight incomes; +1 priest incomes; +4 Sicilian Grain
= new Faction total 60 Talents! (Plus, optionally, another 4 Talents from the Grain Concession due to the ongoing Illyrian Drought Effect, if AzTank agrees to sacrifice 2 of Paullus' 5 Pop points.)

(Note: AzTank declared he would sacrifice the Pop for 4 more Talents, now updated in the snapshot.)


Malize's Populists: 3 starting cash; +1 personal cash; +3+1+1+1 senator incomes; +1+2+1+2 knight incomes; +3 Mining Concession (Armaments trigger later);
= new Faction total 16 Talents.



Erax's Progressives: 1 starting cash; +6 personal cash; +3+1 senator incomes; +1+1 knight incomes; +1+1 priest incomes; 1d6 = +1 PontMax income (but minus 2 for lingering Evil Omens = 0!); + 2 +2 Tax Farming (Ship Building triggers later)
= new Faction total 19 Talents. (Photo shows 17, because I forgot to include the second Tax Farmer.)


Currently the Republic has 42 Talents. Expected incomes and expenses are +100 normal income; + some random amount of Provincial income (adjusted down for Evil Omens, and negated entirely for Cisaplina Gaul due to an Active War threatening it); -20 for the Active 2nd Punic War; -2x39 Active unit upkeep = 44 Talents.

Players must now give me distribution instructions, including whether any donations will be made to the Republic by your senator(s).

AzTank must declare whether Paullus will sacrifice 2 of his 5 Popularity to exploit the Illyrian Drought effect for an extra 4 Talents from Sicilian Grain.

I.I. would normally declare now whether Valerius will try to milk some Provincial Spoils from Cisaplina Gaul, but there can be no income from that Province while it's under Attack. The prior Corruption from last turn, however, now discards.

Players should also be looking ahead as usual to the Forum Phase, and let me know if you have any plans you want to lock in ahead of time (for Persuasion, Sponsoring Games, and/or changing your Faction Leader.)

[Erax]

Just a quick note, my concession was played on Flaminius, check my post. I don't want too many eggs in one basket.

[JasonPratt]

Ah, for goodness sake, why I did I even think that was Plautius!? {sigh}

For purposes of Revenue, it won't make any difference, but I'll make the adjustment promptly.

[malize]

Could we get our full boards?  Read and myself ?

[JasonPratt]

Oh crap?! How did that happen??

I entered the wrong img codes apparently. Not sure how that happened. I'll fix it this afternoon, within the hour I hope.