Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile Appius Claudius spends 5 of his 11 Talents on a 3rd knight, increasing the Plutocrat Vote Tally to 14.

Next up, AzTank's conservatives roll...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 6, 4, total 10[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Not a 7, so that's a Scenario draw...



Ah, here we go. Pyrrhus wanted to promote himself as one of the Successors to Alexander the Great -- which he had some call for, being directly related to Olympias, Alex's mother, and also being a talented king. Part of his global strategy was to intercede on behalf of some Hellenic city-states in the Italian boot against the Republic's encroachments. Pyr was arguably the greatest general of his generation, and was able to snatch victories from the jaws of defeat -- but such victories still proved too costly for him to continue, thus forever coining the term "Pyrrhic Victory".

Fortunately for the Grogpublic, he died randomly before he could get his War going. So in this particular game, you won't have to deal with him boosting this War.

Unfortunately, the War was still coming and now it's here.

Fortunately, the War can't keep up its logistic supply on your territory, so it will go away after a couple of Turns, even if you do nothing!

Unfortunately, if it goes away on its own, you can't claim its spoils.

Fortunately, the spoils are greater than for any prior War (except against Veia, though that didn't have spoils per se but rather increased Rome's income permanently which was much better)!

Unfortunately, the chance of a Disaster or Standoff is much better, too.

Though fortunately, Pyrrhus isn't around anymore to make those D/S chances even tougher for you!

Unfortunately, you don't have any Statesmen who can void those D/S chances!

Fortunately, the Militarist Faction does have Senators with Mil skills of 6 and 7 (or possibly greater when we get around to Tripoli), so they're capable of maximizing your Legions' effectiveness against this threat.

Unfortunately, the frogurt is cursed. But that's irrelevant for this game.  ^-^

[UPDATED TO CORRECT! -- Erax correctly points out that the text of the card indicates that the War's strength only degrades upon combat, specifically on a combat result of Disaster, Standoff, or Stalemate.]


AzTank didn't provide any provisional instructions, so I've dropped him a note asking whether he wants to spend any cash attempting a knight persuasion and if so for which senator. (You should at least try a free persuasion for one of them if nothing else this round.)

[JasonPratt]

Larry, being aff (away from Forum) just sent a chat message that Fabius will try for a knight using 2 Talents, which I'll process this afternoon -- but I can go ahead and roll the result now!

(He said "Fulvius", but I'm sure he meant "Fabius". I get those two mixed up on occasion, too.  O:-) Fulvius belongs to the Plutocrats.)

(...um, he might have meant Fabius come to think of it. I'll double check, they each have 2 Talents to spend, so it's equal chances either way.)

4 or better will win:

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 6, 3, total 9[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Wait, sorry, I'm so used to rolling 2d6 I typed that by accident. It should be 1d6.

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 5, total 5[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

That's a win, but I'll have to see who he wants to deduct Talents from to gain the knight. My recommendation is Furius Camillus, since thanks to the Conservative special abilities he will DEFINITELY pass down all his pieces to an inheriting family Senator.

Edited to add: I haven't gotten a clarification on this yet, but it doesn't strictly matter for now. I'm sure he'll let me know before the first vote in the Senate phase. ;) I've left a note on his mat to remind me.

Next up, Malize's Populists roll...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 2, 4, total 6[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Striking all around that 7 recently! -- but that's a Scenario draw instead.

This turns out to be a red-text Faction card, which he adds as his 3rd card face down. I've sent him a p-mail explaining it.

Per Malize's prior instructions, Brutus spends 3 Talents for a knight attempt, and so needs 3 or more to win...

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 4, total 4[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

...and wins the roll for his second minion.

Aurelius spends 7 cash for level-1 games, adding 1 Popularity for himself and (per a Populist special ability) 1 for his fellow senator Lucius Junius Brutus, up to 2 and 7 respectively.

Between the new knight and 2 new Pop points (per another Populist special ability), this adds another 3 normal votes), up to 18!


Erax's Progressives now roll for an Event or Scenario...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 6, 6, total 12[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Boxcars! -- but not an Event, so it's a Scenario.

Well well well!



The Second Latin War has arrived. While not as powerful as the Pyrrhic War, it offers a lot better rewards, since beating it will convince Rome to incorporate the area more fully into the Empi--I MEAN REPUBLIC!  :D --- adding three more Legions of potential manpower to the Force Pool, and permanently increasing the Republic's normal income by another 10 Talents!

You may also notice the text along the bottom of the card, which talks about "Matching Wars". This is the first Matching War you've drawn. When Matching Wars go Active (including Unprosecuted), they multiply each other's basic strength!

Fortunately, you long since dealt with the 1st Latin War, so this would only be a problem if you were reeaallly lax (or unlucky) about dealing with it. ;)

Also fortunately, the card has been misprinted, which I never got around to remembering to edit out: the scenario designer never included a 3rd Latin War, so you won't have to worry about ever dealing with a set of these Wars.

Still, you might as well learn about them now, while it's still safe to do so. Matching Wars are almost certainly going to be a problem down the line.

Consequently, this War is nothing but good news for the Republic, as it will give you a fairly safe and profitable expedition if y'all use some common sense.  O:-)

Meanwhile, Plautius will spend 1 of his 3 Talents on a knight persuasion attempt. He'll win on a 5 or 6...

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 4, total 4[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Ack, a 4, close but no canoli.

The other cash was reserved in case a new family Senator showed up in the pool by now, which hasn't happened yet, and I haven't received other instructions, so as far as I know this ends Erax's round.


I.I.'s Aristocrats roll for an Event or Scenario...

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 2, total 2[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Argh, wait, sorry, that should have been a 2d6...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 1, 5, total 6[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Phew, still not a Random Event, which is good because I already sent I.I. a p-mail explaining that he drew a Faction card and which one. ;)

I don't have instructions from I.I. about whether he wants to change his Faction Leader and/or which senator he wants to try for a knight (nor how much he wants to sacrifice doing so).

Theoretically, Quinctius Cincinnatus could pay 7 Talents for some Level-1 games, but he'd only gain 1 Popularity for doing so, and since his family isn't politically active yet (and might not be before the Early Provincial Era) that could end up being not very helpful for the expense in the medium run when Cinc retires a couple of Turns from now.

[IncompetentIdiot]

I'll drop all of Cornelius' cash on a knight roll.

[JasonPratt]

That's 4 cash, so only a 1 will lose...

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 2, total 2[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Yeek! -- irony, that was also my misrolled number earlier! But a win this time.  O:-)

Corny goes up to 3 knights, and the Aristocrats' normal votes go up to 12.


This brings us to Tripoli, whose Militarists roll...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 5, 5, total 10[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

...the non-crappy streak continues with the final Scenario for this Turn, leaving 11 in the Italian Era deck.



And welcome at last to the first Senator of the next major patrician family to go active, Aelius!

He isn't exactly "militarist" material, but Tripoli already has a strong stable (who won't be hurt much by the coming pre-Early Statesman retirement), and Aelius' four votes from Oratory will be surely welcome anywhere. Moreover, arriving at the end of the Phase, only Tripoli will have a chance this Turn to persuade him to join! (Which must be grating indeed for poor Erax...  :'( )

Those chances aren't bad either. Julius has 4 Influence + 3 Ora + 15 cash he could bribe with, which would be somewhat overkill as Aelius' loyalty is only 7 and he (currently!) has no cash to be independent with, nor the extra 7 points of security from already being aligned to a Faction.

That means, before possible counter-bribes, Julius would need to roll 15 or less on a 2d6 to win!

Except, the no-certainty rule for persuading senators means that a roll of 10, 11, or 12, will automatically fail regardless.

However, Tripoli might still add all 15 cash to the bribe in order to act as a buffer against other Factions attempting to counter-bribe down the win threshold, since if he wins he'll get all the bribery cash back under his control anyway.

However again! -- all other Players will get one shot at counter-bribing, from their Faction cash, which Tripoli cannot legally further-bribe from (only from Julius' personal cash). And while the Frog has no Faction cash, everyone else has enough cash to put a hard scotch on any persuasion attempts from Tripoli, not even counting the Conservatives who have THIRTY-ONE TALENTONS OF SILVER in Faction cash reserves!  :o

On yet another tentacle! -- scotching a persuasion attempt with counter-bribery can be self-defeating in the long run, since the bribed senator will just be that much more difficult to persuade to join anyone (one point per talent in his personal treasury).

Then again again again! -- AzTank has so much cash that he might be able to finagle a successful counter-bribe parry now, while still reserving enough cash to feasibly try to get Aelius himself with one of his own senators next Turn.

Things could get quite squirrely here...