Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[ArizonaTank]

Distribute 4 to each of my 4 guys, even the one on campaign.

[JasonPratt]

Okay, back from overtime work this morning, and I'm about to run the clock, implementing distributions, then advancing on into the Forum Phase.

[JasonPratt]

Segment 3 of the Revenue Phase

Republic income: 41 starting cash; +30 normal income; +25 Allied Enthusiasm (event resolved); -10 for Active Veientine War; (-2 upkeep x 5 Active Legions = ) -10 unit upkeep; -0 Land Bills = new total 76 Talents!  :bd:

I should however remind everyone, that this includes no less than seventy-five Talents donated to the Republic by Allied Enthusiasm, i.e. by sheer random luck. ;)

All random Event markers in the Forum are deleted; no historical Events to discard (Spolia Opima remains primed).

Time to start building history again! Will the Republic enter the Italian Era this Turn? (If not, you can be practically guaranteed next Turn...)

[JasonPratt]

TURN FOUR -- FORUM PHASE
---------------------------------

This time Player One himself, I.I., will play the starting round, clockwise from there. So the play order this Turn will be:

Aristocrats
Militarists
Plutocrats
Conservatives
Populists
and then Progressives (which will be handy for Erax since he may be away from the computer until after the weekend.)

This time, I'm going to ask each Player for a vote as we go around the table, on whether I should randomly assign two more Rounds this Turn. This will give the Players the option each Turn (starting now and going forward) to advance the play clock 33% faster, and also give two random players an extra 'round' for making a persuasion attempt or whatever. But if the Republic is going sucky (unlike right now), then Players can vote against it of course. I'll let Players change their votes at will, as they evaluate new Events and Scenarios arriving, up to the point where I finish the last standard round.


Kicking off with I.I.'s Aristocrats, then! -- rolling their Event/Scenario dice:

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

[IncompetentIdiot]

Cornelius will take a knight with 5 cash.

I'll vote against for the moment.

[JasonPratt]

It's not a 7, so it's a Scenario draw. There are 5 Scenarios remaining in the Latin Era, and now 4 after the draw.

The Aristocrats draw a Faction card, which I.I. adds to his empty hand. I've sent him a Pmail already about what he drew, and whether/when he can play it.

I'll implement your knight pronto.

As far as other Players making plans go: you already know I won't be drawing more family Senators this Era (because I had to go into the Italian Era for a Senator to create the Progressive Faction with), so the only senators available for Persuasion are already assigned to the Players. The most vulnerable right now are Erax's two, who each have a Loyalty of 6 plus 2 Talents personal treasury, thus -8, minus another 7 for being in a Faction already, equals -15. A few other senators on the board have -16 and -17 ratings; and some senators have enough Influence + Oratory + personal cash to possibly but improbably persuade them to join your Factions instead. It would be a super-dickish move to snipe senators from the new players, however! -- but if you're curious about other players, drop me a question by p-mail.

No senator after income distribution this Turn, has enough personal cash to finance even first-level Games; and if you did, you'd only pick up 1 Popularity point (since there's no unrest).

Consequently, the main two choices this Turn for each Player will be as usual: who do you want to try for a knight (if anyone), and do you want to keep or change your Faction Leader?

[JasonPratt]

Cinc sacrifices 5 Talents to gain a knight (his first, a little surprisingly!); Normal Vote Tally goes up to 10. I will remind everyone later, that with Camilus of the Conservatives away from Rome, the Aristocrats have the highest total Influence at 28, and so their knights will vote x2 on all topics pro or con! -- so in effect I.I. has 13 votes for now, which will definitely hold through any Mandatory Business in the Senate Phase.

Current votes on 2 extra rounds are 0 to -1.

4 Scenarios remaining in the Latin Era.


Next up, Tripoli's Militarists, roll...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 1, 6, total 7[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

7 is a random event, so another 3d6...

[blockquote]Rolled 3d6 : 3, 5, 5, total 13[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Wow!!  :o I'm kind of afraid to ask how y'all are inspiring such enthusiasm from Rome's local allies! That'll be another 25 Talents to the Republic Treasury next turn. (For a total of 100 in the game so far!  :o )

Tripoli, do you want Manlius to sacrifice his 5 Talents for an automatic knight? And do you want to keep or change your Faction Leader? Also, do you have a current vote on playing a 7th and 8th round this Turn?

[malize]

Populists:

Aurelius spends 5 for a Knight
No leader change
Nay on extra rounds

[Tripoli]

Yep-I'll be going after a 5th knight with Manlilus' gold, so it should be an automatic. No change on faction leader.  I'm in favor of an 8th round

[JasonPratt]

Yep-I'll be going after a 5th knight with Manlilus' gold, so it should be an automatic.

The knight is indeed automatically added as the minion of Manlius, but he and Julius only had 1 each. (Which is why each of them, as Militarist, had a +1 to their Mil scores.) Some of your persuasion rolls on prior Turns failed.

Manly has 2 knights now, Julius has 1. Manny's Mil score goes up to 7 -- so he could make full use of all 7 possible Legions! The Vote tally for the Militarists goes up to 8.

Votes for extra rounds this Turn are +1 and -1 (with at least 1 vote pending when we get there.)


The Frog's Plutocrats are up next, and roll...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 6, 1, total 7[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

That's another Random Event! -- which means the Republic will not enter the Italian Era this Turn (unless there are extra rounds perhaps).

Rolling again for the specific result...

[blockquote]Rolled 3d6 : 1, 6, 2, total 9[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Ouch! -- the Veientine War may have just gotten a little or a lot tougher!



I'll have to roll that 'physically' on the TTS board, which has one black and two white dice to work with, once we're in Combat again.

The Frog sent me a text message saying he'll take as many knights as he can get! -- ... which, uh, is good advice, indeed, but doesn't actually instruct me which of his senators is sacrificing cash to try for a knight, nor how much of it.

Since each Plutocrat senator has 4 Talents, they each have an equal chance of only failing on a 1, so I'll just roll and see what happens...

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 3, total 3[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

So a Plutocrat senator spent all 4 of his Talents and won a(nother?) knight as minion, but I don't know yet which one. Also, I don't know the Frog's vote on the extra rounds question.

AzTank's Conservatives roll...

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