Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[JasonPratt]

Third segment, the automatic Republic income phase.

Republic starting cash: 19 Talents (10 of them thanks to I.I.'s donation);
+30 standard income;
+25 Allied Enthusiasm event resolved;
-0 no Active Wars;
-0 no Land Bills;
4 Legions x -2 Talents = -8 unit upkeep;

= New Republic Treasury: 66 Talents!  <:-) :bd:

All resolved events in the Forum discard, and that ends the Revenue Phase for Turn 3.

(Note: the Spolia Opima Event remains untriggered yet.)

[JasonPratt]

TURN THREE -- FORUM PHASE
-------------------------

The rounds start with AzTank's Aristocrats, who roll:

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

[JasonPratt]

Not a 7, so a Scenario Card.



Coriolanus defected last Turn to try to convince the Volscii to assault Rome, but died before he could succeed. (Historically, he led the first war against them as Consul, and then later in his career went back to them with a proposition to lead them into retaking Rome's kingship due to the Senate politically sacrificing him to mollify the people.)

So, aside from the vicissitudes of war, this should be an easier fight than against Tarquinius and his Latin alliance.

Per his original plan, AzTank has Camillus sacrifice 2 Talents to attempt persuading a knight. Succeeds on a roll of 4 or better:

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

[JasonPratt]

Success! -- Normal Vote tally also increases to 12.

There was no indication that Furius Camillus should be replaced as Faction Leader, so that's staying provisionally. I'll allow a synch-lag choice later, however, unless someone decides to try to snipe away one of the Conservative senators -- upon that target declaration, the senator will be invalid to switch to (the immune) Faction Leader.

I am unsure if I understood his revenue instructions precisely, so for the most leeway I've assigned 2 Talents to each of his senators plus another 2 for Camillus to use in minion trolling. ;) So currently he still has 4-2=2 Talents. The Faction Treasury has 5.

But if I misunderstood, I'll retroactively adjust Cam's current 2 Talents back into the Faction pile, so long as the correction doesn't come at a time strategically convenient for such a transaction. ;)

AzTank already has a pretty full stable. His best chance at sniping away someone else's senator would Erax's Plautius, who has no cash and only 6 loyalty, + 7 standard faction commitment = -13 to a persuasion roll. Fabius' 13 Inf + 2 Ora would provide a minimum snake eyes chance to win, plus another 2 Talents potentially risked to bring the winning roll to 4 or less on a 2d6.

That would be a strong probability of failure and a super-dickish move if you won, though, so I don't recommend it. ;)

[JasonPratt]

Malize's Populists are next around the table, rolling 2d6:

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

[JasonPratt]

Boxcars! -- wish that roll had been saved! Not a 7, so it's a Scenario draw.



Rome's nearest major neighbor, the Etruscan city of Veia, decides now is a great time to threaten Rome on the other side of the Tiber! Fortunately, these Wars aren't really allied, so they don't team up to double each other's power.

(Yes, that's a thing you'll have to worry about sometimes! -- but not currently.)

Each war, notice, will cost 10 Talents per Turn as long as they're active. Winning the Volscian War will unlock two more Tax Farming territory concessions, though (areas #3 and 4), and 5 Talents of spoils. Beating the Veientine War won't give you immediate spoils, but will be much more lucrative since the city and its environs will permanently increase the Republic's income by 10 Talents! -- and you'll gain a permanent manpower increase of another 3 potential Legions!

Whichever senator first gains a Victory against either of them, will also gain the Spolia Opima: a legendary choice of personal spoils, originally granted to Romulus himself! (I think it was granted historically for one of these Wars, maybe against the Veii; it would only be granted once more, in the 200s CE.)

Neither Populist senator has any cash currently (Aurelius needed to pay off his ransom, sadly but successfully). So it's not even possible for either of them to persuade any other senators yet. There's a 1 in 6 chance that one of them could pick up a knight, however.

I'll roll the chance now, and if it's a win, Malize can tell me which one gets the knight:

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

[JasonPratt]

A 3, so no success. This ends Malize's round (unless you want to shift your Faction Leader from Junius Brutus to Aurelius, which I'll allow post hoc if you tell me).

Erax's Progressives are next around the board, and for their Event/Scenario roll:

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

[JasonPratt]

Not 7, so it's another Scenario. This time it's a red-text Faction card of some sort, which Erax adds to his hand with his other remaining one. I've sent you a p-mail letting you know what it is, and conditions for its play.

Erax's plan was to use the new Flaminius' 13 Talents to hold Bloodfest games in honor of his deceased father, so Flam's treasury goes to 0; but Unrest decreases down from 4 to 2, and Flam's popularity increases from 0 to 2.

Erax was keeping Flam as his Faction Leader. Neither of his senators has any cash now, but it doesn't hurt to try a long-shot knight persuasion which I'll roll now:

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

[JasonPratt]

Close! -- but no tobacco in the Old World. With no possibility of persuading someone else's senator, this ends his round.

I.I.'s Aristocrats are up around the table, and roll:

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

[JasonPratt]

Craps! -- that's a Random Event, 50/50 shot of being helpful or harmful.

Here's the pre-Early table again for reference:



But we're rolling forum dice for transparency, so ignore the dice in the photo.  O:-)

[blockquote]Rolled 3d6 : 1, 1, 3, total 5[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

It's a Drought. This will add 1 point of Unrest during the Population Phase coming up soon.

Valerius of the Aristos has 5 Talents, so could pick up a knight for free, but I haven't received specific instructions about that yet.

Even with his Personal Treasury, though, he doesn't have enough clout yet to possibly persuade away someone else's senator.

I.I.'s final option this round is whether he wants to keep Cornelius, the Field Consul this turn (but not for long), as his Faction Leader, or shift it to someone else.

I'll need to know about that and/or the knight roll before I can continue.

[IncompetentIdiot]

Yeah, Valerius will dump it all on a knight.

[JasonPratt]

Done! -- the normal vote tally also goes up, to 9.

[JasonPratt]

Tripoli's Militarists roll

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

[JasonPratt]

Opps, sent the wrong thing to the wrong place  :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[