Grogs of Crisis - 4 player "Time of Crisis"

Started by ArizonaTank, July 30, 2017, 08:44:43 PM

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JasonPratt

Wow; without even seeing what Dave did this turn (I already know what AzTank did), I'm all a-twitch for my options this afternoon!  :o
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JasonPratt

I had one insane plan that would have messed with Barth, but I needed two governors to do so. Which I didn't have.

I had a slightly less insane plan that would have harvested some quick legacy and political points from ratpit Galatia (currently home to Shapur I, thanks to that surge roll by Barth), before my governor got auto-kicked out. But the rules are set up in such a way that I would have gotten kicked out first.

I had an evil and trollish but pretty safe plan, messing with Barth; but I didn't feel like being the first person to kick someone else in the game.  O:-)

So I went with the only-slightly-insane, somewhat-less-than-one-third-chance plan.

(...oh, and I rolled a new Sassy activation, but they didn't feel like surging by themselves.)

Step one: play two red-1 cards to move my new Small Ferret Army across the sea to Italia. And move into the capitol building since no one else is there (yet).

Step two: play two blue-1 cards to try installing my available spare governor (bought last turn) into Italia. With only one province (Galatia) plus himself still neutral, the governor only had a support of 2. The way the rules work, I would need double those votes (2x2=4), minus one vote for parking an army (of any size) in the capitol bldg.

Since this is a neutral governor, any number I rolled on my two dice would count in my favor (even for the Italia seat) -- ones wouldn't count against me. But I would need at least one 6 in order to automatically gain the 3rd senate vote I need to win.

Step three: pray if that new unknown God Whose cross I painted on my shields before marching into Rome will be kind for me showing mercy to Barth rather than doing the safe thing and messing him over in Macedonia.

Step four: roll two sixes.

<:-) :bd:  :D

Step five: waste all my divine good will on some hubris at being the FIRST EMPEROR IN THE GAME!



(Well, the first Emperor player.)

Step six: set my new governor to 3 support, matching my three governed regions (including Italia). That number can go down in various ways, but can only go up if I put more governors elsewhere.

Step seven: profit.  >:D Started with 13 Legacy total + 3 for support in Italia + 3 for provinces governed (including Italia; but remember the support can be reduced quickly and independently of whether I'm still governing elsewhere) + 2 for improvements in my territories = new total of 21.

I should have also moved my green Emperor Mark one step forward on the track, but if someone else doesn't do that I'll get around to it next time. Too excited at that long-shot roll, nearly 70 percent against me.

Step eight: profit again. With three provinces and 6 support, I bought a 3-red card (the Flanking Maneuver, which will probably come in handy later ;) ), and the last Questor (a 2-yellow card) in the pool. The way the rules work, each extra card you buy per turn costs 1 point more for each card you've already bought. So it cost me 3 points, too. All new cards go into the discard pile as always.

Discarded my last card in my hand (a red-1) to make room for five fresh cards, selected from my available stack. Two availables remaining before I can refresh the stack with the discards.


Note to self: now that I think of it, my super-insane plan would not have worked; not without an extra blue card instead of an extra red one. But this one's fine.

NOW SHALL THE DOGPILE CURBSTOMPING BEGINNN! (...uh, against me. I'm not strong enough to hold on for more than maybe two turns.)
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

Note that Emperor support isn't affected by barbie kings on the board (unless they eject one of my governors, of course, which any barbarian can do).

It will be affected if I'm still around when someone activates the next Rival Emperor event and/or earns enough political points to buy and play a Pretender card. I'm more likely to see mobs of Mobs thrown at me first tho.
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!

Barthheart


JasonPratt

When my inevitable defeat arrives, I shall point to this move as its Origen.








(...Diocletian Era pun!  O:-) )
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

Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

JasonPratt

Quote from: ArizonaTank on August 07, 2017, 10:46:07 PM
The nail that sticks up....

...still scores some extra points and bling before it gets hammered down.  ^-^ I regret nothing! (...yet.)

Also, that phrase in regard to my strategies sounds familiar...  >:D
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!

Barthheart

My crisis roll saw a horde of Franks come pouring out of the north and rampage through Pannonia and into Italia. Too bad.... no not really.  :-"

Managed to steal Britannia from Jason to lower his support as Emperor. And place a Quaestor marker there to make it harder to steal back.  ;)

Also built a new 2 legion army in Macedonia.

Gotta love these new high point value cards, you can really get a lot done in one turn.

So now I control 4 provinces with 2 improvements so I caught up to our Emperor in score.. at least for now.
With 4 support I was able to buy a 4 point Military card.  >:D

Barbarians everywhere a becoming a real problem though.... you'd think we would roll a few more events to even it out a bit......  :timeout:

JasonPratt

yeaaaahh, i don't see how I'll be coming back from this imbroglio anytime soon. Or any time.  L:-)

Yep, should have just packed up for Macedonia instead.  :buck2: Well, like I said, when I lose the game I shall point back to seizing the throne early as my excuse.  :peace: Do the safe if trollish thing, not the long shot that will only bring me game-ending trouble!   :uglystupid2:

(My actual turn will be later this afternoon; still at work for another several hours.)
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

Somewhat unsurprisingly I'm still Emperor at the end of Turn 6. That might continue another turn, since I'm doubtful AzTank has got the Senate clout to make a real stab at it, and he has a FREAKING SWARM of Franks (a Franking swarm?) to attend to militarily before he can settle my hash.

And since the other two guys already threw their full Senatorial weight at yanking Britain out from under me, so I'm not too worried about them trying again in Italia next turn.



I might however need to worry about Barth's new Praetorian card, now that he has settled his own barbie problem. ...and also worry about his drastically increasing army. Nothing I can do about that now. But it may be of some comfort to Az, to see how quickly someone can go from crippled in last place to jockeying for first place and in position to do some curbstomping!

Dave made a (temporary) alliance with Barth, asking for no military action against him if Dave tried the slightly harder task of deposing my governor in Britain instead of Barth's in Macedonia. Barth agreed. What should have been a virtually certain roll from Dave's 5 senate points, though, failed with three natural 1s against him.

As Barth noted, he was the one who yanked the governorship away eventually. What he didn't mention, was that my Minerva Army parked in the capitol building reduces his support there every turn, so his Questor would have been useless had he not spend those two yellow points buffing support there first! However, he has some buffy stacks ready to wallop vulnerable areas like, well, obvs.  ::)

As for my turn, I rolled our next random event, triggering Good Augeries which will give Roman armies a +1 total to each battle die. I don't have much doubt how Barth will be using that soon! -- but hopefully it'll help Az get rid of his barbarian problem, too.

For my card play, I put down two Questors (one on each governor); increased my Africa support from 2 to 3 (which might help me survive a little longer there after Barth violates me); and bought a basilica (which in theory will help me retake Italia governorship a little easier next time, but which in practice is yet another reason for Barth to invade Africa pronto.  :P ) I'm still ahead on points, but I'm pretty sure Barth can fix that soon.

I did forget to flip over my Italian Franks to active at the end of my turn, but I'll do that at the start of my Turn 7 if no one else beats me to it...  :2funny:
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!

Barthheart

Turn 7 and no barbarians!  <:-)

My Crisis rolls caused another small Goth invasion in to Asia. This is good in that it keeps Dave busy, but bad because it can generate easy legacy points for him by killing them.

My cards for this turn suck though so not much accomplished. Added a legion to the Syrian Army because more Sassanids activated. Also raise my support in Britannia only to have it reduce again because of Jason's Army.  :P

Bought a high powered Populace card.

Next turn could be.... interesting....  ^-^


JasonPratt

Yeah, I expect mobs to start arriving soon.  :-*

A little surprisingly, I'm still Emperor going into my Round this turn. I suppose I'll still be Emperor one way or another going out of it. Can I get some other things done meanwhile? We'll see in a few hours, once I'm home from work.
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

So, am I still Emperor leaving Turn 7?



Yes indeedy do.  :o

I do not expect this state of affairs to continue past next turn, to be honest, but I did improve my position quite a bit.

Like almost everyone (except Barth who didn't have any such targets), I kicked a barbarian tribe out of one of my lands -- out of Italia, in my case -- and scored some of that hot, sweet, barbarian legacy for doing so. {insert Frazettaish barbarian babe img here}

AzTank (Larry) might have actually done a bit better than he thought, since I can't tell whether he included +1 on his combat rolls thanks to the ongoing Good Auguries event. And the combat-dice tool, unfortunately, doesn't alert log readers about this (although it can be set to include the bonus as I experimentally verified). I removed an extra Frank from Pannonia just in case, but he may have to add an active one back.

Unfortunately, this won't affect (either way) a mistake he made in not accounting for his red-expenses properly: he spent 2 red on buying a new legion for Pannonia, but forgot he had already spent one of them attacking there. However, I figured he would have spent that one point refreshing his damaged legion there, so did that for him (while sending the new legion off the board).

Dave, also unfortunately, ran fowl of a rule stating that once an army has attacked it can't move (or attack) -- although as far as I can tell a moving army can attack after it arrives (if the cost is paid ofc). So, after discussing things with him, I moved it back and didn't move a smaller but new army he had made instead. He's going gutsy for Galatia, though! Which considering it has only gotten more full of Goths this turn is even gutsier.

The Goths sent him a new chip into Asia, too, after his turn; bad luck. He'll want to deal with that, too, next time. But he should easily stomp it for points, especially if the Auguries are still going by then.

Much worse luck: four Nomads lined up and surged toward Syria, one of them making it in, the other three parking in Egypt. It's a good thing Barth has buffed up his armies recently!

My turn, however, was pretty great: I took back the governorship of Britain in the Senate (which also increased my Emperor support in Italia back to 3); bumped up its support to 2; added a second legion to my Ferret Army in Italia; barely won my battle there against the Franks (thanks _entirely_ to those auguries, since I rolled a minimum 3:3 result instead of 2:2!); added another second legion to my original army in Africa; and put a castra and a questor both into Italia to help protect it a little more next turn. As you can see, I'm about to pass 40 points!

That being said, even though AzLarry still has one or more franks to deal with in Pannonia, I am SUPER scared of his mega stacks wiith nothing to distract them right now. Also, he and Barth (and Dave, though he's focused on Galatia right now) have been buying some scary cards recently, and just guess who the most likely target of that will be?  :hide:
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!

Barthheart

F#*^ing Nomads!  :pullhair:
Hey wait! The one that made it to Syria should be inactive due to my Limes there.  \m/

JasonPratt

Oh, yeah, that's true! I should have noticed that. Too bad you didn't have Limes in Egypt yet, but Syria was the reasonable guess since it's a target of more numerous and frequent invasions than anywhere else on the board.

To be fair, you've had far more than your share of nomads in this game. I was seriously expecting to see a launch in my direction (and into Hispania), but nope.
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!