Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[IncompetentIdiot]

Knight to Quinctius.

[JasonPratt]

Was already in bed when that came in last night! -- but I'll process it after work today and move on to Tripoli etc.  O:-)

[JasonPratt]

Quinctius spends all 5 of his personal cash on an automatic 5th knight. Normal vote tally goes up to 22. Aristocrat special ability votes are currently activated thanks to their leading 111 Influence points, so current vote tally yes or no on any topic is actually 22+5+4+4 (knights counting again) = 35. These being all I.I.'s instructions, the round passes to Tripoli.

[JasonPratt]

Tripoli's Militarists roll 2+5, which equals 7 and thus triggers the new Random Event table! 3d6 roll 6+4+2=12, which is a Manpower Shortage. (Here's the new table for the Era by the way.)



(The snapshot numbers start with 3 on the top and go to 18 on the bottom, but those are in a column over to the left off-snap.)

Manpower Shortages can also be triggered by bad unrest. The event will last until the start of the Forum Phase next Turn (as usual), and in effect each level of the Event adds another 10 Talents to the cost of Raising a Fleet or Legion. It does not affect Provincial military costs. Nor, in regard to my experimental rules on Veteran Regimen Training, will it affect Military Reform costs, since those aren't about creating new military units.

According to pre-planned instructions, Aelius spends all 5 of his remaining personal cash on an automatic 2nd knight. Per the Militarist special ability, his Military Headquarters management skill goes up from 4 to 5. Militarist vote tally goes up to 22.

[JasonPratt]

The Frog's Plutocrats roll snake-eyes! -- which for this roll just means "not totaling 7", so no random event. He draws...



...ah, whoops, the 2nd Illyrian War! This was expected to arrive sometime very soon: note the white border; this is left over from the Early Era, and per the information on the card indicating how many Wars were in this set, there were going to be a total of 2, both of them in the Early Era.

The 2nd goes Immanent, and the 1st goes Active! -- which I'll post some reminder information about, for the pre-Senate snapshots. Next Turn, the 2nd will go Active, too: doubling the basic strength of the first war! But unlike the 1st Illyrian, this War doesn't add an ongoing effective Drought level. And it might be a great war for a low-level senator to farm some influence and popularity on. (So might the 1st Illyrian, which is only a little stronger.)

The Frog has already done everything he can spend money on, but he instructs me to change his Faction Leader from Claudius to Acilius. So that being done, I'll move around the table.


Update: ah, forgot, he can always try to Persuade a knight, but that won't affect anyone else's round so I'll get back to that when he lets me know.

[JasonPratt]

The Frog tells me by chat that he wants Fulvius to try for a 4th knight, spending all 3 cash. That means he needs to roll 1d6 >= 3... which he does, barely, with a 3.  O0

Vote tally goes up to 10. (Acilius is away from Rome so his votes can't count.)

[JasonPratt]

AzTank's Conservatives roll 6+4, which is not 7, so they draw a Scenario: a 3rd red-text Faction card to his hand. I've pmailed him already about it.

Per Az's prior instructions, Terentius spends 5 of his cash on an automatic 2nd knight (normal vote tally unchanged because he's off Governing Sicilia). And he spends 13 of his cash on Level 2 games, increasing his popularity from 1 to 3. Unrest would drop by 2, but it's already 0. (The rules allow absent Governors to Sponsor Games.) This ends his round.

[JasonPratt]

Malize's Populists roll 6+4, which isn't 7, so they draw a Scenario: a 3rd red-text Faction card to his hand. I've sent him a p-mail about it already.

Per prior instructions, Fabius Maximus spends all 5 of his cash on an automatic 3rd knight; Cato spends all 13 of his cash for Level 2 games. Unrest can't go below 0, but Cato's Popularity goes up from 3 to 5; and per the Populist special ability, the bonus point of Popularity will go (per prior instructions) to Fabius Maximus, up from 1 to 2. Populist vote tally goes up 1 knight + 2 pop + 1 pop from 33 to 37!

This ends his round (unless he wants to change Faction Leader).

Erax, the last Player around the table for this Forum Phase, up next.

[JasonPratt]

Erax's Progressives roll 2+3, which will draw the last Scenario for this Turn:



Ack! -- well, not unexpectedly, since the card text already alerted us it would be coming before the end of the Early Era (though personally I had forgotten about it), but it's the 2nd Macedonian War!

Fortunately, the Macedonian Leader Philip V, a dangerous Successor general, died of natural causes while planning and preparing for the next of his Wars, so you don't have to worry about him anymore.

Unfortunately, this makes three Active Wars! -- and a fourth one on the way to activate next Turn! Which, if these aren't trimmed down soon, will be an existential threat to the Republic! (And one of those Wars will Match and multiply another one!)

Anyway, per prior instructions, Plautius will spend 5 for an automatic 2nd knight. Normal vote tally up to 7.

As far as I know, this ends the Forum Phase.

Up next, the Population Phase, and then the Senate Phase for the Turn opens!

[JasonPratt]

TURN FOURTEEN -- POPULATION PHASE
---------------------------------

Putting Rome in order...

All senators with PontMax or greater office, get a Major marker again.

No War is threatening the Roman heartland with destruction of property, so Tax Farmings are safe!

Speaking of, destroyed Tax Farming Concessions 5 and 6 roll to respawn from the Curia (coincidentally needing a 5 or 6 to win)... and the 5th Tax Farming area has recovered from being pillaged by the Carthaginian Army! (It rolled a 5, the other one rolled a 2 and remains destroyed for now.) So Tax Farming 5 can be Proposed and voted to be given to any aligned (and non-rebel) senator now.

Can that good luck roll on to any of the inactive senatorial families? Also needing a 5 or 6 to return...! But still no joy for them: 4, 4, and 3 (although that 3 was almost a 5 but rolled a little too far).

The Players have had ginormously good luck getting rid of Enemy Leaders throughout the game, however, and both of the Carthaginians are waiting in the wings planning a return. 4, and 2, means they stick around, plotting (though the 4 was almost a 6).

Adjusting Unrest. All the Active Wars are new, so they generate no unrest yet; and the 2nd Illyrian is only Immanent. The 1st is still generating a Drought effect, though, so that adds +1 to the Unrest of 0.

The HRAO this turn is the Dictator Scipio Africanus, and his massive maximum-possible 9 Popularity! So 9 Pop -1 Unrest + 3d6 for his State of the Republic Speech... +4+4+1 = 17. That subtracts 2 from Unrest, setting it back to 0.

Whether it's still at 0 next Turn remains to be seen....

As usual, while that would technically start the Senate Phase, I'm going to wait until I get the snapshots taken, edited up, and posted.

Discussion is still welcome, but consider it pre-senatorial discussion; no actual Actions yet. First Mandatory Business will be I.I.'s Proposal (since Scipio starts the Senate as Dictator) of two new Consuls to replace Plautius and Claudius (of the Progressives and Plutocrats respectively).

Invalid senators beyond the current Consuls (and Scipio as current Dictator) also include Acilius of the Plutocrats, and Terentius of the Conservatives.

It may be tomorrow afternoon before I get the snapshots up; I need to go eat tonight. 

[JasonPratt]

TURN FOURTEEN -- SENATE PHASE
-----------------------------

Okay, let's get the snapshots up to date, finally! (I would have done this Friday night, except my schedule got changed and then AT&T zorched my landline for the night including the internet.)

The indisputable lead Faction, I.I.'s Aristocrats are in a dangerous position simply by being too powerful now! Scipio Africanus has just passed the 20 point lead in Influence over his closest rival (Manlius of the Militarists), and his alliance is about halfway to the 30 point lead he needs, to be automatically proclaimed Consul for Life! Fortunately, the Aristocrats aren't likely to be given any more chances to keep and expand their lead. Unfortunately, the Aristocrats still have an activist vote of 35 on any topic, pro or con, due to their current lead, so their opinions on various Influence-gaining actions cannot simply be ignored! Moreover, with the Republic facing a somewhat unexpected existential War crisis yet again (after hoping they'd have some time off from that), the Militarists are very likely to gain disproportionate Influence and the Aristocrats are currently the best method of offsetting their own ambitions. (Although Tripoli does have the political advantage of having contractually renounced any possibility of automatically winning...)




The equally indisputable 2nd Place Faction, Tripoli's Militarists might soon be taking 1st Place by dint of the ongoing turns of war crises! Fortunately for everyone else, Tripoli permanently renounced any automatic Influence win; and since his Faction doesn't have activist voting, he'll have a substantially harder time than I.I. trying to outvote the Senate for a win. Also, the current war crisis involves Wars which can, mostly, be easily beaten without Militarist help. Mostly. But Tripoli's position isn't likely to worsen anytime soon!




The Frog's Plutocrats, arguably at 5th place, are still struggling to regain relevancy in the Senate after several setbacks, some random from bad luck, and some stemming from his early betrayal of a political ally to death! Acilius, the former PontMax (evicted due to bad luck), has now become the new Faction Leader, but has volunteered to be banished, in effect, far away from Rome in an unprofitable provincial Governorship. The Frog has proven to be a canny political operative, however, and his ongoing financial special abilities will always give him an edge in returning his Faction to glory. Indeed, last turn his new Claudian senator gained the Roman Consulship! -- the first time high office has returned to the Plutocrats in practically a whole Era! And he has been sitting on a solid stack of Faction cards since times eonian, waiting for the most opportune time to unleash them...




Hanging in a solid 4th Place, AzTank's Conservatives mainly have a problem with vote control: only 11, thanks to one of his senators out Governing a Province. His 'conservative' financial choices have allowed him to slowly rebuild after turns of disaster, and he now has the strongest influence of any Player other than the two giants. Moreover, he picked up a plum Provincial Governorship last Turn, although he's contractually obligated to share any extra spoils with Aelius of the Militarists. And Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus is ready to deal with one of the two key military problems threatening the Republic this Turn. The Conservatives are poised to retake a more leading role in the Senate again.




A strong 3rd Place, Malize's Populists would look even stronger if not for the godly Influence levels of the two giants. His control of 37 senate votes is much less transitory than I.I.'s Aristocrats, and he has four senators to work with, including two excellent Statesmen. Fabius Maximus and his genius defensive military abilities could be easily crucial to upcoming campaigns where most of the Wars don't need special knowledge of the local terrain or crazy-prepared military headquarters.




While Erax's Progressives surely remain the weakest Faction, it would be a mistake to underestimate his influence in the game! Remember, he came close to automatically winning the game by himself while still being the weakest faction in the game! Only sheer random luck (mostly the affection of the Kindly Ones) has kept him from ultimate dominance. Despite controlling only 7 senatorial votes normally (plus another 4 in special circumstances), he has carefully maneuvered himself into roles of high governance, including the permanent PontMax (despite losing it once to bad luck already).






The Manpower Shortage in the Republic this Turn won't be a problem since the Legions are at their maximum logistics already, and there is no need for more Fleets (yet). The ongoing Drought-effect should be resolved soon now that Illyrium has gone to War. And two Concessions (one of them permanent) are waiting to be political awards to senators! Most importantly, for several reasons, the Provinces of Hispania need Governance -- and they're being attacked by the first Lusitanian Revolt already! On the other hand, now that the rich Gallic land is no longer under threat, there's no need for the unaligned Sulpicius to be Governing there any longer: he can be shifted to one of the Hispanic areas instead, and a Player's senator given the honor (and profit) of Developed Cisalpine Gaul!




The war situation could be a lot worse -- but it could be a lot better, too! Fortunately, even if the Illyrian Wars are still around to combine next Turn, they don't combine their D/S results and their Land Strength will be relatively easy to manage even combined. The only real problem is simply the sheer number of Wars, which could rip the Republic apart!

The Republic has 102 Talents in the Treasury, but all 25 Legions are already Active and prepared to fight, with no less than 7 Veterans! 22 Fleets are also ready to secure the logistic operations of the Legions.

The First Mandatory Business, as usual, will be for I.I.'s Scipio, the Dictator and so Presiding Magistrate at the start of this Senate, to Propose two new Consuls from senators present in Rome and not already Dictator or Consuls.

[JasonPratt]

As the Senate starts, AzTank plays one of his face-down Faction cards, taking advantage of a new game mechanic introduced in the Middle Era:



Historical Law Proposals! :D

In the basic game, Players just throw historical Laws down at any time in the Senate Phase once it starts, assuming they've drawn a Law to their hand, and this automatically changes the rules of the game. Of course, a Player doesn't have to do this so a historical Law won't necessarily happen!

In the more advanced, full game we're playing (even without the expansion prologue and epilogue Eras, not to mention the house rule tests), Laws must be voted on by the Players like any other Proposal to the Senate. If the vote doesn't get a majority, the Law is discarded and will never be implemented. If it passes with even a slight majority, then the rule change represented by the Law goes into permanent effect.

This is the key difference between a Historical Law, and a permanent Contract: Laws necessarily affect all Players; Contracts only affect the Players who sign onto them.

In this case, despite the title "Military Reforms", this Law has nothing to do with the military. ;) (Indeed this is one reason I'm testing a created house rule about actual military reform similar to the Marian reforms!) Rather, this Law, as can be seen, permanently removes any chance of any senator automatically winning through superior Influence. So it's like Tripoli's self-imposed voluntary Contract, not to accept an automatic Influence appointment to Consul-for-Life. But it will apply to all senators in the game, active and henceforth, even the senators of Players who vote against the Law! -- if the Law passes.

Moreover, Laws, being "Intrigue" cards, do not need to be Proposed by Tribunes or by Presiding Magistrates. They can be Proposed merely by playing them to the Forum, as AzTank has done.

Relatedly, neither can Law votes be stopped by assassinations, although those can still happen during the voting process.

Nor can Laws be vetoed by anyone, although senators may Abstain from voting For or Against.

The only requirement to be met before voting, is Sponsorship. Any Law must have a Sponsor and a Co-Sponsor. Sponsors must be non-rebel senators present in Rome (not Captives or Proconsuls or Governors). Any Player can volunteer one or two senators as Sponsors, including AzTank -- although he hasn't told me to volunteer any of his, so the spots are still open!

If the Law passes, the Sponsoring senator will gain 3 Influence, and the Co-Sponsor will gain 1. But there is no downside if the Law fails. (Nor can the Law vote be stopped by assassinating the Sponsors.)

This Proposal now takes precedence, and must be resolved before the normal First Mandatory Business (new Consuls). The Presiding Magistrate, I.I.'s Scipio, has the right to determine voting order as usual, or to call for an open vote -- but first, senators must be volunteered as Sponsor and Co-Sponsor!

(Note that the Law references the normal rule about 35 Influence, but the spirit of the Law would apply to my house rule about combined Influence leads, too. If it passes, there can be no automatic appointment of a Consul For Life afterward for the rest of the game. A Player can only win by himself by rebelling successfully against the Senate, or by engineering a Senate vote.)

[IncompetentIdiot]

Are these laws also subject to the provision for land bills that allows for free assassination attempts on the sponsors if they are from the same faction?

If not, I'll volunteer Scipio as sponsor and Valerius as co-sponsor.

[JasonPratt]

No, it's okay. The difference is that Land Bills are inherently unpopular in the Senate, so there's an unspoken agreement to turn a blind eye to anyone trying to stop the Land Bill by assassinating the sponsor.

Laws, however, cannot be stopped by assassinating the Sponsors (and there is no senator doing the "Proposing", exactly -- in effect Laws come with a special one-use Tribune invisibly attached). So there's no point to assassinating the Sponsors! Well, not in regard to the Law anyway. ;)

In conclusion, anyone attempting to assassinate your Sponsors will still feel the full fury of the court landing on their Faction Leader, if they're caught in the attempt. And it wouldn't stop the Law anyway.

Beyond which, people might be less likely to assassinate one of your senators since you're willing to agree to a Law which eliminates an avenue by which you might win!  O:-)

[JasonPratt]

So, with a Sponsor and Co-sponsor now attached, the time has come to vote on the Proposal. No vetoes allowed for Law Proposals.

I.I. hasn't called a voting order as Presiding Magistrate, so currently anyone can vote in any order.

Scipio and Valerius must vote For the Law, and unless I hear differently I'll provisionally assume Quincy is also voting For.

Also unless I hear differently, I can presume all the Conservatives will be voting For (because AzTank threw the card to begin with).

Since the Law does nothing except ensure that all Players mimic his own voluntary Contract, I can presume Tripoli will vote For.


Provisional voting then is Aristocrat 22 +5+4+4 activists; +22 Militarist votes; +11 Conservatives = 68 votes provisionally FOR the Law.

This would be enough for a solid majority, since the remaining Players can only muster 58 votes against it. Erax's two senators will each gain +1 Inf for voting on the Law either way!

Just to be safe, though, I'll wait to confirm Tripoli's vote.