Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

Started by JasonPratt, September 17, 2018, 05:04:17 PM

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JasonPratt

Keeping in mind, I.I. (at the upper left) is Player 1, due to being the Aristocrat Faction, even when he isn't the first player in a round, and then going clockwise around the board...


5th round goes to Player:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d4 : 3, total 3[/blockquote]

and 6th round goes to Player:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d4 : 4, total 4[/blockquote]
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JasonPratt

#61
So, that's the Frog and then AzTank again, to finish out the rounds.

The Frog rolled a Random Event, and then lucked out into Allied Enthusiasm: next turn during the Revenue Phase, the Republic will add an extra 25 Talents income to its Treasury! I've added a nice little copy of the card next to the Republic's Treasury to remind me.  O:-)

AzTank rolled a Scenario Card, and drew a Historical Event: Agrarian Unrest.



This represents a drought in Latin Italy in 485 BC which instituted enough public unrest that some populist senators were able to gain political power by pressuring holders of public land to distribute them to non-voting citizens. This wasn't quite the creation of the plebian political groups yet (that would come with the plebian successions) but it was a big step in that direction.

Public land in the early Republic was not held by the state, exactly, but distributed as trusts to leading citizens in the Senate. Worth noting that the Senators were not voted upon by the people at this time, but were brought into the fraternity of the Senate by fellow Senators as an acknowledgement that their families were important enough to be granted the responsibility of shaping the policies of the Republic. The concept was that only the people with the most to lose should have the vote on important matters. Naturally this led to patricians exploiting the non-voting citizens, and so eventually led to public reform as various Senators appealed to the people for soft influence.

In game terms, this one-time historical Event spawns what amounts to a random Drought event, which will add to public Unrest soon, but which goes away in one turn. Unlike most random Events which can have two levels, Droughts can have up to four levels! -- and can be spawned by certain Wars, too.

The Agrarian Unrest also will require the Presiding Magistrate of the Senate to propose a Level I Land Bill for the Senate to Vote on as part of your Mandatory Business this Turn -- which we'll get to later during the Senate Phase.

The card text doesn't say so, but if the Senate does pass a vote for a Land Bill as a result of this event, you'll not only decrease Unrest immediately, but also avoid the bad effects of the two Plebian Successions which will be coming up one of these days! I'll remind players of this when the time comes.

The Frog and AzTank can now make the 5th and 6th round choices, which mostly amount to each of you choosing which senator you want to try for persuading a knight again.

The Frog however can also try to persuade Acilus again with his Statesman Appius Claudius. Appius' 5+5 Ora/Inf stats - Ac's 7 Loyalty, means you need to roll a total of 3 or less on 2d6, but the Evil Omen means the only way to roll even a 3 will be snake eyes. (Rolling a 1 and a 2 would total 4 instead, and lose the attempt.) I don't recommend adding bribery cash to this attempt, but it's still technically possible without cash so won't risk you anything. (You should save the 2 cash for a knight persuasion attempt now or later.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
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Ethel the Frog

Ok.  So, I will take the free roll for a 2 for Acilus again, and spend the two cash to persuade a knight.  I am still not clear on the knight procedure.  One of my guys has a Knight, the other doesn't, so I would prefer to have the knight go to the one that doesn't assuming that the odds are the same.  If not, I will take the  highest odds I can get at a cost of up to two cash. 

JasonPratt

Quote from: Ethel the Frog on September 26, 2018, 04:27:04 PM
Ok.  So, I will take the free roll for a 2 for Acilus again, and spend the two cash to persuade a knight.  I am still not clear on the knight procedure.  One of my guys has a Knight, the other doesn't, so I would prefer to have the knight go to the one that doesn't assuming that the odds are the same.  If not, I will take the  highest odds I can get at a cost of up to two cash.

In the case of persuading a senator, you always want to use your senator with the best odds of picking him up (that's Appius for you right now). But once you get the new senator he just teams up with your Faction, he doesn't serve a prior senator in any way.

In the case of persuading a knight, the knight arrives to serve as a minion to the senator who persuaded him. And senators can't exchange knights around by any means. But persuading a knight is much easier and doesn't depend even slightly on a senator's stats. Appius has no inherent advantage over Fulvius in gaining a new (or another) minion -- but Appius does have an inherent stat advantage (because of his skills) in trying to get another major senator to join your team. But a new senator won't team up with Appius per se; a new knight will team up with his persuading senator as his minion.

(I don't think the game rules call them minions. I just like to.  :coolsmiley: "Knight" may be technically correct sort of, but they don't function much like we think of as "knights". They're just slightly-more-influential minor senators in the Senate.)

The only thing that makes a difference in persuading a minion, is whether you can add some bribery cash from a senator's personal treasury. In that regard, Appius will have an advantage over Fulvius in persuading a(nother) knight to be his minion, because Appius still has 2 cash in his personal treasury, and Fulvius has none.

So Appius is (currently) much the better bet at picking up a second knight. What difference does it make to you if Appius has all your knights instead of spreading them around more evenly? As long as your senators are all in Rome, it makes no difference either way. If Appius dies however, and he has all your knights, then bang! -- they were loyal more to him, not to you, and they go away. Similarly, if the Senate elects Appius as Field Consul (which might well happen), and Appius leaves Rome to go fight a War, the knights go with him and won't be around in the Senate to contribute their votes for the rest of this Turn, nor until Appius comes back, which might not be for several Turns. (Fortunately, senators and their knights earn income wherever they are, and your knights earn double cash, so you'll be getting their special ability wherever they are.)

Next Turn however, during the Revenue Phase, you might decide to redistribute your cash so that Fulvius can have the advantage (or even the certainty, if you can arrange him 5 Talents!) in picking up a knight, so that you're less vulnerable to having your knights disappear upon an unlucky death.
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JasonPratt

So, as noted above, between their relative stats, and the Evil Omen, Appius has the only chance of persuading Acilius to join your Faction, but only if you roll a total of 2 (1 and 1, snake eyes). And you won't risk a bad bet by using Appius' cash on that when he has better uses for it.

That's a 2d6 roll, and you need a 2 total to win. If you lose, you lose nothing, so it's a safe though highly improbable bet.

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

Craps!  ^-^

Appius also has the best chance right now of picking up a(nother) knight, because he has 2 cash which you spend to help bribe.


Normally you need to roll a 6 on a 1d6 to win. With 2 cash helping, you need 4 or more. Thanks to the Evil Omen helping (by making minor senators nervous and wanting more protection), you need a 3 or higher. Only 1 or 2 will lose. Appius will lose his 2 cash either way.

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 5, total 5[/blockquote]
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
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PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
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JasonPratt

Success! Appius now has 2 knights, and 0 cash.

Plutocrat vote tally goes up 1 to 9.


AzTank's choices, which is really only one choice: which senator do you want to try again for a knight, and if he has cash do you want to spend any to help?
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

While we're waiting for AzTank's choice, let me clarify that this will be the final action of this Phase. Ideally, some number of Turns from now, this will also be where everyone wins the game! -- the final Turn signals during, and ends with, the Forum Phase. (Basically, late in the final deck someone draws the Y'all Win card.  :bd: )

Next up will be the Population Phase, a fully automatic Phase where I'll do some things in the background mostly having to do with public Unrest, and report the results.

After that, will be the Senate Phase: where everyone will decide together, formally or informally, how to deal with Rome's current problems. This is where the voting will happen (if any happens to be needed). This is where most of the Player action happens on each Turn. A new major office will unlock this Turn (currently there's only one, the Roman Consul), and you'll need to vote senators into the various offices (Fulvius cannot stay Consul, though he can be Consul again later), and you'll need to decide whether you want to do anything about the Agrarian Unrest, and how most effectively to put boots to your former king Tarquinius.   :knuppel2:
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

Camillus will try for a knight, spend 1 to help.
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

Camilius sacrifices his last Talent, meaning you can win with a 5 now as well as a 6: a 33% chance for victory.

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

Ick! -- the strumpet Fortuna was not appeased.  #:-)

This effectively ends the Forum Phase for Turn One.

Alas, it's 10pm here and time for old me to hit the sack before work tomorrow. There's an eventful weekend in the Republic coming up, though, as I resolve our first Population Phase (a potentially game-ending phase, but there's no worry about that this time), and then introduce the rules for Players to start working your way through dealing with the Republic's current problems in the Senate Phase!

Check back in tomorrow evening (central US time) for the catchup to the first Senate procedures!
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

The Population Phase has several automatic things happening, some of which won't unlock until later.

For now, what happens is that public Unrest goes up 1 point for each Drought Event, and for each Unprosecuted War. So, starting at Unrest 0, + 1 + 1 = 2. (It's impossible to avoid the Unrest going up at least 1 point on Turn One, due to the 1st Latin War being Active and unable to be prosecuted yet.)

Then the Highest Ranking Available Officer convenes and launches the Senate Phase. This Turn, that's Fulvius of the Plutocrats, as Rome's only current officer, the Consul.

As the HRAO going into the Senate Phase, Fulvius becomes the Presiding Magistrate of the Senate -- for now. The PM function tends to shift around at least once per Senate Phase, including this Turn for reasons I'll make clear soon.

The PM opens the Senate by giving a State of the Republic speech. In game terms, this means rolling 3d6, adding the PM's popularity (0 for Fulvius), and subtracting the public Unrest. The total is compared to a table for results.

Let's do this thing! -- Sic ergo agamus aliquid! (per Googlelatin, which I will assume is a little better than pig Latin)

0 (Fulvius popularity) - 2 (Unrest) + 3d6...

[blockquote]Rolled 3d6 : 6, 5, 3, total 14[/blockquote]
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RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

14-2=12

The people are okay with the speech, no better no worse. You can live with that!

I'll have to leave to go eat soon. Here's where everyone is at, going into the Senate Phase:



I do not recommend assassinating each other until I get back (or this Turn at all)...

Meanwhile, the first Mandatory business is to elect not another Consul, but two Consuls: the Roman Consul and the Field Consul, which office automatically unlocks now in the first Senate Phase.

Any senator present in Rome (which is all of your senators right now) can be one of the Consuls. Each Consul can lead one army to war, although if the Roman Consul ever departs for war then the Senate is automatically adjourned -- thus the distinction between Roman and Field Consuls.

The Republic must have two Consuls (unless only one senator remains in Rome somehow). And the nominees must be nominated together, as a package. For example, Julius as Roman Consul and Cincinnatus as Field Consul. No senator who is currently a Consul going into the Senate Phase can be elected as either Consul (so senators can be Consuls on alternating turns, but not sequential turns.) That means Fulvius cannot be elected to either Consular Office this Turn.

Y'all can discuss among yourselves who you'd like. If you reach a unanimous agreement informally, there's no need to vote. Notice (click to zoom if you need to) what the normal vote tallies are right now: that's what each Player can bring in voting power to this vote. (The only knights on the board yet, don't have vote activist abilities at all, so it's just the normal vote tally.) This vote won't adjust any senator's stats, so again if there's a solid voting bloc majority there's no need to go through the formality to vote.

(Face to face it would be easy to just call the vote and go, but I'm adjusting the process a little to move things along in asynch.)

Formally speaking, only Fulvius (thus his Player, the Frog) can actually propose a nomination on any topic right now, including this one. But beware! -- if the PM gets voted against by all other Players, the PM must either step down as PM (he won't lose his office, just the function) in favor of the next senator in line, or he must accept a -1 hit to his Influence. And at 0 Influence, he can't be PM anymore anyway.

The Frog, as the (current) PM's player, can stop all further discussion by calling for Players to vote, in any order the PM's player prefers.

Technically, a Player's senators don't all have to vote the same (yes, no, or abstain), but as a practical matter that's what usually happens.

Whoever wins the next two Consular offices, will each gain 3 Influence; and the new Roman Consul will take over the Presiding Magistrate duties for the Senate this Turn.

I think that's enough for Players to discuss and act on for now. If you have any questions, let me know!

Keep in mind two things though: first, as long as a Plutocrat senator is the highest available officer still in Rome (not out at war), the Republic cannot lose by expensing under 0 cash. And second, only Consuls (currently) can be sent with armies to war.

(Actually designating an army and leader etc. will be done later in the Senate, but it's something to think about ahead of time perhaps.)
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!

IncompetentIdiot

Quote from: JasonPratt on September 28, 2018, 04:46:01 PM
Let's do this thing! -- Sic ergo agamus aliquid! (per Googlelatin, which I will assume is a little better than pig Latin)

I'm not a Latin expert by any means, but in my experience, Google Translate doesn't really handle it well owing to the language's free word order and complicated word inflections. That string of words is one of the less mangled translations I've seen it offer, but it would literally equate to "thus thus (as in sic semper tyrannis or cogito ergo sum) we should do something/anything". :P

JasonPratt

 :2funny:

I wonder why it bothered with any thus-es at all?

Meanwhile, I'll take some updated snapshots of Player sideboards for convenience, so everyone can see the senators on offer.
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!