Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

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

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JasonPratt

#705
Quote from: Erax on December 01, 2018, 05:27:07 AM
As I understand the setup, Fabius will not be up for persuasion this turn but we still have some senator cards lurking in the Era Deck, right?

I haven't looked recently -- one or two were dealt out to you when you joined, actually! Then we caught up with the next one last Turn. There are probably a couple more in the remaining 11 cards, though we'll have shifted the last cards to the start of the Early Provincial Era sometime in the final 6.

This is a point on which the prologue/tutorial Eras suffer: all the families in the game are numbered, and they all start in the "Early" Era (because that's how the game was originally designed), so to introduce new families would require giving them numbers beyond 30. But that would make them 'later' in the emergence of families than the Late Provincial Era! -- and the game has mechanics built around how relatively old families are. (The most important such mechanic being the ultimate tie-breaker: if all else fails, the Player with the oldest family involved in the dispute, i.e. the lowest family number, wins the tie.)

Consequently, the Birth of the Republic designer had to spread Early Era family Senators through the two prologue Eras, while also leaving some for the Early Era itself. This naturally lowers their "density" of emergence in any one Era. He compensated a little by finding a few historical characters who could show up before their families became otherwise very politically important, and making them pre-Early Statesmen. (I'm not where I can verify right now, but I seem to recall AzTank having one of those from family #24, which won't show up until the Middle Era.)

I haven't gone into details about this because I didn't want preliminary expectations of the game to color strategies. But...

[spoiler]as noted in the "Sabrerules" game flowchart I created (which needs a new update, though not on this topic, the most recent edition posted in the Infothread being Oct 5th, note to self... ;) ), we aren't going to see families #19 or #20, the final Early Families, until sometime in the Early Era, and possibly not until the transition into the Middle Era.

In effect the other 18 families got dispersed like this: #1 thru #8 got randomly dealt out to the first four players (I.I., Tripoli, the Frog, and AzTank). The remaining families from #9 through #18 got randomly shuffled, and then half of those (= 5 families) were dealt out face down and got shuffled into the Latin Era. Those are now all out on the board, of course.

The remaining 5 shuffled pre-#19 families got shuffled into the Italian Era. The first one of those (maybe two, I'm not where I can check my notes, but I think it was only one) was dealt out to you (Erax) when you joined, because there weren't any more family Senators remaining in the Latin Era. (Your other starting Senator was the last one in the Latin Era, or the 2nd one in the Italian; I seem to recall the former.)

We've had one new family show up since starting the Italian Era, the Aelians, picked up by Tripoli.

By deduction, that means two or three (I think probably three) families should be in the remaining 11 cards. But there's about a 50/50 chance that one or more of these ended up in the final 6 cards, and so will transfer forward into the start of the Early Era Deck with families #19 and #20.

This also means that under no circumstances will we be seeing more than 20 family Senators until after the start of the Middle Era -- though we may see one or two more Statesmen popping in before their families do. But I think I recall that such Statesmen, who show up an Era or two before their families, and so act like temporary families, are restricted to the pre-Early decks. (This is why it's not really a good idea for AzTank to give chits to Spurius over there: his family can't possibly show up until the Middle or maybe even the start of the Late Era, and so he can't possibly pass them down when he retires, which will surely be either this or next Turn! -- there's a decent chance we'll trigger the Early Era late in the coming Forum Phase.)[/spoiler]

(I've hidden this information behind the spoiler tag in case some Players don't want to know how the family sorting works through the Early Era.)

Now, that doesn't mean the families are locked into their Factions, necessarily! For example, when y'all executed Fabius the Pont Max, his family card went to the Curia, from which the Fabians will randomly respawn into the Forum like a newly drawn family Senator. (This chance happens during the Population Phase, just before the Senate opens.) At that point Players will have an opportunity (during any subsequent Forum Phases) to Persuade the new Fabian Senator to join your Faction. The more families are active already, the more chance an active family will be drawn from the death bag. (The Progressives themselves are lagging behind partly due to the bad luck of this happening twice with Flaminius! -- who was fortunately the Faction Leader and so whose new Senator bounced right back to your Faction after dumping his chits.)

And Players might start using their high-influence senators, perhaps with lots of personal cash, to Persuade away senators from other Players! -- which is horribly competitive and kind of evil, but fully legal. ;)


Anyway, I'll process yours and Tripoli's once I get back from work today. (Seasonal overtime is in full open throttle.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
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PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
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JasonPratt

AzTank sends by chat that he'll give 2 to each of his guys.

This leaves only Malize to distribute.
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!

Erax

Malize should have 13 cash to distribute, by the way.

JasonPratt

Double-checked and validated! -- thanks!

Can't fix the snapshot yet, but I've fixed the print entry. Will be back home soon.
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

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!

malize

Sorry all, busy !

7 to Aurelius for games in honor of Brutus
2 to junius for knight

JasonPratt

No problem, that's the big advantage to asynch games!

Were you intending to keep 4? I only ask because I had accidentally left 4 out of your original tally for an incorrect total of 9, and I didn't want you to think you couldn't buy an automatic knight. (Which would be 7 for Aurelius' games; 5 to Junius for a definite knight; and 2 kept over.)
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

Keeping in mind he might adjust that post-hoc for the Forum Phase later, that finishes segment 2.

Segment 3, Republic Income: 166 starting cash; +40 normal income; -10 2nd Latin War; -20 for ten Active Legions; no Land Bills; no specials = new Republic Total 176 talentons!  <:-)

(By comparison if y'all hadn't had four Allied Enthusiasms so far, you'd be at 76 Talentons. Or possibly much worse, since there would have been some other random Events instead.  ^-^ )

This ends the Revenue Phase for Turn Seven. Forum Phase starts next!
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

TURN SEVEN -- FORUM PHASE
-------------------------

Dice functionality isn't back yet for the Grogheads forum (though I've started a planned twice-monthly request reminder yesterday. ;) ) So I'll have to roll 'manually' on the board.

The two Drought cards are removed from the Forum, and won't be replaced (since the Pleb Revolt was settled last turn). Spolia Opima remains.

The highest ranking officer in Rome is the Roman Consul Appius Claudius of the Plutocrats, so the Frog will get the first 'round'.

The Plutocrats roll 7, a random Event. 3d6 total of 5 is a Drought. This will add a point of Unrest in the next Phase. Good thing y'all settled the Pleb Revolt last Turn!

I haven't received instructions yet from the Frog about which senator wants to try for a knight and how much he'll spend doing so. (Or about whether he'll try to persuade away someone else's senator!)

So I'll pause here until I receive instructions.
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!

malize

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 02, 2018, 10:59:44 AM
No problem, that's the big advantage to asynch games!

Were you intending to keep 4? I only ask because I had accidentally left 4 out of your original tally for an incorrect total of 9, and I didn't want you to think you couldn't buy an automatic knight. (Which would be 7 for Aurelius' games; 5 to Junius for a definite knight; and 2 kept over.)

Yeah keep the remainder.  2 seems a decent gamble

JasonPratt

The Frog sends by Hangout chat: Appius will try for a Knight and will spend as much cash as he has to get one, up to the amount that maximizes his chance to get one. No other actions.

Appius pays 5 of his 6 cash for an automatic 4th knight. Total votes up to 15.

The Conservatives roll 5+5=10, so draw a Scenario card. It's a red-text Faction card, which I've sent him a p-mail about. Nothing AzTank can afford would affect anyone else on the board so, while he still should tell me about his knight persuasion attempt, I'll continue on.
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 Populists roll 5+6=11, so draw a card. The Calpurnicus family sends their first scion to the Senate!



Malize's best persuader would be Aurelius, but the chances are so poor as to be easily made impossible by other Players counter-bribing. 3 Ora + 3 Inf -9 Loyalty = -3. Aure would have to spend 5 of his 7 personal cash just to get the adjusted base number up to 2, the minimum possible win on a 2d6 (i.e. 1 chance in 12). All 7 cash would still only be a 4 or less to win.

I am provisionally assuming then that Malize's original plan continues: Aurelius spends all 7 cash for some level-1 games in honor of the departed Brutus. Unrest goes down 1 to 1. Aur's Pop goes up 1 to 3. The Populist special ability spawns another 1 Pop for Junius, up to 1. Junius spends all 2 cash to gamble for a knight, normally 6-2=4 or more on a 1d6 to win -- but he rolls a 1.  :'( New vote tally goes up 2 Popularity (by Populist special ability) to 11.
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 Progressives roll 3+2=5 so draw a card. It's a red-text Faction card, so he draws it to his hand. I've sent him a p-mail about it.

Plautius sacrifices 2 of his 8 cash to roll for a knight, so 4 or more on a 1d6: but he also rolls a 1.  :'(

Erax's Flaminius has some plausible options on Persuading a senator, so I'll pause here to let Erax ponder strategy.
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

Let me add that if anyone is plotting (by which I mean I.I. or Tripoli, who will be the last round this Turn) to try persuading a senator, and wants to set up conditions and instructions for me to process automatically, send me a p-mail.
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!

Erax

I will definitely Persuade Calpurnicus but I need to check some stuff, give me an hour or so.