Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

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

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JasonPratt

I.I.'s Aristocrats roll a 5+2=7, thus generating a Random Event 3d6: 1+3+6=10, and that's another EEEEEvil Omens! ...I shouldn't have joked about the Kindly Ones, I guess. :hide:

Plautius immediately loses 20 of his 26 cash. Fortunately, he gets to keep being PontMax, since he could pay for the sacrifices to propitiate the gods! Unfortunately, most rolls for the rest of the Turn will still subtract 1 (or add 1, whichever hurts more).

I.I. didn't leave me any instructions, so I'll have to pause here. (I've already given the lingering farmed point of Influence, from Val Developing his Province, to Qunctius.)
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JasonPratt

#1261
I.I. decides to have Scipio attempt to Persuade Sulpicius (the lone Senator smirky richly around the Forum), and sends 17 personal cash to bribe him.

Everyone else gets one counterbribery attempt from their Faction (not personal) cash. Scipio still has 23 personal cash from which he can add a final bribery if he wants, after counterbribing is through!

The Players with Faction cash to work with are Tripoli ( 8 ), AzTank (48!), Malize (3), and Erax (1). If Scipio succeeds, which is never certain (only about 83% chance at best), he'll not only get his bribe back, plus anyone else's counterbribes, but also get control of Sulpy's 28 Talents of personal cash!

I'll give the Players until tomorrow evening to declare whether they're passing, or how much they're counter-bribing. Scipio does currently have the maximum possible chance of succeeding, rolling a 2d6 total of 9 or less.
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


Erax

#1263
Republic cash was at 102 after spoils from last turn. 102 + 100 + 10 (donations) - 20 (Punic War) + 4 (provinces) - 58 (military upkeep) = 138.

Oh, and no counter bribes.

JasonPratt

Yep, apparently I forgot to move the "1" marker up a notch during Spoils for the Macedonian War! -- 138 instead of 137. I'll adjust this afternoon, thanks!
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

By the way, I believe there is a Flaminius statesman for this Era. If anyone has (or draws) him, I'd be willing to trade one of the cards in my hand for him. Card trades can be done right after the Senate Phase ends.

JasonPratt

Flaminius doesn't have a bracket around his family number, which means the family doesn't have any Statesmen.

There is an Early Era Statesman in the game with the nickname Flaminius, but he comes from a different family. You wouldn't be able to play him on the Flam family: if the family numbers don't match, they aren't from the same family.
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

#1267
Also, strictly speaking card trades or donations can happen at any time. They just won't arrive until the Revolution Phase (after the Combat Phase).

This is why I put a "delayed transfer" area on each Player's mat. Although, card trades or donations during the Revolt Phase will arrive immediately.

The same goes for cash: Factions can donate cash to each other or trade for cash at any time, but the cash doesn't arrive until the start of the Revenue Phase, during which time cash transfers will also immediately arrive. (We did that at least once long ago in the first turns between I.I. and... AzTank, I think? I know the transfer happened, and I think it's why they still have a contract in effect, requiring AzTank to defend one I.I. senator from Prosecution upon request.)
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

Quote from: JasonPratt on February 25, 2019, 11:35:15 AM
There is an Early Era Statesman in the game with the nickname Flaminius, but he comes from a different family.

That must be where I got the idea his family had a statesman! OK, never mind then.

JasonPratt

Quote from: Erax on February 25, 2019, 12:26:01 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 25, 2019, 11:35:15 AM
There is an Early Era Statesman in the game with the nickname Flaminius, but he comes from a different family.

That must be where I got the idea his family had a statesman! OK, never mind then.

Yeah, I could prove that but I'd have to show that I know where he is in the deck or in someone's Faction cards already.
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

I'm holding off on processing I.I.'s Persuasion attempt, until I hear back from AzTank one way or another, who is traveling this week. He's the only Player capable of dooming I.I.'s attempt by himself, although the other three Players could help. (31 Talents of counterbribery would be needed to totally doom his chances past Scipio's ability to add final bribes.)

I've sent AzTank a chat message pointing back here, and detailing the situation, which he might be able to respond to before he returns.
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 waiting for decisions on this, I can move along a little farther with Tripoli's Militarists rolling 5+2=7, another Random Event roll! 1+4+5=10, GAH MOAR EVIL OMENZ!!



What's even more hellish is that the 1 fell that way by slowly rolling off the edge of the board onto a lower part of the main table. It wasn't originally a 1, though I don't recall what it wouldn't have been.

Each extra Omen subtracts or adds 1 to eventual dice rolls, which by the way includes Persuasion rolls! This won't affect I.I.'s roll if he continues through with it, but the original -1 will. This is something I.I. didn't realize, and which I forgot to mention, so I've provisionally moved another talanton from Scipio's personal cash to the bribe, in order to keep the maximum chance.

It also means (dangit), that PontMax Plautius immediately loses his office, even if he could also pay this 20 Talent fine (which he cannot). Fortunately, only one sacrificial fine is required regardless of the number of Omens randomly thrown up per Turn, so neither Plautius, nor the Progressives, nor the Republic, have to pay anything. He just has to lose the office, for now -- he can be re-elected immediately during the upcoming Senate Phase, if he gets a Proposal and enough votes.

Plautius loses 5 Influence, down from 17 to 12, total down from 21 to 16.

Tripoli's Manlius, per instructions, sacrifices his 5 cash for an automatic 6th knight. This increases the Militarist vote tally to 20, and per the Militarist ability increases Manlius' Mil skill to 9. Tripoli left no other instructions for this Phase, but anything else he could do wouldn't affect the board -- unless he also tries for Sulpy and that depends on what happens with I.I. first.
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

Since that roll didn't affect what to do about Sulpy (I'll allow a retcon catchup if Tripoli or the Frog want to take a shot at Persuading him, depending on how things work out), I'll finish out the Forum Phase with the Frog's Plutocrats rolling... also boxcars, 6 and 6! Man, that luck would have been better spent on something other than avoiding a mere random event for a Scenario draw. Which for the Frog will be...

ohhhhhhhhh elephant pooooooooo....



A whole Carthaginian Army was just detected coming over the alps.

The good news, such as it is, is that the War is only Immanent: there's an earlier Matching War already in play. And it doesn't automatically bring Hannibal along: he isn't on the board yet.

The War can be attacked, but doing so will make it go Active and will immediately multiply each War's basic strengths by 2 (plus the Leader bonus). And even if a Force is Deployed against it, if the first War hasn't been Defeated yet the subsequent War won't be attacked. What I'm not sure about, is the exact timing about going Active -- I'll have to study the rules on this question, but attacking both of these Wars would be currently impractical in any case.

Y'all have one Turn to put down the 1st Punic War. And then the nightmare begins.

Once the War goes Active, it will randomly threaten to destroy each Tax Farming Concession (semi-permanently) until Defeated. It will also attack the new (and newly Developed) Province of Gallia Cisalpina, currently Governed by Valerius of the Aristocrats, who will be in charge of its defense if things come to that. Those are problems for next Turn.

Per instructions, Claudius sacrifices all 5 cash for an automatic 2nd knight (Vote tally up to 14). And Acilius spends all 18 of his cash Sponsoring Level-3 games, reducing Unrest by 3 (currently at 0) and increasing his Popularity from 1 to 4.

Under the circumstances, I'm willing to retcon that back if the Frog prefers, to save the Unrest reduction for later...

Aside from resolving the Sulpy situation (and maybe taking back the Frog's Sponsorship), this ends the Forum Phase for Turn Twelve. 14 Scenario cards remain, the first two of which will definitely be Early, and after that the chances for the Middle Era start at 50% and climb sharply from there on each draw.
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!

Tripoli

InRoman times, overactive children were told that Hannibal would come to get them if they didn't settle down. We are about to see why that was an effective child rearing practice
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" -Abraham Lincoln

Erax

The good news is, we don't have any other wars to deal with. We are at 12 fleets, 17 legions.

I suggest we go all out, raise 10 fleets. Then we appoint Scipio Dictator with a high-mil MoH and send him with everything vs. the First Punic War.

Naval combat: 22 - 13 - 2 (omens) = +7 plus whatever MIL we can summon.

Land combat: 17 + 5 (vets) - 13 - 2 = +7 plus MIL too.

Having 5 more fleets than legions should give us a buffer to avoid losing legions in the naval battle.

Oh, and appoint a Plutocrat Consul so we don't go bankrupt from some random event next turn.