Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[JasonPratt]

While I'm passing by, Erax correctly points out that 107 Talents - 20 + 5 = 92 Talents remaining in the Treasury, not 94. I can't even imagine why some part of my brain insisted I count back up 7 points instead of 5.  #:-)

(He may not be near reliable forum access again until Friday, so he gave me provisional instructions of what to do with his cash during the Revenue and Forum phases upcoming soon.)

[JasonPratt]

TURN SIX -- MORTALITY PHASE
---------------------------

No Immanent Wars to activate.

Flaminius of the Progressives feels the Kindly Ones brush by him again! -- but they're after someone from family #14, not him, whew. They aren't politically important enough yet to be active.

This ends the Mortality Phase.

[JasonPratt]

TURN SIX -- REVENUE PHASE
---------------------------------

Segment one, the Faction income accounting.


I.I.'s Aristocrats: 2 starting cash; +4 senator treasury; +3 +2 senator incomes; +4 knight incomes; +3 Harbor Fees; +2 +2 Tax Farming Concessions =
new Faction total 22 Talents.



Tripoli's Militarists: 15 starting cash; +0 senator treasuries; +3 +1 senator incomes; +4 knight incomes; +2 +2 Tax Farming Concessions =
new Faction total 27 Talents.



The Frog's Plutocrats: 5 starting cash; +6 +1 +6 senator treasuries; +5 (Plutocrat bonus) +2 senator incomes; +4 knights x2 Plutocrat bonus knight incomes; +0 Concessions =
new Faction total 33 Talents.



AzTank's Conservatives: 17 starting cash; +1 +3 +3 +3 senator treasuries; +3 +3 senator incomes; +3 knight incomes; + 1d6=3 PontMax income; +0 Concessions =
new Faction total 39 Talents.



Malize's Populists: 0 starting cash; +3 +2 senator treasuries; +3 +1 senator incomes; +2 knight incomes; +3 Mining Concession =
new Faction total 14 Talents.



Erax's Progressives: 1 starting cash; +5 +2 senator treasuries; +3 +1 senator incomes; +2 knight incomes; +2 +2 Tax Farming Concessions =
new Faction total 18 Talents.

[JasonPratt]

Segment 2, Player distributions.

All Players should now report their distribution choices and whether any of your senators will donate 10 to Rome for a 1 Influence gain. (Some senators may be able to donate 25 for 3 Influence.)

Players should also look ahead to the Forum Phase and make plans accordingly. Remember that one senator can try persuading to add a knight minion, with 5 Talents being automatic win. New family Senators may be expected to start becoming politically active soon, so consider giving decent cash to your senator with the best Ora + Inf total. Unrest doesn't need reducing, but Sponsoring Games will give one of your senators (per Faction) 1, 2, or 3 Popularity for 7, 13, or 18 Talents from personal cash.

According to instructions before he went to spotty internet access for a week, Erax keeps 2, gives 3 to Plautius, and 13 to Flaminius. He does not donate to the Republic.

[IncompetentIdiot]

8 to Cincinnatus, 4 each to Cornelius and Valerius.

[Tripoli]

15 to Julius, 5 to Manlius, which he uses to buy a knight, and 7 to faction cash

[Ethel the Frog]

11 cash to each.  Fulvius will spend 10 to gain an influence point.
Appius will spend 5 for a Knight.  Do I keep the knights after he dies?

Appius is oldest.  Any way to know when he wil die?

[ArizonaTank]

2 to each of my guys...for a total of 8

[JasonPratt]

11 cash to each.  Fulvius will spend 10 to gain an influence point.
Appius will spend 5 for a Knight.  Do I keep the knights after he dies?

Appius is oldest.  Any way to know when he wil die?

Senators die randomly from their chit being pulled from the Death Bag during the Mortality Phase; and also from assassination or conviction of a Major Prosecution (ticcing off other players comes with risks!); and if you send him out to War he has increased chances of dying.

Pre-Early statesmen like Appius will also retire at the start of the Early Era, which will happen sometime during the final 6 cards of the Italian Era.

If he simply dies, then no you don't get to keep any of his chits or cards. You also won't keep his family Senator if you've already got him under Appius: the family goes to the Curia to await respawning into the Forum, where the new family Senator might be persuaded to join any Faction. However, if Appius is your Faction Leader, and if his family is politically active already, then the family will immediately act to get a new scion as their patrician so that they can keep Leadership in your faction. You still won't keep any of Ap's pieces, but the family Senator will bounce back from the Curia immediately to your Faction as the new Faction Leader.

If he retires without his family Senator card under him, then you lose him and all his pieces.

If he retires with his family Senator card under him, then in that one case the new family Senator will inherit his pieces and stay in your Faction. This is true in principal for any pre-Early Statesman.

(Conservative Statesmen, however, will always pass down their pieces if they have their family card supporting them: this is one of the Conservative Faction's special abilities. Conservative family Senators who die however will not keep any pieces, even if the card bounces back immediately for being the Faction Leader -- just like any other family Senator. This has happened already a couple of times to some Players, most notably Erax's Flaminius! -- which is a major reason why his Faction is lagging behind so much. The Kindly Ones took too much of a liking to the Flam boys. ;) )

In any case, Statesmen who die or retire are gone permanently from the game. (This is also true if they're discarded from someone's hand!) The only question is what happens to their family card, if their family is active already.


In ApClaud's case, his family, the Claudians, is already active. In fact you started with the Claudians as one of your first families; and then almost immediately discovered (in effect) that this particular Claudian was "Appius Claudius". So, if he retires at the start of the Early Provincial Era (two or three Turns from now), then yes all his pieces will transfer down to the new family Senator under him -- which will be the only time any of your senators will inherit pieces after a senator leaves the game.

If Appius simply dies, however, from any cause, then he discards and all his pieces do, too. He's the Faction Leader right now, so his family Senator will (in effect) bounce back immediately from the Curia, rather than waiting to respawn and be picked up possibly by some other Player -- so you'll get his family Senator back for sure if he dies, but the new Claudius will be totally clean with the vanilla family stats. He only inherits if Appius retires.

[malize]

7 to Aurelius for games in celebration of our recent victory's.
3 to Brutus for a knight attempt

[JasonPratt]

I guess this leads to the question of the status of Statesmen!  :D

Clockwise from the Plutocrats, whom I've already discussed, but in summary: if Appius retires at the start of the Early Provincial Era, he'll pass his pieces down to the Claudian under him. If he dies before then, the Claudian under him will bounce back due to being Faction Leader, but all pieces will be lost.

Conservatives: if Furius Camilus leaves the game for any reason (thanks to a Conservative special ability), including Early Era retirement, the Furian Senator under him will inherit his pieces. Spurius Cassius however will retire (if he doesn't die sooner) and leave the game permanently, losing all pieces, because he can't possibly have family #24 be active before then.

Populists: Lucius Junius Brutus will pass his pieces down to his family Senator under him if he retires at the start of the Early Era. If he dies before then, the Junian under him will bounce back from the Curia immediately, due to Brutus being the Faction Leader, but all of Brutus' pieces will be lost.

Progressives: no Statesmen.

Aristocrats: currently Cincinnatus will retire without an heir and lose all his pieces. If the Quinctian family becomes politically active before then (roughly a 50/50 chance under current conditions), and Cinc lives to retire at the start of the Early Era, then he'll pass down his pieces to his family Senator. If someone plays the Early Statesman Qunctius Flaminius to start the Early Era, and the Quinctian family is already active under Cinc, then QuincFlam will inherit on top of the family card for the Aristocrats (he's the only Statesman who can inherit from a pre-Early Statesman). If QuincFlam is played to start the Early Era and the Quinctius family hasn't shown up yet, then whoever played him (Aristocrat or otherwise!) will inherit all of Cinc's pieces!

Militarists: Manlius is a special case, because he turned out to be a unique generic Military Leader Statesman. If he lives to retire at the start of the Early Era, then (the new) Manlius will keep almost all his pieces, but will lose the special ability of his Statesman card -- which means his Mil rating will drop back by 2! If Manlius dies before then, his family card will bounce back immediately from the Curia due to being Faction Leader, but all pieces will be lost.


As a reminder, when Concessions are lost, they aren't permanently discarded. They go back to the Forum, either directly or (depending on why they were lost) after spending some random time in the Curia to respawn, where the Senate can vote for them (as Other Business) to be reassigned to a senator.

[JasonPratt]

With Malize's distribution, that should end the 2nd segment of the Revenue Phase. I'll process everyone's distributions, and make notes about provisional cash usage during the Forum Phase, and process the 3rd segment (Republic Income) plus start the Forum Phase procession {inhale!} when I get home this afternoon.  O0

[JasonPratt]

Okay, first an adjustment beyond the usual distributions: Fulvius donates 10 Talents (Republic Treasury up from 92 to 102) to gain 1 Influence (up to 11, Plutocrat total up to 29).

Everyone else's distributions have been made and saved on the board, and plans provisionally noted for soon in the Forum Phase.

Segment 3, Republic Income:

Starting cash: 102
Current Income: +40
No Active Wars: -0
No Land Bills: -0
Unit upkeep: 8 Legions (1st thru 8th inclusive) x -2 = -16
= 126 new Republic Treasury total!  :bd: <:-)

This ends the Revenue Phase for Turn 6.

[JasonPratt]

TURN 6 -- FORUM PHASE
----------------------------

The only Event remaining in the Forum is the Spolia Opima, which can't discard until a force commander earns a victory over an Enemy Leader.

17 Scenarios remain in the Italian Era.

Fulvius is HRAO, so the rounds start with the Frog rolling...

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 4, total 8[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

Hard 8! -- a nice (though very inefficient) craps payoff, and not a Random Event. ;)

He does however draw a Historical Event:



The Plebian Revolt, originally of 287 BCE. The non-patricians (and even some patricians) appreciated the consolidating of the tangled mess of Roman laws into the publicly available 12 Tables, and also appreciated the adopting of a Censorial office to prosecute Senatorial corruption. But they still complain of being disenfranchised with no proper representation in the Senate -- and the consequent public strikes, refusing to work in the fields for Senatorial landowners, has instantly caused two levels of drought! (The droughts will go away at the start of the next Forum Phase, but the Event will automatically generate another two Droughts each Turn during the Population Phase! -- including this turn, but for effect I plopped them down early. ;) )

No one will bother with the public election of the Senators for many centuries, but the plebians were impressed with the principal that the Consular Tribunes had been elected to act in the best interest of the common people on equal terms with the patrician families of the Senate.

Consequently, the plebians will sort-of hold the Senate hostage each Turn, unless and until the current Presiding Magistrate (during Other Business) successfully Proposes creating the Tribunal system. Historically this was a whole other system of lawmaking somewhat separate from the Senate, and very roughly speaking a distant predecessor to the House of Commons in Britain and the House of Representatives in the United States congress. Each district of Rome was allowed to elect one of three Tribunes (thus their title), eventually to number significantly more, who would act as liaisons between the plebian assembly and the Senate. Tribunes had limited but serious power to affect Senatorial proceedings.

This is going to significantly change the game, sooner or later. I'll talk more about it when we get past Mandatory Business of this Turn's Senate, but the short version is that until the PM convinces the Senate to unlock Tribune functionality, the Republic will suffer at least a Serious Drought (level 2) each Turn -- and the PM will have to sacrifice a little Influence to create the Tribunes. (But he'll pick up a little Popularity in exchange.)