Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[Erax]

There is also the fact that going in with more power subjects us to fewer losses. Let's say we raise no legions and our final modified combat result is 16, we're down 2 legions. Now if we had raised one legion, the result (assuming the same roll) would have been 17, eliminating the legion we raised and leaving us even instead of down by two legions which we'd have to raise again eventually.

I'm in favor of raising at least one legion to eliminate any chance of defeat.

[JasonPratt]

Even with no more legions, there's no chance of defeat per se. At worst there's a 1:216 chance of a stalemate (with no losses).

With one more legion, there's no chance of anything but victory, and very little chance of significant losses.

With all three potential Legions raised (which y'all can easily afford right now), there's only a 0.46% chance you win with only two Legions lost, and only a 1.39% chance you lose only one Legion. Everything else is a (98.15% chance of a) no-loss victory.

[JasonPratt]

AzTank is away from the computer currently, but posted in phone chat that the Conservatives would vote for 1 more Legion being raised.

[IncompetentIdiot]

The Aristocrats will support the raising of any number of legions.

[Tripoli]

I'll support one more legion, and am open to two more legions.  I agree that 3 legions is probably overkill

[JasonPratt]

If I receive word from the Frog that he wants to Propose raising 1 Legion (or if he manages to log in wherever he's at and Propose it here), then I see no reason to hold a formal vote on it as there's a clear super-majority in favor of (at least) 1 more.  O0

[JasonPratt]

Provisionally speaking, everyone seems to be okay with sending Cinc out with all available Active Legions this Turn (however many that turns out to be), right? There seems to be a super-majority in favor of this as well -- if so, no reason to hold a formal vote on that either.


Edited to add: basically if the Frog checks in with a Proposal for Raising 1 Legion, and with a Proposal to send out Cinc with all Active Legions, I would consider the informal agreements to reflect a provisional vote on both Proposals, and (since as far as I can tell no more useful Proposals would remain for the Senate this Turn) I'd move along processing the situation through to the Revolutionary Phase, whereupon I'd alert any Players if there are valid Concessions and/or Statesmen to play to your mats.

[JasonPratt]

The Frog sent a phone-chat message with instructions: first, Propose raising two Legions.

I'm not entirely sure this counts as an automatic vote win, so I'll count a vote for him. According to his prior instructions, no voting order.

Plutocrats start with 13 votes for Raising 2 Legions; then the Aristocrats since I.I. previously stated he's fine with any number +11 normal vote + 4 more activist knights; the the Militarists since Tripoli said he'd prefer 1 but would vote for two +9 votes. Erax let me know earlier, in case he was afk, that he's in favor of any number of Legions, so that adds 5. Total for = 42

Potentially against are the Populists -15 and the Conservatives -14 -3 more activist votes = -32. Not enough to win, and they might not even vote against it anyway; also there's no advantage to them voting a losing Proposal in this case.

This wins the Proposal, and I happen to know from chat messages (in case not around for a vote) that there are enough votes already to send Cinc out with all Active Legions. So that also passes.

I'll process things tomorrow morning, before I leave for the afternoon, since I'm a bit wiped out tonight -- but I should be able to catch up through the start of the Revolution Phase before I go!

[malize]

It all seems fine and in order, the people would like to see our foolish enemies brought to heel.

[JasonPratt]

Okay, let's process this thing!

The Senate Raises the 8th and 9th Legions from the Force Pool to the Active Pool. Republic Treasury down 20 Talents to 87.

Cinc takes all 9 Active Legions off to Prosecute the Aequian War, which moves back to Active from Unprosecuted. The Aristocrats' total Influence and Normal Votes go down by 14 and 3 respectively.

With no other useful Proposals to make, this ends the Senate Phase.

[JasonPratt]

TURN FIVE -- COMBAT PHASE
---------------------------------

This is gonna be a slaughter.  :bd:



Quinctius Cincinnatus leads the 1st through 9th Legions, in what is likely to be his final War, against the Aequian border harassment.

Legions = 9
Cinc's Mil = +5
Aequian Land Strength = -2
Resulting Dice Roll Modifier = +12

Rolling 3d6

[blockquote]Rolled 3d6 : 2, 2, 1, total 5[/blockquote]

[JasonPratt]

 :o OUCH! -- the proud Apennines punched back about as hard as they could! That would normally have been a Defeat with 3 Legions lost!

5+12=17 which is a Victory with 1 Legion lost. The dice say the 9th Legion goes back to the Force Pool.

Unrest -1 to 0. The Republic adds 5 Talents of Spoils to its Treasury, up to 94. The territory gained unlocks the final two (5th and 6th) Tax Farming Concessions. The War discards. No Enemy Leader, so no Spolia Opima. The 1st through 8th Legions go back to the Active Pool.

Cincinnatus gains half the land strength, 2/2, = 1 Influence and 1 Popularity, up to 15 and 2. He only lost 1 Legion, so no Pop reduction. One mortality is chit is drawn for the destroyed Legion, and a son of the Fabians (of the Aristocrats) dies serving in the Army, but Cinc survives. Cinc returns to Rome, bumping the Aristocrats total stats back up to 35 Inf and 11 Normal Votes.

This ends the Combat Phase for Turn Five.

I think I'm going to add a house rule for flavor, since it makes a lot of sense, that starting next Turn (not this Turn for balance sake, since I don't have enough records to show back-results from prior Wars), if a Mortality Chit comes up in a War for an active senator (not a family Senator waiting in the Curia to respawn though), that Statesman or family Senator gains 1 Popularity for popular sympathy and support in gratitude that the senator's family has sacrificed, win or lose, to help defend and advance Rome.  O:-)

[JasonPratt]

TURN FIVE -- REVOLT PHASE
---------------------------------

(I forgot to mention that everyone lost any Suspicion markers at the end of the Prosecution segment of the Senate Phase, when the Censor declared he didn't suspect anyone of corruption.)

No one can revolt against the Senate yet (not Early Provincial Era).

Faction cards can be traded or donated around with automatic receipt during this Phase. No one needs to reduce their hand size to 5 or less, although of course anyone can simply discard as many of your cards as you want (though I don't recommend that).

I'll pause the game here for assignment of valid Concessions and/or Statesmen, since there is at least one of those in at least one Player's hand! Once the card(s) get(s) played, I'll proceed along to Turn Six (since Mortality and Revenue will be affected).

I've already sent out p-mails to the valid players. If you haven't received a p-mail from me, none of your cards are valid this Turn.

[IncompetentIdiot]

Tax Farming 5 on Valerius.

[JasonPratt]

Tripoli is afk, but sends a chat message that he'll play the final Tax Farming Concession (#6) on Manlius.

I can inform Players that these will be all the Tax Farming Concessions in the game. There are other Concessions, but not for Tax Farming, which assumes local tax incomes from central Italian territories.

(In real life Tax Farming was a big deal much farther away, but the game doesn't feature Tax Farming Concessions in Palestine, for example. The most famous Tax Farmers known all over the world today, were the Apostle Matthew Levi, and Zacchaeus who climbed the fig-sycamore tree to see Jesus. Provincial Governors will have opportunities to skim taxes off their Provinces, at some risk if they're caught of course.  But that's later in the game.)

I'm a bit pooped out tonight after traveling around, so I'll process the next Phases -- the Mortality and opening Revenue segment of Turn Six -- tomorrow afternoon.