Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[JasonPratt]

Done! -- mod updated.

[Tripoli]

I will play the Military Leader/ Statesman onto Manlius, giving him a military rating of 5 (3 +2 for the military leader card).  Manlius is my faction leader.

[JasonPratt]

And there's the Latin Era Military Statesman. (This is unique to the Latin Era; all other Statesmen are specific historical characters.)



The Militarists retain their normal vote count and their total Influence.

[JasonPratt]

This ends Turn Zero: quite a few new concepts to think about, but the choices themselves were pretty simple.

Henceforth each Turn will have seven Phases, some of which are fully automatic. I'll see if I can run the Mortality Phase and the first segment of the Revenue Phase tonight, but I may not be able to give reports about results until tomorrow afternoon.

During the second section of the Revenue Phase, everyone will go around the table in clockwise order, starting with the Plutocrats (because they've got the Highest Ranking Available Officer currently), and make (probably only) two pretty simple choices about how to manage your cash so far. As the game unlocks and your Factions become more wealthy, more options for the Revenue Phase will unlock.

[JasonPratt]

TURN ONE -- MORTALITY PHASE
---------------------------

The Mortality Phase is fully automatic, so I only have to report results.

It amounts to only two events. The first is the Activation of (some) Immanent Wars, but there aren’t any right now.

The second is drawing a family chit from what is sometimes affectionately nicknamed “the death bag”, because usually chits are drawn to see if anyone dies -- and not only in this phase! (It does have other uses, like randomly assigning the first Roman Consul, which we’ve done already.)

This turn, someone from Family 24 died. But they aren’t politically active yet, so no effect.

The end, moving on!

[JasonPratt]

TURN TWO -- REVENUE PHASE
-------------------------

This Phase each turn has three segments (at least in asynch, where I’ve ported a few around to make things easier for players and for me). The first and third are fully automatic.

In the first segment, I generate all the automatic revenue for each Faction, which I’ll report as we go through the second segment.

In the second segment, each player in turn around the table, starting with the HRAO’s player, makes several necessary and optional choices for managing your cash. Early in the game this amounts to only two fairly simple choices, but others unlock as your Faction grows more wealthy, and as the game’s history progresses.

Since we’re in the tutorial section of the game, I’ll discuss or remind about cash locations. Location 1 is the umpire’s bank, which has infinite cash (but I can’t use it for myself or to help anyone).

Location 2 is the Republic’s Treasury. This is whence Rome pays its bills. You should assume any expense to the Republic must be paid from here, unless I say otherwise. All players will LOSE THE GAME (normally) if Rome has to pay an expense from 0 or less cash.

Location 3 is each Faction’s Treasury. This is used for various purposes which I’ll talk about as we get to them, but early in the game these are few and not very important (yet). Very roughly speaking it’s money players give each other directly, and for use in some limited emergencies specific to Factions -- not for Republic emergencies! (In the board game, this money is semi-secret, but not for asynch: I'm reporting it all publicly.)

Location 4 is each senator’s Personal Treasury. This money is kept on your senators’ cards. Only that senator can spend that money. It also makes senators more difficult to move into a new Faction from wherever they are -- until they spend their personal cash, of course.

At this point in the game, no senator has any cash (although that will change for the guy who got the Mining Concession early!); and the only Faction (player) with any cash is Ethel the Frog, because he’s the Plutocrats and they’re good at that kind of thing. 

[JasonPratt]

We’ll start with the Plutocrats first, since one of the Frog’s senators is the (straw) Roman Consul, thus the highest ranking available official (the HRAO). The order clockwise afterward will be AzTank’s Conservatives; I.I.’s Aristocrats; and then last (this turn) will be Tripoli’s Militarists.

Ethel, here’s your accounting:

Starting cash: 2
Personal cash: +0
(each senator’s personal cash is temporarily gathered up in the Faction total)
From Faction Leader: +3
Total from the other one senator: +1
(each other senator contributes 1 Talent)
Total from all Knights: 1 knight x 2 Plutocrat ability = +2
New Faction total: 8 cash.

You now have two choices to make (as will each player in their round), in this order:

1.) How much cash will you keep in your Faction treasury, and how much will you disburse back to each senator?

2.) Will any of your senators contribute to the Republic’s treasury from their personal cash, and if so how much? (Note: this cannot be done from Faction cash!)


Some points of consideration, for everyone as well as for the Frog: Rome currently has 30 cash, and will soon have another 30, minus 4 total cash for Legion upkeep (2 x 2 legions), minus 10 cash for the one Active War. If nothing else happens, Rome will have 46 cash at the end of the Revenue Phase. Raising more Legions to Active costs 10 talents each, later during the Senate Phase. (Once active they cost 2T each turn, here in the Revenue Phase's third segment.) There are a number of bad historical events on the way, and sometime random generic bad events may pop up. Under normal circumstances, if Rome tries to pay a cost with 0 or less cash, EVERYONE LOSES!

On the other hand, and this is super-important: as long as a Plutocrat senator is the HRAO, the highest ranking official currently in Rome (not off at War, or Governing a Province, or Captured), public confidence in Rome’s ability to pay its bills will immunize the Republic from shattering under a deficit expense. In other words, right now, since the Frog's Fulvuis is the Consul (and still in Rome itself), the Players cannot lose the game by Rome going bankrupt.

There are some obvious and also subtle implications from this which y’all will have to figure out together in the Senate phase as the game goes along...

Another consideration everyone should keep in mind is that if you want to persuade a knight later (during the Forum phase) to be a minion for one of your senators, the basic chance is 1 out of 6, which improves +1 for each Talent your persuading senator personally contributes toward the bid. So it costs 5 Talents to be 100% sure of getting a knight. But only the persuading senator can spend that cash! -- it can’t come from another senator, nor from the Faction cash. (And senators can only persuade knights to be their own minions, not someone else's.)

Lastly, a senator can contribute any amount in his possession to the Republic, but will only earn 1 influence from donating 10 or more Talents. (2 or 3 Inf from other levels but those are impossible right now.)

So again, to the Frog: you’ve got 8 Talents in your Faction. First, give how much to whom (keeping how much in your Faction bank); and second, give how much to Rome from which if any senators? The first choice is mandatory (although default is keeping all cash in the Faction Treasury, but then your senators can’t use it). The second choice is optional.

[JasonPratt]

The other players can be pre-planning your decisions, but can't announce them until your round has arrived, in the order given: the Frog, then AzTank, then I.I., then Tripoli.

AzTank, you started with 0 faction cash; none of your senators had any personal cash; and with 2 senators and no knights yet your group generated 3+1=4 new cash. So new total faction cash is 4.

Same is true for Tripoli (whom I'm reporting out of order for topical convenience).

Since I.I. has three senators, they generated 3 + 1 + 1 new cash, and one your senators, Valerius, has the Mining Concession, which now triggers allowing him to contribute 3 more cash (and giving him a minor corruption mark, which won't mean anything this Turn). New total thus being 8 cash.

(All cash units are Talents, or more strictly speaking talentons of silver, but it's easier for me to type "cash".)

You must wait your round around the table, though, to announce your choices. Ethel won't be back until late tonight (Wed 19th), so you may not be able to 'move' until tomorrow. Just check back occasionally.

[JasonPratt]

the Frog accidentally posted the Plutocrat move to the info thread, so I'm reposting here:

Sorry for the delay. 

I will give each Senator 2, and they will not contribute to the republic treasury.   (You have indicated that the republic treasury can go negative without problem as long as I am in charge, so I see no need to throw any money away.  Plus the treasury seems to have money.)

So, to clarify, each senator gets 2 cash, thus your Faction Treasury now equals 8-2-2=4.

AzTank for the Conservative Faction is up next, with 4 Faction cash.

[ArizonaTank]

I will give each senator 1 each.

[JasonPratt]

I.I. next -- thanks to your three senators, and one of them having the Mining Concession, you have 8 Talents in your Faction Treasury.

[IncompetentIdiot]

3 to Cornelius, 1 to the other two.

None to the Republic. Let the plebs pay!

[JasonPratt]

That's the spirit! 

Tripoli up last, with 4 Talents in his Faction. Disburse!

[JasonPratt]

While we're waiting for Tripoli's brief move: next up will be the 3rd Revenue segment, which again is totally automatic, and which I'll run in the background. This will report the Republic's own income and expenditures, which this early in the game is simple to calculate: we already know (I'm pretty sure, but I'll check the rules again) that the Republic will go from 30 Talents + 30 income - 10 for the War - 4 for the 2 Active Legion upkeep, to 46 Talents. Plus any senatorial contributions, but as long as a Frogman stays the highest ranking available officer that will stave off any financial disasters until next turn.

After this Phase ends, the Forum Phase begins. Each player will play a round again, in the same order around the table, currently the Frog's Plutocrats first and Tripoli's Militarists last.

During each round, I'll draw one card for each player from the current scenario deck, the Latin Era, which I semi-randomly set up (along with the other Era decks) at the start of the game. These cards generate the history of the game, and you can expect to go through many historical events (but not necessarily in the exact historical order.)

Very basically speaking, if you draw a red-text card, that's a "Faction" card and I'll give it to you face down on any screenshots screenshot, and p-mail you privately about what you drew, and when and how you're allowed to use it. I'll announce publicly that you did draw a Faction card, and then I'll talk about your available choice options for this Phase. (There aren't many this early in the game.)

If it's a black-text card, I'll play that publicly to the Forum, and immediately implement any effects, and explain what's going on, before talking about your available choice options.

Another possibility is that you roll a random event and no scenario draw at all. This also will get played to the Forum publicly and I'll implement the effects and explain what's going on before going to your choice options this phase.

This will happen for each player.

However, the game is set up so that at least 6 rounds will be played, as if there are at least 6 players. What happens then, will be that any players with Faction cash still available will be allowed to bid once (in order around the table) on playing each extra round. That means an extra chance at drawing a scenario card (or a random event); and also an extra opportunity to make those choices again, some of which can only be done once per round otherwise. So you might try to persuade another knight to join one of your senators as a minion; and you'd get another chance to persuade a senator to join your Faction, even if you tried that already on your prior round.

This is a powerful ability. And it's a consideration for keeping some Faction cash handy (although most of your Forum choices will involve spending your senators' personal cash. ) Moreover, if no one bids, then whoever controls the current HRAO will automatically win control of the extra round(s)! -- but the flip side is that the HRAO's Faction must bid at least 1 Talent, if there's any remaining in the Faction Treasury. (He'll still win if no one bids, even if he's broke.) This is a key advantage, in smaller games (like ours currently), to having one of your senators as the HRAO.

I'll remind everyone about this again when we get to it, but since you'll be each playing a Forum round soon I thought I should mention it now while we're waiting.

[Tripoli]

Sorry for the delay.  I had an unexpected trip out of town.  I will disburse my talents equally to my two senators (2 each).  None  to Rome