Middle Provincial Era GROGPUBLIC game thread

[JasonPratt]

TURN FOURTEEN -- REVENUE PHASE
------------------------------

Segment one, the Faction Income!

I.I.'s Aristocrats have 5 starting cash; +5 personal cash; +3+1+1 senator income; +4+4+4 knight income; +2 Tax Farming; +3 Harbor Fees
= new Faction total 32 Talents.



Tripoli's Militarists have 5 starting cash; +0 personal cash; +3+1+1 senator income; +1+6+5 knight income; +2 Tax Farming; +2 Contracted Sicilian Spoils sharing from the Conservatives (half the 1d6 result rounded up)
= new Faction total 26 Talents.



The Frog's Plutocrats have 0 starting cash; +0 personal cash; +5+1+1 senator income (Plutocrat ability); +1+3+2 (x2 Plutocrat ability) knight income; +1 minor priest income
= new Faction Total 14 Talents. (Not yet counting any Spoils from Sardinia et Corsica, which are unlikely in any case.)




AzTank's Conservative Faction has 34 starting cash; +5+10 personal cash; +3+1+1 senator income; +2+2+1 knight income; +1 priest income; +4 Sicilian Grain Concession; +3 Contracted Spoils attempt on Sicily (1d6 result); -2 Contracted Spoils sharing with the Militarists (rounded up)
= new Faction total 65 Talents! (Not yet counting the option to sacrifice 2 Popularity for 4 more cash from Grain.)

(Current Spoils share totals, AzTank 1, Trip 2. Next Turn's Spoil result will be split to even this out.)



Malize's Populists have 1 starting cash; +16 personal cash; +3+1+1+1 senator income; +2+2+1+2 knight income; +3 Mining Concession; +5 Egyptian Grain Concession
= new Faction total 38 Talents. (Not counting the option for Junius to sacrifice 2 Pop for 5 more cash from Grain.)




Erax's Progressives have 0 starting cash; 14 personal cash; +3+1 senator income; +2+1 knight income; +1+1 priest income; +5 (1d6) PontMax income; +3 Land Commissioner; +2+2 Tax Farming
= new Faction total 35 Talents.

There will definitely be no Land Bill at the end of the next Forum Phase, so the Land Commissioner Concession has already returned to the Forum after triggering (taking its Minor Suspicion away from Flaminius, too.)

Governor Sulpy as an NPC senator won't attempt Spoils, and his Province is already Developed.

Expected non-random Republic Revenue will be 71 starting cash; +100 normal income; -2x22 Fleets; -2x25 Legions -0 Active Wars = 77 Talents. Plus and in one case minus random Provincial incomes, to be determined in Segment 3.

Players must now declare their Faction cash distributions, including any donations to the Republic for Influence.

The Frog must let me know if he will be attempting Spoils of Sardi/Corsi. Considering that currently this is 1d6-5, and that his Faction or the Republic (his choice) must pay any negative result, I don't recommend it. (Also doing so will reduce his chances of Developing the Province randomly later.) The Frog must also declare whether he will be adding at least 5 Talents to the local tax of 5, to buy at least one Provincial Fleet (10 Talents each, current maximum of 3.) The Province cannot support any militia yet!

As a reminder, since this element of the game has only recently unlocked: "local taxes" cannot be kept by Players. They must be spent on buffing local units, or lost.

Similarly, AzTank must let me know, during his distributions, how he will be spending Sicilia's 30 local taxes between raising Provincial Fleets (max 5) and militia (max 10). Moreover, AzTank must tell me if Paullus will be sacrificing 2 Pop (from 3 to 1) for an extra 4 Talents from his grain Concession due to the level 1 Drought.

Similarly, Malize must let me know, during his distributions, if Junius will be sacrificing 2 Pop (from 5 to 3, also reducing votes by 2 for Populist special ability) for an extra 5 Talents from his Grain Concession.

Beyond this, Players as always can provide me with provisional instructions for the upcoming Forum Phase: especially knight Persuasion instructions (but also Game Sponsoring, and/or Leader shifting).


So begins Segment 2, the distributioning...  :D

[IncompetentIdiot]

5 each to Quinctius and Valerius, 10 to Scipio.

[malize]

5 to Fabius (Knight)
10 to Aurelius (Donation to Treasury)
Enough for level 2 Games (21?) in celebration of the Punic Victory to Cato (with Bonus Pop to Fabius)

[ArizonaTank]

Similarly, AzTank must let me know, during his distributions, how he will be spending Sicilia's 30 local taxes between raising Provincial Fleets (max 5) and militia (max 10). Moreover, AzTank must tell me if Paullus will be sacrificing 2 Pop (from 3 to 1) for an extra 4 Talents from his grain Concession due to the level 1 Drought.

Raise 5 militia and 2 fleets in Sicily.

Paulus will not sacrifice pop

5 talents to Paulus and Furious each
20 to Terentius, he will spend 5 for a knight and also hold games.

[Ethel the Frog]

"The Frog must let me know if he will be attempting Spoils of Sardi/Corsi. Considering that currently this is 1d6-5, and that his Faction or the Republic (his choice) must pay any negative result, I don't recommend it. (Also doing so will reduce his chances of Developing the Province randomly later.) The Frog must also declare whether he will be adding at least 5 Talents to the local tax of 5, to buy at least one Provincial Fleet (10 Talents each, current maximum of 3.) The Province cannot support any militia yet!"

I will buy a fleet. 
I will divide the cash evenly among my guys.  I won't attempt spoils. 

[JasonPratt]

Raise 5 militia and 2 fleets in Sicily.

That will cost 5x10 + 2x10 cash. You'll get 30 from local taxes to spend on this (which can only be spent on this), which of course is enough to buy 3 units of some mix.

You do have enough Faction cash to distribute over to to your Province to reach this goal (5 militia, 2 fleets). The math will work out as 65 Talents in Faction cash + 30 local taxes (which can only be spent on local troops) - 70 for local troops (5 militia 2 fleets) = 25 Talents left over.

From that, you can distribute 20 to Terentius (to spend as noted during your Forum phase upcoming), but you'll only have 5 left to give either to Paulus or to Furius, but not both. And then nothing remaining in your Faction cash.

You've been awfully conservative in your cash spending so far, so I want to make sure you really intended to do this as it's an unusual level of expense for you!

Alternately, if you misunderstood or didn't notice how much provincial units cost (i.e. the same as Republican units!), you can spend your 30 local taxes on 2 militia and 1 fleet, and keep most of the 5:2 proportion. This will cost you yourself nothing!  O:-) -- and then you can distribute out 20 + 5 + 5 as planned with plenty of cash left over in the Faction bank (as usual).

[ArizonaTank]

OK, will do this:

30 local taxes on 2 militia and 1 fleet, and keep most of the 5:2 proportion. This will cost you yourself nothing!   -- and then you can distribute out 20 + 5 + 5 as planned with plenty of cash left over in the Faction bank (as usual).

[Tripoli]

26 to Aelius.  He buys 1 knight, donates 21 to ROme for the influence

[JasonPratt]

Great: once Erax makes his distributions, I'll be ready to finish this phase and go on into the Forum Phase.

[Erax]

Sorry, I've been away.

20 to Flaminius, 10 to Plautius, 5 to faction treasury.

Plautius will spend 5 for a knight (or more if we get bad omens).

[JasonPratt]

Great!  :bd:

It's a little late for me to start processing into the Forum Phase, so I'll get to that tomorrow after work. (About 18 hours from now.)

[JasonPratt]

Well, allergies wiped me out practically all day yesterday, and I've still got to do some yardwork before sundown, BUT I'm planning to get going with the phase procession tonight!  <:-)

[JasonPratt]

I.I. distributes 5 each to Quince and Val, 10 to Scipio, keeps 12, no further instructions.

Tripoli distributes all 26 to Aelius, donating 21 to Rome immediately for the 1 point of influence (up from 28 to 29; total Inf up to 97), and planning to spend 5 later on an automatic knight. Republic treasury goes up 21 cash from 71 to 92.

The Frog distributes 5 talents to Acilius, to contribute to Sardi/Cordi's local 5 cash taxes to buy one 10 cash fleet, and divides the remainder evenly, 3 to each senator. No further instructions.

AzTank keeps 35; distributes 5 each to Paulus and Furius; 20 to Terentius, who will spend 5 later for an automatic knight and 13 later for level 2 games. With his 30 local taxes he raises 2 militia and 1 fleet, making no contributions.

Malize distributes 10 to Aurelius who donates to Rome for 1 point Influence (up from 3 to 4, total up from 30 to 31). Republic cash up 10 from 92 to 102. 5 to Fabius for a knight later. 13 to Cato for Level 2 games later; bonus Popularity will later go to Fabius. Keeps 10 cash.

Erax distributes 20 to Flam, 10 to Plat, keeps 5. Plat will spend 5 for an automatic knight later.

This ends segment 2.

Segment 3, Republic income: 102 starting cash; +100 normal income; +2d6+1 = +9 from Cisalpine Gaul; -1d6-1 = -5 from Sardina et Corsica; +2d6-2 = +10(!) from Sicilia; -0 for no more Active Wars(!!) -0 no Land Bills; -2x25 Legions; -2x22 Fleets...
= new Republic treasury of 122 Talantons!

Sulpy, the unaligned governor of Cisalpine Gaul, uses his 20 local taxes to add another 2 militia, up from 2 to 4.

All governor terms decrease by 1. No terms finish.

This ends segment 3, and the Revenue Phase overall.


...and now I've got to figure out why my computer keeps trying to installshield something over and over again... 

[JasonPratt]

I never did figure out exactly why it was happening (although I suspect it's connected to my deletion of a lot of old programs off my data harddrive while trying to better defrag it). But after running a boot time virus scan, and a booted virus scan, last night, the behavior seems to have stopped.

I should be able to continue on into the Forum Phase this afternoon then. Thanks for all patience! 

[JasonPratt]

TURN FOURTEEN -- FORUM PHASE
----------------------------

No events are removed from the Forum: the lone drought, caused by the inactive Illyrian War, stays put.

There are only 8 Scenario cards remaining in the Early Era, so with six players (and having already drawn and played some of the 6 of 12 remaining Early Era cards), the odds of shifting into the Middle Era this Turn are quite high.

Scipio Africanus is the Dictator, so is the highest ranking officer available in Rome, therefore I.I.'s Aristocrats will start around the table first, rolling 5+3, which does not equal 7, so which is a Scenario draw. And it's...!



...the 1st Lusitanian War. Notice the grey border, instead of white? So begins the Middle Provincial Era! More on that in a minute.

This War always activates as a Provincial Revolt, which is a new mechanic being introduced in the Middle Era -- but for all practical purposes, Revolts only mean Rome can't collect Spoils and/or generate new Provinces from defeating the Wars. This particular War will, naturally, try to attack and absorb the two Spanish provinces, which being immediately at war now won't be able to provide taxes (including to raise militia). But someone still has to go to those revolting provinces (ha ha) as Governors! (Incidentally, Lusitania was my favorite start area for the Europa Barborum mod for the original Rome Total War.)

The activation text only means that if you haven't beaten the 2nd Punic War yet, then this will be an Inactive War, until the Revolution Phase after you defeat the Carthaginian invasion. Which you already have, so it's already active.

You can expect two more Spanish Revolts, including another one during this Era, so by deduction the 3rd will be in the Late Era.

By recent standards this is a weak war, at only 6 land strength, and it has no leader (yet anyway). You'll need two fleets to secure a supply line, but no Naval War will be needed.

Meanwhile, what does the arrival of the Middle Era mean? First, the remaining cards of the Early deck now stack on top of the Middle Era deck: it's 53 cards now, so you'll be here a while, possibly with a few Early cards still showing up along the way -- and keep in mind that some players have been holding faction cards since literally the beginning of the game, so you may also still see some Italian and Latin Era cards being played! (But no pre-Early statesmen, those having been all forcibly retired.)

As before, the final 12 cards in this deck will be split 50/50 with cards from the Late Era, so you'll be here for at least 41 cards: seven turns minimum. (Unless the Players botch or luck off and everyone loses early! -- or one Player finagles an early win alone!)

Second, the random event roll table now upgrades. Some events like Refuge will eliminate (it was included out of memory of Hannibal's late life), and new ones will be added. Yes, there are still Evil Omens -- those are always a total of 10 on 3d6. ;) Yes, there are still Allied Enthusiasms! -- but those are a little more uncommon now. There are fewer good random events.

Third, normal (non-Vet) Legions are a little more likely to randomly test loyal to a Victorious Commander pondering whether to rebel against the Senate, 4 or better on a 1d6.

Fourth, you'll see a few new mechanics showing up, such as Revolts (already being exemplified). Or more precisely, Revolts without a Player rebelling against the Senate: you could have theoretically had that already.

Fifth, you will now at long last see an influx of nova familia! -- new senatorial families rising into political activity! The 20 Early Era families had, of course, been spread out by the prologue/tutorial Eras.

Overall, there aren't many new changes to keep track of, though I haven't mentioned absolutely everything new, leaving the remainder to be discovered along the way.

I don't have any instructions from I.I. yet, so I'll pause here; but you should at least declare who will try for a knight (whether paid or not).