Mercury be praised once more! Word again from our spies, but this time of an opportunity rather than a threat. Macedon has been warring in Asia Minor against the Seleucids this year - quite possibly what has kept Antiochus III from declaring war on Roman allies in the area, actually - but it has been going badly for them and it would appear that some of Macedon’s holdings in Greece have been stripped of soldiers to support the war, leaving them severely undermanned.
This leaves us the possibility of a bold strike against Macedon that might extract a large concession from them towards the state treasury. But can Rome afford to seize such a chance while at odds with all of its neighbours?
2nd Macedonian War
The second Macedonian war is inactive until matched or attacked. Phew.
It has no naval battle but requires 5 fleet support and has a land strength of 10. Spoils are 45 talents.
For @scottagibson’s initiative, the attempt to attract a knight with no bribe yields a roll of a 4 and so failure.
With no games to distract them this year, the people are a little restive about the losses against the Gauls. But Claudius outdoes himself, speaking with an eloquence that takes his senatorial colleagues aback. He’s never been known to show such passion when speaking to the senate!
State of the Republic
Both wars were prosecuted last year and there’s no drought, so unrest is not increased from its starting value of 1.
HRAO is Claudius with popularity 0.
Roll is 15, modified to 14 by the unrest, which means there’s no effect from the state of the republic speech.
Before I can name Consul candidates we should agree on a strategy for this round.
I think we should abandon the Punic wars and try to defeat the other two wars this year.
To do that, I suggest:
We recall the fleet from the Punic War
We send a Dictator and MH to Gaul with 12 legions (+10 modifier)
We send the Field Consul to Illyria with 2 Fleets and 10 legions (+10 modifier)
It means we have to raise 18 legions at a cost of 90 talents.
And we need a Dictator, MH and field Consul with 4 military.
We can trim the legions a bit in exchange for lower odds, but I think we have to be aggressive here.
Yes, it has to be done. The lovely-your-turn-to-be-a-Consul agreement has to be broken this turn. So I suggest Julius, Flaminius, and Fabius get their weapons shined.
