I guess I have money through Cornelius, but I’m not bidding on this initiative.
No money.
Yeah, no-one could beat a bid of 1.
@Knightsaber draws a new hand card.
Aemilius needs a six (given evil omens) to attract a knight… and succeeds!
@CF_Kane is first to bid on the final initiative (as the Shepherds are out of money now).
Woo!5
Quinctius bids 1T
A messenger has arrived along the Popilian Way from the minor allied city of Scolacium, a satellite of Rheggium about 750 stadia to its northeast. The Carthaginians landed a huge army there, Hannibal braving the late winter storms to gain an advantage early in the year!
The messenger reports (in his hasty retreat as the city surrendered before overwhelming force) that it looked as though Hannibal was securing the width of the peninsula there, with the bulk of his force preparing to march on Rheggium. Surely our primary ally in this war will be unable to hold long against a renewed siege from land and sea.
If Rheggium falls, Hannibal can be expected to march north this year through Italia to subdue our other allies in Magna Graecia. How long will it be before he is approaching the gates of Rome itself?
2nd Punic War
The second Punic War has an army battle only, of 15 strength needing 5 fleet support. With the leaders and other war, that will be 40 effective strength.
For now it is an imminent war, so has no effect until next turn unless attacked. Once active, it will destroy a tax farmer each turn and Hannibal will too.
I’ve realised I had a rule wrong last game (not that it mattered): you may attack (and possibly defeat) the 2nd Punic War before defeating the first, but only if you also attack the 1st Punic War at the same time. If you wish to do that, some brave senator will probably have to volunteer to take a fleet on a suicide mission.
@CF_Kane: your bid of 1 cannot be beaten. What will you do with your initiative?
There are no unaligned senators in the forum, and I cannot succeed on an unmodified knight roll, so I’ll pass and feel bad for Rome.
At the end of the forum phase, Julius rolls a 4 - 1 for evil omens and remains inactive.
Rome was thankful last year for Julius’ great victory but everything has turned sour since then, starting with Julius’ assassination during his triumphal return. Now Carthage is invading the peninsula and the priests say the omens are bad. The people are unsettled.
It is in this difficult climate that Junius must give his speech to the people. He has the brilliant idea of asking Fabius to join him on the podium and speak about the campaign. Everyone knows the stirring story of crushing the Gaulish cavalry, but hearing it from the lips of the cavalry commander himself leaves all spellbound.
State of the Republic
Unrest starts at 0 and goes up by 2 for unprosecuted wars.
Junius is HRAO and has 0 popularity.
The 3d6 roll is 13; modified to 11 => no effect.
I guess we need to defeat a war this year.
With our best Dictator / MH combo, I think we’ll be at +5 (accounting for EO) vs the Macedonian war. 7 more legions puts us at +12. We will need the legions for Carthage later anyway, so does that make sense?
Or we could knock off the Illyrian war and save our money.
Edit: My math here is a bit off. Dictator + MH would be 9, plus 12 legions and minus 1 for EO is 20, vs. 16 for Macedonia. So only +4 with what we have.
For reference there are still 3 wars left in the deck (out of 13 cards).
This year, Rome will send its first governor to Gallia Cisalpina. But the first order of business, as ever, is to elect a pair of consuls to lead the senate this year.
@Knightsaber: Junius has the floor.
Oy, who’s turn is it?
I would work backwards. What do we want to do? If Dictator / MH, then ID those so we eliminate them from consideration as Consuls. Then, who do we want to send away as Governor for Gaul? Eliminate him. Then pick Consul candidates from who is left.
That’s a lot of work. How about everyone offers advice :) (I believe we’ve shattered our everyone-gets-a-turn plan due to war.)
Sure.
If we want to fight Macedonian or take on the 1st Punic (I prefer the former because we have a good chance to eliminate it), then I suggest Fabius Maximus as Dictator and Cornelius or Aemilius as MH.
As governor for Gaul, I suggest Aurelius, as the highest influence Senator from the strongest faction.
Consuls should not come from my faction (as I would get Dictator), so suggest someone from the Sheep and the Populares?
If we do not want to fight a tough war, and choose Illyria instead, then we don’t nessarily need a Dictator. In that case I think Fabius Maximus is the best choice for Field Consul, and someone from the Populares for the other Consul.
It depends on which war people want to hit, then.
Yes, I think so. We can easily get good odds against the Illyrian war with no Dictator. On the other hand, we can do that any time, so maybe we should try to eliminate a tougher war before things get worse. That’s why I’m leaning toward trying to defeat Macedonia. Then, if we can’t fight the Punic wars next turn, we have an easy target in Illyria still to keep us under 4 wars.
In any case, we have to eliminate a war this turn, which takes the 1st and 2nd Punic off the table because we have to fight both of them at the same time, or we have to fight only the first which we probably can’t defeat in one turn anyway because it is a tough fleet battle and a tough land battle.
Edit: Anyway, those are my thoughts. Let’s hear from @antlers and @CF_Kane.
I say we need to fight the tougher Macedonian War first. I would support the planned dictator and MOH. My faction is presently somewhat diminished, but either Furius or Sulpicius could serve as Consul. I’d like to keep Quinctius in Rome to try and add an additional senator to my team—or Julius, if he makes it back to life.