REPUBLIC OF ROME PBEM PRIMER ---------------------------- Abbreviations: dr -> roll one die DR -> roll two dice TDR -> roll three dice HRAO -> Highest Ranking Available Officer In the Republic of Rome you control a faction of senators in the Roman Senate. Your goal is to work with the other senators to keep Rome from being destroyed while at the same time trying to gain the most influence and power. At the beginning of the game you will be dealt three senator cards which compromises your faction. Your senators will generate income and give you the ability to vote in the Senate. They each have four statistics: Military, Oratory, Loyalty, and Influence. Influence fluctuates during the game, and the higher it goes, the better. You will select a faction leader out of your starting three senators. There are several other types of cards in the game. Cards with red text are held until the player wishes to play them. Cards with black text are typically played immediately upon draw. a. Wars: Represent enemy states. Must be fought or run the risk of Rome falling to them. b. Concessions: Played on a senator to increase their personal income. c. Intrigue: Played at various times to distrupt other players (typically). d. Leaders: Increase the power of a matching war. e. Statesmen: Similar to senators. f. Events: Random events that occur during the forum phase and last for a turn. Here's a brief outline of the turn sequence: 1. MORTALITY PHASE: A counter is drawn randomly to see if any senators have died. 2. REVENUE PHASE: a. Each senator gains income. Governors also have a few extra things to do. b. The Republic itself also generates income, pays for wars, pays for unit upkeep, etc. Once that's finished, senators are allowed to donate their personal money to the state. Doing so keeps the republic afloat and can possibly gain that senator some influence. c. You can transfer money to and from senators and the faction treasury. 3. FORUM PHASE: a. Any event cards in play are discarded. b. Each player in turn rolls two dice. If you roll a seven a random event occurs. Otherwise you draw a card from the deck. If the card has black text, you play it at once, if it has red text you keep it in your hand. c. Attempt to persuade a senator to your faction (the senator can be in another faction or be unaligned). d. You may have one senator attempt to attract or pressure a Knight. Knights give senators extra votes and money. e. Lastly you can either change faction leaders, sponsor games, or end your turn. (b, c, and d are called your Initiative) f. We roll for every card in the Curia (every inactive senator, concession, and enemy leader). On a roll of 5 or 6, they are activated. 4. POPULATION PHASE: a. Unrest is increased by 1 for each drought, unprosecuted war, and pirate in play. b. The unrest level is modified by a population triple die roll. 5. SENATE PHASE: (Easily the most complex phase where all voting goes on) a. Elect the two new Consuls b. Elect the Censor, and have them perform any prosecutions c. Elect Governors to vacant provinces. Provinces are created when wars are defeated. d. Conduct other business (e.g., raise units for war) 6. COMBAT PHASE: Resolve any combat. 7. REVOLUTION PHASE: a. Play, trade or discard cards. One of the main ways to gain influence is to get your senators voted into office. The three most common offices are Rome Consul, Field Consul and Censor. Senators are nominated, and then the entire Senate votes on the nominations. Rome Consuls run the senate. They nominate senators and choose the order in which everyone votes. Field Consuls get sent off to fight current wars. Censors prosecute other senators for a variety of reasons. There is also a dictator and a master of horse, but we'll get into them later. They appear much more infrequently. Rome Consuls are ranked higher than Field Consuls who are in turn ranked higher than Censors. The game can end in several ways: a. Rome runs out of money (everyone loses) b. Rome is overrun by wars (everyone loses) c. The people revolt and kill all the senators (everyone loses) d. One senator gains 35 Influence (that senator's faction wins) e. One senator is elected Consul for Life (that senator's faction wins) f. One senator revolts against Rome and wins (will not happen in our game as no one should even consider this route) Everyone will need to sign up for ACTS which is a PBEM game manager. This will allow us to draw, trade and discard cards, as well as request dice rolls. You will keep your cards in the game I'll set up on this site (it's free and easy). http://acts.warhorsesim.com We can do email communications a couple different ways. We can do just regular email or I can set up a dummy Diplomacy game on my site where we'll be able to send messages to each other that way. The benefit of using the site is that you won't need to archive the emails that come in, and it might be easier to keep track of who is who. The benefit of using regular email is, of course, that it removes an extra layer (namely the website).