[] Plan Fighting on a Full Stomach
-[] Reward the Officers: The camp officers, the prefects, even the other Tribunes -- these men have served finely and with distinction these last months, from Samnium to Sardis, and deserve reward. The officers range from plebian to patrician, so there is no class divide here, merely one of rank. There are, you are well aware, men with decades of seniority in the legions who, unlike the centurions Pompolussa and Carcellus, do not appreciate being placed under boys years their younger. Some coin might soften their harsh feelings on the matter, you imagine.
-[] Run Drills: Over the next few days, you gather with Cassianus in the dim pre-dawn outside the city to run your troops through your paces. It would do well for you and him to be better prepared to work together, and for your troops to be well-oiled come the fight.
-[] Requisition Rations: It might cost some silver out of your own pocket, but you pay to have enough food gathered out of the city to treat your men to a better breakfast than to which they are generally used. They might die soon, after all.
-[] Run Cavalry Drills: The cavalry is exactly as important as they pride themselves on being. The deadly italic horsemen have won many a battle that seemed lost, and as your cavalry mostly sat out the battle at Sardis, you want them in particular well-oiled and ready for the coming combat. As well, it never hurts to ingratiate yourself with the Cavalry prefect, Dolabella.
Looks like Nurgle beat me to posting by a minute.
[X] Vae Victus
We've been put in an awful spot here. As I noted previously (and as is pointed out in the option) the men already expect this money and probably some of them will have already spent it. So while we can hopefully get away with not giving it to them, we definitely can't just give it to the Equites - as simple as that would make things - because that would be going directly against what Marius said in his speech. It's somewhat tempting to try and spread it evenly but we roll a -2 on Stewardship actions and our Charisma isn't incredible either, it just feels like something destined to go wrong.
I did consider just giving it to the men as they expect but I think we can get away with favouring the officers. It's not unusual for the officers in the army to be rewarded more greatly than the common soldier, and since they cross the class and political divide the men should accept it. It also helps close off a weakness for us, many of the more prominent officers are on our side already, and we just promoted a batch of new Centurions, but a lot of them are still unknown to us and we need their support.
As for the battle preparation actions, as much as I would love to take a rest I'm not sure it's justifiable. The opportunity cost is simply too high, it might make Atellus feel a little better but balance that against doing something that benefits the whole legion, more than 5000 men... I just don't see it as being more worthwhile.
So I'm going for Run Drills for reasons that should be obvious, but too many of our cohorts are still average and we need to ensure we can work as well with Cassianus as possible. Next Run Cavalry Drills, they haven't been involved in the recent battles and we do need them in good shape. But more importantly, we need to spend time with them and make sure we keep them onside and make sure that this conflict doesn't boil over. We just spent a turn trying to patch things up and Marius has gone and fucked it again, so we need to get back to work.
Lastly, good food. It's not simply a matter of the men being thankful, although that's a nice benefit, it honestly cannot be understated just how beneficial a properly good meal can be before a battle. It makes us favouring the Officers easier to swallow and puts them in a better physical and mental condition for the battle. I honestly don't think the small amount of scouting we can do compared to Marius would be a greater benefit.
