No. But I don't feel bad either. Given the information that we had at the time, I'd make the same vote every time.
As other have pointed out, there was a lot of pertinent information (free cities, temp econ, 2 stab per neg econ) that would have drastically altered my decision.
As other have pointed out, there was a lot of pertinent information (free cities, temp econ, 2 stab per neg econ) that would have drastically altered my decision.
If we had spent 6 econ, going to 2{0}, we would have been fine.
If we had spend 7 econ going to 1{-1} or 8 econ going to 0{-2}, we would have lost 1 stability.
For each econ we spend over 8, we lose an additional stability.
Thus, having spent 10 = 8+2 econ, we lost 1+2 stability total.
If we had spent 6 econ, going to 2{0}, we would have been fine.
If we had spend 7 econ going to 1{-1} or 8 econ going to 0{-2}, we would have lost 1 stability.
For each econ we spend over 8, we lose an additional stability.
Thus, having spent 10 = 8+2 econ, we lost 1+2 stability total.
Ah, right, okay - so Temp Econ below 0 inflicts a hit, and Econ inflicts a hit per negative point, but no penalty for Econ going negative in the first place. If Temp Econ is equal to Econ (i.e. no Temp Econ Damage), then do we take 2 Stab hits for dropping to -1 Econ/Temp Econ? Or is it just merged into 1 hit in that case?
We may want to take a PG instead since that will give us 2 stability guaranteed, though that will cost us econ, which we need to take actions next turn.
If Temp Econ is equal to Econ (i.e. no Temp Econ Damage), then do we take 2 Stab hits for dropping to -1 Econ/Temp Econ? Or is it just merged into 1 hit in that case?
No. The penalty is for Temp econ damage specifically.
And actually, the penalty scales. If we get more temp econ damage, that can give us -2 stability. If we get a huge amount, we can actually get -3 stability.
[X][Crisis] Let them go (-3 Martial, -1 Stability, potential for war with the Storm Tribes, Crisis Continues)
[X][LC] Coin isn't as needed in urban centers, just distribute food there blindly (+1 Urban Poor power, ???)
[X][Religion] Accept it (-1 RA, mechanical effects begin)
[X][Main] Enforce Justice
[X][Secondary] Enforce Justice
[X][Secondary] War Mission - Pirate Clans
[X][Secondary] More Blackbirds
[X][Secondary] Build Observatory
[X][Guild] Support Artisans
[X][Guild] Plant Poppies
Provinces – [Main] Expand Econ, [Sec] Build Mills, [Sec] Build Gymnasium, [Sec] Study Alchemy, [Sec] Study Stars
Policies – Valleyguard Aqueduct (3/3), Blackmouth Baths (3/3), Sacred Forest Baths (1/3), Significant Walls (27/58)
FC - Redshore (Armament +1 Martial), Redhills (Armament +1 Martial)
Western – [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] Raise Army
Greenshore – [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] Raise Army, [Sec] More Warships
Gulvalley – [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] War Mission – Pirate Clans
Heaven's Hawk – [Sec] Expand Econ, [Sec] Phygriftywn Aqueduct (6/9)
Txolla – [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] Build Wall
Tinshore – [Main] Trade Mission - Trelli
Thunder Speakers – [Main] New Settlement
Thunder Horse – [Main] New Settlement
Amber Road – [Sec] Expand Forest, [Sec] Expand Econ
Famine stalked the People, the gaunt specter of a slow, lingering death that came for the most vulnerable among them. According to the priests, who knew the situation best, starvation itself rarely killed, but rather it left its victims so weak that disease finished them off, troublesome when the primary centers of food distribution were still wracked with persistent plague. This was somewhat doubled by the fact that the king had decided that the best way to address the People having a lack of coin to pay for food was to simply freely distribute staples in the major settlements. To some degree it worked, but soon enough the situation took a distinct turn for the worse. Worried about the dwindling supplies of coinage, merchants and guilds pushed for more investment in cash crops, especially in moving poppies from the gardens of the priests to the fields. In the cities the king could still use the power of the crown to keep people fed, but in the countryside where everyone had assumed there would be enough food because that's where it was grown there were instances of families who had grown only poppies or cotton or hemp under the assumption that the silver they earned would be more worth it than growing staples, only to discover that there simply wasn't enough food to go around because of this decision.
People went in two directions: either to the cities, which filled up and caused further flaring of plagues, or out to the colonies... and then, in rather significant numbers, to the renegade kingdoms, who took the influx of people and warriors as just the thing they needed to withstand the onslaught of the riled Storm Tribes, who had rallied around a powerful leader and pushed the Western People back from much of their gains in prior years. Still, despite their rather anarchic attitudes, the renegades were still mostly composed of the People, and thus they were getting organized. With the king and guilds and traders screwing up so badly, there were many that whispered that the Western People offered a viable alternative, especially if the western colonies broke off and joined them.
Status Panem: All True Cities and Free Cities cost an additional -1 Econ each per turn as additional food is distributed to the urban poor. Urban Poor faction adds faction power to Urban challenge rolls
Renegade Kingdoms -> Western Ymaryn AN: Yes, the Western Ymaryn have PiA, and yes, they drained Econ from you (after you had already recovered due to timing, or you would have imploded). Also, the Western Ymaryn and any of their successor states count as successor states of the People and thus you assume direct control in the event of a Social Break
As it was, even as the king and governors desperately scrambled to restore agriculture, refill granaries, and try to prevent deaths through a combination of farming initiatives and judicial reforms and pushes to crack down on hoarders, the new Mylathads whipped the People into a frenzy. Blame for the famine was rightfully placed upon many of those on the top, especially the merchants, and the religion and the social reform accompanying it swept aside old mores about the accumulation of wealth and the power it brought.
Rule of Gold removed as it is no longer compatible.
Mylathadysm - "Seekers of Truth"
Virtues: Humility, Contemplation, Community
Values: Syncretic (Increased Spread, Increased Schisms), Charity (+RA/2 temp Econ damage resistance, -RA/2 Max Wealth), Independent Priesthood (Independent Infrastructure)
This left the merchants in a rather unpleasant mood, especially as those who still valued what gold could bring shifted to the west, to the colonies, to the Western People, and to the Trelli, even as the priests, new and old, were sailing high on the feeling that they had actually made a difference in keeping some people fed and in driving out some of the influence of the greedy merchants, as well as fresh revelations from the heavens. However, to the king's ears it also sounded like the priests were planning on doing things he wasn't entirely sure he wanted them to do, like set up their own farming communities around temples and holy places. That sounded like it could be trouble later...
And then news arrived. The Trelli had straight up run out of money. In their efforts to deal with the issue they had somehow completely emptied their treasuries and ended up with nothing to pay their numerous mercenary companies or the ships crews for hunting pirates, and now the strait, their colonies, and all their close trading partners had exploded into flames as anarchy took over. The pirate clans that the People had been fighting, realizing that the land war was all but lost and the only reason that they were able to keep up with the material superiority of the People's ships was because their king was somehow more of a naval madman than the warriors who rode war catamarans, decided to just pack up and run to the west. Either way, while technically that pirate problem had been solved, the People's biggest trading partners - the Trelli, and through them the Khemetri - had just been cut off by the Trelli spontaneously exploding and filling the area around the straits with lots of minor bandit and pirate groups.
The merchants, banished west, were both horrified and delighted.
Patricians (4*) - Objective: Have Light cavalry above 3 within 2 turns. Success: Free equestrian tech Guild (4) - Objective: Generate 2 Econ from War or Refugees within 2 turns. Success: Free textiles technology, Failure: Random trade power downgraded Traders (3*) - Objective: Conquer Trelli within 1 turn. Failure: Civil War (Suppressible) Yeomen (3*)- Objective: Finish internal reorg within 2 turns. Success: Half current EE converted to Econ, Failure: -2 Econ Priests (3)- Objective: Have maximum Econ within 3 turns. Success: Free Spiritual Value slot Urban Poor (2*) - Build 1 more baths within 2 turns. Success: Urban Plague status removed early. Failure: Patricians and Guilds -1 Power, Yeomen +1 Power These counters iterate at the next mid-turn. The numbers in brackets indicate the general faction strength. AN: System note, (Suppressible) means that when using the Suppress Faction action the Failure penalty will not trigger. This is generally only applied for particularly bad failures. The is an (Unsuppressible) tag for really bad failure conditions where suppression merely triggers them early
Of course, while there were those who eyed the chaos with greed, and those who were intensely worried about how weakened the position of the People was with many of the next generation of warriors running off to the west, there were those who had ideas about how to deal with the soldier problem.
"It's still complicated, but the new iron coming out of Redhills is cheaper than ever, so we can make lots of them in a hurry," Myranyn explained to the skeptical patricians of Redshore, showing off the latest design of crossbow, this one replacing the old slider mechanism with smaller and sturdier trigger system. "Combined with the new armour designs the cheaper iron has spurred on, and we can raise up tens of thousands of warriors just as good at ranged combat as the yeomen, only they can come from the urban poor instead. I know you've experience with the gymnasia and the methods for a single instruct to teach a dozen youths athleticism and basic combat, and the techniques are definitely scalable to much larger groups."
"Yes, but then the poor would be the problem, would they not?" Harmysyn, a fellow would-be reformer, pointed out.
"To a degree, but especially with the bread dole now in place we can better keep them dependent upon the nobility and the crown than we can with the yeomanry, who have farms and, assuming they don't do something stupid, can just use the productivity of their farms to keep themselves alive if they decide to defy the crown. With the city dwellers, if they defy us, we just cut off the supply of grain and wait until their bellies bring them crawling back to us. Besides, your proposal seems rather... you know what, I'm just going to come out and say what every one of us has been thinking: you want an excuse to oggle our daughters' tits," Myranyn accused, causing the gathering to erupt in various degrees of disagreement.
"We need to reconcentrate the military power of the patrician class, and if all the best warrior sons are going to run off, I see no reason not to train our daughters! The demands of command are not so vigorous as those of the common footsoldier, and there are many an account-"
"Gods and heroes do not count!" Myranyn shouted.
"MANY AN ACCOUNT! - many an account of women commanders of great skill. More than that, if all the most vital young men from the rural middle classes keep disappearing then I greatly fear for the vigour of the patrician blood! If all we have to marry our daughters to are merchants and artisans then in a short time all martial valour will be bred out of us. More than that, we can bring wayward sons back to us by offering the temptation of potent wives who will bear far stronger sons than any barbarian peasant woman in a felt tent!" Harmysyn countered after shouting his say back into place.
It was a rapidly growing divide among the patricians. Myranyn wanted to rework the entire system by which the common soldiers were recruited, trained, and equipped, while Harmysyn wanted to bring in more commanders by opening up the gymnasia to patrician daughters. Among the patricians both had their supporters and detractors, as well as many who wanted them both to shut up.
The Second Sons Crisis is pushing the People to the breaking point militarily. Reform the system?
[] [Reform] Begin Myranyn Reforms Event Chain
[] [Reform] Begin Harmysyn Reforms Event Chain
[] [Reform] Begin Both (-1 Stability, Both Events Started, ???)
[] [Reform] Ignore Both
Megaproject Completed! Ironworks
This facility full of water wheel operated hammers, bellows, and grindstones concentrates ironworking potential into the first proto-industrial fashion. Completion grants additional Econ, metalworking techs, increases iron trade power, doubles income from iron trading, and opens up new opportunities.
Choose a completion bonus
[] [Iron] Gain at least two additional metalworking techs (Exploding dice)
[] [Iron] Gain an additional Social Value slot
[] [Iron] Gain a free random Guild type manufacturing facility
[] [Iron] Upgrade Iron Blooded to Steel Blooded
[] [Iron] Gain the Steel Fist Legacy
Rule of Gold has been kicked out, who to draw from now?
[] [PiA] Western Ymaryn (Possibly Pioneering Spirit)
[] [PiA] Harmurri (Something trade related maybe [Not Center of Trade related])
[] [PiA] Mountain Horse (Probably an Honour Code)
[] [PiA] Khemetri (Probably a Spiritual Value, hard to tell compatibility with new religion)
[] [PiA] Freehills (Social Value)
[] [PiA] Storm Tribes (Probably an Honour Code)
[] [PiA] Nomads (Honour Code)
Gilded Age Bonus
[] [GA] Administrative innovation (-8 Wealth)
[] [GA] Financial innovation (-8 Wealth)
[] [GA] Begin Great Dam megaproject in independent action track (-10 Wealth)
[] [GA] Subordinate reform (-10 Prestige)
[] [GA] New materials tech (-10 Tech)
Well, I suppose it was kind of inevitable that the Trelli would explode. I just uh...didn't expect it to be so soon.
Also, the Renegades have independently redeveloped Pioneering Spirit? That's...good, I guess? Certainly it means there's going to be a large Ymaryn cultural footprint.
I forgot an option for your Gilded Age bonuses. You have another option.
Also, you technically have not reached the mid-turn yet, although everything has been updated to reflect this fact.
Also, the Trelli rolled a 1 on their 'Liquidity Crisis' check. They were the one group who would outright explode from that level of fail on that check
