The Will of the Senate - out of character thread

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

I'm for 1 and 2, as I don't particularly care one way or the other.

I'm against 3. This ancillary can be traded by the characters amongst themselves for influence in the senate debates and votes, but I'm willing to make an exception about (1) and (2) kind of ancilliaries.

I'm for 4, but these ancillaries should be assigned to active field commanders, whether they are consuls or not. I you have command of a consular army you should eligable to get the banner in my opinion.

I'm against 5, but this is personal. I wouldn't mind if other people drop their annoying relatives. I prefer to keep mine. If I had a drunken uncle I would sometimes appear in the senate drunk or late from an orgy for example :)

I expect first consuls to be meticously correct in the handling of the ancilliaries, but I would like to see senators hagglling and making voting promises over an exotic slave (+1 influence) and so on.

[econ21]

OK, everyone wants to keep their drunken uncles (or maybe not get other people's) - fair enough.

I actually think the ancillary overload problem is the biggest one. Quintus starts with an aged retainer and now has a priest of Mercury. Both are useless for a general, but have pushed him up to his limit of 6 ancillaries, so he can't get a Carthaginian turncoat or any other ancillary from combat. It seems much better that I be allowed to pass them on to a governor who can actually use them. Similarly, we have a student in Roma in the academy and he's got 6 ancillaries, so his studies there for the next 15 or so turns are wasted. Even worse, the poor chap is clogged up with rather medicore ancillaries for the rest of his life.

On the consular army thing, I absolutely agree the Consular army/Legio/Praetorian army ancillaries should be for people with real armies. I just don't want to see them assigned in a way that destroys the associated trait without creating it in someone else. For example, if the Consular army ancillary goes to someone who can't be a consul, then the person with consul trait loses that trait. ie the Consular army ancillary and the consul trait are a package deal. I have no objection to passing on the consular army ancillary to a Praetor who can become a consul. But it seems wasteful to give it to a Legate and thus prevent the Republic having a consul at all. From a role-playing point of view, I propose the character with the consul trait be the "Second" Consul. When we have enough provinces to be eligible for a second consular army ancillary and second consul trait, we can just say there is some kind of triumvirate - a First Consul (who may or may not have a consul trait) and up to two Consuls with the trait.

It is all micromanagement and Consuls don't have to fiddle with them if they don't want to, it's just I am finding it frustrating not to be able to fiddle.

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

First off, it seems I have forgotten to welcome our newest senator, ShadesWolf, and let me do so now.

I fully agree with your points about the shifting of banners. A triumvirate is anyway not unheard of in rome history, it has happened on several occasions.

I would not like to infringe on your wish to fiddle around. Perhaps a good idea would be to allow the shifting around of anciliaries within families by the eldest member ? Then the ancilliaries would stay 'in the family' so to speak (shame on you for wanting to dump your aged retainer :) ) and this would give the first consul more leverage and flexibility. Also, it can stimulate the formation of 'family' groups and trades between 'families', so to speak, which might be desirable and provide more senator interaction. Perhaps we will see inter-family rivalry between sibling lobbying for that one available mentor or something like that. We could haggle during the senate deliberations and perhaps some trades can influence the ongoing election process. I would greatly desire to see an update on the current characters when the next election process starts so we can all properly envy the one whose character has become favoured by the gods (hope I'm not imposing on you, TinCow).

[econ21]

Ok, I've done my reign. Thanks, DDW and FLYdude for helping me get through it so quickly. The savegame is up (Senate275s.zip) for anyone who wants to look at the situation.

We have a two new generals:
- Amulius Coruncanius has grown up, so I am afraid I am going to have to re-assign him from Tiberius to Mount Suribachi, if that is ok with Mount.
- Tiberius Coruncanius has adopted a garrison commander, Publius Panga, who I am assigning to Glaucus.

We can also rejig the juniors:
- Manius Amelius is presumably about to mature, so he can go to our last Lower House member, Destroyer of Hope
- Decius Laevinius can be assigned to Tiberius and this time I promise I won't take him away from you (as long as no one else joins the Lower House)
- DoH no longer needs Marcus Laevinus, so I am assigning him to Dutch_guy.

I will revise the preface to the Senate deliberations accordingly. If the people I have assigned characters to don't want them, please let me know. But we won't be changing the rules for prioritising assignments (we need generals who can fight).

I think we should have a three day period of debate (Tu+Wed+Th) and one day of voting (Fri), so the next First Consul can start on Friday night and play over the weekend if they wish.

Anyone wishing to stand - post a manifesto in the Senate Deliberations. But you must be in the Lower House and have an adult general. (I'm inclined not to impose age restrictions on people standing, although the disadvantages of youth could be brought up in debate).

EDIT: I like the "keep it within the family" idea, DDW. I will update the rules on trading ancillaries shortly.

[Craterus]

Is this still open, and what version of RTR are you running?

It's a great idea, by the way. I love it.

[econ21]

Is this still open, and what version of RTR are you running?

It's a great idea, by the way. I love it.

Yes, it's still open. If you want to join, post here and say whether you want to be in the Upper or Lower House. All the gory details are given in post #2 of this thread.

We are using RTR Platinum Edition 1.5 with the latest Metropolis and Naval mod. The mod may look intimidating, but I must say I am very impressed with it so far. It is RTR, which is great. It uses 1.5 RTWs AI (=> modding out bandits, yay!). And the metropolis aspect does away with walls on many settlements, so it is not rome total siege. Plus it has some really neat scripting of Roman leadership traits.

[Craterus]

Let me get this straight. Upper house members don't do any of the campaign itself but decide the fate of things.

Lower house members play the campaign.

I'll play as upper house for now, as it sounds like you're a bit full with Lower House members?