119BC - Cassius Spurius is a legate in Macedon. After a successful year, he applies to Rome for authority for a subordinate general. Spurius spends 2 prestige to secure a vote and convinces two other players to vote for the issue. The other players don’t care, and so Spurius gets a net of +3 for the prestige of his friends and manages to roll a 3, getting his general. Spurius is hoping for a province next year, but figures he can use the extra general in Macedon if worst comes to worst
118BC- Spurius draws Gallia Narbonesis as his province. Dufus Germanicus, another player, draws a legate chit, becoming a Legate in Asia province and draws Gallia Narbonesis as his enemy of Rome province, becoming Spurius’ opponent.
Spurius rolls a die and throws a ‘1’. Both he and Dufus consult the table for Gallia Narbonesis. A ‘1’ doesn’t trigger any Potential Enemies for this particular province, but does trigger raids. Because the Cimbri are the highest raider aggression, it will be a raid by the Cimbri if nobody modifies the die roll. But Spurius would prefer a Potential Enemy, as he can then take a city in a subsequent year if he can get prorogued. So Spurius decides to modify the die roll down. He tries to bribe Dufus into staying out of it, but to no avail. Dufus decides to spend 3 talents to modify the die roll up, Spurius decides to use 4 prestige to modify the die roll down. The net result is that the modified die roll is ‘0’ producing a war with either the Gauls or the Spaniards. Spurius says ‘high it’s Gauls low it’s Spanish’ and rolls a 6. So he has war with the Gauls. The bad news is that the total of the DRMs – 3+4 – are extra Gallic elements.
Spurius now decides what troops to use. He has the basic Polybian army – 1x3Cv general, 1x3Cv, 6x4Bd, 2x4Sp, 2x2Ps. He also has his NPC legate legislated the previous year 1x3Cv general. During 120BC, the govenror of this province fought off a Cimbric raid, and left behind 2x3Ax, 2x2Ps and 1x3Cv he hired as auxiliaries. These elements are available at half price (a total of 8.5 talents). Spurius could hire up to 36 elements (propraetorian imperium of 24 + 12 for his extra general) but doesn’t have the cash. Instead he hires another 4 more 3x4Ax, 1x2Ps from local forces and hires 2x2LH from mercenaries and 2x2LH from the Spanish. His hires are currently limited to the Spanish list and mercenaries because he has a war with the Gauls – so he can’t use the Gallic list to generate 3Cv, and and can’t make a 3Cv from the Spanish list because it’s the general’s element. The cost is 12 more for the 3Ax, 2 for the 2Ps, 18 for the LH (the Spanish LH are cheaper than the mercenary elements). So Spurius spends a total of 40.5 talents for his enhanced army, effectively bankrupting himself. Spurius’ army now consists of 2x3Cv general, 2x3Cv, 6x4Bd, 2x4Sp, 6x3Ax, 5x2Ps, 4x2LH -27 elements
Dufus also thinks about extra troops for the Gauls. A little annoyed that Spurius outthought him on the die roll modifier, he toys with spending 10 or 15 talents on extra elements, but decides on a more reasonable 5. He rolls a 4. This gives him a total of 11 extra elements. He now has to choose which elements to use. He chooses the WB general, 2 x3Cv, 8x3WB and 1x2Ps for his base list and adds an WB general, 8x3Wb, 2x3Cv for his second group. Dufus did not have to take the second general, but wants one. When he organizes his army according to DBA Big Battle Rules, he will choose to make his second general out of a 3Cv element and use the WB to support the WB general.
Spurius wins a hard-fought but resounding victory, losing 2x4Sp and 1x2 Roman PS to the WB onslaught, but killing 9 elements in battle and another 6 in pursuit. He earns a modest amount of loot stripping the dead, breathes a sigh of relief and rolls for province income.
Enemies of Spurius in Rome take advantage of a tame tribune of the plebs to legislate a Lex Provinciae to keep Spurius in Gaul. They also legislate a war against the Spaniards through the Senate, hoping that Spurius will fall on his face, to his eternal shame. Spurius, having suffered a significant prestige setback in his Gallic battle (he used troops worth 50 more prestige than the Gauls and most of their dead were 3Wb@3, barely offsetting his casualties….result down 20 prestige) is unable to effectively oppose the legislation. He barely has enough money to pay for his auxiliaries and hire a couple more light horse.
117BC- As luck would have it, his opponent is again Dufus.
Another die roll for enemy aggression in the province, and this time it is
a natural 6. Since there
are two wars already going on in the province, Dufus sees no point in modifying
the die roll. And Spurius breathes a sigh of relief – the ‘6’ means
he has a Friend and Ally application from either the Spanish or the Gauls.
He rolls high/low again, getting a ‘5’ which means the Gauls
have forwarded the request. This doesn’t end the war – it means
a faction within the Gauls opposes the war with Rome and has sided with Rome.
While the Friend and ally application can’t be approved until the next
Senate/Legislative cycle, Spurius now can recruit from the Gallic list, and
have a Gallic ally general. Spurius squeezes his piggy bank and hires a WB
general, 5 WB and 1x3Cv as allies using the discount for ally troops (this
costs 18.75 talents instead of the normal 25). This is within his Imperium
total. In addition, one of 4Sp elements is replaced, and the Senate provides
Spurius’ choice of two elements from the mercenary list to bring his
Senate-provided force back up to 12 elements. He chooses 2x2LH.
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