The Turn

For the Heart of Rome Turn Order

The game begins in the year 270 BC, just as the factions are in place to begin the war that would launch Rome to the top of the world power matrix. Each turn counts as a 6 month timeframe. As running an Empire is not easy, teams are needed to run each faction, lest your Empire crumble due to negligence. Each turn will consist of multiple stages which will require the attention of multiple members of the team. The turn is  designed so that each team, including AI factions, complete each stage before moving to the next. The order and explanation of each stage is listed below.

1. Budgeting Funds (Chief Tax Collectors): With the help and political goals of the Head of House in mind the Chief Tax Collector of each faction will budget the funds in the Family treasury so that projects can be completed.  Money should be devoted to the following causes:
1. Home Infrastructure
2. Political Projects
3. Military Projects
2. Domestic Affairs (Heads of House & General): The Head of the House will begin to take care of making sure the home infrastructure is taken care of. He or She will undergo projects that better the lives of their faction and truly show the might of their faction. Projects are on 5 levels and must be completed based on the size of the settlement being constructed. Once all infrastructure projects are completed the population will move to the next level and the settlement size will increase. All capital cities start at level 3 unless the capital has been moved. All others start on village or town level depending on the size of the faction that it belongs to. During this stage the General will begin constructing defenses and recruiting infrastructure for the military. Also held in this stage are the games and entertainments.
3. Political Posturing (Senators): After infrastructure is taken care of, the Senate will begin their first round of appeal to the people. This political posturing stage will determine the initial votes any Senator has on the floor. This is determined by the happiness and order of the people as well as the manoeuvring of the Senators. At the end of the three stages a Senator will have a total number of “votes earned” this number represents a modifier to the final roll of the dice on the floor. Posturing is done in 4 stages:
1. Base Popularity- the base popularity stage number is determined by adding the health and happiness of the people and subtracting from it the illness and unrest. If the number is positive it adds to the popularity, if negative it takes away.  This can be improved by doing public works to increase the happiness and health of the people in your faction. Finally add the number of provinces controlled by the faction.
2. Campaigning-  In this, each senator will make their speech (for real) to all players in the room. Each player is to then cast their vote in favor of the best speech. Please note that a player may not always vote for their own faction. This will be seen as political ramming and will result in that faction losing their political standing in the Republic. Negative modifiers will be added each time a faction votes only in favor of their own faction without considering the nature of the debate. The number of votes earned by each in this stage is then added to the number previously earned by base popularity.
3. Backroom Deals- No Republic or government is without its underbelly. In this stage of the game, backroom deals are conducted using spies and assassins to add negative modifiers to political opponents.  Spies can be used to expose scandals. If scandals are revealed (determined by the spy rolls see senator’s section)  then a D3 is rolled to remove a number of votes from that senator, spies are likely to get lost in the shuffle of the scandal and is the safe route in the political landscape. The more risky venture is assassinating supporters of your enemy. While killing a major family’s senator will look far too suspicious and will turn all of Rome against you, knocking out provincial Senators from the frontier, or Plebeians would be likely to gain you more favor. If an assassination is successful then you roll a D6 to remove points from your political enemies.
4. The Final Vote- The results of the final vote will be determined by:
1. Happiness + Health +Provinces - Illness -Unrest +Speech points -Scandals - Assassinations = Final vote modifier.
4. Grand Strategy(Heads of House and Generals): The Senate will assign a goal for each Roman faction and a time frame in which you must complete said task.  It is then up to the General and the Head of House to plan a strategy to attain that goal.
5. Military Posturing (Generals): In this stage the Militaries will prepare to make their assaults and sieges. In this section there are also stages
1. Recruiting: Armies are recruited
2. Movement: Armies are moved.
3. Declarations: Armies declare their intentions in each province.
6. Diplomacy (Senators and Tax Collectors): In this stage the senators send diplomats and the tax collectors make demands. This is the chance for the opposing sides to come to terms before war.
7. War (Generals): War is fought (see battle section for details)
8. Collecting Winnings and Paying Reparations (Tax Collector)
9. Religious Duties: Earning favor in the eyes of the gods is of utmost importance to an honored Roman family. To determine which Roman faction has the favor of the gods add all of the religious site levels (Ex: shrine (1) + Awesome Temple (5) = 6)  together and add that to a roll of 20 sided dice. The highest number each turn will receive a Faith Point which may be used to modify any dice roll in the future. The more faith points your faction earns, the larger the intervention may be. If you are the last place losing faction you lose a faith point or if you have none, you must roll on the tragedy chart...

End of Turn.