Dura Lex

While working on the miniatures, I have been contemplating a series of changes to the rules. There are two issues that bother me in a game of Conquest of the Empire: the first one is the management of chaos points. As a player sucks dry the empire in his bid for power, the plebeians accumulate discontent. Everytime a player levies taxes, musters an army or looses a battle, he accumulates chaos points. At the end of each year, the player with the most chaos looses 10 victory points. The second most "chaotic" players looses 5.

Now, in my group, what happens is that generally one of us get so much ahead of everybody in chaos, that this prevents everybody from bothering about chaos at all. There is no way they can have more than the first lunatic (which is not always the same player, mind you).

I want everybody worried about chaos, not only the "leading" player. Therefore, I propose a set of rules to this effect. I call this mod "Chaos in Rome", and it has been presented in the boardgamegeek forum, here.

We replace the chaos points, that are held secret, by a Civil Unrest track. The amount of chaos (or civil unrest) becomes therefore public. In addition, as a player goes down the track of civil unrest, his administration begins to cripple. There are three increasing levels of proble.

1. When a player reaches 6 civil unrest points, his senators start to distanciate themselves from such an unpopular leader. Everytime the player participates in a senator vote, the total amount of votes he casts is reduced by one. The minimum value is always I.
   
Antonius calls for an "Influence on Rome" senate vote. He backs his candidate (himself) with a III senator card. His civil unrest is 4. Marcus speaks second. He has a civil unrest of 12 and casts a I senator card for Caius. Caius speaks third. His civil unrest is 7, and he casts a I and a II senators in the fray, backing himself. Flavia abstains. The total number of votes is therefore Antonius (3), and Caius (3 - 1 from Marcus, despite his high unrest, he cannot get lower than 1, and (3-1) from Caius. The vote is a tie, since Antonius spoke first, he wins the vote and puts two additional influence markers in Rome. 
2. When a player reaches 16 unrest, corruption becomes rampant in his administration. Every time a player uses the Levy Taxes action, he gets 5 talents less than expect. He still gets the full amount of civil unrest (1 unrest for 5 talents requested to the bank). Likewise, at the end of the year, when collecting revenue from the influence markers, the player will receive 5 talents less than expected
Marcus is the last player. The second campaign is about to end. His first action is to muster troops. His civil unrests goes from 14 to 16. His second action is to levy taxes. He requests 25 from the bank, the maximum amount allowed. The banker gives him 20 talents. Amid much cursing, Marcus's unrests moves from 16 to 21. since it is the end of the year, Each player now gets income. Marcus has 8 influence markers on the map, but gets only 35 talents. Come April, he will probably start flogging a few unscrupulous governors to please the plebeians
3. When a player accumulates 26 civil unrest, his soldiers start to desert him. After all, who want to be lead by a man so unpopular? In every battle in which none of his officers (a general or an emperor)are involved, the player rolls one less battle dice, (minimum 2 dices). If the soldiers are led, proceed as usual
Marcus (unrest 28) decides to attack Antonius (unrest 31) in Rome. One of his generals leads the troops. Antonius has no officer, but has a city and a military exercice card. Marcus rolls IV battle dies (III usual + I for the officer. The officer also nullifies the effect of the civil unrest). Antonius rolls IV also (III + I for the city + I for the military exercice - I for the civil unrest not checked by the presence of an officer). Tough battle ahead.
4. When a player reaches or exceeds XXXV in the civil unrest track, the praetorians themselves decide to take the matters in their own hands. They assassinate the emperor. A new emperor is nominated. Loose V victory points, remove the deceased emperor from play, and replace a general (the affected player's choice) with the new emperor. All hail the emperor. The blood bath calms the plebeians and his level of civil unrest decreases to XXV. If the player has no general on board at that moment, the new emperor emerges from the ranks of his clients. Remove two political markers from the region where the player has the most markers (in case of a tie, the player decides) and place there the new emperor
Marcus has lost his last battle. The defeat has pushed his civil unrest from XXXIII to XXXV. The emperor is immediatly removed from play (even if it is another player's turn)and Marcus looses 5 VP. Marcus has a general in Sicily (of all places!) He replaces this general with his emperor. His civil unrest is reduced by X, he has now XXV. Antonius was too greedy. He levied taxes pushing his unrest level to XXXV. His emperor's blood is spilled over the gold coins, and the praetorians look for a new candidate. But Antonius lost his last general to a sneaky assassin last season. The player therefore removes II political markers from Italy (where he had VII) and places there his new emperor. In the process he has lost V VP and reduced his unrest to XXV.

The first three effects are cumulative. So a player with XXIX civil unrest will have I less senator in the votes, will receive less money and his legions will desert him.

In addition to the civil unrest track, the following rules apply:

• In case of tie in the Victory Point track, the player with lower civil unrest gets precedence
• A player that decides to PASS an action reduces his level of unrest by III.
• If the player has one city, he reduces his level of unrest by III at the end of the year. Any additional citiy will further reduce the unrest by II.
• When counting victory points, ties in the number of Influence markers are broken by the level of unrest. The player with less unrest gets precedence over the others. Equal victory points are awarded to several players only if they have the amount of influence AND the same level of unrest. 
Flavia has V influence in Egypt, Marcus and Antonius have each III. Flavia gets XV VP (irrespective of her civil unrest). Marcus unrest is XII and Antonius unrest is XI. Antonius claims V victory points, Marcus gets nothing.
• At the end of a season, after counting victory points but before checking for Civil Unrest, any unresolved "Menace at the Gates" card will increase the civil unrest of the leading player in the VP trak by II points. He is held responsible by the plebeians
It is the end of the fourth season. The players have counted the victory points. Antonius (civil unrest 32) has 220 VP, Flavia (civil unrest 23) has 215 VP. Marcus (civil unrest 34) has 225 VP. There are two unresolved "menace at the gates" cards, the one in Britannia and the one in Dacia. Since Marcus is leading the VP track with 225, he gets 2+2 additional civil unrest. His is pushed over 35. The praetorians cut his throat. Marcus looses 5 victory points (down to 220). Since he has no generals, he also looses two influence tokens in Achaia, but that does not change the distribution of VP that was calculated just before he lost his emperor. His level of unrest is now 25. The players now check the unrest levels. Antonius has the most, with 32. He looses 10 victory points, down to 210. The second one is Marcus, that curses abundantly and looses again 5 VP, down to 215. Flavia and Marcus are tied with 215 each. But the people of Rome prefer Flavia with her 23 civil unrest, she is hailed as the first female emperor of Roman history. Antonius and Marcus go picknick on the Tarpeian rock.