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Solium Infernum - Epic play by email Hex 'em up, from Hell! Game over.
Jam Warrior
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
OP elements stolen shamelessly from a fantastic and sadly overlooked thread by @Capfalcon from many years back. I reckon his mistake was to go for G&T when despite being on the computer this is clearly more a CF type game.
My lord, I bring you fantastic news!
Satan has abdicated the Throne of Hell.
The entirety of the Infernal Conclave is scrambling to find a new monarch. Now is your moment, my lord. Seize what is rightfully yours.
Marshal your legions to conquer your foes who foolish refuse your demands.
Crush your pitiful rivals' champions in single combat.
Hexes!
On a dull work day I found myself somehow stumbling upon a write up of this game on Rock Paper Shotgun. It was frankly amazing. I suggest you go read it now . You only need to read the Kieron and Quinns bits and if that's too much reading for you, I won't lie this probably isn't the game for you.
Back with me?
Excited as all get out to give this a shot?
Let's do this!
A few points to bear in mind first however.
1) This game will cost you. 15 of your dollars to be precise. I have yet to buy it but if we can get a game going on the forum I definitely will.
2) This game will take some time. Play by email. Variable number of turns. We're talking weeks and weeks here most likely. If you're not in for the long haul then you're probably best not starting.
3) This game is rules deep. It has a large manual you will probably want to consult. Though wikis and tutorial pages exist on the game website.
So can I get at least three other interested parties involved?
Go on, be a Devil.
My lord, I bring you fantastic news!
Satan has abdicated the Throne of Hell.
The entirety of the Infernal Conclave is scrambling to find a new monarch. Now is your moment, my lord. Seize what is rightfully yours.
Marshal your legions to conquer your foes who foolish refuse your demands.
Crush your pitiful rivals' champions in single combat.
Hexes!
On a dull work day I found myself somehow stumbling upon a write up of this game on Rock Paper Shotgun. It was frankly amazing. I suggest you go read it now . You only need to read the Kieron and Quinns bits and if that's too much reading for you, I won't lie this probably isn't the game for you.
Back with me?
Excited as all get out to give this a shot?
Let's do this!
A few points to bear in mind first however.
1) This game will cost you. 15 of your dollars to be precise. I have yet to buy it but if we can get a game going on the forum I definitely will.
2) This game will take some time. Play by email. Variable number of turns. We're talking weeks and weeks here most likely. If you're not in for the long haul then you're probably best not starting.
3) This game is rules deep. It has a large manual you will probably want to consult. Though wikis and tutorial pages exist on the game website.
So can I get at least three other interested parties involved?
Go on, be a Devil.
Jam Warrior on
+1
Posts
So, sure.
Twitch Stream
Also take your Blood Bowl turn!
To anyone on the fence: it's possible to loot one of your rival's vaults and frame someone else. Or even nastier, frame someone for attempting a coup, which can get them killed in short order.
Let me read over the things. Possibly.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
If you need another I could play
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
I'll purchase the game and get things rolling on an intro game as soon as I get the chance.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
That and maybe the experienced players telling the neophytes what they did wrong.
It seems like we might have enough for a couple of small games where we could segregate that a little. Or mix and match, whichever!
I've been assuming this thread would end up approximately similar to a Phalla one, with a lot less needing to defend yourself from accusations since the game's explicitly adversarial. :P
E: Also, the one thing I don't think I've got any notion about - how does one consume a resource card for the Gluttony objective / secret ones with the same requirement? Use it to improve your avatar's stats?
Yep. You can just consume them towards end of the game as a mad dash for your objective, too, but consuming them for upgrades counts.
Nope! I'm wrong.
So, Character Building and You!
Every wannabe Satan has the following aspects:
Rank, Martial, Cunning, Intelect, Wickedness, Charisma.
Rank: Where you were in the infernal pecking order before Satan ran off. Higher is generally better, since higher ranks get you more Hell money from your servants and let you demand more money from other, lower ranked players. However, as a high ranking dude in hell, when you insult someone, they won't lose much prestige if they just ignore you, since you're supposedly punching way below your weight class. On the other hand, if a low ranking dude demands things from a high ranking dude, the high ranking dude can generally give him a pittance to shut him up. But, and this is the big thing, an insult (or resource demand, technically) from a low ranking dude to a high ranking dude is a huge, huge blow to prestige, if they ignore it. Being low ranked is a great way to MAKE people fight you if that's your game plan.
(Yeah, the two most basic ways to interact with people in this game are either demanding they give you free stuff or publicly insulting them. Even in Hell, politics is still politics)
Cunning: Lets you steal other people's moves, resources, relics and, at high enough levels, even soldiers and generals. Generally, the asshole stat.
Intellect: Essentially anti-Cunning stat. Not only does it make it harder for people to steal from you, but also lets you spy on other people and even see the future. Additionally lets you cast more spells a turn, and more spells is always good. I wouldn't really recommend starting with it too high, though. Each of the other stats has their own way to win by themselves, but Intellect is more of a supporting thing to your primary plan.
Wickedness: You know what solves pretty much any problem? Hellfire. Enough hellfire can fix any problem. This is the "Put Money In, Get Death Spells Out" resource. Just as a reminder, you'll still need a troop to actually step over the corpses of your enemy's armies and into the burning wreckage of your enemy's strongholds if you want to capture them.
Charisma: Focusing on Charisma is more or less the generalist approach to the game. Everyone's going to want some, since it's how you mainly get money without browbeating it out of other players. If you make Charisma itself your focus, you'll probably be the second best at everything, since buying up your low stats will be doable with all the money you're getting each turn.
Also, in the previous thread, I had two sample builds for anyone who wasn't feeling adventurous.
Overwhelming Combat Strength
Lust (Probably not going to eat enough souls to clear Gluttony)
M 1 / C 0 / I 0 / W 0 / Cha 2
Master Archer, Master of the Sword
1. Rank up your Martial Skill to turn all of your legions into unstoppable killing machines
2. Make demands against people you could crush with your military (I.E. Everyone who has a border with you.)
3. Pump your Int if someone starts using Deceit against you.
4. Reign in hell!
Money, Money, Money
Glutteny (If you're doing this build right, it's pretty much free prestige)
M 0 / C 1 / I 1 / W 0 / Cha 3
Devoted Minions OR Infernal Cardinal
1. Rank up Cha to 4
2. Rank up whatever the hell you want so you can get more orders (Int default, so you won't get robbed blind)
3. Buy all the bling ever.
4. Reign in hell!
Twitch Stream
Oh yeah. It's just one of the possible strategies. If you're a Prince of Hell with a kickass army, there's no reason to even bother wasting orders on getting treasure yourself. Just demand that everyone give everything they own, and when they inevatably run out of money, declare war and take everything else they own.
Hell's kind of a rough place like that. Don't let the door hit you on the way to the slave pits.
Twitch Stream
Any input from experienced players on game set up?
As we're looking at the full 6 players I'm assuming medium map or will we want to go large?
I was thinking short game length to minimise the pain of the learning experience for us new players.
Then map type and place of power frequecy at whatever is the default?
Medium map if we're going with a short game. With six players it'll be bloody, but that's better than boring. A short game length will bias the game toward more powerful starting legions, martial skill and a bit of hellfire. It will devalue charisma and intellect based strategies. That might be fine, but be aware of the effect.
Randomize map type. They're all good. It's best if we don't know which map so we can't try to build for it.
Place of power frequency as default. They're meant to be big prizes. Making them common relieves the pressure on players to grab and keep them.
It's literally been years since I've played a game, so I've got some questions for more recent players:
What determines your starting legion strength now? It used to be rank but that got patched.
Does upgrading stats really count for consuming resources? Any testing behind that? Last I heard you had to spend an action to do nothing but destroy those resources, that's what made it so gluttonous.
Which patch are we using? My download link is long since expired, so I'll be trying to bring the game file I've got stashed in an external hard drive up to date.
How long do we have to enter an archfiend? I'm pretty busy today, and I'll need to study up to get my builds put together again.
Terrible Demon created.
Let's get it on.
It's based off of each point in a skill that isn't Charisma now.
I can't find a source for the Gluttony, but I'm really sure that you just need to consume 35 souls in some manner. You're probably going to end up just eating the last few, though.
I'll check it when I get my install up and running.
I think you can just download the most recent patches. Hell, I need to do the same myself, so I'm going to at least need a day as well.
Twitch Stream
Starting a war you can win is the hardest thing to do in Solium Infernum.
The two main ways to try and provoke war seem similar, but are REALLY, REALLY different.
Method one: Demanding tribute.
If you demand tribute someone, and they refuse, you get to choose how you go to war. Single combat with Preators or traditional hex based combat.
Method two: Hurling insults.
If you insult someone and they refuse, THEY get to chose how you go to war. So, if you're gonna bully some unfortunate smuck, you'll have to outclass them on both fronts if you want to be sure of victory.
Twitch Stream
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Whoops!
Twitch Stream
The small map would be good too. Nothing starts fights like being jealous of that asshole right next door with that place of power you just have to have.
Random map and normal place of power frequency should be fine. Too little, and people don't have enough prestige to interact with each other, but too many, and no one minds just eating the prestige hit from taking the easy way out of diplomatic exchanges.
So far, we have:
Jam Warrior
Capfalcon
kaorti
Auralynx
TheOtherHorseman
Farangu
With fadingathedges looking for the next game.
I've got my dude ready, and I'm ready to be crowned the King of Hell.
Twitch Stream
If two people have conflicting orders in the same slot, e.g. both want to move legions to the same hex in order slot 1, is it just turn order decides priority or is there more to it?
Twitch Stream
You get a little message about your Legion's movement being scrapped the next turn, in fact.
For lack of any other input we're currently going with Cap's suggestion of Small Map, Great Rivers layout, Uncommon Places of Power frequency and Medium game length, because he sounds like he knows what he's talking about.
@Capfalcon don't you Hail my Hydra whilst still not sending me your danged email! Just need yours and I can get things rolling tonight.
And sending new messages on the phone is hard.
Twitch Stream
We should probably keep updating here when new turn files go out just so we're all on more or less the same page.
Twitch Stream
Awkward.