Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[lijacote]

The Prince of Darkness has vanished and the Infernal Throne sits empty.  A conclave of the Powers and Potentates of Hell will be summoned to Pandemonium to select the next ruler of The Infernal Pit.  Do you have what it takes to claim the throne and rule Hell?
Solium Infernum is a turn based strategy game set in the profoundest depths of Hell.

Borrowing heavily from creations like John Milton's Paradise Lost, the theme of Solium Infernum is decidedly, well, infernal. It is very board gamey, much like the other games that Cryptic Comet has done, with mechanics like limited orders / actions for each turn, a semi-random turn limit for the game, hexes, et cetera. The players are Lords, Barons, Marquises, Dukes and Princes of Hell, bound in an intricate political game set up to figure out the most worthy and prestigious successor to Lucifer. It is a difficult game, but well worth the venturing into (despite the danger to your soul), and especially into future games that Bay 12 sets up!

We are playing as Dumah, a Prince of Hell. Typically, we could count ourselves among the most powerful pretenders, but unfortunately the balance of power swings not our way...

Spoiler: Princes and principalities (click to show/hide)

The difference in rank affects our diplomatic efforts in increasing costs when making demands and other such softer limits -- but no need to wail and gnash our teeth! There are two lesser satans in this game that we can bully resources and prestige out of, and who will meet increased costs for trying to squeeze us.

Spoiler: Here's a map of our immediate surroundings (click to show/hide)

There are Places of Power, mountains, plains and a Prince of Hell next to us. It's David Owie, whose Blood represents his most loyal and faithful corps. They are a mirror of our Blood. The three stats of Ranged, Melee and Infernal reflect their combat capabilities (or lack thereof) - combat is fairly simple with the core mechanic being a comparing of stats, with special abilities adding to those stats or modifying the results of beneficial comparisons. For example, some abilities add a D4 whenever you are able to damage the enemy with one of your stats. The comparisons happen in order, so Ranged is compared first, then Melee, then Infernal.

Spoiler: One of the Places of Power (click to show/hide)

The contrast between this weak, pathetic tree and our incredibly potent Blood would suggest this is a good target. Might we be getting it this turn? Perhaps! If we do get it, we'll be raking in the prestige like devils. The additional Diabolism is also welcome, since it means that our tribute rolls will be slightly better, or that our servants will bring us better and more loot and bribes and gifts from our tributaries and vassals.

On with the game, though! Perdition waits.

[Neonivek]

Ooooh a letsplay of a game I never even heard of before and so far it looks pretty interesting. I am going to really anticipate it!

[lijacote]

With two orders available, I ordered my Blood to attack the Tree, and made a demand for tribute of the neighbouring Prince.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the ranged phase, we have the Tree bleed our Blood for one point of damage, since four is higher than three. Following that, we have the melee phase where it ends, as the six damage inflicted by nine against three is enough to deplete the tree of its freedom. Claimed, then, for us! For Dumah!

Battle advantage is a random bonus that a party can get, which will give a point to a random statistic. In this case, the tree got a point of Infernal power that it never got to use, since we never got to that phase.

Spoiler: Things happen (click to show/hide)

We've made a bold move, made a demand that our fellow Prince give us three cards in tribute. Davi Owie, whose Blood (his default, most loyal legion) is weak and slothful. If he refuses to give us tribute, then we have the option of declaring vendetta on him. A vendetta is how fiends resolve their grievances -- the wronged party declares vendetta, revenge, and specifies how they are going to bring their version of justice to bear. Options include taking cantons (hexes), eliminating Legions, capturing Places of Power (like the tree). It can also be resolved in single combat, with Praetors, strong individuals made for either leading the legions or risking their lives on the arena.

In case my drunken rambling is not clear enough, here's a handy sheet, with the flow chart of diplomacy right in the middle.

Here's how our red, horned Blood is going to move this turn, helplessly following the arrows I lay ahead of them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We'll remain in range of our Princely neighbour, and edge closer to the unclaimed Places of Power. They are as yet more powerful than we are, but it is still a long way to the battles ahead -- unless Davi Owie refuses our demand. We will probably have time to strengthen our legions, be it via leading with praetors, enhancing with exotic items from the bazaar or by crafting personal boosts with our very own hands. Hell, we might even get another Legion, if the tribute is good.

We will have our response to the demand next turn, and then we will possibly have to declare our vendetta that turn -- that means first blood might be only two turns from now. How exciting, how titillating, how damning.

[lijacote]

We begin our turn by having the scepter and orb of regal station passed to us. That means we will be the first to act, and from us the game will proceed clockwise. Delta will be after us, and Miranda will be dead last. The next turn, Delta will have the scepter and orb and we will be last! Unfair, indeed. Vile, fiendish, sinful --


Ah, but not all is lost, not all is doomed and gloomed. Our slovenly neighbour has acceded, granting us three resource cards, which brings us to another mechanic of the game. Resource cards!

The game has four resources that it keeps track of (besides prestige and other arguable resources) - souls, which are useful for most everything; ichor, which is used for things of Wrath and praetors; hellfire, which is useful for rituals of Destruction and Prophecy and purchasing artifacts; darkness, which is used for rituals of Deceit, Prophecy and purchasing relics. Other uses for all of these are possible, but I'm plagiarizing this sheet.

Our damnable competitor, the miserably wasteful and lazy Davi Owie has purchased a legion to match ours.

What a strong, glistening, moist and upright, veiny -- where was I? Yes, this is a legion that could prove trouble. Most of its combat capabilities are in Melee. Even then it is, by itself, not a match for our Blood, but we might run into complications when we take into account that legions can assist each other and Places of Power in combat. The assistance, though only half of each stat is lent, is still formidable.

The two empty slots at the bottom can house enhancements, which we might get to in the next turn.

Speaking of the next turn, here's what the map looks like.

The pig next door and his new legion were, unfortunately for them, damned by their poor placement on the map. Their legions are marked by the smelly-looking symbols. The bottomless chasm and mountain range that flank them have effectively split their range of action, since their movement is not enough to hop over the hex on which their stronghold is housed. The luscious legion of the hungry mouth, then, is far too far to attack us. We'll help them out by edging closer to them, and closer to another Place of Power, the fabled City of Dis. Conquering Dis would award us three times the prestige of the Tree of Woe per turn, but doing so will require clever use of afore-mentioned enhancements. We might manage it.

[lijacote]

Not the most eventful of turns, but I'll let you know what's up anyway, because I'm nasty like that. Why do you think they made me a Prince of Hell anyway? Let's see what the others are up to.

Delta took the Place of Power that we could have moved closer towards earlier, but so it goes. We've made our choice. Durus, one of our other neighbours, has replicated the effort we made against Davi Owie. Davi can either give in to the demand, or provoke a possible vendetta - it seems unlikely that they'll refuse. We could, hypothetically, throw in our lot with Davi Owi at this juncture and help them against Durus... what do you think, dearest reader?

That's an incredible amount of Ranged power. I can not believe it. See that Black Lightning ability? That means it will inflict an additional 1d4 points of damage in a successful Ranged phase. We will have to deal with that, or die immediately... if we ever come to blows. The upside is that our Melee ability is enough to flatten them if their Ranged fails to kill us.

The Meketrix Lash in the left enhancement slot bestows them the boon of having a guaranteed level-up after each successful battle, which can prove rather nasty eventually. Leveling up, at least in my experience, allows you to choose between adding 1 to any of your combat stats, or 1 to your HP.

To return to the turn log: we demanded of our minions, of our vassals, of our tributaries... that they bring us their darkest Darkness, their burniest Hellfire, their stickiest darkness, their jazziest Souls, their most ironic Blood -- and we managed to scrape together enough to buy something! We'll hand over our cards to the Bazaar, and hope that nobody outbids us. We'll pay the minimum price, which should get us what we want and need in order to conquer the City of Dis... but we'll see. We'll see next turn!

Here's a map of our immediate surroundings, with Durus playing the birdy pawns, us playing the red, horny pawns, Davi Owie playing the smelly pawns.

[lijacote]

The last couple of turns have happened. I've not had the energy to update. Is there interest for this anymore, or was it dead on arrival? I'll restart if there's demand, but eh. Eh.

[sum1won]

I'm reading!  But I'm also reading the PBeM

[Hanzoku]

I've been reading with interest, just quietly doing so.

[Darkwind3]

I've also been following! I have to say I'd never even heard of Solium Infernum before the recent PBEM game started, but it looks interesting and I'm interested to see how it's played by someone who has some experience with it (more than me, anyways).

[Neonivek]

I admit I am completely lost...

[Rabid_Cog]

There is definite interest here. I've been eagerly checking for updates on a daily basis.

[lijacote]

Oh. Well. I'll resume then. After the weekend.

[EuchreJack]

I've always been interested in this game, and am quite happy to see it on display.  PBEM isn't exactly the most transparent vehicle to display a game...