As Karlito said, pretty much everything in this game takes an order slot. Want to collect resources? An order. Want to move a legion? Order. Want to buy anything from the Bazaar? An order for every individual item. Want to commit a diplomatic action? Order. Want to cast a ritual? Order. etc etc.
You start with two order slots. There's a max of six. Four of the five core skills in the game give an extra slot if you reach high enough level in them. To do that takes significant resources over a long period of game time. You can start with three slots if you opt for a heavily specialized build. Even so, 3-4 order slots seems like a fairly doable for most builds over the course of a normal length game. I reckon 5-6 would require significant gimmickery and sacrifices for questionable gain in anything but the longest of games.
Design wise, Dominions seems to have little checks in place to prevent massive bloat as the game progresses. By contrast Solium Infernum severely limits your amount of actions (but luckily not choices). I'm sure there's going to be a bit more stuff to consider as people level up their fiends and hatch plots, but that doesn't really translate into excessive mechanical drudgery à la hours upon hours of army scripting Dominions does.
That's a full six then. Do you guys all feel like you can get comfortable with the game and create suitable avatars by friday? Earlier is fine, but I'd like to get started by friday at the latest so if we get some early technical problems we can still be playing by sunday.
I also need everyone to PM me their email address so I can send out the turn files once I gen them.
PBEM how-to for players:
1. Receive a [name of the game].inv file from game host.
2. Save [name of the game].inv file into your _NewGameStarts folder.
In my win7 the file path is:
C:\Users\User\Documents\SoliumInfernumGame\MultiPlayerSaves\_NewGameStarts
3. Start the game. Select "Multiplayer". Select "Load Game". [name of the game] should appear on the screen. Select it. You should now be asked to select a previously made avatar to be used in the game, do so. This should prompt a dialogue box, click "ok" to dismiss it.
4. Go to your \MultiPlayerSaves folder. There should be a new folder named [name of the game]. In that folder should be a .trn file. Email the .trn file to the host.
5. Wait until the host emails you a .sav file.
6. Save the .sav file to your \MultiPlayerSaves\[Name of the game] folder.
7. Open SI and load a multiplayer game. Do your turn. Press "End Turn".
8. Upon exiting the game you should find a .trn file in the [Name of the game] folder. Email it to the host.
9. Keep passing the .sav/.trn files between host and player until game ends.
I tried to condense the PBEM related bits from the manual by cutting off the host bits. Let me know if I botched up somewhere.
I'll see about getting the game genned in the next few days. I'll use settings mentioned in the OP and a map type of "Lake of Fire", assuming no one objects to any of them.