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Crispy™ I want to be a Satan - Solium Infernum AAR

Darth Roxor

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I WANT TO BE A SATAN!
Let's watch a bunch of codexers stab one another in the backs in Solium Infernum!


Table of contents:
Game I
1. Introduction
2. Early Conquests
3. Consolidation of Power
4. Honour Among Thieves
5. Faceslap Delivery
6. The Calm Before the Storm
7. The Joys of War
8. A Pacifist in Hell
9. Heretics! Heretics Everywhere!
10. Scorched Earth
11. Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Men
12. The Throne of Hell

Game II (report never finished, alas)
1. Brave New Hell
2. Peace Through Power
3. Maybe Lightning Strikes Twice
4. Peace and Quiet

solium0037.jpg


Welcome, fair Codexia, to an after-action report of Solium Infernum.

What is that, you ask? Oh, it's pretty simple. You could call it a board game of sorts. Up to 6 players engage in a prestigious and friendly turn-based game of war, deceit and conspiracy in hell.

At the start, a map is more-or-less randomly generated, but following some criteria you input. Each player creates an archfiend avatar, assigning various stats to it - attributes, perks and infernal rank.

Attributes are: Martial Prowess (various legion-combat-oriented abilities), Wickedness (evil destructive magix), Cunning (framing and stealing), Intellect (magic resistance, various supportive rituals), Charisma (used pretty much exclusively for gaining resources).

Perks are too many to list, but two of them require attention. One is Kingmaker - this perk makes everyone in the game paranoid. If you are a kingmaker, you pick a player at the start of the game - if he wins, you win instead. This is why everyone is always supercareful about any suspicious diplomacy and alliances. A lesser version of it is Power Behind the Throne - if you manage to become a blood vassal to one of the players (it's like a permanent alliance where you're an inconsequential bootlick), should that player win, you win instead.

As for infernal ranks - these are a representative showing how important you are in the hierarchy of Hell (starting at a puny lord, through Baron, Marquis and Duke, and ending with Prince). This is important because the higher your rank, the less fiends of lower ranks can demand from you and win less prestige if they insult you. Also, should there be a tie on an auction in the infernal bazaar, the player with the higher rank wins.

How to play? Play to win. To reign is worth ambition. Second place? Fuck that. Winner takes all.

Victory is achieved in a number of ways. First is gentlemanly - everyone accumulates prestige throughout the course of the game, and the guy with the highest prestige at the end wins. Games take a random amount of turns - each turn a 'conclave token' has a chance of being drawn. The more tokens drawn already, the higher the chance a new one will be drawn. This game is on a 'long' setting and won't end before 20 tokens are drawn.

Second is less gentlemanly - if you feel up to it, you can assault the Pandemonium and dethrone the Infernal Conclave. Blowing the Pandemonium up is no small feat, and to make matters worse, you have to hold out 5 turns afterwards without getting kicked out of the game - i. e. if someone conquers your starting stronghold, you go down. And since attacking the conclave makes you excommunicated, everyone can blow you up without repercussions.

Third is the least gentlemanly, but perhaps most tough - simply be the last man standing when the earth gets scorched.

Oh, and while on the matter of waging war - you can't just cross other players' borders and assault their turf. You first have to provoke them into a vendetta, by insulting or demanding resources from them. If you gather enough vendettas, you can start a blood feud - basically a permanent vendetta that allows you to take enemy strongholds.

Each player usually starts with 2 order slots for each turn. Raising attributes to 4 (except charisma) unlocks additional orders.

Those are the basic basics. Let's raise the curtains!


I want to be a Satan!

Chapter I - Introduction

The vilest of the vile, an ensemble of six archfiends with attitude big plans for the future gathered to forge the future of Hell. Lucifer has disappeared and someone had to take his place.

Dramatis Personae:

solium0004.jpg


Roxette - A cunning daemonette of the spiteful Roxorowicz

(where possible, I will post logs from the players diaries. Unfortunately, not everyone kept them, and most end abruptly)

Ok this is going to be intredasting.

Starting stats 0/3/2/0/3 [that's martial/cunning/intellect/wickedness/charisma], marquis of heil, obscure [less resource tribute obtained when asked for]. Who needs resources from minions, when you can steal them from suckers o_@

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFNRh26TPmM

solium0002.jpg


King Herold V - The condemned mortal envoy of a certain Norwegian, herostratus

solium0001.jpg


Devil Deso - The infernal incarnation of all that is Brazil, desocupado

solium0005.jpg


Jaedar The Vile - Waiting in the shadows to amass an entire library of manuscripts of power.

solium0003.jpg


Alexoi - This gluttonous abomination's sole goal in the game is to sit on an ever-increasing pile of resources. Alex had big plans for such a small man.

My character build is completely focused on getting resources. I have 1 in all
my stats, and I got all the bonus perks for tributes. Myobjective is toget better
attributes as fast as I can, and work with what I manage to get. It is specially
important toget extra phase slots, as it will allow me to reign and demand tribute
at the same time.

solium0006.jpg


Caesar - Prince of Hell, the one of the highest standing. root has made sure to take minimal damage from diplomacy and hoard the entire bazaar for himself.

The Gameworld

mapa5.jpg


Here are the starting positions, legions and the entire map.

The buildings inside each player's territory are stronghold - think of them like Dungeon Keeper dungeon hearts.

The little figurines symbolise your legions - they run around the map, flagging territory and capturing places of power. They cannot cross water/swamps/mountains/fissures unless they have the 'flying' or 'mountain walk' perk.

The unclaimed buildings are places of power - they are neutral thingies that need to be captured by legions. When captured, they give prestige per turn, and sometimes give some unique abilities. For example, the Theatre of sloth has "dark sanctuary", which makes your archfiend immune to attribute damage.

Player starting legions:

solium0007.jpg


Legion stats: HP means how much damage it can take before dissolving. Loyalty is a modifier to rolls against deceit rituals. Level is a modifier to magic resistance, as well as a roll in battle that can give you a random bonus to any stat if successful.

Combat is basically like this: [Level roll] -> Ranged vs Ranged -> Melee vs Melee -> Infernal vs Infernal. This happens twice.

1. FINALLY I DON'T START WITH A FUCKSHIT LEGION, OMG. Let us march towards the pillar of skulls! After that either the theatre of sloth or the garden of delights, we'll see where Root goes. Gonna bid on Furfur, too.

solium0008.jpg


Turn 1:

Horribru starting location. Most PoPs closer to other people than me. Will go for a mad run for the wood of the suicides, then maybe the garden of infernal delight. Hopefully, Cheddars weak starting legion will have him not contesting that.

Edit: Oooh, trick. Might be that I can use my mountain walk to corner the mouth of abbadon, IF roxor goes west instead of east. However this plan can be cancelled easily by him.

In shop: Nothing game breakingly awesome like adamantium legion or book of enoch, but some nice stuff like darkwing legion. That annoying cunt the oblibian orb is there, and Impale manuscript is perhaps worth overbidding for. Prophecy head should be easy to get as well, few people value that shit highly.

In the short run: I overbid with 2 drops for impale. What I sacrifice for this is the ability to demand tribute and hopefully bid for furfur next turn.

Short run goal: - Take the wood of suicides, or mouth of abaddon. Go even further if lucky.
- Get Impale manuscript
- Bid on Furfur, or barring that, Raum.

Long term Goal: - Get Lemegetong seal and upgrade my int for an early third order
- After the above: decide upon a nearby player to bully.

solium0009.jpg


Started far from any place of power, but I think I have a good shot at the
wood of suicides. The Theatre of Sloth is near too, but Caesar is bound to get it.
The mouth of Abbadon is nearby too, but if Roxor wants it, he will have the phase
advantage. Still, I will take 3 turns to get to the woods either way, so I will
go near it first. If Roxors seems to go for another place of power, I will try to
take it too.

solium0010.jpg


solium0011.jpg


solium0012.jpg


My legion is fairly crap for now. But if I can get the mekatrix sigil it will transform into something quite mighty.

There's lots of juicy stuff in the shop. Flying minion, artifacts, good praetors and some nice manuscripts...
With a good draw I might get mekatrix next turn. That would be lovely.

Going for the wheel. I can get there in one turn. If I can beat it... well that's another story, I should win unless level advantage fucks me over badly.

As for the bazaar, let's take a look at that.

solium0013.jpg


Legions on sale. 'Min bid' is how many resources of each type you must bid at least to enter an auction. You can overbid if you're very concerned about someone else snatching the goods. Some legions also require an upkeep per turn.

solium0014.jpg


solium0015.jpg


solium0016.jpg


solium0017.jpg


Now let's check the praetors. Praetors are your officers - you can send them to command legions and increase their stats, or challenge enemy praetors to single combat vendettas. Or even challenge praetors from the Pandemonium for massive prestige gain.

solium0018.jpg


Level and loyalty are p. much the same as for legions. Attack/defence/infernal are combat 'resources' the praetors can assign to various moves in single combat. Luck is a stat that can randomly reduce damage taken by your praetor.

Raum is a fairly good legion commander, giving good +stats.

solium0019.jpg


Orias, on the other hand, has some pretty fat praetor stats - high hp and good attack/defence. He can also be deadly when assigned to a melee specialist legion.

solium0020.jpg


solium0021.jpg


solium0022.jpg


These were praetors. Now for artifacts and relics.

Artifacts are items assigned to legions. Relics profit your archfiend avatar. Their level indicates how hard it is for enemies to steal them.

solium0023.jpg


solium0024.jpg


solium0025.jpg


solium0026.jpg


solium0027.jpg


solium0028.jpg


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Last are the manuscripts. They almost always come in 'parts', and need to be fully assembled to use.

They can influence very much everything. They can increase legion stats, praetor stats, avatar stats or decrease them for the enemies.

solium0031.jpg


solium0032.jpg


solium0033.jpg


solium0034.jpg


solium0035.jpg


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And that would be all when it comes to setting the scene. Next time we'll start the actual infernal game of thrones. The ode of a pacifist in hell. The dirge of the lemming run. The poo-flinging and accusations of thievery and collaboration. The average friendly game of Solium Infernum!
 
Last edited:

Darth Roxor

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Well, if you've got questions concerning various aspects of the game during the course of the thread, feel free to ask. SI's rules are fairly... oblique, and some need to be further explained in-depth.
 
Self-Ejected

Ulminati

Kamelåså!
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The main problem with SI - a game I've enjoyed immensely - is the documentation is all over the place. You basically need to have printed cheat sheets of what all the special abilities do (and there's a lot of them) and consult it every 5 minutes. Even once you've played a dozen games, you'll still frequently find yourself looking stuff up. Tooltips would've helped a ton in this game. And a way to auto-sort resource cards.

I really wish someone would tighten up the rules, reduce the # of special abilities and release SI as a board game someday. It would make for an amazing all-night game of backstabbing.
 
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Messages
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The main problem with SI - a game I've enjoyed immensely - is the documentation is all over the place. You basically need to have printed cheat sheets of what all the special abilities do (and there's a lot of them) and consult it every 5 minutes. Even once you've played a dozen games, you'll still frequently find yourself looking stuff up. Tooltips would've helped a ton in this game. And a way to auto-sort resource cards.

I really wish someone would tighten up the rules, reduce the # of special abilities and release SI as a board game someday. It would make for an amazing all-night game of backstabbing.

That would make sekkrit deals hard to do though.
 

tuluse

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
The main problem with SI - a game I've enjoyed immensely - is the documentation is all over the place. You basically need to have printed cheat sheets of what all the special abilities do (and there's a lot of them) and consult it every 5 minutes. Even once you've played a dozen games, you'll still frequently find yourself looking stuff up. Tooltips would've helped a ton in this game. And a way to auto-sort resource cards.

I really wish someone would tighten up the rules, reduce the # of special abilities and release SI as a board game someday. It would make for an amazing all-night game of backstabbing.

That would make sekkrit deals hard to do though.
Have a stack of note cards and pass them around. You'll know something is being discussed, but not what.
 
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Boris

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Is that multiplayer?
If not, the AI is tooo retarded to deal with braindead camping...
 

Alex

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Darth Roxor

If I knew you were going to post that stuff "as is", I would at least have tried to clean up some of the worst mistakes, you know?

Also, are you planning something like this for Paranoia too?
 
Self-Ejected

Ulminati

Kamelåså!
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Well, I just reinstalled SI to brush up on how the game works. I forgot how pathetically easy the AI is to roflstomp compared to Armageddon Empires.
I managed to secure the minotaur (13 skulls, 7 shields, 0 orbs) and elephant (10 skulls, 10 shields, 3 orbs) praetors fairly early using my 3 charisma and demanding tribute every turn. since none of the others were worth shit, I then started demanding 4 resource cards from everyone. If they refused, I declared vendetta by single combat and put my minotaur up. No one ever showed up to respond for the vendetta, so it was essentially free prestige. After a turn in which all 3 opponents had given me 4 resource cards, someone played an infernal tax event. So I played my close the hellmouth event and suddenly I was the only person left with resources. Since no one could afford to pay my demands for 4 tribute, I got free vendettas (single combat, auto-win) and surged ahead in prestige. Meanwhile, I was pumping up my cunning/deceit, and I had the Prince of Lies trait. So even late game, whenever a praetor was bought on the bazaar, I just hit them with chain rituals to steal them. Eventually, the AI began sending a few demands and insults my way, but I was far enough ahead I could just pay them off and laugh. By the time all 15 conclave tokens were drawn, I had 295 prestige and 2nd place had 146 prestige, with 3rd-5th being sub-100.

Will have to see if I can get a PBEM game going. Running a deceit devil is way more fun than the martial powerhouses I usually go for.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
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Chapter II - Early Conquests

TURN 2:

solium0038.jpg


This is the turn log. It shows everything you should know about that happened last turn. Normally, you don't see who bought whatever item from the bazaar, but you get the info if you are outbid by someone.

Darth Roxor said:
2. Of course, fucking root got Furfur. HNNGG, shoulda bid on Raum. Tribute + pillar. I could use 4 cunning fast so I could have 3 orders.

solium0039.jpg


Here you can see that Jaedar got the Wheel of Pain, and my legion is marching towards the Pillar of Skulls.

Cheddar said:
Turn 2

VICTORY.
But no level up. Damn.

Lets try to grab some ground before we get boxed in. 3 souls till mekatrix.

solium0040.jpg


Tensions rise on the Alex-Herostratus line.

Alex said:
Turn 2:
Hero wanted to come to an agreement. I would let him have the woods, and he
would let me have the mouth (which roxor didn't go after, after all). I agreed
because, as he pointed out, it was a hard place to defend.

Herostratus said:
Turn 2:

FUCK pastebin lol. Shitpiece of website. Deleted my other turn 2 through automatic logout or some gay shit.

Anyways. Cut a deal with Alex; he goes for abaddon mouth. Easier than expected, he is too good for hell.

Furfur was taken. I got Impale tho.

I will not use demand tribute next, rather concentrate on combat cards. A good fight vs the wood of suicides might enable me to go for Garden of Infernal delight or even the mount of +1 destruction.

solium0041.jpg


When any item is bought on the bazaar, a new one replaces it. In this case, Abraxas replaced Furfur.

solium0042.jpg


And a part of the machine of despair manuscript replaced Impale.

solium0043.jpg


This is the diplomacy screen.

The laurel above each player's portrait is his current Prestige. Jaedar capped a place of power, so his prestige increased. The sceptre icon on his portrait also means that he's the current Regent.

Regents get to draw a special event card during their turn. The effects of those are too many to list, but you'll see many of them during the course of this game. Also, the Regent always has the first move during a turn, after which the cycle continues clockwise - so the first phase would resolve with Jaedar -> Deso -> Root making their moves first, etc.

A regent is changed every turn, and the cycle is clockwise as well. Unless someone gets excommunicated, then he can't become regent.

In the upper left corner is the 'threat list'. The higher someone is on your threat list, the less resources you have to pay to exact TERRIBLE RITUALS! against them.

TURN 3.

solium0044.jpg


solium0045.jpg


Here's an example combat screen. My legion won the 'battle advantage' level roll and got +1 ranged as a result.

After that it was just pure x vs y. 4 ranged vs 6 ranged = I lose 2 hp. 7 melee vs 0 melee, the pillar loses 7 hp and is conquered by me.

Roxorowicz said:
3. Great. Now let's bid on Vassago and march for the gardens.

solium0046.jpg


But other denizens of HELL have not been twiddling their thumbs either. Root assigned the praetor Furfur to his legion and conquered the Tree of Woe with ease.

solium0048.jpg


Herostratus is preparing to take the Wood of the Suicides.

Herostratus said:
Turn 3:

Rite of Aether rupture bought. wtf? Are someone else also going int? This means I ought to get the Lemedong seal earlier. Cheddar is also cheddaring as usual, trying some bizarre intervention at the woods. I think I will threat list him a #1 and stat bullying him soon as i got 3rd order.

Maneuver training manual #2 is in shop. I would bid on it, but i have to make a combat card and assault the Wood of Suicides. With +4 stats advantage it should work out, let's just hope Nuffle doesn't fuck me over.

solium0047.jpg


New manuscript on the bazaar.

Cheddar said:
Turn 3-4
More bad tribute rolls. I need some fucking souls dammit!

I'll let roxor nad hero squabble over these pops. Not like I can challenge them in a fight

Yet.

DING DING TURN 4

solium0049.jpg


solium0050.jpg


Deso takes the Theatre of Sloth.

solium0051.jpg


Herostratus takes the Wood of Suicides.

It would appear there's gonna be a race to the Garden of Infernal Delights...

Herostratus said:
Turn 4:

Nuffle be praised! Won the level roll, + combat cards, for a total of 6 stat advantage. Also leveled up from the victory, and lost no HP either. To make things extreme, I got the choice between +2 infernal, +1 move points or +1 hitpoints. Yeeah, not hard to choose here. I am now the cadillac of hell.

No one bid on maneuver training; I will. If cheddar is smart and blox rox from the garden of infernal delight, i can also choose to snap that one. This will piss them both off however, and make me the deso of this game.

Roxorowicz said:
4. If cheddar intends to block me from getting the fucking garden, I am going to fucking murder him.

But wait, what's this

solium0052.jpg


Apparently Brazilians cannot into binary calculations. Alex's legion has gone ALLAH AKBAR against the Mouth of Abaddon.

My legions died trying to take the place of power. This isn't such a big deal,
as they will reform later on. Still, I lost prestige in this. Should probably have
checked the relative strengths before attacking, though. Now I will concentrate on
my strategy ofgetting resources and consolidating personal power.

solium0053.jpg


A new Praetor on the bazaar.

DING DING TURN 5

solium0054.jpg


Not a whole lot of stuff going on.

solium0055.jpg


And the event I got is fairly useless this early in the game. It would be very good around mid/late game, when you really want to hide your prestige and keep the vultures away (WELL ROXOR, IT IS NATURAL EVERYONE BUMRUSHES YOU, YOU ARE THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS (TM) ). Not to mention it costs 3 souls/3 darkness, which doesn't exactly grow on trees this early.

solium0056.jpg


Now let's take a look here.

Roxorowicz said:
5. GET DAT GARDEEEEEEEEEEN

Since I have the regently first move, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop me.

And not like they even intended to.

Cheddar said:
Turn 5

HNNNNNG
4 turns without souls....

Herostratus said:
Turn 5:

Won Maneuver training. Cheddar didn't block roxor; suspecting collusion.

Maneuver training #1 is in shoop. BUT I DONT HAVE ANY FUCKING SOULZ

The Garden of Infernal Delights is a pretty important place, btw, not only 'cause it generates 2 prestige/turn (most others give 1), but it's also the goal of an objective you take at the start of the game. And given how 3 people in the game had that objective, the race could have been foreseen.

Alex said:
Turn 5:
More of the same. I am hurtingfopr darkness right now. I hopeI get luckier
with my tributes.

solium0057.jpg


New manuscript on the bazaar. A 2nd part of one that was already bought by Herostratus.

DING DONG BANNU TURN 6:

solium0058.jpg


solium0059.jpg


My legion levelled up after taking the Garden, and now I can choose 1 +attribute. I took +melee to stack up my highest stat even further.

solium0060.jpg


solium0061.jpg


This is the resource gathering thingy. If you need resources, you gotta use the 'demand tribute' action. After that, you are presented with x randomy resources from which you can take y based on your charisma. My 3 charisma allows me to choose 3 out of 4 cards.

Roxorowicz said:
6. GREAT SUCCESS! And the legion levelled as well. HUEHUEHUE o_@
Now to demand some resources, get +movement scroll and start plotting.

Of course, hero is already attempting to surround the Pandemonium.

solium0063.jpg


And indeed he is.

Herostratus said:
Turn 6:

Oh Nuffle thou arth a trecherous bitch. No one bought maneuver training, luckily. Still got no manpower. Walking + tribute, again. Heading for Mountain.

Oh and manual of devotion #1 is up. I wantz that too. Dang me.

Fun fact: Root hides his Furfur when he's not in use. Interesting. Paranoid perhaps? It wastes his turns anyways so w/e.

solium0062.jpg


This is the new manuscript he references.

solium0067.jpg


And the one I was bidding on. I take 2 resource cards out of my vaults in a minimal bid because I am dumb enough to think no one else will want it.

solium0068.jpg


After which I demand resources. And this is all I do in the 2 phases I have for orders.

Basically, everything you do takes up a phase, unless it's an 'answer' sort of thing, like answering someone's demand, taking tribute from minions, doing stuff demanded by an event, etc.

solium0064.jpg


While I capped the Garden, Root proceeded to landgrab sum cantons. Cheddar is still turtling

Cheddar said:
turn 6
Finally, some souls, bidding for mekatrix. No one has gotten it yet, so I doubt I need to go over the default.

solium0065.jpg


Deso proceeds with more landgrabs, heading towards the Summit of Mt Erebus.

And Alex, well

Alex said:
Decided to ask for tribute again. Next turn I should upgrade something. I
wonder if I am doing something very wrong. Everyone else always seem to be paying
attention to everyone else's game.I usually only take the time to study the map if
I have a specific plan in mind.

solium0066.jpg


Here's the current standing after 6 turns and capping almost everything there is on the map.

And that would be all for now. Fairly boring start, but that's how most SI games start - blitzkrieg towards the closest PoPs and establishing early dominance. After that, however, begins the finest cold war Hell has to offer.

Stay tuned for moar.
 
Last edited:

Jaedar

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Wow, hero started being unfriendly and deceiving Alex on Turn 2 already.

My position is looking good so far, I think I can win!
 
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Messages
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How am I deceiving alex?

I had mountain walk. If he went for woods, i could go for the mouth and vica versa. For me, the mouth is hard to defend and the forest... Moderately hard to defend. For alex, the mouth is easy to defend due to only one attack vector.
 
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Where did you get the avatard Ulminati? I couldn't find any in the kodex avatar archive.
 

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