SATAN SATAN SATAN-Sol. Infernum PBEM MrStone gets upset win!

[MisterStone]

Arright, turn one sent out. We are off!

 

[silver crowaxe]

Hell yeah.

 

[Trash]

Can't seem to find a new turn in my inbox.

 

[Heechee]

Turn 1 sent.

 

[MisterStone]

trash did you not get the .sav file I sent? I send a .sav, you guys process it, I get a .trn in return.

*edit* I noticed that the last email I sent did not have a title (my bad), maybe your account filtered it out or sth?

 

[Trash]

Thanks, I found/got it now and send my turn in. Looks like an interesting map.

 

[MisterStone]

OK, turn processed and new one sent out. Lookin good, lookin good

 

[silver crowaxe]

OK, turn processed and new one sent out.

I've not got the new one.

Edit: Got it now, thanks.

 

[Trash]

Ahah, turn two and we already have legions being bought, people racing for places of power and other neferious deeds done. This could become interesting.

 

[Heechee]

Turn two done. Notably crappy selection of pretty much everything - legions, relics, praetors. I wonder who will get to that fountain first

 

[MisterStone]

Sent out 3

 

[MisterStone]

Should have read the manual more carefully...

 

[silver crowaxe]

Heh, my order was processed first, being the regent.

It is good to be king.

 

[MisterStone]

Yo trash I resent the turn to you, let me know if you still don't get it. (Heechee and crowaxe have)

 

[Trash]

Godspit. That place of power is lost to me. Time for plan B.

 

[Heechee]

Godspit. That place of power is lost to me. Time for plan B.

We are keeping a good pace. Good work gentlemen, especially the host!

 

[silver crowaxe]

Agreed.

 

[MisterStone]

You're all basically congratulating me for not being employed right now.

 

[Reject_666_6]

How about making an AAR out of this thread? A game between four codexian masterminds should be at least mildly entertaining.

 

[MisterStone]

Well, the trick is doing it so that you don't reveal anything about your own resources or what exactly you are getting up to. This is the kind of game where are a lot of things you do can be entirely hidden from other players, so you don't want to show too much.

 

[Ashery]

What about an ongoing log from each player that gets posted at the end to give some entertaining turn by turn insight?

 

[Trash]

At the moment people are expanding their territory like crazy and are trying to gobble up the Places of Power. The legions that you can hire from the bazaar are all of less than optimal quality, but they are usefull for expansion so everyone seems to be hiring. Artefacts and preators are also not of the best quality, but we'll see if there will be some nice stuff later on.

Great fun so far. Thanks for all the effort Misterstone!

 

[MisterStone]

OK, here is a view of the tactical map. While it might look like we are all on the verge of attacking one another, the truth is that it takes a good deal of work to kick another player's ass in this game. Those outlined hexes you see on the map are our "cantons". When the game begins, Lucifer has just vacated the throne, so all of the cantons are unclaimed, and a wild land grab ensues. Right now we are rushing legions all over the map trying to grab land and grab Places of Power. Any hex that is unclaimed can be moved into, but you have to fight the garrison of a Place of Power if you want to take it for your own. We absolutely cannot move into a hex claimed by another player. In order to do that, you have to be in Vendetta with the player; that is, you have to change diplomatic modes with them. In order for this to happen, one of two things must take place: 1) I have to first insult someone in front of the conclave. If they accept the insult, they lose prestige points (See below). If they refuse the insult, THEY have to declare vendetta on ME. 2) I can make a demand from someone, requesting tribute cards, hexes of land, a special item, and so on. If they refuse to give me what I want, I can declare vendetta on THEM. When one declares vendetta, they chose a set of goals, which can involve taking squares away from me, destroying legions, taking away places of power, etc. One special but important form of resolving this is gladiatorial combat between two Praetors (generals that can be assigned to lead legions or garrisons). If you win the vendetta based on these goals get prestige, otherwise you lose some. But enough about that for now...

That building surrounded in red is my fortress. If some day it gets destroyed I automatically lose the game; however this is not a very common occurrence in my experience. The red fat devil token is one of my legions; in this case the legion is my own personal guard that is flawlessly loyal to me, and which will ressurect if is it ever destroyed for any reason. Here you can see that I tried to rush my legion south from my fortress towards that Place of Power down there, but Devastatordevil (silver crowaxe) got to it first. The gray piece that looks like a wave of evil or a giant flame is one of his legions. Right now I am feeling kind of screwed since I don't have any easily accessible PoPs near my place, but I am busy working on one to the north...

In case you were wondering, PoP are important because they give you prestige each turn. Prestige is how the winner of the game is determined, except for some special circumstances... but that is neither here nor there...

If we scroll the map upwards a little ways (or downwards, since the map wraps in all directions; hell is fuck up man) then you can see another legion I have sent off to the north trying to grab a different PoP. The problem with this PoP is its garrison is too tough for my legion to take right away, so I am going to need to augment it somehow. At this point in the game that will probably need to happen by means of something from the bazaar, but I am not seeing much there that is helpful. Luckily I can buy time by cutting off Devastator Devil from marching over there as well. I hope. I am pretty sure I get to move first next turn, so DD won't be able to move into an adjacent hex.

Over here you can see Beliar (trash) and Heechee rushing to a different PoP. Looks like Trash already took it.

The reason you need these PoPs early on is because they accumulate prestige each turn, and usually the person with the highest prestige at the end of the game wins. The game ends naturally when a certain number of "conclave" tokens are drawn; there is a somewhat random chance of this happening each turn. In the game settings we have here, when 15 tokens are drawn, the game will end and the "conclave" will chose the player with highest prestige as the new ruler of hell.


Other important things to know: each turn we have a limited set of orders. The default is 2. If we get some of our stats to level 4 or higher, we get extra orders. There are a few very rare items that give a bonus order as well.

Resources: the resources are Souls, Ichor (= demon blood), Hellfire, and Darkness. You can see the symbols for these across the top of the screen. You mainly get resources by "demanding tribute", which means your minions go out into hell and the mortal world and try to get people to worship you... it's all an abstraction in any case. You can also get tribute by using deception to loot other people's vaults, from special events, and from demanding people to give you stuff.


*edit* OH Fuuu... I just showed the next move I am about to make with one of my legions. Well, it's probably obvious anyway. Next time will be more careful.



Round 5 has been sent out, bring it suckers!

 

[Trash]

I fucking lost the race to that PoP to Heechee. Damnit. As expected though. Now I quickly need to formulate a new strategy for Prestige points and ways of kicking you lot out.

 

[MisterStone]

Better start shaking people down for prestige...