sugarfreegamer.com

I'm sort of shifting my focus from this intermittent blog to a more defined gaming blog, named sugarfreegamer.com, obviously playing upon the hook of me having diabetes and being a gamer. I know, I know, not much of a hook, but you know, its one that affects me on a daily basis, so I thought it might be of some merit.

Anyway, if you frequent here now and then, shift your attention over at SFG, as thats where I'll be hanging out nowadays, or on The Claw.

Solium Infernum: Turn 9

A manuscript has been snaffled up, which can often be worrying, because manuscripts usually mean tooling up Praetors for single Praetor vs Praetor combat. However, a lot of manuscripts arrive in pieces, and are collections so this might be just the start of a collection. Lets hope.

The Conclave has decided to confiscate any Prestige gained from Places of Power this turn, however, there is already a 7 turn Prestige drought, so I doubt this will shake anyones will.

In rolls my Unexpected Tribute event, and what a sight for sore eyes, 5 or 6 tribute deliveries with some really valuable composite resource cards turn up.



Again, the map has become fairly static, especially for me, although with my new found resource glut, I'm figuring on tooling up a Legion or two and making an advance for the Palace of Gluttony that I've got cordened off.



Searching through the Praetors, its time to bag myself a decent one. My eyes are drawn to Naphula's ability to block Combat Cards. In any Legion to Legion combat this may be a decisive power. So I make a bid for the Preator Naphula.



Here you can see my wealth, and the stacking system I've adopted for sorting the tribute cards, so that I can quickly find composite cards, or look through singles, to determine the best mix when paying for items at the Infernal Bazaar.



Finally the wealth goes to my head, and I decide to make a bid for a Melee boosting artifact for my melee bereft 'Chosen of Stal' Legion. The Adamantine Golem artifact adds 4 onto the melee score, but also adds the Stunning Blow special, which if successful doubles the amount of damage, but also reduces the opponents attributes to 0 for the remainder of the combat. My Chosen Legion has a deep infernal attack, and to add some initial melee might soften the opposition with this artifact in place.

Solium Infernum: Turn 8

Starting off with a Prestige drought isn't good, but it is across the board for 7 turns, so it will affect everyone equally.



I managed to secure the 'suicide bomber' relic the Orb of Oblivion, so when I get a spare turn, I'll have to tool up my weakest Legion with it.

I am awarded the regency this turn, and as such I get to choose between the existing event card I hold, and a new alternative. Luckily, the new card presented is 'Unexpected Tribute', which is essentially a tribute/resource windfall, something that will help my ichor deficit tremendously.



Theres not much happening on the map this turn, I think the majority of the land grabbing has finished, we're now in the phase were players start to beef up their Legions, play their events, and begin the diplomatic process of picking fights, or psyching out their weakest opponents.



With the prestige cost of making a demand on another, Leverpastej has had his total paired down a little, which has the fortunate knock on effect of boosting me to the top of the Prestige leaderboard. But its early days yet.

Solium Infernum: Turn 7

Is seems the Vendetta has been formed, and Leverpastej and Melfice will now come to blows for at least a turn or two.



I've got Renge Darkfiddler on my North Western border, presumably with an eye on the Palace of Gluttony, but in order to make a play for it, he'll need to initiate a Vendetta with me, and until I've tooled up one of my Legions, I'm not ready for conflict.



I'm desperately short on ichor, and even with my high level of Charisma pulling in 4 tributes, choosing 3 of them to keep, I'm not finding much ichor on the slimey dinnerplate. My souls are doing well, and they're important when making bids, because the more souls you can add to a bid, they count as +2 to the overall bid value, so if you really want something, stuff it with a few more souls than necessary. Looking at Legions (not that I want any more to be honest, they're too much to manage, and move, with only two orders per turn) I can't afford any, and Praetors all seem to require lots of ichor, sadly, so I thought perhaps equipping my weakest Legion with a decent artifact might give it some poke if a Vendetta is on the cards.

Out of all the artifacts, well the ones I could afford anyway, the Orb of Oblivion seemed to give me that suicide bomber send off. Rather than stoke one or two of my paultry attributes, if my weak sauce Legion goes under, they have a decent chance of taking the opponents Legion out also. Figuring it might stop an Archfiend in his tracks if I can take out his advancing Legion with a fairly weak one of mine.



If it sounds like a desperate tactic, it is. Without any tribute to beef up my Legions, or secure some Praetors I'm a bit stuck, and the paranoia is starting to set in, especially with Melfice snagging The Beast!

Solium Infernum: Turn 6

Let it be known, the War in Hell has begun! Last turn Leverpastej made a tribute Demand of Melfice, and after the Infernal Conclave messangers had passed the message on, the answer returned with a flat denial. Subsequently this rejection is grounds for a Vendetta to be declared upon Melfice if Leverpastej so desires it.



For my Archfiend Stal, theres a shortage of some ichor, and darkness mainly, these resources are needed if I'm to bid on some relics or even a Praetor Hero to add to one of my Legions, boosting their combat ability. So for now, I will attempt to grab some more cantons to eek my prestige higher a little, and I'll have to make more tribute demands of my minions, lets hope the blood and the black come dribbling in next turn.



You can see Leverpastej's and Melfice's Legions locking antlers to the South of my Stronghold, if a Vendetta is called they'll be going at it tooth and claw in the next turn or two.

Its hotting up in Hell tonight...

Solium Infernum: Turn 5

On turn 5, it seems the diplomatic demands have begun, with Leverpastej making a public demand against Melfice. And someone is tooling up with Praetors.



A swift turn for me, I was caught by the land grabbing, fiend blocking bug, and had to move both my Legions in place. I saw an opportunity to block access to the Palace of Gluttony, coupled with the chance to close another bridge into my forgotton plateau, so I took it. With both orders taken up, theres no room for Legion buying or Tribute demanding.



Lets see what happens next…

From Fumanstu:

I feel like I should weigh in with some comments here. I’m in the same game and, in fact, if you look at the second screenshot above that’s my legion in dark brown (all legions that don’t belong to you are displayed in dark brown) sitting on the bridge, eyeing up Spelk’s legion.

From the very start of the game, I’ve been aware that the initial phase of the game was going to be about the land grab. So I was pleased when I was able to take a low power POP as my own on the first turn. Since then its been about ensuring that I grab as many cantons as possible whilst trying to ensure that I retain access to as many of the nearby POPs as possible. Even if I have no intention of capturing them at this stage.

So this has led us to the current situation, at the moment I don’t want the POP that Spelk is attempting to fence off but also I don’t particularly want to have the option of capturing it later removed. So the question becomes do I use one of my two orders for the turn in an attempt to move in and grab the territory – I don’t know for sure that the order will succeed though because of the way the game processes moves. It may be that Spelk will go first and in that case my order will become invalidated and I really can’t afford to waste an order at this stage.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve got almost the exact same situation at the other end of my territory. I’m racing with one of the other players to try and secure access to another POP. It’s entirely possible that I could lose out there as well and then I’ll have lost a whole turn, which would be a serious setback.

So do I go cautious, regroup and use my orders to start planning something nasty for later? Or do I go in all guns blazing and hope that the moves work out in my favour and my opponents are the ones that are the losers?

And how long can me and Spelk maintain the uncomfortable neighbourly peace before things start to escalate? :D

Solium Infernum: Turn 4

I planned to record my dealings in a Play By Email game of Solium Infernum, but being swept up in a wave of enthusiasm I managed to tick over a few turns before remembering to explain myself, so we join the game entitled “Newbie Death Delight”, at Turn 4.

My Avatar, Stal, the Horse Head Fiend was rolled with Charisma and War in mind, I wanted to boost his ability to bring in plenty of tribute (the resources in the game) as well as be able to conjur Combat Cards for his Legions to equip, making them more powerful. The build was more thrown together out of hearsay from the Cryptic Comet forums, and tidbits gleaned from Quarter to Three forums, and I wanted to keep it simple to begin with, so I would be able to make informed decisions and not wild guesses.



The floorplan of Hell after Turn 4 looks like this from my perspective. Things have already started to slither around, my most loyal Legion The Chosen of Stal has already managed to capture a The Unholy Fountain, a Place of Power (PoP), directly north of his Stronghold (the building with the fiery red aura). This delivers an extra 1 point of Prestige per turn, so already we’re ascending in standing amongst our rivals.



After a quick slew of demanding tribute, I was able to bid for an extra supporting Legion on the Infernal Bazaar. Luckily a soul or two more than it needed secured the acquisition of The Order of Infernal Engineers.



This Legion wasn’t necessarily the best I could have bid on, but it was one I could afford with the meagre tribute I had available at the time. Rather than wait, I decided I’d grab a quick Legion, and start to mark off some of the territory, particularly to attempt to corden off The Palace of Gluttony to the west of my Stronghold. As you capture the unclaimed cantons (hexes) by moving a Legion across them, you effectively block out your opponents. They can only cross your cantons if a diplomatic Vendetta is arranged.

Since I’m currently a bit clueless about the subtle nuances of the game, I’m sticking (perhaps foolhardily) to a basic land control and Legion boost policy for the moment. I fear I might be playing the turns out more like a traditional wargame, but with limited experience of the more esoteric mechanics to employ against your demonic foes, I’ll stick with what I know for now.

During Turn 4, the Turn Log indicates that my rivals are also swallowing up their close Places of Power, as well as filling their ranks with Legions and Praetors (heroes that can be attached to Legions) from the Infernal Bazaar.



The remaining entries in the log show me that my Demand for more Tribute has delivered another batch of random resources I can select from to top up my dwindling pools of souls, ichor, hellfire and darkness.



And lastly the Regency has passed onto Leverpastej, indicating that he will begin the next turn with the first phase. The regency can be important because all players turns are resolved simultaneously, but are decided by the position in the turn phase, with the Regent being processed before those in the phase queue.

Finally, heres the diplomacy status screen, showing all players portraits and their prestige values at the end of turn 4.



As you can see, my early PoP grab has boosted my prestige from 10 to 21, but my Horse Lord rival Leverpastej has pipped me at the post with a prestige of 22. Players can prioritise their threat list (for free until turn 10), and often they’ll sort the list by prestige scores early on, so sometimes sucking up all the prestige initially can focus your rivals against you. Having said that, my reasoning was to provide myself with a base of prestige trickle whilst I can, and the longer the game runs the more prestige I will accrue. Since you have to use prestige to perform the diplomatic procedures to initiate a state of war (Vendetta, Blood Feud and even Insults), I figured its better to have some prestige to play with.

More next time…