This is Part 3 of a 5-part diary of a Solium Infernum multiplayer game. For Part 2, go here. For full context, see the contents post here.
Turn 35
Okay, well, somebody summoned the Angel again. And this time it’s actually a problem for me. It’s possible the Sons could kill it if I attached some melee boosters. Or I could just chuck a sacrificial legion into its path.
That’s a problem for next turn, though, or maybe the turn after. The current development is that Skippy has used his archfiend’s special ability, the Draconic Razzia, to trigger a fun little one-turn war with me, which will kick off next turn. Unsure what the plan is there – the only thing I can think of is that he wants to cut across my territory to take the nearby PoP I never bothered to claim. I’m half-tempted to just let him have it, as I don’t think there’s any Prestige at stake here.
A little unsure what to do next. I can’t move against Skippy as the Draconic Razzia blocks me from sending any diplomatic demands of my own until it’s resolved. Moving against Peter again would be the logical choice as he is technically in the lead and can’t do a damn thing to protect himself from me.
But I also need to make sure Zael can’t get too powerful. His second legion died to the fireball, but Tom’s legion didn’t move – did Zael lock it down with a Deceit ritual?
The good news is: this is now definitely 3 vs 1. This means I don’t need to feel guilty about taking the gloves off.
I’ll Corrupt Tribute on Zael again. I can bully Skippy and Peter with diplomacy, but in order to Vendetta Zael I’d have to march troops halfway across the map, and I’m less confident about Praetor Duels because his increasing Deceit means I can’t easily steal his Praetors. He might be running the +Destruction resist ritual after I blew up two of his legions, but I’ll just have to take that chance.
I’ll also send a Humiliate diplomatic action to Peter. This greatly accelerates the process of getting to Vendetta (which would otherwise require several turns of back and forth as demands are made and responded to) and turns him into a big Prestige pinata.
It could all go horribly wrong for me depending on what the Angel and the Leviathan do. Reasonably sure the Leviathan is going to head north, through Skippy’s territory, up to the Garden of Infernal Delights. But the last turn has shown that it is anything but predictable…
Turn 36
The Leviathan moved north and took out Tom’s legion that was prosecuting the war against Zael. Which is annoying, I don’t think he’ll be able to win that vendetta now.
But. In a thrilling re-enactment of King Kong vs Godzilla, the Angel then moved up to try and kill the Leviathan. That I did not expect. Does the Leviathan count as a faction with military power? They fought each other to a draw, but the Angel came off way worse; it’ll win if it attacks the Leviathan again next turn thanks to having higher Ranged and Melee stats (and also thanks to the Leviathan being on half health after bulldozing Skippy’s legions) but it’s only got 3 HP left. I can definitely take it out with the Sons now if it comes my way.
My Corrupt Tribute action on Zael bounced. I don’t think he had the resist ritual up, I think he’s just levelled Destruction for the passive resist – it’s about time one of my rituals failed anyway.
More importantly, though, Skippy has indeed manoeuvred his troops so that they can take the Unholy Fountain. Which is kind of whatever, but I don’t see why I should just let him have it – and while he goes before me in the turn order, he’ll need to spend an action attaching something to his legion in order to take it in the one turn of hostilities the Draconic Razzia allows. So I can use my first action to cast Strategic Confusion, which prevents the target legion from moving if it hasn’t moved already.
The more worrying thing is that a Dark Augury has told me that Skippy has Destruction 5 and a whole bunch of Hellfire stored up. Probably even odds of his rituals bouncing off of me, but that’s not good enough – I’ll invoke the +Destruction Resist ritual, Evil Ward, as my second action, just in case.
I also have a whole bunch of tribute saved up. I should probably spend it. I can afford level 6 Prophecy, which gives me a fifth and final Ritual slot, and which would also allow me to break Zael’s ritual table and stop him from casting anything. A nice thing to have in my back pocket, just in case.
I should probably also stop running Elocution. If it’s 3 vs 1 now it’s going to be a lot less valuable as all of my opponent’s demands will be directed at me instead of each other.
Zael’s done the same thing I have and dumped all of his Prestige into a Prince upgrade. Which means he can vassalise himself to Skippy next turn if he so wishes. Such is life.
Turn 37
Strategic Confusion bounced, and Skippy’s legion took the Unholy Fountain. It’s possible I overestimated the effectiveness of Deceit. It doesn’t help that the game obfuscates everything and won’t tell you how things are calculated, but I’m starting to think that my sustained thievery of Praetors and Legions a few turns earlier was just good rolls.
Still, overall that’s a good thing: the game’s not as unbalanced it first appeared. If Deceit rituals were the only tools at my disposal I’d be in trouble. Fortunately they are not; I have what looks like the best duelling Praetor in the game currently (thanks Peter), so I’ve fired off a Humiliate to Skippy with a Praetor Duel lined up if he refuses.
Peter for his part accepted the Humiliate I sent to him last turn – a wise move, as I can’t send another one for 3 turns giving him a bit of time to prepare.
I’ve placed a bid for another good duelling Praetor in the Bazaar, just to deny it to everyone else. The problem with Gusion is that he’s very one-dimensional and his moves are all Skulls-type, so if there’s a Praetor who counters Skulls he could be in trouble. And I suspect Praetor Duels are going to be my tool of choice for bullying both Skippy and Zael, when I eventually get around to him.
I’m maintaining Expose Treason and Evil Ward (the Destruction and Deceit resistance boosting rituals), and probably will do so for the rest of the game. I’m cancelling Elocution, and also finally sorting out my Schemes – I can have 3 of them at once, but two of those slots are taken up by Schemes to complete Manuals and Schematics, which require either many purchases from the Bazaar or continual attempts at the RNG by using the Collect Manuscripts action. This is too many actions for my taste, so I’m going to use a Prophecy ritual to cancel one of those this turn and also Plot a new Scheme for next turn. Hopefully I can pull something nice and easy that I’m already doing, which is free Prestige.
There’s a conclave vote coming up to dump a bunch of Abyss Striders into somebody’s territory. If I were them I’d put them all in Skippy’s, so that he can fight them and level up his legions. It’s certainly useless to put them in mine, as I don’t have any PoPs for the Abyss Striders to disrupt and my Legions would one-shot them.
Oh, and the Angel killed the Leviathan, but not before the Leviathan took out Tom’s PoP. Tom also declared a Vendetta against Peter to take a PoP, but didn’t spot that Peter’s only PoP has an attached artifact – the Black Monolith – that gives it the Shadow Shield attribute, which makes it uncapturable. I’ll have to talk to him again soon to see if there’s anything I can do to help him, as he’s proving a distraction for the other players at the very least.
Not sure where the Angel will go next. Looking at the map it’s not impossible it goes after my starting Legion, which is lurking on the other side of Peter’s territory. I might just have to let them die if it does.
Turn 38
Ah, the Humiliation was delivered to Skippy just in time – he’s now played the Diplomatic Immunity event, which prevents him from being targeted by hostile diplomatic actions for 5(!) turns.
That could still throw a bit of a spanner in the works as I still lose out on a Humiliate I could otherwise have sent in 3 turns time. But the more worrying thing is Peter, who managed to get 15-20 Prestige last turn and is still in the lead despite me bullying him. He’s high in Charisma, does he have the ritual that gives him prestige per turn? Perhaps I should Dark Augury him again.
Incoming scheme selection isn’t tremendous despite me getting 4 picks. I think the most likely one is “Cast 5 Prophecy rituals”, which I will definitely do before the end of the game, it’ll just take around 10 turns to pay out.
(Although I’ve just realised that Evil Ward and Expose Treason are also both Prophecy rituals. Will they count if I’m maintaining them instead of actively casting them?)
I’m going to send a Humiliation to Zael, but I’ve hit a tiny snag: he bought a Praetor last round that I’m fairly sure was pretty beefy. I can send Gusion in and I think this gives me the best chance of success – but Gusion is already fighting Skippy, if Skippy refuses his Humiliation. And if Gusion loses that duel somehow, he’ll be dead and unable to fight in the duel against Zael.
I could send the Praetor I bought from the Bazaar last round, Naphula. She’s a little less powerful, so I think I’m only assured of victory with her if bribe the referee. And I still don’t know how that works because after 3 attempts nobody has yet actually answered the challenge and sent a Praetor to duel against me.
I’ll send Naphula. This could go horribly wrong and I could lose them both, plus a big chunk of Prestige. But it’s the best option I’ve got to squeeze some Prestige out of Skippy and Zael.
The Angel took out one of Tom’s legions – he really cannot catch a break. I have absolutely no idea who it’s going to go for next. Worst case is that it decides to go for my starting legion and bulldozes Tom’s remaining legions to do it. Best case is that it goes for Skippy.
Turn 39
Oh my god, this Angel. It’s just taken out another one of Tom’s legions, seemingly for no reason.
Skippy rejected the Humiliation. Perhaps now I will find out how Praetor Duels actually work.
Another garbage selection of Schemes. The best one available is “Make a Demand with the Infernal Negotiations ritual active”, which is two actions only, but Demands are less effective than Humiliate.
Skippy’s moved his troops worryingly close to my Stronghold. A potential play here is that he gets himself excommunicated by hitting Pandaemonium with a Destruction ritual and kills me in one turn, so I’m moving the Sons back to try and head that possibility off. The Angel might come this way, also, so on turn 39 I’m finally going to get something out of the vault and use it: Haagenti, a Praetor who will boost the Sons’ Melee attribute by 5.
Maintaining Expose Treason/Evil Ward does not count as successful Prophecy rituals for the purposes of the scheme I picked up last turn, so I’m going to have to do it by Dark Augurying people.
Peter’s picked up another 10 Prestige since last turn. He gets +5 from his PoPs, so I have no idea where the other 5 came from – he’s only running Elocution… wait, shit, if I’m sending a Humiliate to Skippy, Peter and Zael on a rota every turn then they all get a steady Prestige income from Elocution.
I’ll send another Humiliate to Peter next turn. He’s levelled 3 powers to level 4 now, which together with a powerful artifact he’s picked up that grants +1 orders means he has 6 orders. He’s still very weak militarily so can be bullied with Vendettas, but if I lose the Praetor Duels against Skippy and Zael I’m in big trouble.