Octopus Overlords

Slutalia's thing, clearly, is sleeping her way to the top, and generally being a tremendous slut. The basic build is designed to get as much tribute as quickly as possible - tribute being the way you get the equivalent of money in the game. Charisma of 3 lets her start drawing four tribute cards and keeping three of them, whereas lower charisma only lets you keep one or two. She also has the "infernal cardinal" perk, which gives her a bonus to tribute cards (basically, the cards I will draw will probably be better.

Here's my starting location (as of the start of turn 2):



Not terrible, but not great either. The Iron Staircase is in easy reach to my northwest, so I am grabbing it. It's only +1 prestige/turn, but that'll do for now. I've marked Pandemonium, as well as the direction of the Temple of Lust, which I need for my Lust public objective. The good news is that there is only one other Fiend with the Lust objective - NickAragua - so less competition for the Temple. The bad news is that the Temple is within easy striking distance of NickAragua's territory. Nick seems to have a prime starting location - two +2 prestige PoPs within easy reach, and he's already taken one of them (the Temple of the Damned). Also, based on the public military scores I did not think that he would be able to take the Temple within one turn - he's probably got a good martial skill, and either made a combat card to take the Temple or has a perk that adds his martial score to his legion's combat abilities.

More problematic is that my starting legion is a tad disappointing - 3 ranged, 3 melee, 8 infernal. The infernal score is great, but unfortunately infernal is the last combat round, so any opponents can beat up on my low ranged and melee scores before I can get an infernal shot in. So that's something that will need to be addressed. The good news is that this Praetor is available on the bazaar:



Xaphan not only adds an additional +3 infernal, but also inverts the combat order so that infernal comes first, then ranged and melee. So that would both boost the infernal score more and solve my legion's main combat problem. What's more is that there is also an artifact available that gives +4 infernal and doubles any infernal damage caused. So if I can get both of those my legion will suddenly be very "boss" (as the kids like to say).

Of course, there's also this on the bazaar:



That gives the owner an additional order per turn, in addition to the two that everyone starts with. Naturally getting to do 50% more things than others is a big boost. So while the infernal upgrades would probably be more useful in the short term, I think I am going to fast track to see if I can get the book. Of course, following a couple tribute collections I am one freaking soul short . We'll see if anyone snatches it up after this turn. If not, I should be able to get at least one soul from my next tribute - fingers crossed.

Anyways, for now I'm taking the staircase, and then I'll see about possibly grabbing the Citadel of Wrath up north, and ideally the Temple of Lust if I can. I suspect that I'll be having at least a couple vendettas with NickAragua.

Space reserved for the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Weeping - Aragua lucks out in having a public objective and the Temple of Lust nearby.

Gnashing of Teeth - Lots of excellent items at the Bazaar: the Infernal Engine (bonus v. PoPs), Walking Fortress (damage resistance), and the game-changing Book of Enoch (+1 order)



I start as Regent, as it should be. Lots of interesting PoPs around, but it's rather tight around this area. I pull an interesting event for later use and decide that step #1 to dominating Hell is piety -- namely, paying my respects to the nearby Black Altar of Despair.

I expect there to be a rush on the bazaar quickly this game. The rush will be for the Book of Enoch, which allows +1 order. Getting that relic so soon would be like winning the lottery -- it just takes 9 souls and 11 darkness.

Nothing too dramatic from what I can tell. Someone bought the first Praetor of the game. A couple of my rivals seized +1 prestige PoPs, as did I. Turns out that the Infernal Engine, which was bought last turn and which gives a decent bonus to all combat ratings, was bought by Sepiche and attached to his legion. I am somewhat concerned that his uber legion could easily stomp all over my legion at this point if he so chose, so he might be thinking about sending some demands my way. I think I'd have to concede to his demands for the moment and try to use the interim to build up a better combat ability. But hopefully it won't come to that.

In other frustrating news, I have built up enough resources to buy the Book of Enoch (the +1 order relic mentioned in my last post), only to find that I can't yet bid for it since I can't fit all of my resources into the bid.

You can only use 8 tribute cards in any bid, and if you can't do that - i.e. the item requires 12 souls and you have 12 tribute cards with 1 soul each - then you have to spend a turn consolidating cards first. In other words, putting those cards together to form 1 card with 12 souls on it.

Anyways, so fingers crossed that no one plucks it this turn; if not I can put together a strong bid for it and I'll go first since I'll be the regent. And hopefully Sepiche leaves me alone long enough for me to pick it up and put together enough resources to buy the combat abilities that I need...

My dude is a Wrath 3, Charisma 1, master archer / melee master with the 'lust' objective. So, he's basically built for battle, battle, battle. In addition to being natural badasses, I can make combat cards for my units, making them unpredictably awesome (for the opponents). In any case, I'll need vendettas and lots of them. My starting position was pretty good, within three turns, I'll have captured the Temple of Lust and Temple of the Damned.

So, my plan is simple: Capture my "Lust" objective (Temple of Lust). Then, I'm thinking of either trying for another landmark, or blazing a path so I have a hex or two next to the Infernal Conclave - in case things go bad for me prestige wise, I want to have the option of a military victory. After that, it's going to be all RARGH RARGH KILL KILL KILL BLARGH CHOKE COUGH SPIT.

My main concerns are my complete lack of resources, and the fact that everyone's buying up relics and artifacts (and some jerkface even bought a praetor!). Maybe I should have gone with Wrath 2 / Charisma 2 so I could actually have some decent tribute. My minions are useless, and I suspect the other players will not be providing me with very good loot either.

While I took the Black Altar, there's a buying spree going on. A Praetor was purchased on turn 1. The Infernal Engine (x2 vs. PoPs) and the Wheel of the Broken (+5 melee) were also purchased.

Faust's Contract (+1 diabolism, i.e., economy) just came up. The Book of Enoch is still available. I'm going to bid on a different item taking the long-term view and then look for an available Praetor if I still can't buy the Book or the Contract. If I lose, I can always boost Charisma instead. Still, my build of 3 Cha / 1 Int would have been better ready if those items turned up a few turns later.

The only other problem is how quickly the mid-range Places of Power (PoPs) may get taken over. There are a few +1s, then the rest are strong. I also have some territory to cover before I get to a third PoP, so I need to move it or lose it.

I have finally put together a strong bid for the Book of Enoch (the +1 order relic), so I expect to have that next turn especially since I threw in some extra resources. So with those three orders I should be able to compile resources pretty quickly to buy my other needs - more combat abilities for my main legion. Otherwise nothing too dramatic - Nick has a lead, but that's probably convenient for now - focus people's attention on him. I'll turn to him once I can, you know, fight and stuff.

I realize that I have inadvertently boxed Zord in a bit, though fortunately his unit can mountainwalk so hopefully he won't come after me.

The first phase of my daemonic plan is complete!



I HAVE A BOOK!!! An, um, evil book. That I will NEVER RETURN TO THE LIBRARY!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Seriously though, I'm very happy about this, since I now have +1 orders per turn (once I assign it to a slot). That means I can do 50% more actions than anyone else right now (unless they have already increased a key attribute to 4, which is expensive so probably hasn't happened yet). More resource collection, more movement, etc.

Now I need to turn my attention to building up my combat abilities, so that I can start demanding stuff of people (since I don't think I can get to any more open PoPs right now, and I only own one weak one. That means getting the Praetor I mentioned above (+3 infernal, and infernal attacks first). That also means getting this nice artifact:



+4 infernal, and more importantly it doubles all infernal damage caused. So if I can combine this I can have a 15 infernal unit that deals double damage. So, if my legion faced another legion with a good but normal infernal score (say, 8), they would cause 15 - 8 = 7 x 2 = 14 damage. And first, thanks to the praetor.

So my plan right now is to save up and acquire that Praetor and artifact, attach them to my legion, and then start making some demands (and hopefully take away at least one PoP, ideally the Temple of Lust).

We'll see. I'll also keep my eyes open for things to demand in the interim - I wonder if I'll have the time to save up for both of these before stuff starts happening.

In the meantime no new action this turn.

So, in two turns, I will be taking over another Place of Power, for a total prestige of something like +5. Paschetti really screwed himself by taking the "-1 movement to all units" perk (I can't think of any other reason his guys have a movement of one, since I don't think the wheel of pain does that), so by the time he gets to the PoP I'm about to take over, it'll be mine, and he'll have to spend turns trying to declare vendettas or whatever. With 3 PoPs, it'll be time to settle in and build up resources a little. Maybe I'll make some demands of the weaker demons for some extra resources.

I think I find myself in an interesting position this turn. I have to decide whether to play for a quick risk or take the long view. Much depends on what people decide to do this turn and whether I can get just the right resources for one of two different plays afterwards. I'll fill in the 2 options later once I know the others have moved.

Nothing dramatic to report this turn. Unfortunately the more time passes the more I slip behind, since I have the second lowest prestige gain (ahead only of Zord, I think). But there's quite the three way contest developing for the Temple of Wrath. NickAragua has knocked it down to 7/12 HP. Presumably he can knock it down to 2/12 next turn, at which point my dude will be next to the Temple. I don't think I can beat him to taking it, but I can start demanding and force him either into a vendetta (where I can take the Temple) or at least get some tribute/prestige.

Also, I now have enough resources to bid for my infernal-first praetor, so I expect to have him on board next turn. I already have enough hellfire for the infernal artifact that I'm planning on pairing with it, so it's just a matter of building my souls up again, so I should have both within a couple turns.

I've decided to demand NickA this turn rather than wait for next. If I have my timing right, if he rejects my demand then I'll be able to claim vendetta and carry it out when I move before him, which will allow me to capture the PoP and win my vendetta in a single turn (in theory, anyhow)