is an indie TBS diplomacy/wargame where you, as part of the nobility of hell, grasp for the throne of Satan who has mysteriously vanished.

Graphically it's not quite revolutionary, and it takes QUITE a while to get a grasp of the rules (there's no tutorial and reading the manual is a must), but the possibilities for backstabbing, deceit and omgwtfbbq moments are endless. Of course, like in any good game, this gets even more fun if you're doing it with/to friends.

So I was hoping we'd get a group going here, and MP games. The MP is play-by-email*, so it can be spread over long periods of time and doesn't require all players to be online at the same timen (at all). So you can think over your moves whenever you got the time and even take a week out if you're on holiday or whatever.

Since we're all cool peeps here and know each other relatively well (and have a forum to discuss strategies over, like via PM - even if there is an in-game messaging system), I was wondering if there any takers here. The price is 30 bucks (20 quid or 22 € converted) but there is a week-long discount where there's 5 bucks of the price atm

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/01 ... n-empires/

I'll be sure to organize a game if we get 4 or more peeps together here. If you're not sure about the game itself or the price, check out these amazing write-ups over at RockPaperShotgun. They make my mouth water at the possibilities and ware totally worth reading it. It's a lot of readong but...SOOOO GOOD.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/gameboys-from-hell/ (start with part 1, obviously, or just scroll through all of them to get an idea)

The demo is rather pointless because

- it runs an older, crappier version of the AI
- there is no into or tutorial whatsoever so you won't know wtf is going on without reading the manual, which is too big to read for a demo

But hey. Hope more people join. The discount only lasts a week so on't linger too long! And make sure you check those AAR reports if you're in doubt.

* for everyone who hasn't lived through the stone age of TBS MP games, play by email comes down to doing your turn, saving, sending the savegame to the other players, they load it in their game, do their turn, etc. Sounds like a hassle but it isn't really, using a gmail account can contain everything nicely in one email conversation for example.

I'm guess nobody gives a shit?

What if I said I could get 2 friends of mine in on it? So we'd be at the very least 4 people if someone joined.

It's really an awesome little diplomacy game. Learning curve is a bit steep and price isn't soft either, but it rocks.

I would have to say that this game does not get my juices flowing. Or that I don't give a shit.

Yeah ditto, especially since now i have a job I like

bah, screw you, you work-loving bastard. I'll continue to detest my job, thank you very much.

That only lasts for the first months anyway Derf, until some suit comes up to you and says something along the lines of "yeah, you did a really nice job with this, now can you [insert equivalent of 'travel to the moon and back and bring me a soda while you're at it']? That would be super.";)

But re: Solium Infernum, fine. Jaded fuckers. I was kinda hoping the "rule hell and backstab others" theme would get Satis going, hehe. And Derf, that job isn't an excuse really, since it's TBS and play-by-email in MP (meaning that you'd get an email, give orders, send out the email and wait for everyone to do the same, etc...can do everything in your own time instead of having to be online together). But whatever, it's cool. I had serious reservations about paying a relatively large amount of money for a game that looks like a (not so attractive) board game. But no regrets, it's amazing MP fun and both casual (play-by-email) and serious at the same time.

Oh yea, have I mentioned that play-by-mail is freaking GAY?

It's only gay if you like it!

(generic you - not you you)