Solium Infernum Preview – A grand strategy reimagining fit for a prince of darkness

thesixthaxis.com:

The Prince of Darkness has vanished from Hell, leaving the Infernal Throne vacant and a vast power vacuum to fill. Who can step forth and claim the throne for themselves? Solium Infernum – a 2024 reimagining by League of Geeks – sees a menagerie of Archfiends sending out their legions to conquer the underworld, put forth plots and schemes to undermine their rivals and ultimately ascend to the throne.

Solium Infernum is a pretty simple game to grasp the basics, as you start off with a stronghold, some surrounding territory and a single legion. From there, any hex that your legion walks across is claimed as your territory, and you seek to build up your power base by capturing power trees to increase your influence.

Each turn, you can only issue a small number of commands, whether that’s a move, a call for tribute from your followers, and so on. Should your legion come into contact with an enemy, combat plays out through three stages, first with ranged, then melee and finally the arcane in turn.

However, there’s layers and layers beyond that. There’s protracted diplomatic plays, you can initiate Events, Rituals and cook up Schemes, all in an effort to further your aims. Many of them will play out across multiple turns as, for example, a diplomatic insult can see you challenged to a duel the next, the choosing of champions, and then a multi-round mini-game of attacks between your praetors until one wins out.

There’s eight Archfiends vying for the throne – though the game is for 1 to 6 players – from the Dragon Knight Astaroth, to the greedy gold-inlaid form of Mammon, or the insectoid new arrival Beelzebub. Where the original game gave you freedom to create whatever dark lord you wanted, League of Geeks has sought to strip away