Late Heavy Bombardment: The Initial Situation

So we have common Places of Power, but none of them generated with any special abilities. That's unusual. The PoP's are therefore just for prestige and strategic position in this game. I have two tempting PoP's immediately to my north, but I can't get there right now. I'm slothful. Normal players get to move through their own stronghold, because they can continue moving past it in a single turn. I can only move one canton at a time, so I need an unobstructed path to get anywhere. I don't have one. I will most likely not pursue a prestige victory anyway. In that sense, it's rather convenient that I can't invest order slots to reach those PoP's, because now it doesn't look suspicious when I don't. I could go southwards towards the Vaults of Avarice, or a couple other PoP's, but they are so far away and I'm so slow.

In the short term, I'll pursue a different set of opportunities altogether. The bazaar holds some really fun goodies. Faust's Contract is available. This item is a high priority for me. It improves tribute gathering, which is central to the whole game through generating resources. Having it would give me the potential for Diabolism 7 (keep 5) which is not reachable through charisma alone. It also improves diplomatic position by a point, but that's just icing on the tribute cake. It does get me thinking, though. If I don't get to buy it, I'll want to know who did so that I can use Looting the Vaults more on that target, maybe eventually Dark Augury to see it in the Ritual Chamber and steal it. I record my diplomatic options relative to everyone else. If I do miss out on Faust's Contract, I'm going to see if any of these options change shortly thereafter. That would indicate a rival messing with diplomatic rank.

Also worth buying if I get a good chance: Veil of Smoke and Bleeding Wound are each available. Each is a worthwhile praetor combat move, and each is a single volume manuscript. If a single player gets them both, then they can both get trained onto the same praetor with a single order slot. Unfortunately, praetor combat is really only relevant to prestige wins, and I'm already leaning away from that. Infernal Engine is available. It provides a moderate buff to each of the attached legion's combat stats, and it makes capturing PoP's (including Pandemonium) much easier by doubling the damage. Lords of the Pit have flying 3.

As is often the case, my highest priority at the start of the game is a relic, so I heavily favor souls and darkness in my tribute choices. I got a lot of ichor offered to me. In the screenshot, I have to choose between a 1-darkness and a 1-soul card. I choose darkness. Souls come up somewhat more often than darkness, so it makes sense to take this darkness now, while I have the chance.

Late Heavy Bombardment: Starting Map

The Late Heavy Bombardment: Avatar

http://crypticcomet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1460&start=0

The conditions were chosen in the thread beforehand:

normal game length

Dante's Peak

small map (my choice)

common places of power

no special rules

I'd like to give a big shoutout to Fuu for coming up with a creative and fun way to setup the map, and for hosting.

http://middleborosi.blogspot.com/2011/10/late-heavy-bombardment-starting-map.html

Based on all that, I started with Deception 4. I decided that I wanted to start with a third order slot. I've tried Intellect 4, Cunning 4, and Wickedness 4, and for me, Deception is the way to go. Wickedness is too restrictive. In order to use the Wickedness rituals, you need vendetta status or Ritual Masking (Deception 5.) Also, Wickedness doesn't provide any tribute at all, but Looting the Vaults (Deception 4) can. Intellect is the easiest of these stats to increase in the game and doesn't compare well to Deception for overall ritual ability.

I knew I would have to take negative perks to afford anything else, and I had further desires. I wanted Prince of Lies to minimize the amount of failed Deception rituals, and I'd clearly also need some charisma and some rank. I could grab 3 Fiend points from Gluttony, but to afford everything, I'd need multiple negative perks. I strongly considered Debauched. I decided against it primarily because it cancels much of the benefit of Deception 4, the third order slot. That's where I started, that's what I wanted. So I took Obscure and Slothful. Slothful broadcasts itself to your rivals and costs a lot of order slots if you ever should need to move around. Obscure hits your tribute rolls, and that's where it really hurts. I still think I made the right call by taking both obscure and slothful, but not debauched.

With my 13 remaining points, I couldn't start with charisma 3. You can't have absolutely everything. Charisma 2 is just fine, since I have an extra order slot. I have the option every single turn of making an extra demand. It will be subject to diminishing returns and made with a lower base charisma, but the sheer quantity of demands will more than make up for the reduced quality, I have found. I hope it holds true in this game. Then I have 7 Fiend points left. That's enough for Marquis, but not for Duke. I tried a whole bunch of ways to spend that unspent point, but I like this way the best.