Titanomachina Update: The Grapple Trait

After some deliberation I've decided to introduce a new trait, Grapple, and change a couple of weapon systems so that they have it. Specially, I'm going to give the Hand and the Claw the Grapple trait, instead of the Hard Rounds trait for the Hand, and instead of the Shield Breaker trait for the Claw. This trait will enable a Titan activating that weapon to 'pull' enemy Titans, as well as 'push' them with Weapons and Limbs with the Hard Rounds trait. 

As with the Hard Rounds trait the effect of the Grapple trait will affect the target Titan differently depending on where the attacker aims. 

Should the attacker go after the rightmost target, relative to them, the target Titan will be slewed 45° to its own right (or left, relative to the attacker). 

Should the attacker go after the leftmost target, relative to them, the target Titan will be slewed 45° to its own left (or right, relative to the attacker). 

Attacking the central target on the enemy Titan will enable the attacker to move them sideways into the square of the attacker's choice, left or right. This may cause the Titan to impact on buildings, much like when they are pushed into them by Hard Rounds. 

Notably this update isn't going to happen right away; I'm going to wrap it up in a general update of the cards as I'm revising the iconography to better communicate what's going on at a glance, when players look at their cards.

Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: Immortal Combat!

Because I am of a certain age I like to imagine the soundtrack from Mortal Kombat (1995) when starting a game, but there was a comment by my esteemed opponent (here Harvey24) that he was reminded of A Clockwork Orange (1971) in terms of ultra-violence and a distinct disregard for collateral damage, so I was suddenly in the mood for Beethoven. 

Appropriate soundtrack aside, I drew the Rapacious personality and so took Styxx's Configuration 4 (Digitigrade Legs, Big Arms, Turret, Macro Gun, Plasma Shotguns). Harvey24 drew the Sagacious personality and chose Rhea's Configuration 1 (Plantigrade Legs, Arms, Sponsons, Laser Batteries, Macro Gun, Hand). That gave me the initiative, and so I decided to set up Styxx in the middle of the board, with shields evenly distributed in expectation of attack from any quarter. Hereafter I'll refer to us as the Titans whom we're role-playing, Harvey24 as Rhea and myself as Styxx. Rhea was starting at 19 for habitat buildings, and I was starting at 9(!) for buildings. 

Things started off slowly and carefully as we both decided to announce our respective presences by destroying some buildings. I had a 10VP deficit to make up, and Rhea was determined to stop me!

Taunting Styxx, Rhea moved out into the open, still hunting the green habitats while back up against the edge of the board and vulnerable to a ring-out. Any such attempt would have resulted in a victory for Rhea, as She was still far ahead on buildings, and the +5VPs for a ring-out endgame wouldn't also provide Styxx with victory. 

Taking Her time, Styxx begins an advance, lazily lashing out with both plasma shotgun and swinging leg to keep smashing those yellow habitats (and any other colour unfortunate enough to be stacked as buildings!). Rhea bides Her time...

Styxx continues Her slow advance, making sure to stop and kick a yellow habitat into the ground. 

Rhea's preparation does not go in vain, and operated by the adherent crew previously activated, Rhea skids past Styxx on the left to avoid Styxx's right-hand plasma shotgun, and cranks up Her own port shields. 

Labouring to get that plasma shotgun on target, Styxx activates Her right arm and hauls around to get Rhea in Her sights again. 

Rhea swings Herself out of the way, again ducking past Styxx on Styxx's left and lands an elbow in a green habitat again. Thanks to Styxx's rapacious personality She spots a green habitat where sensors had previously read an empty lot. She continues to charge Her systems, getting ready to unleash hell. Notably, however, Rhea activates Her sagacious personality and seizes the initiative...

Styxx brings Her left arm into play, turning the 180° into a 360° and now bearing down on Rhea with not only a plasma shotgun, but Her recharged macro gun. 

Rhea continues to use the initiative to skip around Styxx, again forcing Her niece to come about and re-target. Fortunately the Styxx in this configuration has two capacitors, both the Plasma Cell and the Plasma Capacitor, allowing Her left arm to use full power and swing Her around yet again...

Almost shot in the back, in the sponson yoke, with a initiate-operated macro gun, Rhea managed to block with Her prow armour leaning back taking the hits on the shields protecting Her chest and arms. 

The barrage continues as Styxx vents Her fury on the aunt that had tried to elude Her weaponry, and Rhea manages to block with the extra armour plating on Her left, port side. While Rhea's shields absorb the impact, She is still shocked by the actinic discharge of ichorplasma. 

Running low on power, and needing a quick breather, both Titans' crews scramble to repair damage and get shield coverage back up. 

Both Titans begin to glow as ichorplasma is shunted around their hulls, charging their systems, and the crews prepare for the next clash. Styxx once again finds a green habitat where sensors and census had not registered one before. Rhea activates an initiate crew to operate some system in anticipation of the next round.

While Styxx readies Herself to pounce, Rhea activates an arm, operated by the initiative crew, to get moving out of the way and to square off against Her niece. 

Styxx opens fire with Her macro gun, aiming to keep Rhea's own macro gun out of the fight while the plasma shotguns charge, and Rhea is slewed to the right under the hammering impact of high explosive shells. 

Rhea backs off, and Styxx activates a capacitor for full power to the macro gun, running the barrels hot. Rhea raises Her hand to block, and in doing so brings Herself square again to Styxx. Her back up against the edge again, and shields depleted, things are looking grim for Rhea.  

But Rhea still has the initiative and edges along the road sideways so that She can use Her laser battery to pick off another green building, reasoning that so long as She can stay in the lead She is actually safer on the edge there. 

But Styxx's blood is up, and the calm, cold-blooded patience that had served Her so well is abandoned as She realizes Her aunt is back on Her heels. Styxx advances, smashing habitats as She goes. 

Here's where things start to go wrong for Styxx. Rhea can't see Styxx, and activating a sensor to scan finds a yellow habitat blocking the line of sight. Styxx logs it and spotting another green habitat stomps into position (smashing another yellow habitat) to push Rhea off the board for a ring-out victory. 

Styxx smashes the building in between Her and Her aunt, casually brushing it aside to line up Her bulk for a swift kick. 

A shot of opportunity from Her plasma shotgun, to disrupt Rhea's ability to defend Herself, and to hopefully provoke a block, and then Styxx sails in with a flying kick to Rhea's prow. Rhea successfully blocks with her macro gun and takes the hit on Her shields. Styxx gambled, and now has nothing left having over-extended Herself. Rhea's crew, an adherent and an initiate, are activated to operate (co-operate, if you will) something. 

That something is a hand. Using the initiative, the hand's Shield Breaker (2) trait and +3 operate bonus Rhea tears off Styxx's right-hand plasma shotgun, and sends Styxx reeling back. Where a ring-out would have seen Styxx win by ~2VP, Styxx is now down 7VP (+4VP for the destroyed plasma shotgun, 3VPs ahead for buildings). Ouch!

Styxx opts to get back on track and charge up Her systems, activating an initiate crew to conduct some damage control on the right arm where it was damaged when the plasma shotgun was so violently and ostentatiously torn off. Rhea raises Her shields, getting ready for another frontal assault. 

Not that Rhea intends to be the victim of such an assault, and She backs up into Styxx's reduced fore-quarter. In a fit of pique, realizing the score is against Her, Styxx doesn't give chase, but launches Herself in a flying back-kick into one of the tall towers near where Rhea started the contest, knocking off the yellow habitat at the top. 

Rhea prepares to strike, reading an initiate crew to operate a system, and charges while Styxx does likewise while spotting another green building that hadn't registered on the map before. 

Rhea activates a Her left arm, and swats a green habitat in the process of swinging Herself around to again face Her niece cowering behind the tall building off Her port. Styxx decides discretion is the better part of valour, and social awareness is part of discretion, activating Her sensors to detect another green habitat far off where Rhea is unlikely to destroy it. 

For Her part Rhea can see plenty of other green habitat buildings and activates Her macro gun to turn one into a crater. 

Roaring now, and ready to shove Rhea off the board for good this time, Styxx activates an adherent crew to operate Her left big arm, and swing Her around the building and into contact. Rhea swiftly activates crew to operate Her own systems, once again co-operating for maximal effect. 

Stepping backwards, Rhea circles the pink habitat protecting Styxx's own port side, and boots Styxx right in the deflectors, sending Styxx staggering right. With a charged macro gun queued up, Styxx panics and activates Her turret; a ring-out may be out of the question, but She'll still hurt something dammit!

Rhea spots a yellow habitat right behind Styxx, preventing Styxx from simply reversing out of the vulnerable position She is now in. In terms in inflicting actual hurt, the macro gun's stream of high explosive shells does little but burst the shields protecting Rhea's prow and left arm, destroying the extra armour on Her prow, slewing Rhea left and aggravating Her.

Realizing Her predicament Styxx comes about, careful to stomp on that very same yellow habitat, while Rhea is once again activating Her adherent crew. 

Rhea closes for a flying elbow with Her right arm, forcing Styxx to choose between being pushed out for a ring out, or not being able to attack with Her plasma shotgun. Styxx blocks the attack with Her shotgun, and while it takes no damage, losing only a shield token and getting slewed to the right, She is running out of systems that can block. 

In the final round Rhea continues hammering Styxx, who blocks with Her right arm, and finally, out of systems that can block, is sent sailing off the board by Rhea's side kick just as Her master crew spots something on the sensors... (I had a sensor ready and was about to find four green habitats in the corner there). 

The final score is 18-7 for Rhea! Rhea scored 9VP for nine yellow habitat buildings on the board (looks like I made up that 10VP deficit...), 4VP for destroying that plasma shotgun, and 5VP for causing the ring-out. Styxx scored 6VP for green buildings on the board, and 1VP for that extra armour (woo!). 

This game had many notable features, the least of which was that the ending score was lower than the starting score for both player! 

Likewise there was only a very small amount of actual damage done thanks to heavy use of both crew to repair light damage (that could be exploited in further rounds) and shields to raise and restore shield token coverage. With Styxx starting with only 9 habitats, I had to smash both buildings and the other Titan, and my opponent Harvey24 played a great defensive game at the start dancing around me. Styxx, particularly in this configuration, really rewards patience as a player needs to charge it up quite a bit in order to get off the combinations and rates of fire needed to get some momentum. You need to be willing to wait entire rounds while doing almost nothing; the rapacious personality really came in handy, and I dropped it whenever possible to get it moving through the deck. 

However, where I was playing 10+ cards a round we observed that the charge time for certain preferred systems such as the Plasma Shotguns was considerably shorter than usual, presumably because they could be stacked at the top of the other 9+ discarded cards going on the bottom of the deck, and didn't have one or two rounds of draws to wait to be drawn into my hand. The combination of this, meaning I got my plasma shotguns every three rounds or so, and the two capacitors meant they fired much more often than the usual math might indicate. So long as I kept up a slow, careful barrage things would go very well, especially since the shock would likewise disrupt my opponent. 

The turning point is rather obvious in that I charged in trying to go for a ring-out (previously I would have tied the game, discouraging me from trying for it earlier) and exhausted my Titan, allowing my opponent not only to rally, but to deliver a devastating blow. Bad timing and bad tempo, for me. In destroying my Plasma Shotgun not only did my opponent manage to cancel the punishing rate of fire I was managing with two of them and two capacitors, but scored 4VPs, pushed me out of position, and grabbed the momentum for themselves. 

Aside from over-extending my Titan when I should have taken it slow and methodically, I didn't once seize the initiative from my opponent, allowing them to virtually dance around me, and leading to me getting hurled out of the ring instead because my opponent could use the agility of their Titan to get into position where hitting me first counted for everything. Had they not scored the ring-out, then the score would have been 13-11, and without that plasma shotgun 9-11 (and possibly better with the ability to inflict damage via said shotgun). 

To Claw or Not to Claw?

I'm still working on whether to change the Claw, weird little 'e' on the card that needs to be corrected aside, and I've hit the sticking point of whether to make it a more powerful Hand, capable of pushing an opponent, and giving it something a little more unique like the ability to push target Titans sideways. That's ignoring the question of how to jig the Charge to Effect ratio so that it's still a big, nasty weapon by comparison to the nimble Hand. I think Charge 3 is too much, and keeping it for the Plasma Howitzer is probably best. 

Current Claw 2

Now the tricky part about pushing a target Titan sideways is how to apply the pushing rules giving that they're currently limited to the case of either pushing a target into a new square, into buildings preventing it from being pushed into that square, or slewed around 45°. Turning the direction 90° isn't all that difficult, and probably pretty easy to diagram. The problem is the skew, as that's rather an important part of play, enabling players to open up targets that might have been artfully concealed behind the bulk of the target Titan. In the current pushing rules hitting the target Titan in the middle of its three available targets presented to the attacker pushes that target Titan back and away from the attacker. Hitting the target Titan in the leftmost, relative to the attacker, of its two or three available targets presented to the attacker pushes that target Titan 45° right (or clockwise). Likewise the rightmost, relative to the attacker, of its two or three available targets skews the Titan 45° left. 

It seems like pushing sideways should reverse this somewhat, so grabbing the leftmost target would turn a Titan 45° left, and the rightmost target would turn a Titan 45° right. I suppose you could say it's a pull rather than a push. 

(A) Claw is meant to grab, gouge, and pull and to a degree the paralyzing effect of a claw latching onto a Titan is covered nicely enough by the Shock trait. The Shield Breaker trait is a kind of conditional +0.5 bonus for the weapon to place its effect between 2 and 3 depending on the breaks that players can engineer. All the range 1 weapons have it, and even the Mega Gun has it. My thought was that the Claw's ability to lock on and pull should be better represented by replacing this 0.5 with a straight +1 Effect for Effect 3, and the ability to push enemies sideways for a Terminator-style clinche.  

Proposed Claw 2 A

Alternately, (B) maybe Shock should be the relative advantage of the Plasma Shotgun and the Plasma Howitzer, as range isn't really a particular advantage in this game, and hitting harder than the Range 3 Plasma Shotgun means that I'm just playing whack-a-mole with the weapons in terms of differentiating them from each other so that players can build asymmetrical strategies. So instead I thought bringing the Charge down to 2 like the Laser Blade, and exchanging the Shock and Shield Breaker for two Hard Rounds traits, the ability to push away, and the ability to push sideways. 

Proposed Claw 2 B

The downside to this approach is that there's no particular reason to combine a Hand and a Claw, as a Claw can do the work of both.  

It might (C) be something to enable the Claw to pull and have the Shield Breaker trait as a third option, and maintaining that Charge 2, Effect 2 so that it's both like a bigger, nastier hand, and its own thing, which is pulling targets instead of pushing or shocking them. 

Proposed Claw 2 C

Titanomachina: Improvements to Make (Nov, 2021)

It's November 8th, 2021, and I'm still working away on Titanomachina. So far I have a list of things that I would either like to try and improve, or things that simply need to be changed. Some thing need to be changed, but I don't (yet) know how without radically changing the game, and I'm pretty happy with the core game loop at the moment.

1. Updating the Hard Rounds icon. Sounds odd, I know, but the current icon is not all that intuitive. I think the arrow is too small, and the bullet-shape doesn't reflect the iconography as I have developed it (round is internal to the Titan, square is on the board, rounded square changes the relation of the Titan to the board, hexagon is to do with the cards, etc). Given that the affected Titan is (a) on the board, and (b) it is moved in a direction as a result of the push, I figured the following would be a good change:

Current

Proposed

2. Additionally I would like to have Titans be pushed in more than one direction (i.e. not just away from the attacking Titan), allowing for things like slapping Titans sideways into buildings, or pulling them closer. In combination the current Claw set-up is something of a compromise, as the Shield Breaker trait doesn't really give players a reason to prefer it over the Plasm Shotgun or the Plasma Howitzer. Where the Shock trait represents, to some extent, the Claw's grabbiness, one feels that grabbing someone with the claw should enable some spectacular violence lacking from the Shotgun or Howitzer's boom. Hitting the corner targets of a Titan will still slew it around, but the central target will see the target pushed sideways instead of away. At Effect 3 and the ability to push the Claw is a live option beside the other two Shock weapons. Possibly a good idea at Effect 2 and Charge 2. Something to consider. 

Current

Proposed

Titanomachina Features & Benefits: Oodles of Tension

I recently read an article, transcribed discussion really, about randomness that summarized a fair bit of what I've learned about randomness since I started designing Titanomachina in 2011. In particular the bits about Chess touched something of a sore-spot, perhaps because they touch on what I've tried to do with Titanomachina. The notion is that in Chess, and similar games, you have complete information about the board and so instead of there being the emotional experience of dealing with risk you're merely trying to out-smart the other player(s) in a 'battle of wits.' A lovely little book by Kenneth Binmore named "A Very Short Guide to Game Theory" addresses this notion of a battle of wits between players in his chapter on Chance in games. Of course, Professor Binmore's emphasis is on the mathematical details, but I think a conclusion can be drawn regarding the emotional or experiential details of combinatorial games where it seems like everything is laid out on the table in front of the players. Players can manage the risks of thrown dice and shuffled cards, or they can manage the risk of the player opposing them not playing in the way expected of them; there's an element of randomness to other players that can have just as much tension as a throw of the dice. 

The fact is that while we may be able to read the board state of Chess and mechanically extrapolate the best move from that state, the human experience of playing Chess is one of feeling your way around the board, hoping your opponent doesn't have a counter for what you're trying to accomplish, and hoping your instinct for the best move is better than theirs. I mean, yes, you can calculate your way through Chess, but the best Chess players train their instincts and their feelings, so that those feelings don't overwhelm their instincts and calculative abilities. There is a tension to Chess and other combinatorial games that I don't think is there for games like Warhammer where players have additional randomness throw in to level the playing field or to mix up the experience for players intent on socializing and drinking. 

Titanomachina does have randomness on top of that provided by the players, although nearly everything can be narrowed down to player choice: The players have cards in hand, the faces of which are hidden from their opponents, preventing players from having perfect information of the game. That would be input-randomness, but players are supposed to arrange their Titan decks in the order that they want to play the cards in the game, in the sense that they're supposed to program their Titan's actions for maximal effect. But while players draw cards into their hand following a strict order defined by the deck, they can play the cards in hand in any order they want. Where players draw five cards a turn, and conceivably play all of them, their opponents only have a probabilistic idea of what their opponent is going to play next. Certain cards are designed to be played before or after others, for combination effects, so it's not like these odds are equal either; some cards are more likely to be played than others considering the conditions on the board, the number of cards in hand, and the last card that was played. 

To further complicate things some cards have options, enabling a Titan to do one of two actions, so while a player may have five cards in hand they can have up to ten options to play. Players can also control the set-up of their buildings and Titans on the board, and the set-up of their Titans prior to the game (limited in Tabletop Simulator, I know, but I'm working on it). 

Furthermore players know what they each want to accomplish: Destroy enemy building and Titan systems. They know how much time they have to accomplish that, which is 18 rounds. They know what systems that the other Titan has and where the other Titan is on the board at all times. Each game is about players building intricate engines of victory, just like in a traditional euro engine-building game, but with the flavour, tension, and story of a narrative "dudes on a map" game. 

The reason I took the dice out of the game was because after all the effort of trying to set up an attack, the chance of it falling flat due to the dice was a major mood killer. Rolling for initiative had the issue of ties, which are a hassle, and using the initiative cards gave it gave just enough uncertainty to affect strategies, while opening up space for the story-telling utility of the personality cards. This uncertainty mainly affects timing, as the question is not whether you'll hit or do damage or whatever, but when, and whether you'll be able to mitigate incoming attacks by doing so: there's a real question of whether you want the best shot or the first shot. And that question of what your opponent is going to do next, and what they're building towards develops a wonderful tension and excitement. 

In between games too, there's the engagement found in Warhammer and similar games where players can consider at their leisure just how well the material they brought to the game served them, and how well they applied it. 

Titanomachina: Impact of Building Changes

As per the last update, the rules on buildings has changed. It has changed because calculating building damage was a hassle, and I think it's worth making buildings sturdier to accomodate interpreting the board state literally rather than inference. Meaning? Instead of players checking the intersection of building corners with a 3x3 target grid, players just nominate a building, and that's the only building that takes damage from the attack. Unless...

The weapon has the High Explosive trait, in which case you apply damage to additional buildings on one or both sides of the original target. 

The weapon has the Armour Piercing trait, in which case you apply all its damage to the building behind the target, and one point of damage to the target building. 

A Titan is pushed into two buildings, as Titans are wide enough to hit up to two. 

The actual impact is that buildings are harder to destroy when all clumped up, and about the same when they're all spread out. This should make Detect actions more valuable as each action can score between 1-4 Victory Points, vs attacks on Titans scoring 0-5 Victory Points (and most likely 1-3 VPs). 

A masterfully operated Macro Gun could, in theory, net a 7 Victory Point spread for destroying a Plasma Howitzer and pushing the target Titan into two of its own habitat blocks. 

A Rocket Pod pushed to full power should be able to knock down 6 habitat blocks in a round, but leaving an opponent time to recover would take a certain confidence. 

I think that what players may actually do is starting dropping new habitats on the board early in the game, particularly when there's no opportunity to kick, punch, or use weapons, rather than late in the game once a decisive blow has been struck (or not). I also think the value of High Explosive and Armour Piercing goes up relative to Hard Rounds and Shock as weapon traits as a result.