Titanomachina: Solo-Play

Consider a solo-game of Titanomachina where the player, Blue Configuration 1, has the initiative due to it being a solo-game, and draws eight cards: Mega Gun 2, Master Crew 1, Plantigrade Leg 2, Sponson 1, Extra Armour 2, Plasma Howitzer 1, Capacitor 1, and Jump Jets 1. The Titan can only play green actions on cards, so there's seven options there. Of those options, two do nothing except affect how other actions are resolved. Of those five primary actions we have: Walk & Attack, Jump, Attack & Attack, and Attack (I think Eos likes 'Attack'). The secondary actions are Operate, Twist, and Full Power. 

Consider, however, that all of this can be reduced to two simple questions: How do I cause as much outgoing damage as possible, while minimizing incoming damage? How do I split that between my opponent and their buildings? In this case, with no opponents presenting, you're free to try and maximize your tally of enemy habitat buildings. 

By playing by ourselves, in a 'solo-mode,' you can develop a feel for the cards and the patterns of the play. You can learn the timing for something as large and unwieldy as a Titan. 

For example, suppose I chose for Eos to walk into the enemy buildings, destroy them and three shield tokens covering the Mega Gun 2 and Extra Armour 2.  

Since the name of the game is to maximize building destruction, I can now fire my Mega Gun 2 at the pink and yellow buildings two tiles away at a diagonal. 

And given the option, since there are no habitat buildings stacked three high, I decide the Master Crew 1 can wait until next turn, but I need that full power if I'm to maximize the damage it does until three rounds later at the soonest. I play the capacitor to re-activate the Mega Gun using full power, and kill two more habitats, pink and yellow in what is, for scale, eight 50x3 habitat blocks seemingly destroyed. 

In the next round, round 2, I'll draw five more cards to go with the Master Crew 1. Before that, however, I will put the cards I've played at the bottom of my deck to cool down. The draw is Initiate 3, Initiate4, Extra Armour 3, Arm 1 (the left one), and Capacitor 2. 

Might as well put a crew member to work operating that arm...

Operated for a +1 to its Effect 1, I can now play the left arm (Arm 1) to hurl the Titan forward-left for a haymaker swing at the pink building diagonal of it, destroying it.

Full power from the Capacitor 2 is played on the arm to carry that momentum left to destroy the yellow building beside it as well. 

Which is to say that is not the end of the solo-game, but an example of how solo-gaming can be used to explore the game and to train your brain to notice what can be done, and the rhythm of it. Once you get a hand of the Titan against a random set-up, you can start trying to figure out optimal set-ups, tricks, and tactical uses of habitat buildings. Finally, there is the noble art of screen-shots. One of the ways I play with Titanomachina is taking pictures for diagrams to explain the rules, and because I like how it's looking. Can you build the optimal Titan in the optimal hunting environment? Can you keep up with or advance the meta-game? The solo-game is building that plan whereby your contact with the enemy, and the resulting chaos, works out in your favour.