Hal-Con 2024 Deck Orders

My current plan for Hal-con 2024 is to run two boards for demonstration gaming. The first is going to be the Titans in their primary configuration, and the second is going to be the Titans in their secondary configuration. Deeply creative, I know... Anyhoo, I've decided on a card order that should be friendly for people who haven't played before because, you know, demonstration games. Each round players will have access to a crew member and a limb, meaning they can move and attack, and see how important the crew is to manage the Titan's systems. They all have an extra armour system to block that first shot, their sponson/turret system to explain the arcs, and their thrusters/jump jets for another source of movement (combined with their sponson so it doesn't feel quite so restrictive). Likewise sensors and capacitors (for the three Titans equipped with them) are front-loaded so that players have a variety of options for that first round, and more importantly a variety of systems to explain in an open-hand. 

I've included the Personality cards for a sense of symmetry, since those cards get put into the decks anyways. These are something like ideal personality/Titan match-ups. Styxx really benefits from the bonus move, Eos is weak on defense, so a bonus repair is handy, Rhea needs to dominate the initiative, and Tethys needs the edge on detecting habitats. 

 

Titanomachina: Glossary & Such

When I was working on the rule book recently, to which I'll link at the end of this blog post, one of my readers took a look at it and asked about its index and glossary. Now, I think a full table of contents, index, and glossary is overkill where the rules are intended to be expressed in a 24-page saddle-stitched booklet. Nonetheless, it's probably a good idea to add in a glossary where there is space, because there are some terms that it would help to define. 

Cogs - originally termed 'effect' because it literally measured the action's effect on the board. An effect of 2, for example, would mean a Titan could walk two squares, or cause two damage, or rotate two multiples of 90°. The icon I ultimately chose to use for the cards was the cog, with the number of cogs in the icon indicating the value of the effect. So for the sake of clarity, I should include the definition of cogs, and particularly of 'total cogs' which is the cogs on the card, plus the cogs on any preceding crew cards that are operating, minus any points of damage to the system being activated. 

Tiles - tiles are squares on the board that can be either foundation tiles, or road tiles, and that is because I toyed with the idea of using a board made up of cardboard tiles instead of a classic folding board. I still think it is a better idea and want to maintain the nomenclature for when I can sell the tiles as an expansion so that people can build their battlefields from the board on up. 

What else? 

Rule book as of October 1st, 2024: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x0iBUSvfPr2YDyVxx6WSfv9LxW8Y2hmo/view?usp=drive_link

Titan Tech Manual as of October 1st, 2024: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AmFR938WleNYGsSC3tM3_e3n_SB5VlWd/view?usp=drive_link

Titanomachina: People in Glass Houses

Okay, so here's a new idea: You can land on however many buildings as can fit in a tile, and it will clear the square. It will also do that much damage to the Titan's legs. So you could jump a Titan two tiles and do eight damage, four damage to each leg. 

Why? 

Two reasons. The first is in answer to the question of wanting to land Titans on buildings. Which is like asking how many glass tables a stuntman can go through, because someone is going to get hurt. 

The second is in answer to how many plate-glass windows you can drop a stuntman because they lose both legs? A block of buildings stacked 3 habitats high will do six damage to each of a Titan's legs. Without shields it will lose both and give away 8 VP of Titan damage to the opponent with the lowest score. 

If players voluntarily avoid it, and use it cleverly and judiciously when they don't, why not permit it? The main argument is that the game will turn into players going Koolaid Man on buildings. But they already do that with abandon when walking. Players clip a building here and there, but only a few are willing to plod face-first through three separate 8-habitat blocks, and it seems to amuse them.