Titanomachina: Detection and Detectability

Last Thursday evening I got to throw down with my regular opponent and attempt a strategy of patience with Styxx Quaterary, Whom I recently modified with turrets instead of sponsons, and a coolant system instead of a capacitor. I had previously tried out the tertiary configuration, and my opponent had dastardly danced out of my limited range, and so this time I maxed out on range in what is Styxx's sniper configuration. On the whole it worked out, and we ground to a tie at the end of 9 rounds, which isn't bad when I started the game 3 VPs behind on habitats. 

The plan was, in a plain sense, mainly based on vibes and the game started off in a pretty relaxed way with me forgetting to check my deck order. The order of a Titan's deck in Titanomachina is important, because it dictates when you will draw systems, and hence the general direction of your strategy as you try to balance the amount of power that a Titan can draw to activate systems against the requirements of the moment. The idea is that if you're clever then all else being equal you can out-smart your opponent on a strategic level. Of course, the rest of the design is also about players putting their thumbs on the scales of the game, giving players the option to customise the board with their allocations of habitat blocks, and customise their Titans with sets of modular systems. In the version on Tabletop Simulator players have a limit set of configurations to choose from, but there's a rock-scissors-paper at play whereby some Titans have definite advantages over others. 

I had chosen Styxx Quaternary specifically because I didn't want a Titan with more agility (most Titans) being able to duck out of range or behind cover. I'm inferring that my opponent chose Tethys Secondary because She's an all-round bruiser (and my opponent was choosing first). The board layout was the latest default layout that seems like a pretty even, even 'fair,' distribution of habitats. What I forgot to do was to check Styxx Quaternary's deck order, reasoning (incorrectly) that the deck orders were all pretty reasonable orders that spread crucial systems like limbs and weapons across the four rounds that it takes for a Titan to load all of its systems. Which meant that Styxx's new turrets, an upgrade from a previous version using two sponsons, were unavailable to me for the first three rounds of the game. 

Somehow this was not a disaster, as I had set Styxx up too close to Tethys, and was somewhat unable to escape until my opponent voluntarily backed Tethys off 300m (each tile is 100m wide) for reasons that seemed odd to me at the time and which I cannot entirely explain. I had been working on a psychological attack for the first three rounds of the game in the hopes of deterring my opponent from committing to an attack, and hence leaving themselves vulnerable to a counter-attack until I could muster the power and systems to really gut Tethys with a well-aimed macro laser. When my opponent mustered to block that attack with six shields over Tethys' side armour, I managed to switch to a kick that turned what would have been a 7-cog laser attack (Titan detected, 360 arc of fire) into an 6-cog kick that mashed Tethys through four habitats, and doing heavy damage (two points) to Tethys' left leg. I was left two VPs ahead on destroyed systems, but seven 

At this point we switched somewhat to my opponent attacking Styxx and Styxx attacking my opponent's buildings in an attempt to deal with the points deficit that would have seen a knock-out certify a victory for my opponent. And I almost managed, taking out nine habitats, including the one I walked Styxx past in the second round of the game, by backing into it. I also got very lucky that when my opponent smashed a four-habitat building with Tethys' plasma shotgun, and accidentally caught a pink habitat with the high explosive effect to seal the tie. Of course, if my opponent hadn't destroyed that building I would have won by three points. As it was I had been aiming Styxx's macro laser at Tethys' damaged leg until I realised it would go through the leg into the internal space and merely injure crew instead of lopping off the leg, and settled for detecting a habitat instead. 

At no point in any of this can I adequately describe the way that the game somehow cranked tighter and tighter until time-out was called at the end of nine rounds and we discovered the scoring pendulum rested evenly at 0 as the Titanic machines had ground to a halt. Maybe it was the way the way the score stretched one way and then the next, with my opponent at a full 24 habitats on round 3 and 13 habitats on round 9, or the build up to the kick in round 5 that switched the roles of hunter and hunted, having spent the first three rounds doing everything I could to avoid being hit.

I had forgotten to get screenshots so this is a recreation of the set-up.

A recreation of round 1, a slow start, with Styxx pining Tethys and Tethys flexing back.

It's go time and as Tethys attempts to close Styxx darts past and hops over some buildings once Tethys doubles back 

After some brief struggle over the initiative Styxx retreats again and Tethys pursues, carefully though as Styxx hasn't used Her macro laser and Her master crew is clearly up to something.

Tethys backs off and catches a spread of rockets across Her rear as She ducks, losing Her rear armour. After some posturing in which Styxx activates Her capacitor and super-cools Her master crew off for a shorter turn-around, to maintain the threat of her operation.

Styxx's turrets spin up and Her sensors crackle and ping as Her crew races to bracket Tethys, and Tethys sensing what is incoming takes defensive action to raise and concentrate shields over Her left side, while lashing out at every green habitats within reach. Seeing the nigh-impenetrable defense, Styxx quickly changes gears and slides in for a kick that sees Tethys crunched through a block of buildings for 10 points of damage! Not the hoped-for lasering, but Tethys down 6 shields, Her left extra armour package, and heavy damage to Her left leg beats light damage to both after the beam is exhausted by all those shields. Regardless, Styxx is on the offensive now, and the fight begins in earnest.

 

It's not enough to knock Tethys out, Styxx has to claw back Tethys' massive lead on habitats, and She circles behind Tethys, looking to boot Her into those pink habitats, killing two birds with one stone. Tethys blocks the kick with Her laser blade, and slewing around right. 

 Tethys is in the lead, and so directs Her master crew to swing Her around a block of buildings where She brakes on a green habitat. A flight of rockets destroys a couple of habitats, including a green one. Styxx is starting to feel the pinch in Her power feeds and Her system cycles and uses the respite to spot a green habitat far on the opposite edge of the battlefield, as well as urge Her systems to cool and reload.

 Loaded and charge, now Styxx can throw caution to the wind, swinging left and hip-checking the pink building behind Her for the mere cost of shields and light damage to Her left deflector array. Her rocket launcher lights up and destroys a swath of pink habitats behind where Tethys had been kicked through that block of buildings. Tethys, meanwhile, has gathered Her junior crew together to deliver a fierce kick to Styxx's other deflector array, bursting it's protective shield, destroying the array and staggering Styxx towards the edge of the battlefield, nearly flush up against a pink-habitat-topped building. Styxx's capacitor and coolant systems discharge and flush, bringing Her rocket pod back into action, and Her adherent crew is brought on deck.

Styxx now unloaded another flight of rockets on the tall pink building in the corner of the battlefield now in front of Her. This four-point swing goads Tethys into action, and She fires Her jump jets, flinging Her massive form forward to persecute green habitats. Styxx's master crew spots a tall green building, but it's not far enough away and Tethys surges forward for a blast from Her plasma shotgun operated by Her own master crew, and takes out additional pink and green habitats in one almighty blast. Styxx spots one last green habitats one She realizes She can't take Tethys's damaged leg. The deadline for peace comes down, and it's time to count the cost.

Titanomachina: What is this? A war for Ants?!

Back in 2011, at the outset of the attempt to design what became Titanomachina, I wanted to be able to put Titans in the same game as conventional forces and elite forces. I feel like I've accomplished this game design goal, less through design than through the efforts of development. And after this latest game of Titanomachina playing a force of Myrmidon Mega-Ants against a mirror force, I feel like there's certainly room for development. 

Firstly I should take the visual language developed for the Titan system cards and extend them to the ant squads cards, and especially the platoon cards, better. If you're not aware, the platoon cards are intended to enable players to act with several ant units at once, where the ant unit of five Myrmidons corresponds to a system on a Titan. 

Currently those cards aren't really clear, given how they're supposed to take the cogs per action and apply it to up to three units portrayed on the cards. I was brainstorming a way to represent the bonus walk action of the Assault Ants, but I think I might just drop it entirely, as Assault Ants already have a great set of attacks. They can also be used for Spotting, Charge and Redeploy. This is only tangentially related to getting ripped apart by Assault Ant reinforcements in rounds 3-5. 

There's also a good point about making the squads themselves more easily recognisable on the table. While I'm currently using Reversi chips, for their nice round shape, they also have some annoying behaviour making them finicky to use. Also, I can use Tabletop Simulator's token creation function to make some round tokens with symbols on them and lock the ant models to those. 

How it started

How it went

How it ended (Knockout!)

Titanomachina: Hal-con 2025

Another Hal-con, another year. So far I've been coming to Hal-con to run demo-games for four years. Fewer group demos this year and more duels, with some new players returning for as many as a third game this weekend, which was cool to see. 

I played a number of memorable games including the Extra Life IWK charity game played on Twitch, which demonstrated the amusing chaos of new and veteran crew thrown into four-player mayhem. 

Some returning faces, including the Mario Bros participating in a set-up I affectionately like to call the Phone Box which is a 6x6 board where a 2x2 deployment space is created in a 4x4 square of two-habitat-tall buildings. Wario, in the redoubtable Styxx quaternary, proceed to kick Tethys quaternary in the back. This was because Tethys' player, Luigi, had the extra armour 4 in hand to deal with expected attack, and anticipated by ensuring 6 shield tokens over it. Styxx had a kick from a Digitigrade Leg operated by Styxx's entire  crew pulling together and stacking the cogs for a 10 cog kick through enough habits to cause an additional 4 damage. Having been kicked the through a wall thicker than She was tall when slouching, Tethys was knocked out by Eos, whom Styxx had also put on the ropes. 

A first time player and I managed to flatten a considerable amount of the map in what amounted to something of a mosh pit. I managed to execute a great double-jump body slam putting my opponent's Titan Rhea through a block of buildings. At that point I was behind 12 habitat blocks and raced to equalize, but caught a howitzer shot in Eos's right thrusters, destroying them, and shocking a card out of my hand. That card would have powered Eos's hand while it was operated by an initiate crew, and destroyed one more yellow habitat, for a 3vp swing. The game ended 14 to 9 for my opponent. 

After that, however, I managed to execute the same double-jump against a player that had already played twice, this time using Tethys. I had gritted my teeth during the first round, not spending any systems. I caught a plasma howitzer in the knee before jumping, but caught them up in the corner by the edge of the board. After jumping I managed to smash their Eos into some buildings with the claw, and nearly knock Eos off the board with Tethys's gun battery. Eos pours crew and power into getting those shields back up, constantly raising exactly 4 (the number constantly knocked off Eos' shield diagram. I think I also got Eos' right arm. I believe it was round 7 before I was able to pull off the double jump, and I believe I lost both kneecaps (Extra Armour 1 & 2) before it too, meaning that turned a stalemate into a +5 VP to Tethys. 

Similarly a demonstrator had another committment mid-day on Saturday and I got to sub in. That demonstrator is a good player, and while I was left with what might have appeared to be an uphill slope in terms of position and habitats, I also had a fantastic couple of hands that let me double-jump Tethys free of a possible ring-out situation, then turn around and deliver a knock-out shot with an adherent crew and master crew operating a macro laser that went through a shield, armour, and took off a leg and drilled in to the master crew. 

On Friday I took a turn in the Phone Booth, getting Eos Quaternary dismembered by Rhea Quaternary, as my opponent took up fucking and stepping out of the way.

Saturday I got to take Tethys Secondary against Eurybia Primary crewed by our Board Game Room volunteer and suffered only minor decapitation. Eurybia got that one through habitats. 

There were, I think, fewer 3-4 player games this year than in previous years. While I currently think Titanomachina scales pretty well, I think it's something of a different experience at 2, 3, and 4 players. One-on-one is a dueling experience, while the three-on-all is usually a matter of one player getting beat as two players race for victory. The 4-player game often involves players pairing up, but switching partners as the momentum of the game takes pairs through each other's combats. Team-up games are certainly something else, distinct from the multi-Titan mode I've developed.

Titanomachina: Super Titan Sisters

It should not be a secret that one of my favourite Godzilla movies is Godzilla vs Megaguirus, a movie I first watched in poorly-dubbed German. The concept is that Japan has come up with the notion of shooting Godzilla with a black hole gun, whose test-firing unleashes the Kaiju Megaguirus, the queen of a swarm of ancient dragon-flies that somehow enters the modern world due to the test-firing of the black hole gun. Did I mention a black hole gun? It fired black holes that fail to annihilate the Earth and the surrounding Solar system, and will presumably dispose of Godzilla if they can figure out how to aim it.

However, aiming is complicated by Godzilla fighting first the swarm of meganeura, and then Megaguirus proper, and finally a weird software glitch that sees the satellite armed with the black hole gun (aka "Dimension Tide") fall out of orbit. In the meantime Godzilla executes a fantastic body-slam on Megaguirus. 

Seriously, it's a great couple of shots. The first is Megaguirus, having been smashed into a building by Godzilla, clearly emoting a kind of dazed "what-the-f***" then Godzilla roaring and doing a kind of lay-up for a jump. Cut to Megaguirus again clearly emoting "Oh shi...," following by the most amazing shots of Godzilla falling from the sky, and then seen from behind crushing Megaguirus underneath her and the building underneath them both. There's a kind of physicality to it that I am in awe of, and naturally I had to build that in to Titanomachina.

Certainly collisions exist in Titanomachina, but body slams like this needed development. For one thing they needed the Impact trait, and an outcome where the defender wasn't smashed backwards. In their current form they are an attack, that can be reacted to, and that does not damage the attacker. 

Recently my regular opponent has adopted a kind of double-jump after using a Titan's sponson or turret to alter the direction of the jump. Indeed, last night I allowed my opponent to drive up his card advantage (having more cards in hand to play is a significant advantage) and then jump (into a two-habitat building of mine), spin and kick my Titan to the edge of the board, and then follow up with a second jump to execute a body slams through a non-aligned building. 

I could have used an arm to move out of the way, all I needed was to jink left or right and that second jump would not have pushed my Titan back. I could have played more cautiously. So, following the design of the game, I am somewhat complicit in my loss (I was ahead on buildings, I had used a coolant system to recover my master crew, vulcan gun, and a leg). Which is to say I didn't really see it coming as I was concentrating on carrying off a strategy that would have seen me use my master crew three times in four rounds. 

That is also why I don't have any picture to present of this three round game, because I wanted to really focus on the game.

Is the outcome ideal? As a player, no, although mainly because all I had to do was activate that arm. That my opponent won, instinctively it seems, is a good thing. Rather, it was that I made a tactical error with the arm and arguably a strategic error with the card advantage. As a designer, the game is working as intended and I was pleased that one player was able to punisher another player for complacency, inattentiveness, and perhaps over-confidence. A third player mentioned recently about how outcomes changed "with even an ounce of strategy" and after some thought I think I know what that ounce of strategy might have been.

Tethys is equipped with two jump jets and a capacitor, and with sufficient power accrued in Her player's hand can cross the board and outflank any other Titan in a single round. Furthermore, activating a jump jet and then a limb and then a jump jet again means Tethys jumping around the board like Mario. Which is to say, giving Her player the card advantage is blood in the water for a sea-monster.

The ounce of strategy is this: don't let your opponent get ahead of you in the number of cards they have in hand! 

Titanomachina: Single Player Training Missions

Lately I've been pondering the notion of a single player game. Following the Warhammer product design, the game is supposed to be played with other people, or in anticipation of other people, and it is this anticipatory part of the Warhammer hobby that is part of its genius, both because it creates a single-player section that loops back into the multi-player, social part of the Games Workshop Hobby ecosystem. Magic The Gathering uses a similar loop, creating a kind of treadmill to players that grinds out money. Not that, you know, I've managed to sell a box yet. Somewhat amusing me is that the greatest barrier to selling boxes of Titanomachina is not having boxes to sell... Nonetheless, I think that many people would like to be able to move forward with the solo part of planning the next game to playing the next game in spite of that.

Which came to me as I did some gardening, in that some people learn from doing and that Titanomachina should reward practice. So here is the notion, a set of game set-up that would make a single player game a puzzle to solve. 

The first such 'Training Mission' I think should be called "Pruning" and involve the player attempting to destroy as many non-player habitats as possible. The player chooses a personality, adds it to to the Titan deck of their choice at the bottom and deploys that Titan. They then need to get a high score destroying buildings. They have 9 rounds before Time-out game-end. The board set-up would be that of the current Tabletop Simulator default set-up (see picture at the top there). 

My plan is to run this mission in Tabletop Simulator, and to record each activation so that I can go make a little stop-motion animation of it.

So far so good:

Titanomachina: Efficiency is Oppression

Once again the Titans walk the surface of Gaia, and once again they clash anew! This time rapacious Styxx pushes to see just how far efficiency will get Her, and gracious Rhea is there to return fire... This was something of a test match, seeing how Styxx performs under what is arguably a much more efficient load-out than Her usual primary or secondary configurations. Despite the lack of existing cover in the current default set-up on Tabletop Simulator, the general conclusion was that this configuration of Styxx was 'oppressive' to play. Which is one way to say that where-ever Rhea could go and whatever She could do, She was going to get out-manoeuvred by Styxx, and shot/kicked/punched for Her trouble. Without charge-hungry systems to slow Her down, Styxx could keep up a similar rate of activity as Rhea and generally faster, harder-hitting, and more punishing. 

And yet, when the ceasefire came down at the end of round 9, Styxx was down on both habitats and destroyed systems, missing extra armour and a gun battery while Rhea was only missing a couple of extra armour systems. The final score was 24-21, a solid victory to Rhea, and perhaps a good example using Rhea's endurance to take a beating and turn the tide. Which isn't to say that this experiment with Styxx's load-out failed. Indeed, it succeeded to such a degree that like Icarus, I got carried away and make a couple of mistakes that snatched victory from the jaws of Styxx. 

Styxx storms onto the field of battle, an appropriate arena in which the Titans can clash, while Rhea approaches at a low angle, content to keep things at a distance to begin with.

Styxx doesn't want to give Rhea anything to react to, a way to get behind Her right away, but Rhea has other ideas and opens fire with a master-operated macro gun, blasting off Styxx's left leg armour despite an effort to intercept the shot with additional shields. But it's early, and Styxx has always benefited from patience. 

Now Styxx pulls around and returns fire, bursting Rhea's rear shields as She ducks and takes the spread of rockets to Her rear armour. It's no recompense for Styxx's leg armour, but this is just the beginning and Styxx blows Her capacitor to keep ichorplasma pumping through Her titanic frame.  

Now Rhea is on the move as Styxx's master crew moves to operate something, possibly one of Styxx's gun batteries, and demolishes a green habitat with a kind of skipping kick as Her thrusters ignite and hurl Her forward and onto the edge of the board. Styxx detects a tall green building and having detected it, walks around the middle of the board to see if She can't catch Rhea with some gunfire from the waiting batteries. But Rhea has scanned the battlefield, and has seized the initiative...

Now Styxx moves in as Rhea slaps a green habitat to flinders with Her hand, spraying Rhea with heavy-weight anti-titan bullets from Her gun battery and then leaning into a kick to Rhea's hip to smash Her bodily into a tall building topped by a green habitat(!). Rhea kicks back up, but Styxx swings back with punch that Rhea takes to Her prow that sees Her slewed around. 

With Her shields down to 30% and armour falling off in chunks the size of pavers, Rhea takes another bludgeoning blow from Styxx and hits the tall green building that Styxx had detected with macro gun burst operated by Her master crew, collapsing the vast tower, and then reversing in behind Styxx as Her adherent crew scrambles to a new post.  

Rather than swing around and chase Rhea, Styxx backs up and detects a green habitat block preventing Rhea from putting lasers into Styxx's exposed front. Styxx's master crew rushes into position as Rhea's shields generators build up cracking energy barriers over the Her left side. 

Now Styxx springs Her trap, spraying measured gunfire and high-energy EM beams out onto the battlefield, destroying Rhea's habitats, detecting Her own, and dusting Rhea with bullets as She bounces off Styxx and closes with a knot of green habitats close to the opposite edge of the battlefield. 

Styxx seizes the initiative and gives chase, hoping to knock Rhea through some buildings and perhaps even off the battlefield. Rhea starts to work over the green habitats, crushing them with sweeps of Her arms and blasts from Her macro gun. As Styxx closes with Rhea, and starts to batter Her, Rhea's master takes control of Her hand, reaches out, and rips off Styxx's right-hand gun battery! Rhea is now ahead on both habitats and destroyed systems...

As the deadline for the cease fire comes down, Styxx desperately casts about for a green building, and finds one, but it's not enough as Rhea has had the same though and after a quick defensive step beind Styxx detects a yellow building. The ceasefire hits and the battle is over, with Rhea leading 3 Victory Points to 2 in destroyed systems, and 21-19 in habitats!

So that was going well until it wasn't and while it seems like things started to fall apart for Styxx around round 7, it happened earlier on round 2 when Styxx's master crew operated a sensor system instead of being able to blast Rhea with a gun battery, or simply stay on deck as Styxx exercises patience to get Rhea in Her crosshairs. This created a four-habitat tall building that acted as fire-magnet, drawing fire away from Styxx, but also because it was a high-value target when Rhea couldn't lay Her macro gun on Styxx. Had Styxx just put down down habitats, Rhea would not have been able to destroy the whole thing on a whim, and given Styxx two more habitats at the end of the game. 

Likewise Styxx kicking Rhea into a building containing a green habitat that then got destroyed wasn't a great idea and had Styxx still had the master crew on deck for the kick (or a punch) then the lure of doubling the damage by mashing Rhea into a building might not have been so strong. I mean, technically speaking that is my fault for wasting a green habitat when Styxx starts behind on habitats, but again that could have been a green habitat for Styxx at the end of the game that, combined with the two above, would have made for a tie. 

Moreover the cards and effort that went into detecting these habitats may have been better utilised elsewhere in the game, with the master crew operating the sensor could have operated an arm or a leg to batter Rhea. I had been trying to keep a reasonable distance because at a range of 4 tiles or greater Styxx was out-gunning Rhea and out-running Her as well. The reason why things seem to go pear-shaped in round 7 was because Styxx was running out of gas, so Rhea was able to carry off a number of actions virtually unopposed. In that my opponent definitely displayed more patience than I did, and while this configuration of Styxx is very efficient, that still doesn't stop Styxx from suffering if She is pushed too far, too fast. 

Still, glory to my opponent for outlasting me, and for ruthlessly exploiting the unforced errors that I put out there. And glory to Rhea for Her grace and Her thick armour! 

Titanomachina: Hypothetical Systems Part 2

I mocked up some cards for the hypothetical systems I mentioned in an earlier post, and in doing so also did some thinking. Mainly the thinking was "Would that make sense?" and "Why would anyone want to do that?" These aren't final because they're mock-ups, but I find looking at the cards makes it easier to see how they fit into the game than the raw numbers. I settled on two per system, but three of the systems are specific to a single named system (Rocket Pods) or type of system (Guns and Lasers). For the purpose of these systems I think it's important that they affect a particular system rather than being broad or flexible bonuses like sponsons/turrets and crew. 

Extra Bracing adds an attack or a twist per cog to the next card activated with a range of one. 

A Refractive Collimater adds one tile of range or one shock per cog to systems with the armour piercing trait (lasers).

Rocket Pod Payloads add either an attack or the shield breaker trait per cog to Rocket Pods. Two cogs-worth of Shield Breaker would make it Shield Breaker (2). 

A Gun-Loader adds High Explosive (1) or Armour Piercing to Gun systems. If a gun already has High Explosive (1) then it is upgraded to High Explosive (2). 

Titanomachina: Stealth and Cloaking

 

The recent day of Bisexual Visibility got me thinking about ways to implement stealth and cloaking in Titanomachina. The joke was that line-of-sight is mutual, but putting it in those terms reminded me that there is space in the game's design for removing line-of-sight when it is available, as well as adding it when it isn't (the 'Detect' actions). 

Already in Titanomachina we have tall buildings, hundreds of meters in height and a fifty meters wide, being detected mid-battle only by Titans that are within 1km and engaged in high-powered sensor activity. I like to imagine that is because the Titans are drawn to battle by a recent disaster, the appearance of some sort of attack that encourages the already bellicose Titans to kick off and fight. As anyone who has seen large buildings collapse can attest, there is a tremendous amount of particulate in the local atmosphere, not unlike that of volcanic activity. It makes ranges short and detection a matter of deliberate action rather than a passive thing depending on pre-existing surveys and automatic scans. 

So a system that makes a 100m tall Titan disappear from the targeting systems of another Titan seems pretty reasonable, and falls neatly within the realm of the kind of 'Star Trek/Pacific Rim' combat that I want for Titanomachina. It seems like a system that manipulates line-of-sight in the other direction, that of reducing it, would be logical and something that fits into the Titanomachina ethos of expensive, pro-active defense. 

As is my instinct to over-complicate things, I would ideally want to have this cloaking system be able to cloak the Titan in levels or stages. So the initial stage, at the cost of one other system, would be something that needs a detect action on behalf of an attacking Titan to qualify as a target. Basically the equal of hiding behind a building, which is to say that the attacker knows you're there but cannot draw a lock. Then there would be extra cogs-worth of cloaking, corresponding to the amount of cogs a detection action would need to thereafter target the Titan. 

To restate it a bit, you activate this sort of Cloaking system and your Titan cannot be targeted unless it is detected by at least one cog. Activate this system with extra cogs due to crew, and your opponent will need to match it with Detect cogs. Maybe outgoing attacks reduce this value, as one of the tropes about being cloaked is shooting/punching people gives away your position. 

That is not the only space available for Titan stealth though. In a previous post I posited a hypothetical system that could extend the range of laser weapons by one tile. Likewise one might be able to reduce the range of incoming weapons, or perhaps increase the range between Titans. Quite what you might imagine that to be, or even call it I don't yet know. Given that the Titans employ a gratuitous amount of anti-gravity technology to begin with, there might be something to work with there for 'ludo-narrative consonance,' or perhaps something like the holo-field technology of Warhammer 40,000's alien Aeldari, a kind of distracting projection rather than invisibility. 

There is also the notion of something that might prevent crew from lending their Operate bonus to attacks, since the bonus from crew operating weapons (and other systems) represents the crew getting the most out of the weapon by aiming at vulnerable points, timing the firing just right, and generally making sure the attack is doing the most damage. This sort of thing seems harder to justify, but in a sense is the sort of thing that counter-measures such as flares, smoke dispensers, and whatnot exist to do. As a crewman you're trying to aim your gun at the target, but you can only really fire into the general area because you can't actually see what you're looking at. Probably not very intuitive though, and given how Titans are already wading through a soup of smoke, ash, etc, probably even counter-intuitive. 

Titanomachina: Dal Games Expo

I had the privilege of running demonstration games at the Dal Games Expo held at the Dalhousie University Student Union Building this past weekend and it was a great time! It was great meeting people and playing Titanomachina with them, and learning how to use a bingo marker! To explain that last comment, the organizers had the fantastic idea of giving participants a bingo sheet and a stamp passport style of thing that really drove engagement. I really can't say enough good things about the organizers, as they put the Titanomachina table front and center as people walked in, with a handy QR code for the Tabletop Simulator version, and later provided a larger table when I requested it. But what really warmed my cogs was seeing people get locked in as they engaged with Titanomachina. 

I should also take a moment to applaud the incredible patience of the workers at the local Staples at Bayer's Lake, as I wandered in there on Thursday evening when they were busy closing and asked them to print up the copies of the rule book at I would need for this past weekend, and I was able to pick up copies of the rule book on Friday. Having wrestled with getting booklets printed, it was a relief to finally have some properly printed and available for people to peruse. 

There is, of course, also thanks to my demonstration ringer who has done a great job playing a Titan during demo games, and who has helped to develop the game over the years. 

A seven-hundred meter green tower appears out of the fog and tumult! 

Uh oh, Styxx is in a fix!

Styxx can be very distracting when protecting Her towers.

Titanomachina: The Revenge of Styxx

I finally got a chance to run Styxx's tertiary configuration, pugnacious here in a battle against Tethys' sagacious primary configuration, and the modifications to upgrade the sponsons to turrets and swapping the secondary capacitor for a primary coolant system worked out pretty well. Pretty well, in this case, means that I managed to fight my opponent to a tie after nine rounds. Going the full nine rounds in an open-arena like the current default set-up is pretty good considering this configuration of Styxx is supposed to be engaging at short ranges and bouncing around the board. I did want to see if I could abuse the coolant-capacitor-combo, and I was definitely able to take advantage of it, but not in any way that seemed overwhelming. Notably Styxx ended up with something like 5x the damage that Tethys took, but in an interesting turn of events this was because Styxx ended up chasing Tethys as She bounced around the board. Where Styxx started out 3 VPs down, this is a good ending, and I'm pretty happy with how it played out. I would have been happier to take more, larger chunks out of Tethys, but my opponent is wily and has the measure of Styxx (Her short, stubby measure) and fought to the last. 

Deployment started with Tethys wisely deploying cautiously as She entered the battlefield, and the broadcast intention of Styxx to start hot, by hosing Tethys down with super-heated plasma from Her plasma shotgun.

Tethys boosted forwards using Her jump jets, and as Styxx purses, detecting a building, Tethys swings back around to boot Styxx in the shotgun that She was trying to bring to bear, and Styxx takes it on the left leg, resulting in Styxx's shields down 20% and armour cracked. 

Now that Styxx is in claw-range, and under some light gunfire from Tethys She decides to take the initiative by scanning with Her primary sensor and boosts away on Her thrusters. 

Having gained some distance, and some equivalence in firepower, Styxx swings around to start stabbing and blasting. Tethys backs off though, just out of range of Styxx's laser blade, and knocks the top off of the green building that Styxx had detected. Styxx has tricks though. Styxx floods Her leg (and the inexperienced crew operating the coolant system) with coolant, deactivating it, and then activating Her capacitor to recover the power spent on leg and coolant! She's still moving. Tethys had not been standing idly by either and puts a macro laser beam into Styxx's face, searing through shields, armour, and Styxx's primary sensor pod! Nothing destroyed yet, but the damage is severe.  

Styxx's forward momentum isn't arrested as Her pugnacious personality pushes the buttons, and while Tethys falls back, Styxx ramps up the threat, first with Her master crew being readied, and then Her starboard turret activating. Tethys shakes Her claw at Styxx, but keeps backing up until Her jump jets are up against the edge of the battlefield. Fortunately someone on Styxx's crew has a clue, and Her adherent crew brings Her shields back up in preparation for the ensuing clash! 

There's less immediate ensuing clash than expected, but Tethys squares up and Styxx uses the lull as an opportunity to detect another green building (equalizing the score on habitats). The Titans are charging up their power...

Now the battle begins in earnest, as Styxx stomps forward to optimum range to apply a laser blade without receiving a claw in response, and cycling up Her other turret to make sure Tethys' fancy footwork won't save Her. Styxx's master crew readies the weapons, but Tethys blasts Styxx with Her gun battery, slewing Her right off target, and then jumping into Styxx's back-left quarter out of the arc of Her plasma shotgun even assisted by the turret system. Having anticipated this, Styxx lays Her laser blade on target, but Tethys jumps again! This time Styxx can still draw a bead on Tethys, but it's the containment limiting the laser blade's range (and giving it its infamous shield-breaking abilities) that Tethys exploits and She's out of range! Styxx gives chase again, figuring that the weapons are still hot and loaded, so maybe next round, but even as She seizes the initiative, Tethys seizes it back!

Styxx activates adherent crew to shank Tethys with Her laser blade, but Tethys has used the initiative to raise shields, concentrating them on Her front, and when Styxx stabs, all Tethys loses is 50% of Her shields. Now Tethys steps back and out of the arc of Styxx's follow-up plasma shotgun blast, and lines up Her own macro laser for an execution shot guided by Her own senior crew. 

In desperation Styxx blocks the shot to Her damaged face with Her plasma shotgun, bursting the shields protecting it, searing through the weapon itself, and destroying the sensor system nestled behind it. The ravening beam of photons drills into Styxx's body, badly hurting the master crew in the crew compartment as the console She's using erupts in a burst of ichorplasm and sparks! Styxx isn't out of the fight though, even if Her master crew should be, and steps behind Tethys. Tethys isn't done either and steps back and right to bring Her claw and gun battery to bear now. She attempts a kick, but Styxx takes on Her heavily shielded front, and activates some crew to return the favour. 

With Styxx's master crew out of action (or at least considerably less enthusiastic about moving around0 the remaining crew work together to kick Tethys, even as Tethys wrenches Styxx around with Her claw; despite the chaos, the crew lands a solid kick that destroys Tethys' gun battery (and heavily damages Her claw). Tethys gives Styxx a sharp elbow, further damaging Her plasma shotgun, but it's moreso insult to injury. With that, the cease-fire deadline arrives and the Titans stand down as the orbiting Hecatoncheires tell them to knock it off.

Now my opponent notes that he should have used that arm to destroy the lower half of that green building that survived the battle next to to the two Titans, and although the arm was out of arm, he could have moved Tethys through the building, losing a shield but taking no other damage. So maybe technically a tie rather than a 19-20 loss for Tethys, but still a pretty good showing. 

In terms of what I could do to improve my strategy here, I think, would be to make sure the weapons are paired with the capacitor, and the legs with the coolant system, although I've noticed coolant and crew go together well. Having those systems available in the third round, I think, threw my opponent for a "What are you doing?" look, but but I would have preferred to have been holding them in my hand rather than wondering how to hang in there while they loaded. 

Likewise I think with the lack of cover I should have used the sensor systems to seize and maintain the initiative even though a sagacious Tethys (four extra armours and a sensor for scanning) should have been able to prevent that at the cost of being able to tank the hits Styxx would be able to give. Certain the advantage of having more cards in hand than one's opponent was critical. Encouraging an opponent to waste power on inefficient moves and whatnot is a good strategy against a heavily armoured puncher like Tethys Primary. As it was I took damage on Styxx's armour and was therefore unable to seize the initiative at what might have been a critical moment. 

Otherwise, yeah, Styxx's quaternary configuration (macro laser,  rocket pod) wouldn't have been out-ranged by Tethys. 

On a slightly related note, we identified that while capacitors are handy and do indeed synergize well with coolant systems, the emergency power reaction was both somewhat uninteresting and complicated for new players. I think I've maybe used it once or twice, and less than I would have expected it to be used. The coolant system's emergency venting is, by comparison, more interesting and more in line with the system's primary action, that of de-activating systems. 

Originally the emergency power reaction was the result of less perceived game space available for a reaction that wasn't block (changing the target stack) or intercept (move shield tokens to target stack), both of which kind of jive with their relative actions (attack picks a target stack, raise shields moves shield tokens around). Allowing a player to pick a face-down card and play its block or intercept reaction isn't great for players either. I think it would be simpler, and perhaps more interesting, to just have emergency power allow a player to pull a face-down card back into their hand when they're attacked as part of their reactions to being attacked. So like a regular full power action, but half the effect (not considering damage).  

Titanomachina: Eurybia Walks!

 While I haven't been able to get Eurybia's model up on Tabletop Simulator, I do have a beautifully printed version that I was able to get onto the table last night for meat-space testing. I was reminded of the advantages of playing live, such as the opportunity to game out the set-up stage of the game, using every dastardly trick in the book to make sure my opponent couldn't sweep the board of my habitats and vice versa. 

My opponent piloted Eurybia Primary, in all Her unpainted grey glory, since he has a better win-record, and would probably suss out any overwhelming effects of Her dual coolant systems better than I could. I took Tethys Primary, as She is a fantastic all-rounder, and would be a good test for Eurybia. Speaking of, Eurybia got the Gracious personality, while Tethys got the Sagacious personality. 

This is how we set up the buildings, with the non-combatant blue and green habitats often capping or blocking off the yellow and pink habitats from easy targeting. Notable was the fact that most of the exposed yellow habitats were close to my opponent's side of the board. 

Deployment for me was a matter of preparing Tethys for an ambush while planning how I would move Tethys into the top-left quadrant of the board and pick off those yellow habitats without letting Eurybia get behind Her, or use Her coolant systems to bombard the heck out of Tethys without worrying about returning fire. Eurybia was set up conservatively, apparently leveraging that edge in sensors and ranged weapons that would see Her just out of the arc of Tethys' gun battery, and the opposite side of Tethys' body from Her macro laser. 

Thins started off relatively slowly, both Titans working to amass an extra card for the next round, while Tethys re-oriented towards Eurybia, and Eurybia starting pushing Her habitat advantage by smashing the first of Tethys' habitats, and using Her coolant systems to deactivate Her initiate crew for use next round. 

Both Titans comfortably flush with power and systems loaded, Eurybia advances to the centre of the board and Tethys advances to meet Her, tearing into Eurybia with Her claw and macro laser, which Eurybia is able to tank on Her shields and armour. Eurybia makes a threatening motion with Her laser blade in return, but having survived the initial clash with relatively minor damage, it's not fired yet, despite Eurybia's crew members lining up to use the power of friendship and teamwork to gut Tethys like a fish. 

Realising that standing in front of Eurybia is begging to be knocked out, Tethys steps back and away, preferring to risk vulcan gun fire rather than a close-range laser blade hit, and manages to block the incoming storm of fire (5 cogs for the first shot, 1 cog each for the following shots, lost because of the block of the first shot takes their designated targets out of contention after pushing Tethys 45 degrees counter-clockwise) on Her left leg, while using both shields systems to pull in shield tokens from Her flanks to prevent the loss of 1/4 of Her armour. Notably, dumping three cards in reaction to Eurybia's vulcan gun attack means Tethys also sacrifices Her cards-in-hand advantage, but doesn't lose the armour...

Here is where I make the decision to back Tethys off from direct confrontation and start working on those yellow habitats with Tethys' gun battery. Tethys keeps going left, working on getting away from the laser blade and rocket pod on Eurybia's own left side, and drawing a bead on those yellow habitats on the west side of the board (the left of the image above). In terms of buildings, the score has been equalised, having started off with Eurybia one habitat ahead. Eurybia gives chase...

I activate Tethys' adherent crew, and post off of a two-habitat yellow building to bring Tethys around to bear Her macro laser on Eurybia while Eurybia swings around to lead with Her left arm. I've moved into the lead, but there are still yellow habitats laying around and Tethys will be reloading Her gun battery soon-ish. Eurybia's scans give Her the initiative, to which I respond by taking it back, and my opponent activates Eurybia's sensor to take it again, now blowing the coolant system to make sure it'll be available next round. Eurybia now has the initiative, meaning She has the edge in the following confrontation. 

This edge means that Tethys eats a face-full of rockets from Eurybia's rocket pod, reducing Her shields to tatters (down to 40%), and leaving Tethys open to whatever Eurybia has to throw at Her. Except that Tethys cannot as Eurybia steps back into cover, leaving Tethys with only sub-optimal targets a macro laser. After some quick, Propeller-aided cognition, I realize this calls for the second oldest trick in the book. Tethys is, after all, ahead on buildings, and if I push that to 6 or more, then it doesn't matter if Eurybia follows up with a knock-out, as Tethys will still win. So Tethys' master crew grabs Her sensor and peers east (the right hand side of the board), and detects a tall pink building where initial scans had indicated a much shorter building. Eurybia cannot let this building stand, and comes about...

Eurybia's adherent crew takes control of Her vulcan gun and annihilates the tall pink building at the edge of vulcan gun range and Tethys comes about and steps forward to likewise pick off yellow habitats off the tops of buildings, exposing more to Her macro laser. But, for various reasons, I decide that Tethys should try to exploit that damaged frontal armour of Eurybia, because although it would be fewer points that the two yellow buildings that are beautifully lined up for a laser, attacking Eurybia should force my opponent to spend Her power on protecting Herself, and that should minimize the counter-attack. Which is does, to a degree, and Eurybia is able to absorb the snap-shot by blocking with Her right side and intercepting with a shields system. 

Eurybia is now ready to square up, and moves left, coming about to shank Tethys, taking the initiate back from Tethys' sagacity with a quick scan. Tethys banks off of a yellow habitat, destroying it, and closes to face Eurybia. Tethys' claw crunches into Eurybia's frontal armour and Tethys smashes Eurybia right into the building on Eurybia's left, demolishing it. Eurybia brandishes Her laser blade, but doesn't activate it until the next round. 

Now Eurybia attempts to stab Tethys in the initiate crew compartment, but Tethys ducks and instead takes the laser blade through the sponson. It's a slightly more acceptable loss, and as Eurybia side-steps, Tethys comes about with a punch to Eurybia's side. Eurybia vents a coolant system, and Tethys has to pour on the gas to smash Eurybia through a block of buildings. Eurybia's master crew operates Her sensor and detects a tall yellow building, but it's not enough, and Tethys spots a pink habitat crowning a blue building instead of executing a body slam to crush Eurybia through another block of buildings (having run out of power thanks to Eurybia performing an emergency coolant venting and nearly freezing Tethys' arm). 

It's a time-out, and the final score is 21-19, with 3 victory points of destroyed systems to Eurybia and 2 victory points of destroyed systems to Tethys, while the building score is Tethys with 19 habitats remaining on the battlefield and Eurybia with 16 habitats. It raises something of a question as to what, exactly, is a comfortable lead as it would not have taken much to push that to a tie, or even a victory for Eurybia. Unfortunately Eurybia wasn't able to indulge in such tricks as using an initiate crew to operate the coolant system and deactivate both a senior crew member and a weapon, but this was Her first time in action and there was some discussion of the economy of a coolant system. 

There's also the matter of set-up. As it currently stands in Tabletop Simulator there's a default set-up and players can add/subtract habitats as necessary for the Titan they're using, but it's a very generic set-up intended to be relatively neutral. In this game I was able to both set up Tethys' pink habitats in ways that were both relatively well protected, and able to keep Eurybia occupied in a section of the battlefield where Her habitats were most exposed. My opponent's early set-up also involved a lot of buildings composed of a yellow habitat capped with a blue habitat, which is good for neutralising those pinky one-cog gun battery shots, but less so for resisting a claw or a Titan pushed through a building with a claw. 

Given then that the battlefield favoured Tethys somewhat, I think it was a good first out for Eurybia, particularly when my opponent was able to use Her coolant system to deny me that last body-slam, which would have seen the score more heavily weighted in my favour. I think the next time I'm playing the game I'm going to be running one of the Styxx configurations with a capacitor and a coolant system, or perhaps take the helm of Eurybia Herself to see what sort of envelop I can push. 

It's also interesting to note what is going on when a player declines to activate a system. It's a bit like in those shows (super sentai, tonkatsu, etc) where fists/weapons/what-have-you are brandished so that they (a) do nothing, and (b) are shown to be available in the future. 

We discussed what would happen when a sponson is deactivated, and I think the best thing (for now) is that a deactivated sponson's arc bonus lasts until the end of the round, unless it's damaged, and deactivating it doesn't need to remove that bonus.