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).