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!