Titanomachina: Clymene Reconfiguration

Clymene's secondary configuration kicked my ass up and down the board last week, but that is not why I am adjusting it. It turns out that I had put the wrong cards in the deck, regular arms and plantigrade legs, but the card was big arms and digitigrade legs. My opponent, having used Clymene to thrash me, also commented that the loss of Clymene primary's second sponson was also kind of rough in terms of enjoyable game-play. The question was, what to take out to install that second sponson? I eventually settled on the Extra Armour 4 system because while the loss is substantial, the sponsons can also be used to block attacks, and it frees up a space in the back target area for the sponson. It also makes some sense out of having one sponson supporting Her torso and the other supporting the plasma driver. 

What does this do? It might make Clymene slightly more agile, being able to use a sponson for each stabilizer, and gives the plasma driver more opportunities to combine fire with the vulcan gun. Perhaps the digitigrade legs and big arms will slow Clymene down, but frankly Her main mode of moving is jumping with the stabilizers and then the arms and legs flailing to turn Her around and smash things. Putting in the plasma siphon as Her specialist system should enable Clymene some more agility just to bring down the cost of firing it which then can increase both damage and mobility as the system's recoil comes into play. Extra bracing remains a strong competitor. 

 

Titanomachina: Specialized Systems Addition

Fanatical cogs may notice that there is no specialized system for plasma weapons, while there is for guns, lasers, pods, and range 1 attacks. That is because I was not really sure how to do it. Given some of the development pains plasma capacitors went through, I know what it shouldn't do even if the logic for it is extensible from core rules. Repeat a system or load more systems shouldn't be done. But what about charging a system? Coolant and capacitors already draw cards back from the player's hand. 

The first draft of the plasma siphon will have a new action, giving two charge per cog to subsequent systems with 'plasma' keyworded. Maybe call it  a Super-Charge action. For a reaction it shares Emergency Venting with coolant and stabilizers. 

Now, I think as something experimental, an action that lets a player pre-pay an action at the cost of a snap shot is more like a crew member adding cogs to a subsequent system. Capacitors remain necessary for a first strike capability, and broader utility. So it satisfies the specialist system design of helping one sort of weapon change up its  behaviour, and perhaps tune it up.

Titanomachina: Clymene goes Two for Two

The new girl, Clymene, got Her secondary configuration tested in production last night and the reviews were mixed, with is not to say the results were mixed. Clymene managed to ring-out Styxx's secondary configuration on round 3, and then ring-out Eurybia's secondary configuration in round 9. Was She working as designed? Well, Clymene's secondary configuration is vibe-architected, rather than carefully designed around the numbers. Her rear-mounted plasma driver was never used, and the number of sponsons in this configuration were held to be insufficient, leaving Her vulnerable to a flank assault. Her pincer, despite winning Her the second game, was deemed a liability with a comment something like "I say this now, but watch me win with this." In the writing business we call this 'foreshadowing,' and perhaps Clymene's apparent faults lulled me into a false sense of security. 

Here it might be useful to distinguish between the purpose of the game and the goal of the game. The goal of the game is to win, to do whatever you can within the framework of the rules to achieve that win-condition. The purpose of the game is to have fun, and to enjoy the experience (trying to win while your opponent is also trying to win), and so while Clymene's secondary configuration certainly seems to be able to push when it counts, maybe there are useability changes that will make Her more enjoyable to utilize on the board. By contrast Styxx is a sluggish, cantankerous reptile that rewards a slow and careful build-up, which I did not do in the first game. I had set up too aggressively, having drawn the Sagacious personality vs Clymene's Pugnacious, when I think perhaps that I should have hid Styxx in a corner with an escape combo (initiate crew, turret, thrusters) loaded for the first round. The fun of using Styxx is carefully building up power for mid to late-game press. Letting Clymene get in close and early was a fatal mistake. 

Conversely, Eurybia is an oppressive monster that can let a player get carried away. Having chased Clymene all over the board, I had hoped that Her underwhelming offense would continue, and apparently not completely learning from the first game got between Clyeme and the board-edge. Not only that, but I cleared some of the habitats that would have prevented a ring-out by catching Eurybia as She was pushed into them. All I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the game. 

But about Clymene: The stabilizers were a clutch system, enabling the Titan to make quick, opportunistic jumps to evade Eurybia and close with Styxx. Choosing the extra bracing specialist system enabled Clymene's player to grapple Styxx into a position with a leg that allowed Her to be pushed off the board by sustained vulcan gun fire. It also enabled Clymene to punch Eurybia off the table with the pincer. The lack of a system like coolant or capacitors reduced Her rate of activity, but careful (perhaps miserly) hoarding of cards meant that Her player was able to exploit card advantage perfectly. In fact, to a degree where I'm not sure I like what that means for game-play. Certainly, hoarding cards can lead to a satisfying explosion of activity when players have completely filled their hands with their cards, but at least in the two-player game it can lead to somewhat static game-play. I don't yet have an answer to this, and perhaps it doesn't need one, but I'm not sure it improves the game. Nonetheless, the consensus seemed to be that giving up one of Clymene primary's sponsons was perhaps a design mis-step; the question being what to give up to retain it?  

We had used Rhea's yellow habitats for Clymene this game, since the board was pre-set and I am only now realizing that the game can now support 2-6 players with the addition of two new Titans (shapes) and colours. I cleared out Eos and Rhea's spare figures, cards, and tokens. As you can see I left a 'danger zone' behind Styxx to discourage a mugging, but I have have done better to deploy to tile 33, that middle L-bend road between the two rows of buildings on the bottom-right there. 

A lazy way to start off, perhaps, but Styxx needed to start clearing yellow habitats and I had a crack at giving up the initiative so that I could react to any incoming moves Clymene made. Notice, of course, that Clymene is biding Her time. 

Clymene makes Her move after Styxx swings Herself around to tile 45, facing Clymene, who jumps over Her using stabilizers deftly operated by Her master crew. This brings Her to tile 44, putting Styxx directly astern and green habitats directly ahead. Styxx comes about and along-side with an inadvisable kick that Clymene rolls with, blocking with frontal armour, and bringing the plasma driver about to threaten Styxx. Styxx is royally borked if She gets shocked, let alone two or three times, so this may have panicked me. 

It's time for Styxx to get the claw into play and I play the turret to enable Styxx to twist and reach with it. At the same time Clymene is also twisting into position using Her lone sponson, operated by an initiate crew member deployed last round. The claw drags the plasma driver out of position, but that wasn't the threat as Clymene dances away to tile 65 to jab Styxx in the back left  (deflectors) while She is recuperating power with Her plasma capacitor and then seizing the initiative. Styxx has prepared to hammer Clymene with an arm, but having seized the initiative Clymene can dodge out of Styxx's arc, even enhanced by the turret, leaving Styxx to save the arm for later and concentrate the adherent crew on finding a tall green building in tile 97 before gassing out. Clymene has plenty of power though, and grapples Styxx from tile 54 to tile 53, and then opens up with Her vulcan gun to push the Titan off the board while destroying the lightly damaged deflectors... Despite the building detection, this ring-out for +5 victory points means the game ends 25-23 for Clymene!

Now it looks like I buggered up saving the screenshot for game 2's deployment and round 1, but Clymene got pugnacious and Eurybia got gracious, and Clymene deployed to tile 83 facing north (the bottom of the image) and Eurybia set up directly beside Her in 84. Once again I was green and my opponent was yellow for the initiative track and habitats. Eurybia proceeded to stab Clymene in the leg with a laser blade. As Clymene jumped away, Eurybia stomped after Her using both legs, slowing to stomp nearby yellow habitats, both of which (and the laser blade) were super-cooled by an adherent-operated coolant system. Having come around again, in round 2 Eurybia had a crack at taking the initiative, and pushing forward on freshly super-cooled limbs She is foiled by Clymene scanning with Her back armour's passive sensors to take it back. Seeing an opportunity She taps Clymene into the yellow habitat topping tile 43 with Her vulcan gun. Then the gun and legs and sensor are all super-cooled again thanks to Her master crew and Her second coolant system!

Clymene backs up behind the safety of the mixed yellow and green buildings in tile 63, but no problem as Clymene walks forward and turns to bring Her super-cooled vulcan gun to bear even though the buildings block line of sight. Clymene is biding Her time though and detects a tall yellow building in tile 16, bringing the score to even.

Now here is perhaps where over-confidence got me, or perhaps it was seeing Clymene in a vulnerable state as She headed north, smashing green habitats into flinders. I closed the gap and didn't really pay attention to how I was falling behind on power, spending more cards for less effect, and not gaining the initiative when I tried for it. 

Realizing what had happened I tried to stall for time, but it turned out that my opponent had similar ideas and so we sat their charging. I believe the scan action associated with that extra armour piece was also rebuffed, since the initiative didn't change and I'm only counting four played cards across the table here. 

With our respective hands full, I tried to push Eurybia to somehow mangle Clymene and my opponent made good use of limbs and stabilizers to duck, dodge, dive, and dodge. Clymene ended up by that tall yellow building though, so I was confident that if Eurybia stepped back around around I would have a target for the super-cooled vulcan gun regardless. 

Not unexpectedly, as I moved the vulcan gun into position to fire my opponent activated their master crew to operate a leg, and to move south-west kicking a green habitat to begin the move and then reversed course when I spun Eurybia around to stab Clymene again! In the hustle and bustle Clymene had detected a yellow building on the very edge of the battlefield, surrounded by yellow and blue habitats...

Eurybia was running behind on habitats though, and after that, and knowing Eurybia's coolant systems were ready to re-load, I collided Eurybia with the yellow habitats in tile 63 and then moved to stab the yellow building Clymene had detected in tile 31 earlier. Clymene takes the opportunity to try and stomp Eurybia face-first through the remaining green habitats, and ends up destroying Eurybia's leg armour as She blocks with it. I am well ahead on habitats though, and decide to see if Eurybia can't hang in there. I fail to notice again, it seems, that Clymene is holding back for a big round 9 push. 

Literally a push, as both Titans twist on their sponsons to reach targets and I find Eurybia no longer able to claw anything interesting, and scrabbling to get the purple dinosaur off Her back. A quick glance up the table detects a tall green building, but even with that, the rain of blows and body-slams from Clymene pushes Eurybia through the last green habitat and off the building for another ring-out! Eurybia only has 19 victory points, while Clymen finishes off with 22! Another victory for Clymene! If Eurybia had a face She might appear as surprised as myself. 

Of course, a common element in both of these games was myself, and I do tend to over-extend my Titans. Likewise, I do tend to forget the over-arching strategy when I find myself in the lead: I should have played more defensively and stayed out of the danger zone by the edge of the board. That shouldn't take away from my opponent's work in pulling out the second ring-out of the night with an unfamiliar Titan. Pretty impressive as I think that ring-out is the coolest way to end and win the game. Given it was this configuration's debut battle, and the Titan was perhaps not user-friendly, all the more so. 

The point about making this configuration more fun to play with stands, as winning is definitely not the only thing. I certainly enjoyed playing Eurybia as She stomped around gouting clouds of coolant and chasing Clymene. There's just something about starting a game off by shanking someone in the leg. Still...

Glory to Clymene and glory to my opponent! Next stop, Clymene's tertiary configuration...

Titanomachina Tactics Part 2

Imagine if you will, that you had any Titan in any situation, how would you seize the initiative. Seizing the initiative is a simple action that requires more than just activating a sensor or extra armour system to scan, and this ascend your Titan's initiative marker in the stack. 

For one thing, doing it when no opponent is ahead of you moves your marker to the bottom of the stack. Furthermore, while being able to shoot before an opponent away or out of line of sight is great, shooting second can deter pursuit. In pursuing an opposing Titan you want to be able to react and follow them, rather than moving first and having them successfully retreat before you can attack. If you have more cards, then you can run them down with the initiative.

You can try to gain and increase card advantage by making efficient trades using capacitor and coolant systems, or successful attacks using plasma systems. Shocking an opponent into discarding cards unactivated while saving cards with a capacitor means a solid ratio of damage to cost. Coolant can be used to push this earlier in the game with a risk of gassing out in the late game. 

This is further complicated by a Titan's ability to soak attacks on shields, and to block with extra armour. Both systems are cheap, and ablate favorably for the defending Titan. Of course, cards used to block cannot be used to activate other systems, and the number or type of attacks may overwhelm an active defense and sap power for offense. 

No Titan does well under fire from two enemy Titans on one side, and rarely better coming under fire from both sides. But having the initiative can assist a Titan in removing themselves from between two mutually antagonistic opponents. It's worth rememberimg that a Titan that has been savaged by another Titan is a prime candidate for a knock-out.

A knock-out blow requires a target to stay available for about three turns, while the Titan activates crew and any sensors or sponson pr turret. Master crew and then a weapon can destroy multiple systems with a single attack, and removing armour removes a Titan's ability to defend itself as well as exposing 2 & 3 point systems. Lasers can bypass armour, but get easily absorbed by shields. A master operated laser battery can do serious harm to an undefended Titan, and a laser blade can deal game-changing damage with a quick early game stab.

Getting there is going to require chewing through shields and causing extra damage with high explosive, impact, and grapple attacks. 

So depending on whether you start with more or fewer habitats, and whether you have the initiative or not, is whether you walk, operate, attack or operate attack walk, or attack operate walk.

Titanomachina: Clymene Debut Battle

Time for a bit of inter-generational strife, as gracious Clymene takes the field against pugnacious Eurybia, with my esteemed opponent selecting the Gun Munitions as Clymene's specialist system. I chose Eurybia's quaternary configuration of plasma howitzer, gun battery, and buzz saw, mainly mixed-strategy adaptability, but also for brute damage. 

Despite a few points where I can safely quality a choice as an error, this was a tense game that saw Eurybia start at a deficit in habitats (20-23) and work hard to offset that by causing as much damage as possible. In the lead position my opponent did a good job ducking, dodging, diving, and detecting just enough previously undetected habitats to end the game with 19-17 victory points; Clymene suffered only mild dismemberment, almost losing Her vulcan gun but saved by Her grace, and definitely losing Her left leg to a constant barrage of kicks, buzz saw slashes, and elbows thrown by Eurybia. But the fact that She had detected two habitats, borrowing Tethys' pink habitats for this game, meant that losing a leg was not enough to throw the game. Similarly Her gracious repair of Her own vulcan gun likewise prevented another 2 victory points falling in Eurybia's pugnacious lap. Eurybia also came up just short of a ring-out, because that would have resulted in a 1 point loss, and the loss of Her frontal armour meant She was 1 point short of a knock-out. When things are this close, there's always the temptation to push a Titan just a little further and a little faster, and then find it venting heat and struggling to re-load, which is to say out of cards and at the mercy of an opponent! 

Also, I just noticed that we went for yellow for Clymene's initiative marker, but pink for Her habitats, in case things get confusing. 

As this is Clymene's first outing and She starts ahead in identified habitats, She deploys carefully, sighting offensively green habitats for pruning, and preparing for an angry green cousin to come storming into contact. Eurybia has deploys to a less obviously aggressive vector, out of range of Clymene's vulcan gun and out of arc of Her rocket pod, but with Clymene in range and arc of Eurybia's plasma howitzer. The idea was to even out the habitat situation before engaging directly...

Both Titans continue on their approach vectors, with Clyeme sidling south (north is the bottom of the board here, with the round track in the east) to kick the green habitat top off a building in tile 69. Eurybia, by contrast, goes full Kool-aid man through the buildings on tile 74 (bottom right is tile 11), netting -1 habitat for Clymene at the cost of four shields. As Clymene swings south, Eurybia's master crew gets those shields back up, bulking them over Eurybia's arms. Clymene's own master crew is activated...

Clymene reveals Herself with a massive full spread of rockets into the row of buildings in tiles 67 and 76 Eurybia guided by Her master crew. Eurybia responds by lashing out with Her plasma howitzer, deliberately ignoring Clyene and blasting two pink habitats in tiles 74 and 73 at the cost of a green habitat in tile 73. As Eurybia's initiate crew gets Her gun battery up to an optimal firing solution Clymene's own initiate crew gets Her specialist gun munitions system feeding the vulcan gun with both high explosive and armour-piercing shells. Eurybia's gun battery blast two more pink habitats to smithereens, and then She holds for what is coming next. Specifically Clymene walks around the remaining pink habitat in tile 67 and opens up with an adherent crew-operated vulcan gun, bursting Eurybia's shields and driving deep gouges into Her frontal armour. Eurybia's reaction is to suffer the assault, and to waggle the exhausts of Her coolant systems, to emphasize that Clymene needn't get much closer. At this point my opponent realized that Clymene might have been able to push Eurybia through the buildings in tile 73 had Clyeme walked to tile 77 instead. Of course, there is an argument to be made for exiting the 'danger zone' of the outer ring of three tiles around the edge of the board, but the amount of damage would have been far worse. Not a fatal error, as it turns out. 

Despite being rattled about by the hail of high explosive armour-piercing projectiles and down to 50% shields, Eurybia is just getting started. She swings around right and steps in to threaten Clymene with Her buzz saw, and Clymene steps back to play for space, and time to re-power Her systems. Taking advantage of Clymene's flagging power levels, Eurybia seizes the initiative!

Eurybia's pugnacity and momentum sees Her sliding after the retreating Clymene and raking Her buzz saw down Clymene's side to burst shields, tear open armour, and mangle the vulcan gun. Clymene's defense is half-hearted as She has detected a two-habitat pink building in tile 14, and Her gracious personality restores function to Her vulcan gun (if not a shiny finish). In a fit of seeming rage Eurybia discharges one of Her coolant systems to super-cool the buzz saw, and to immediately load it for another blow!

Things are accelerating now as Eurybia's master crew takes over the buzz saw from the adherent crew and rips it down Clymene's flank, shearing off the armour and deflector array that Clymene wears like a holster on Her hip. Clymene's own master crew grips and rips the armour packages remaining on Eurybia's prow clean off, despite an emergency venting of coolant by Eurybia. Eurybia rolls with it and aims a kick to Eurybia's de-gloved leg, but Clymene blocks it with Her other leg, bursting its shield and cracking its armour, but leaving Her standing. Eurybia then smashes through the pink habitat left in tile 67 and again kicks Eurybia, who manages to block the blow with Her sponson, leaving it lightly damaged. Clymene manages a quick elbow to Eurybia's gun battery as She lurches backwards on Her damaged leg, rather than resting in front of Eurybia's guns. 

Eurybia is expecting this and attempts to kneecap Clymene with a snap-shot from Her plasma howitzer. Clymene catches the shot on Her back armour instead, taking only light damage and the 20% loss of shields, but still finds Her power system overloaded by the dollop of energized matter eating through Her back armour. Her initiate crew is activated and on deck 

Clymene's initiate crew races to get the gun munitions system pushing shells into the Vulcan gun as Eurybia's own initiate crew swings Her around for punch to Clymene's damaged leg. Clymene takes it, disabling Her leg, and staggering Her, but Her sponson activates to compensate! The crews of Titans activate their respective gun weapon systems, but Eurybia has the initiative, spraying shells at Clymene, and forcing Clymene up against the edge of the battlefield as She attempts to block the attacker with arm. Clymene's own firehose of shells misses Eurybia and devastates the green habitats in tiles 73 and 74. As Eurybia activates a coolant system to re-load Her gun battery, She warns Her crew that pushing Clymene out now would result in a technical loss...

Perhaps all the gouts of coolant steam coming from Eurybia really do indicate Her temper, as She closes to tile 87 and lets Clymene's master crew deftly operate the damaged leg to slip around behind Her and kick the green habitat top off of a building in tile 88. Making a terrible choice, Eurybia goes west along the road to get on Clymene's right, rather than Her damaged left, and elbows the pink top off the remaining building in tile 76 when She realizes her mistake. Clymene isn't pausing though, and now steps back and turns to bring Her own armaments to bear on Eurybia. 

Eurybia has the initiative, but Clymene has escaped to the center of the battlefield, and fights effectively to defuse Eurybia's fury as She gives chase first with a kick and then with gouts of gunfire and clouds of coolant. One last burst of gunfire and Clymene's left leg is finally destroyed, but as the smoke clears Her valiant efforts to defend Herself and Her city become apparent. Both are still standing, and both have survived Eurybia's onslaught. Was it the detected building? Was it the grace of Clymene Herself? Even now with the benefit of hindsight it's hard to tell. Certainly there may have been some teething problems with calculating the optimal first shots using a vulcan gun with a gun munition system feeding it, and Eurybia rushed in where cooler heads might have prevailed, but it's a great debut for Clymene in a tense game!

Glory to gracious Clymene and glory to my opponent!

Titanomachina: Clymene Dinosaurus

I have wanted to make a dinosaur-version of Clymene for a while now, and this is the first draft. I like to build a model and then iterate on it, figuring out solutions to problems I have identified and so on. It's helping me learn to use things like Blender and Photopea. 

Titan-design-wise I've been wanting to make a Titan with a tail. As a likewise preliminary arrangement of systems, I made this thinking: 

Digitigrade Legs x2, Big Arms x2, Sponson, Sensor, Extra Armour x4, Deflectors x2, Crew x4, Stabilizers x2, Plasma Driver, Vulcan Gun, Pincer, and a Specialist System. 

The gimmick, such as it is, is treating the Plasma Driver as a motive system with surprising mobility under the operation of senior crew, Adherent or Master. The Stabilizers are 0 charge, 1 cog jump jets with explosive venting, which are still good for 3-4 tile jumps under senior crew.

Specialist-system-wise, Gun Munitions or Extra Bracing is the way to go, turning the Vulcan Gun from an inefficient pop-gun into something rivaling a Master-operated Rocket Pod.  

Titanomachina Tactics: Part 1

Titanomachina is a strategy-tactics game where players choose a strategy and carry it out. Much of what you can do is constrained by the personality you drewe and the systems aboard your chosen Titan. If you think of a game as a record of played cards, your first thought should be of the right order in which to play those cards cards. However, the value of those cards in that order is relative to the board state: relative positions of Titans and the positions of habitats and other terrain. This is also relative to the way you are trying to win the game, by time-out, knock-out, or ring-out.

If you are going for a time-out, then you want to tank the other player's attacks and beat them on habitats. If you are going for a knock-out, you need to overwhelm the opposing player's Titan to overcome a lag in habitats. Likewise a ring-out presumes the victory point bonus for moving an enemy Titan off the board outweighs any lag in habitats and damage. 

At some point in a knock-out your opponent starts to take damage, limiting their ability to resist. A knock-out almost always requires achieving card-advantage, not merely having more cards but also controlling tempo with unactivated cards. Having the initiative helps get that knock-out hit in so the target can't duck aside at the last minute. A lot of things need to go right. I think it is riskier than time-out wins, and works best against a ring-out strategies.

A ring-out strategy works best against the time-out strategy, because they want to absorb the damage with shields and armour, rather than habitats. You need systems like guns, hands, claws, sponsons, and turrets. Of course, you also need some willingness to lag in destroyed systems and habitats for a positional and card advantage. But since they're trying to soak the damage on their Titan, they're an obliging target.

In fact, card advantage is clutch, so there is a tension that systems can be used more if used regularly, but if held unactivated in hand it is a threat and a timing resource. Titans such as Styxx, relying on big arms and digitigrade legs, seem at a plain disadvantage, giving up two cards to activate one. It's the same amount of cogs, roughly, but requires initiative to pull off. Once Styxx has built up a sufficiently large hand though, or simply has card advantage, Styxx also has a cog advantage of hitting harder and moving faster. 

Initiative is going to Sagacious Rhea or Styxx, unless it can be defeated by doing light damage to all of a Titans' sensor and extra armour systems, or sinply where they have more that can scan. So initiative is cards, and the order that lets you maximize it for that personality after being dealt that personality. Pugnacious Styxx may even have an edge on Sagacious Rhea. Eos is going to get the initiative by activating both capacitors at regular intervals. This will give Eos something of a freeze, a time in which they are vulnerable to attack should they have used extra armour and deflectors to power weapons and jump jets. 

Hitting first, or dodging out of the way first, or raising shields first is obviously good. Being able to evade a chasing opponent, or detect a building, or seize the initiative are also handy things when you don't have the initiative. 

So this is the strategic framework of Titanomachina in which specific tactics or combos may or may not work.