Game design is a funny thing because you can build a big, elaborate structure out of rules and numbers, but whether or not it feels right will depend on the players. In this game, I took pugnacious Clymene quaternary configuration against sagacious Eurybia quinary configuration, and despite losing 20-16 I ended the game feeling like Eurybia's weapons needed a boost. We've been trying to fine-tune this configuration of Eurybia for a while, adding a bonus to Her wings for instant body-slams, and adding a combo to Her harpoon gun for drag & grapple, and it worked when my opponent switched things up in the middle of the game and decided to start playing more aggressively: Clymene was knocked out, losing a missile pod, extra armour , and deflectors for no additional damage to Eurybia.
Certainly this configuration of Clymene is a relaxing one to play, having taken pod payloads as the specialist system for the game, and being well-armed with a solid combination of weapons. Had She lasted until round 9, I suspect I could have won this one. But as careful observers may note, this version of Eurybia is meant to swoop in and batter its opponents, which it did. The problem, such as it was, was that this configuration of Eurybia did not encourage its player to use it like that. Furthermore my esteemed opponent is a cagey player, preferring to wear down an opponent, encouraging them to gas out and over-reach. While Eurybia established and maintained a card advantage, the sheer cost of onboard systems, especially wings, acted as a brake on closing with Clymene. Titans that depend on impact and grapple to engage an opponent also depend somewhat on overwhelming an opponent, being able to reach that point where they have enough cards to force an opponent to collide with buildings, or their opponent has too few to resist effectively. Closing costs cards, and closing is more complicated than just reaching out and shooting someone with a gun.
But when it works, boy howdy does it work. So the trick seems to be encouraging players to try. I've decided one way to do that is to upgrade the pincer and harpoon gun to 2 cogs each. This brings the pincer in line with the claw in terms of raw damage, with the ability to split up the cogs between shield breaking, grappling attacks a decent alternate to the claw's shock, and the buzz saw's high explosive shield breaking. Similarly, the harpoon gun's two cogs should put it up beside the macro gun and gun battery in terms of efficiency, despite the low range, and single attack. This also affects Clymene's secondary configuration, since it mounts a pincer, but that should be a good thing.
The initiative track is wrong here, I did not have the initiative, having drawn the Pugnacious 1 card. My opponent set up on tile 33, and I decided that I would start things off by trying for a one-two with Clymene's macro gun and missile pod, using the pod paylods to add the impact trait to the missile pod's firing.
A little too confident my opponent was going to stand still and try to power up before doing anything I tipped my hand with the pod payloads and Eurybia walked south-west (north is right in these pictures) to taunt Clymene into an unwise use of a laser battery. Fortunately my laser battery was scheduled to be loaded on round 2... We both had our master crew up though.
Unfortunately something went wrong with the cropping in this picture but you can see where Clymene blocked a hit with Her rear extra armour 4 and took the initiative with Her extra armour 2. As planned Clymene managed to take out a number of buildings with Her macro gun and laser battery, while Eurybia took the opportunity to smash up the exposed blue habitats before stomping into the middle and punching Clymene as a sort of erstwhile greeting.
Now that Clymene has the initiative a snap-shot with the missile pod exposed Eurybia's right flank, and I decide that Clymene should take a crack at kiting Eurybia as it looked like She was laying up for something nasty.
This is identifiably where my over-confidence took over, and exposed me to the knock-out coming up in round 8. I stepped Clymene back and around to mash a yellow habitat with my back-left shield, exposing the area. That Clymene's rear armour was also exposed didn't seem to be a big problem. My opponent spotted a yellow building in tile 16, I spotted a taller blue building in tile 91, and I take back the initiative when my opponent tries to take it again. At least I am aware at this point that my choice is to cede the initiative to my opponent or to spend a card trying to hand onto it. As it would happen this was the wrong choice for pretty much the reasons you would think: giving up the defense for offensive oomf left Clymene knocked out!
Following my impulse to go on the offensive I chased Eurybia with first my laser battery and then my macro gun, before lifting up Clymene's skirts and heading over to get a clear shot on the yellow building Eurybia had detected. Instead of using the full five cogs I brought Clymene to a halt in tile 53. I was ahead on buildings, and shields, but I didn't need to get close to the edge of the board or make things easy for my opponent. I lost the initiative, but I was always going to (4 extra armour and sensor for 5 scans, while my opponent had 5 extra armour, sensor, and sagacity for 7 scans) and perhaps had hung onto it for too long.
Of course, things had started changing last round, but I hadn't marked it. My opponent had switched gears, and decided to close. I was fine with that, because I had a plan, some juicy targets, and decent shield coverage. As it turns out I came out behind on habitats, trading two yellow for three blue, and needing to work the defense. Rather than using Eurybia's coolant to get those cards super-cooled and back in hand, instead emergency venting was used to make my attempts at fighting back more costly.
Now Eurybia piles on the pain, using crew and wings to draw back and push Clymene up against an anvil of buildings in tiles 37, 47, and 36. Not a huge problem, but I declined to defend Clymene more actively because I wanted to hold back defense, and it was seeping through my sensor feeds that Clymene's defenses were being worn down. Clymene fought back with a kick and tried to get the missile pod into position for a spread to crack Eurybia's armour, but of course Eurybia has the initiative and activates two crew members and then the second wing, but bringing Her crashing down on Clymene. My choice was taking two damage on the weapon I wanted to use, or taking two damage each on Clymene's left arm, back right and back, breaking armour and exposing my laser battery to attack. Taking two damage instead of six seemed rational at the time.
As I struggle with Clymene trying to get a good gouge in on Eurybia, and can't because She is knocked out of position. A hard punch destroys Her damaged deflector system and it's not a problem because it's only 1VP and I am trying to set up for a crushing reply in round 9. A sharp kick sends Clymene into the blue-topped buiding in tile 36, destroying Clymene's heavily damaged missile pod and netting my opponent 3VPs. And then Eurybia rips off the tatters of Clymene's back armour with Her pincer, meeting the 5VP threshold for a knock-out! Maybe it was the pincer, the arm, and then the kick from the leg? Needless to say Clymene was out of gas, and I wasn't expecting that despite all the evidence otherwise.
Which is to say that I was doing pretty well that game. I finished ahead on habitats, and for the most part of it I was leading in damage done to my opponent's Titan. I was falling behind somewhat on defense though, and to a degree it's probably important to understand how I needed to weigh position, amount of damage, and what was likely to hit Clymene next. Certainly it was not a good idea to give away that shield token for the yellow habitat in round 4, as that opened up Clymene just enough to cinch the knock-out in round 8! From the other side of the table, so to speak, it occurs to me that you want to try and get your opponent to waste their extra armour cards, disrupt their ability to attack back, and manoeuvre them into a position where the choices get both harder and less obvious...
