Titanomachina Tactics: Part 3 - The frontal assault

 

Okay, so you have started the game with these shield conditions. There are four shield tokens on the left arm location, two on both the left leg and front, one on the back left and on the right arm. This lets the Titan block with extra armour 1, extra armour 4, or the laser blade on the left arm. Leading left also allows the Titan to cover forward, hopefully leveraging an incoming attack to switch directions after the rocket pod is used. Tethys here is expecting a hit from the front, and for it to probably have high explosive. Against Rhea Quaternary, this is the gold standard providing they have the initiative. This means you can ambush them, and unloading a plasma shotgun point-blank is a great way to start a game, up there with shanking someone in the leg with a laser blade. Or you can set up out of sight and control the direction of the game. Rhea Quaternary has a spatial weakness: low angles. With low angles, a block may convert the direction of the forced turn, but there is no danger of being hit directly enough for a push-back. Even the laser blade helps Tethys fight like a knight in Chess, engaging best at two-over-and-one-down, which could avoid the cost of range 1 attacking. 

So Tethys is going to get hit by two macro guns. These macro guns will have +1, +2, or +3 added. The extra armour 1 and extra armour 4 will be able to absorb 4 points of damage, but those will probably be used to draw out my effective defenses while high explosive erodes the shields over the rocket pod, left arm, and laser blade. That's the reason there are shields on the right arm and left back, to ameliorate any high explosive contact to either of these systems and their locations. I can reply with the rocket pod, but I think I should hold back to fire in tandem with the plasma shotgun. Likewise the plasma shotgun and the laser blade, or the rocket pod and then the laser blade. Actually, strike that, make that the laser blade and then the plasma shotgun. The laser blade is great for popping shields, and opening up systems to erosive high explosive damage. 

Tethys also has two jump jets and a capacitor, enabling double-jumping up to 6 tiles without crew. One would think of jump jets mainly in the context of body slams, but moving like that can also change the game, especially when an opponent can't jump. They give Her the speed to chase Rhea down, and to engage in opportunistic body slams. 

The combination might involve an early game deletion of enemy buildings to put yourself in the lead and something of the hunted rather than the hunter. Starting in cover when you don't have the initiative is a great way to force your opponent to waste power detecting your Titan across line-of-sight blocking buildings. Without a way to force you to play cards, you can accumulate power (load systems) at your leisure, and deny Rhea card advantage. 

But not by deploying to tile 95, because that is just begging to be slapped back off the board by macro gun fire even if the deployment is at a low angle to Rhea, because Rhea will move to accommodate. As the player with a lower initiative, deploying Tethys second, you need to deploy Tethys closer to tile 55 (the middle tile on the 9x9 tile board). Not in tile 55, but lurking somewhere on a street much like Rhea is lurking, waiting for you to try and shank Her. 

Back to the first turn though. You want to have master crew, rocket pod, plantigrade leg1, extra armour 1, extra armour 4, shields 1, shields 2, sponson 1. You can move or shoot in response to their first moves, or hold tight to charge up at the end of the round. If they move to put Tethys at risk of collisions with the buildings hemming Her in, you can walk in response to work that low angle. Activate the sponson first, play an un-activated rocket pod, if they have not moved, play an un-activated shields system. You want to end with the extra armour systems, un-activated. 

Alternately, planning on getting them back at round 5, activate the master crew and then the rocket pod, and (drawing power from the shields to) demolish some blocks of buildings to try and claim the lead.

Which isn't to say there aren't other ideas, like using a sponson, a sensor, the master crew and the rocket pod (and power from three other systems) to slap an opposing Titan in round 1 and again in rounds 5 and 9.