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. 

Titanomachina: Sheer Hubris

Last week my regular opponent made an error stepping into the danger zone, and paid for it with a round 2 ring-out. This week, it was my turn to seize defeat from the jaws of victory. This week was a full 9-round game, ending on a time-out, and finishing with a 14-13 in favour of Pugnacious Styxx (quaternary configuration) over Sagacious Rhea (primary configuration). Aside from a brief stab in the leg with a macro laser, and an incredible barrage of rockets on round 5, Styxx exercised a careful restraint on direct confrontation that lead to an eventual win on round 9. Perhaps it is worth noting that my opponent likes to conduct a tactical and strategic dialog (monolog?) on the voice chat, and I have confirmed that (a) my opponent likes to tell lies about strategy, and (b) is pretty good at mind games. Because of that chat I dropped the game when a crushing and impressive victory was in Rhea's grasp, thinking that I had sufficient reason not to pull it off, and plan B suffered from a laser to the knee. Afterwards my opponent graciously pointed out my error and perhaps a bit of vengeance was vowed. 

I had the initiative, being sagacious, and since Rhea can take a hit I decided that deploying in tile 55, the center of the board, facing east was the easiest. Strategically-speaking I had front-loaded all of Rhea's weapons and crew with the notion of having all my weapons and crew in hand to threaten my opponent. Likewise I juiced up the shields over my legs because I wanted it clear where any incoming fire was going to be absorbed. 

Of course I shouldn't have given Styxx room to breathe, but given that I had the initiative (and no ability to move or turn) it seemed like a good idea to see if Styxx was going to do anything. Styxx was, but Styxx was going to charge up a bit first.

Round 2 things start to get hot, as I walk Rhea southeast to kick a green habitat at tile 76 while Styxx activates Her turret. Rhea turns to get Styxx in line of sight and arc to Her macro gun, but Styxx isn't having it fire a rocket pod, missing Rhea and destroyed habitats in tiles 67 and 76 with high explosive rockets. Styxx isn't getting away so easily though, and Rhea clips Her with a macro gun before She can jump to cover in road tile 71. 

Still comfortably ahead on buildings, and with the initiative, Rhea turns west, takes a few strides, and then double-jumps over the buildings of road tile 63 to land in front of Styxx. Styxx is prepared and has an initiate crew member shoot Rhea in the leg. Thanks to the crew's operation, the laser penetrates Rhea's armour and slices into Her leg, causing light damage. Now Rhea's master crew steps up to operate a system, but Styxx fires Her own thrusters and jumps over Rhea, landing north of Her, on Her rite side where the macro gun is still re-loading. Styxx needs some space before firing Her capacitor, but it looks like there isn't time!

Rhea, emboldened by Her master crew on deck starts things off with a reverse elbow to crunch in Styxx's back-right, bursting a shield and turning Her around. Styxx has activated Her own master crew, to operate a leg to back Styxx away from Rhea at high speed. As Styxx retreats Rhea activates Her adherent crew and detects a tall yellow building in between two other buildings capped with yellow habitats, and Styxx fires Her capacitor to make sure this escape doesn't leave Her a sitting duck, 

Sure enough, Rhea walks around the block of buildings at 63, macro gun reloaded and looking to shoot someone. As Styxx prepares to fire Her rocket pod, activating a turret and adherent crew, Rhea wings Her, and She blocks the shot on Her left leg armour, preventing the explosion from catching Her rocket pod. Slewed around the tall yellow building is right in Styxx's sights and it comes crashing down as the tops of the two buildings beside it are also blown up! Styxx isn't done yet though, and activates Her coolant system, hot-loading the rocket pod again to blow up even more yellow habitats in tile 47. Rhea is shocked out of reverie as Her seven point lead evaporates in a storm of high explosive rockets!

Rhea piles in now, as Styxx scans with Her frontal armour and takes the initiative, meeting Styxx as She heads to the middle of the board, a kick, a bottling, and a body-slam later Styxx jumps over Rhea again (narrowly avoiding a ring-out) and lands in the middle of the battlefield, tile 55. 

Rhea hauls around and moves to chase Styxx as She runs north and then doubles back southwest to place a row of buildings between them, kicking a yellow habitat to smithereens on the way. Annoyed that Styxx is getting away, and clearly not needing it to defend Herself, Rhea runs a scan with Her leg armour and seizes the initiative back from Styxx!

Rhea isn't really chasing Styxx though, She is chasing Styxx's score and jumps forward in a blaze of gunfire and lasers to flatten the block of buildings in tile 43 and trim the green habitats off of tile 63. Meanwhile Styxx backs up to stay in cover, and gets Her adherent crew on deck for something next round...

Armed with the initiative, all the cards anyone could want or need on round 9, Styxx is still in a tricky position. But I see that Rhea could get a ring-out by lining up for a body-slam, operating the thrusters with my master crew to push Styxx through the green buildings that She detected on tile 14, and then a quick punch to send Her off the board for a +9VP swing to me. However, my resolve falters on the progression of the cards played, and it looks like Styxx can still block an attach from Rhea. So I take Rhea off to mash some green habitats in tile 47, but not realizing Rhea's bum knee stops Her from taking out the last green habitat on tile 37. Styxx manages to spray the buildings I put up in tile 61 at the start of the round to push the score ahead one, and I walk Rhea back to tile 44 to end the game. And then my opponent asked why I didn't just jump Rhea into the buildings behind Styxx (tile 14). And I wonder why I didn't just jump Rhea into those green buildings and handily win the game.

I think, after that round 5 'macross missile madness' I perhaps got a little tilted, perhaps a little tunnel-vision, and maybe should have been thinking about all the things I could do rather than fixating on that one really cool thing where I try to kick the football and my opponent yanks that football away by blocking the attack. It might have worked though. It might have worked... Fortunately there is always another game, so glory to Styxx and glory to my opponent!  

Titanomachina: Danger Prone

Gracious Eurybia crushes Sagacious Rhea in a round 2 ring-out, 22-20VP. Notably Eurybia seizes the initiative, and moves west to engage Rhea as She retreats south behind buildings in tile 63 and clears a couple of habitats with Her vulcan gun. Eurybia uses initiate crew to operate Her gun battery to clear a couple of yellow habitats (21 & 31). Then Eurybia uses adherent crew to operate a coolant system, restoring the gun battery, initiate crew, and an arm to my hand. Without the yellow top of the building blocking line of sight, Eurybia and Rhea exchange fire, Rhea using a master-operated plasma howitzer, and Eurybia again firing the initiate-operated gun battery. I block the plasma shot to the gun battery that would have taken it off, destroying the extra armour I used to block it, removing a shield and doing heavy damage to the extra armour beneath it. Rhea is defenseless now though, and two shots to the front pushes Her off the battlefield.

Eurybia is down 7 habitats and caused a ring-out for +5VP. That's 22VPs. Rhea is down 5 habitats and destroyed an extra armour system for +1VP. That's 20VPs. Victory to Eurybia!

My worry is that something is too powerful, either the extra armour, or the coolant system. However, my opponent made a number of critical mistakes. One of those mistakes, I think, was using the vulcan gun to clear habitats. Yes, it put my opponent in the lead, but it meant that my opponent had zero cards in hand to respond to me doubling down on the gun battery. Furthermore my opponent did so in the danger-zone of the board, the outer ring of three tiles, that put them at risk of being pushed off the board. 

To pull off this trick I needed six cards, the initiate crew and gun battery, the adherent crew and a charge card, and the coolant system to do what two gun batteries, two initiate crew, and a sponson would have also done. Had I used Tethys' tertiary configuration to pull this off it would have been five cards as well, as the digitigrade leg could have also turned the Titan to face Rhea. There's some argument that the plasma howitzer would have disabled the initiate crew operating one of the guns, but it could have easily been the one who had operated the gun that freed up the line of sight.

In a way I was also lucky that my opponent retreated into a quadrant of the board rich in yellow habitats all ready to be targets of opportunity for Eurybia's gun battery and buzz saw, because without those three habitats that Eurybia destroyed, the score would have been 19-20VP favouring Rhea even with the ring-out, so the game would have gone on with Rhea having Her edge in the initiative cemented by Eurybia's loss of frontal armour, albeit with Eurybia enjoying a 2-card advantage.

Now, just because my opponent could have rationed Rhea's strength more wisely does not mean there is not a problem. At the last Halcon, for example, a player managed to play two games without having ring-outs explained to them, and so when I went for a quick ring-out they were taken aback, and probably didn't have a great experience. While that was possibly a problem with one of the demonstrators not following the demo script, it shows that this lethality can feel bad for players. 

Of the player types, the competitors, the explorers, achievers, and socializers, I am an explorer. I think all designers and developers are, even if we are exploring how the game might work for other types. I feel like my opponent is probably a competitor in the main, given their record against me and general strategic nous. As an intuitive player, I think they may have been taken by surprise by the combo. 

But since I could have pulled off the move without the coolant system, and the double-layered extra armour systems would have yielded similar results to damaged crew, weapon, or sensor systems, I feel like this is an example of something similar to the Fool's Mate in Chess. I would propose calling it something like 'Danger Prone,' which is to say hanging around in the danger zone without any defenses loaded in your hand and getting shot off the board for your trouble. Certainly of late our games have involved a kind of relaxed and bluff attitude to ring-outs, and perhaps that is all.

Titanomachina: Mirror-match Mayhem Encoded

Habitat Coordinates (xy - building randomizer colour)

• 13 - 3G 7P 8Y | 14 - 3G 4Y | 16 - 1Y 2P | 19 - 3G 7G 8G
• 22 - 3B 4G 7Y 8P | 28 - 3B 4Y 7Y 8B
• 31 - 3G 4B | 34 - 3B 4P 7Y 8B | 36 - 1P 2B 5B 6Y | 37 - 3G 4P 7P 8G
• 41 - 7B 8G | 43 - 3P 4G 7G 8Y | 47 - 1G 2P 5Y 6G | 49 - 5Y 6P
• 61 - 1Y 2P | 63 - 1B 2Y 5Y 6G | 67 - 3P 4Y 7G 8B | 69 - 3Y
• 73 - 3G 4Y 7P 8B | 74 - 1P 2B 5G 6P | 76 - 3Y 4G 7B 8P | 79 - 3G 7G 8Y
• 82 - 3B 4G 7Y 8P | 88 - 3B 4P 7Y 8G 
• 91 - 3Y 7G | 94 - 5Y 6P | 96 - 7G 8B | 97 - 3P 4 B  

Titan Deployment (Colour, Tile, Heading, Shield Configuration using Titan randomizer & Shield Tokens)

B57E 12 21 32 41 51 61 71 81

P32S 12 21 32 41 51 61 71 81

Round 1

B - Pass

P - Plantigrade Leg 2 - Attack 31 - 4B Walk 33S

B - Deflectors 1 inactive

P - Pass

Round 2 

B - Deflectors 1 inactive

P - Shields 2 inactive

B - Capacitor 2 inactive

P - Sensor 3 inactive

B - Pass

P - Adherent 2 Operate

B - Deflectors 2 Raise Shields (rotate shield harmonics) 51 & 61 to 83

P - Pass

Round 3 

B - Sponson 1 Twist

P - Sensor 3 Detect Building 61 7P 8P 15P

B - Jump Jets 2 Jump to 34N

P - Capacitor - Full Power

B - Laser Blade Attack to P8 (Block to P2), -1 Shield Extra Armour 3 light damage Initiate Crew 2 heavy damage

P - Sponson 1 Twist

B - Capacitor 1 Full Power

P - Jump Jets 2 Jump to 66S

B - Capacitor 2 Full Power

P - Initiate Crew 1 Operate

B - Plantigrade Leg 1 Walk east 25S

P - Plantigrade Leg 1 Walk west 56N

B - Master Crew Operate

P - Pass

B - Pass

P - Arm 1 inactive

Round 4

B - Rocket Pod 1 Attack Building 61 7P 8P 15P and 2P via High Explosive

P - Master Crew 2 Operate

B - Adherent Crew 2 Operate

P - Gracious Repair Extra Armour 3 Initiate Crew 2 restored to no damage

B - Arm 1 inactive

P - Arm 1 Walk 55N

B - Plasma Shotgun 2 Attack to P3 Plasma Shotgun -3 shields 2 heavy damage

P - Plasma Shotgun 2 inactive

B - Pass

P - Rocket Pod 1 inactive

B - Arm 2 Attack 34 4P

P - Extra Armour 2 Scan (seize initiative)

P - Jump Jets 1 inactive

B - Plantigrade Leg 2 Walk 26SW

P - Pass

B - Extra Armour 3 inactive

Round 5

P - Rocket Pod 1 Attack 43 - 8B 3B & 34 - 4G via High Explosive 

B - Pass

P - Plantigrade Leg 2 Walk 56N Attack 67 - 8B

B - Jump Jets 1 inactive

P - Laser Blade 1 Attack 36 - 2B

B - Deflectors 1 inactive

P - Capacitor 1 Full Power

B - Capacitor inactive

P - Adherent Crew Operate

B - Arm 1 Attack 37 - 4P

P - Plantigrade Leg 1 Walk 35NE

B - Sponson inactive

P - Pass

B - Extra Armour 3 inactive

Round 6

P - Sponson 1 inactive

B - Laser Blade 1 inactive

P - Arm 2 Walk 24E

B - Pass

P -  Pass

B - Deflectors 2 inactive

Round 7

P - Sponson 1 Twist

B - Plasma Shotgun 2 Attack P3 (Block to P6), Extra Armour 41

P - Initiate Crew 2 Operate

B - Sponson Twist

P - Sensor 3 Detect Building 19 - 1P 2P

B - Plantigrade Leg 2 Walk 25 Attack P3 (Block to P4)

P - Arm 1 Walk to 15NE

B - Initiate Crew 3 Operate

P - Pass

B - Plantigrade Leg 1 Walk 25NE Attack P3 (Block to P2)

P - Jump Jets 2 Jump 18NE

B - Master Crew 1 Operate

P - Jump Jets 1 inactive

B - Extra Armour 3 inactive

B - Pass

Round 8 

P - Plantigrade Leg 1 Walk 27SE

B - Arm 2 Walk 26E Attack P6 (Extra Armour 4 destroyed) 27S

P - Jump Jets 1 Jump 57S

B - Extra Armour 3 Scan (seize initiative)

B - Initiate Crew 4 Operate

P - Pass

B - Arm 2 Walk 27S

P - Initiate Crew 1 inactive

B - Adherent Crew 2 Operate

B - Jump Jets 2 Jump 57S Attack P6 (Sponson 1 destroyed) P67S 3P 4Y 7G destroyed

B - Capacitor 2 Full Power

B - Laser Blade 1 Attack P6 (Capacitor light damage, Master Crew heavy damage)

B - Jump Jets 1 Jump 67S Attack P6 (Capacitor destroyed, Master Crew destroyed, Knock-Out)

Titanomachina: Mirror-match Mayhem

In this battle report I took Sagacious Eos vs Gracious Tethys, with the both of us choosing to arm our Titans with plasma shotguns, rocket pods, and laser blades. Of course, one significant difference was that Tethys had rear armour and two extra habitats while Eos packed another capacitor in Their frame. As my opponent would prophetically comment on the two habitat head-start: It's basically nothing. So when the game ended with a knock-out in round 8, seeing Eos crush in Tethys' sponson with a body-slam, damage Her capacitor and master crew with a swift stab from Their laser blade, and a final body-slam to destroy those systems, the final score was 21-19 for Eos. Had Eos executed in a different order, two body slams in a row, it would have been both a knock-out and a 19-18 victory for Eos. Notably there was a point in round 6 where Tethys might have blocked a kick to Her plasma shotgun with Her leg instead of Her prow, which would have seen Tethys suffer both a ring-out and a 19-18 victory.  

There are, perhaps, two reasons for this somewhat bizarre situation where Eos has ripped Tethys open, but barely squeaked out a win. The first is that Tethys did a reasonably good job of increasing that initial two-habitat lead. The second is that Tethys was overwhelmed by Eos' higher rate of activity, with round 8's evisceration happening because Tethys ran out of gas while Eos had loaded both capacitors with 50% more power available. There is a third reason, I think, in that Tethys played defensively, and Eos really shines in situations where opponents are not hitting Them back effectively. But Eos managed to control the initiative fairly effectively by also maintaining not only a card advantage, but also tempo. The specific armament of plasma shotgun and laser blade, in combination with dual jump jets and capacitors is a real killer because a jump jet or weapon can be activated, its power recovered with a capacitor, and then another one fired. It's not easy to run away from that.  

Eos deploys aggressively, confident that the initiative will give Them the first shot, while making a rear approach dangerous, and a frontal assault costly. Tethys deploys much more circumspectly than Her previous frontal assault on Eos. 

It's a slow start, with Eos concentrating on building power, while Tethys looks to stretch both Her legs and Her advantage in habitats. 

Tethys sees Eos' aggressive posture and gets Her adherent crew on deck so She's ready to respond when Eos comes knocking, while Eos brazenly reinforces Their left side shield coverage, just about announcing Their imminent attack vector. 

Eos fires up Their sponson to vector Their jump, and leaps in to stab Tethys with Their laser blade, and Tethys twists enough to take it in Her check rather than letting the blazing knot of light lame Her leg. Not interesting in taking another hit like that, with Her prow compromised and junior crew injured, Tethys makes Her own leap. With some distance achieved, the Titans square up just out of range for their respective plasma shotguns, and Tethys spots a pink building on Her left and driving up Her habitat lead.  

Eos isn't having it, and activated senior crew last round to guide the rockets They fire, and these rockets demolish not only the building, but the pink upper habitat of the building beside it in the fireball. Tethys' own master crew beseeches the gracious to preserve the life of Her injured junior crew and manages to not only get him back on his feet, but also seals up the gaping hole in Tethys' hull from Eos' laser blade. Then, perhaps emboldened, Tethys slides Herself into plasma shotgun range and catches a blast from Eos' plasma shotgun that disables Her own. She targets Eos with Her own rocket pod, but doesn't fire. Eos demolishes the pink upper habitat of the building beside Them, on general principle, perhaps confused by Tethys' display. But Tethys shifts Her massive weight almost imperceptibly and Eos realizes that Tethys now has the initiative and is angling for a body slam, and steps back behind the  buildings on Their left, realizing it will cost Them in habitats. 

Now Tethys storms forward, blasting blue habitats with Her rocket pods, stabbing them with Her laser blade, and kicking them down as She storms forward into contact with Eos, who remains mostly still and charging, sneaking in a desultory elbow in a pink habitat on Their left and blue habitats are reduced to rubble. 

Tethys has little interest in being stabbed again, and slides left up the street from Eos, turning to present Her damaged plasma shotgun as something of a lure. Eos is patient though, and has plans for Her mounting power levels and loading systems. 

Now Eos unloads, blasting Tethys in the hopes of disrupting Her ability to resist further stabbing, but She spots a pink building off in the corner of the battlefield. Having ducked the plasma shotgun blast, letting it burst shields and cook armour off Her back, Eos slides in with a snap kick to Tethys' plasma shotgun that Tethys catches with Her shin as She slides in between Eos and the edge of the battlefield. Eos is still angling for that expensive but damaged plasma shotgun, aiming a reverse kick catches Tethys on Her chin instead. It's tempting for Eos to keep going, but even a bare minimum knock-out at this point will see Tethys emerge victory from sheer number of pink habitats. 

Tethys uses the initiative to turn and jump for safety, but now Eos is running hot, and not only gives chase, but leaps over the same buildings to mash Tethys' own front through more buildings, discharging Their capacitors to activate first Their laser blade for a quick gouge, and then firing Their second jump jets for a body slam that caves in the weakened capacitor and crew compartment to destroy Tethys' capacitor,  kill Her master crew, and see a knock-out of sufficient violence to overcome Tethys' massive advantage in habitats, scoring 7 victory points in the round! 

Note, it looks like we forgot the damage that going face-first through those buildings would have done to Tethys. The loss of Her frontal armour or the plasma shotgun don't seem like it would have affected the outcome.

Two Legs Good, Four Legs Better

Making Eurybia into a centaur. As with some extreme configurations you have to give something up. Two plantigrade legs at the cost of the rear armour (Extra Armour 4) and a coolant system. It also has a rear sponson mount, for a rear-facing weapon, because it is a centaur.

Weapons-wise I think two gun batteries and a laser blade in the rear mount. Or perhaps two claws and a laser battery. Either way, the plan is to deploy in the middle of the board and work the danger zone with legs and range 4 weapons. In terms of opponents this is figuring Rhea Quaternary's guns probably want to occupy the same space. 

Six cards for Limbs, four cards for crew, three cards for weapons, two for shields, one each for sponson, sensor, and coolant, four extra armour. Full crew and weapons requires 10 cards, leaving sponson, sensor, coolant, and three extra armour. One extra armour if the last two are activated. 

The coolant proposition is to replace two actions with a repeated action next round. It's not great until that repeated action is above the curve, 1 charge to three cogs like firing a macro gun, or operating with master crew. Because it levels out that 1:1 ratio of cards spent to cogs used. 

In which case a laser is the perfect weapon to shoot twice. The laser blade hits hard for that above-the-curve effect, while the laser battery might be more effective in volume where the first shot might soften shields and waste defensive action. A claw that can plow another Titan through a large building would also be on the menu. That or just keep the master crew running cool.

Titanomachina: Myrmidiae Formicide

I've been chewing on the results of the last Myrmidon ("Myrmidiae Formicide") games I've played and overall it's not great. The dice, the somewhat vague mapping of Titan end-games to Ant end-games, the shape of the game isn't satisfactory. It's not the kind of thing where fine-tuning some values is going to work. I think that a better place to restart development of the Myrmidon Mega-Ants would be back to the deterministic structure of Titanomachina, so no dice, variable charge costs based on a cards-to-cogs curve, and more actions available like full power, shields, etc.

Tactical units would be 0 charge, but two cogs, Support 1 charge for two cogs, Assault also 1 charge but for three cogs, and finally Command for 2 charge and three cogs. Attack ranges would be reduced to 1 for assault, 3 for tactical and command, and then 4 for support.

The platoon cards would be cogs equal to charge -1, in general, so Onslaught would be 2 charge but give three cogs and a potential six actions (three walks, three attacks). Firestorm would be 1 charge for two cogs for two Support units and four actions. The platoon cards would feature slightly improved ranges for attacks as well.

The command cards would vary from Advice at charge 0 for a one cog operate action to Swarm at charge 2 for a three cog reinforcement action. There would be a senior-crew style of operate action called Orders, with charge 1 for a two cog bonus to the next action. So with advice and orders three Tactical squads could walk one square and attack with one cog.

Shields up would be charge 0 for one cog's shield token to go on a unit. These shield tokens, much like in the Titan-based game, would be handy for off-setting the deterministic damage. Ditto the swarm card. 

If you make a force of ten units, two Command, four Tactical, two Assault, and two Support, then it's a decision to decide what mix of platoon and support cards will put your force at 22 cards. That leaves 23 points out of the 65 VPs, including a full building complement. Suppose then all platoon cards (Onslaught, Firestorm, Charge, Redeploy) are three points each, for 12 points. That leaves 8 command cards with 11 points between them. Put Swarm at 3 points, Spotting and Orders at 2 points, and 1 point got Advice, Shields Up, Rally, and Regroup. That should give a good play-test force. Depending on what gets left out. I might keep Swarm and discard Redeploy?

Titanomachina: What is this? A war for Ants?!

Back in 2011, at the outset of the attempt to design what became Titanomachina, I wanted to be able to put Titans in the same game as conventional forces and elite forces. I feel like I've accomplished this game design goal, less through design than through the efforts of development. And after this latest game of Titanomachina playing a force of Myrmidon Mega-Ants against a mirror force, I feel like there's certainly room for development. 

Firstly I should take the visual language developed for the Titan system cards and extend them to the ant squads cards, and especially the platoon cards, better. If you're not aware, the platoon cards are intended to enable players to act with several ant units at once, where the ant unit of five Myrmidons corresponds to a system on a Titan. 

Currently those cards aren't really clear, given how they're supposed to take the cogs per action and apply it to up to three units portrayed on the cards. I was brainstorming a way to represent the bonus walk action of the Assault Ants, but I think I might just drop it entirely, as Assault Ants already have a great set of attacks. They can also be used for Spotting, Charge and Redeploy. This is only tangentially related to getting ripped apart by Assault Ant reinforcements in rounds 3-5. 

There's also a good point about making the squads themselves more easily recognisable on the table. While I'm currently using Reversi chips, for their nice round shape, they also have some annoying behaviour making them finicky to use. Also, I can use Tabletop Simulator's token creation function to make some round tokens with symbols on them and lock the ant models to those. 

How it started

How it went

How it ended (Knockout!)