Titan (game)

"Titan" is a fantasy board game for two to six players, designed by Jason McAllister and David A. Trampier. It was first published in 1980 by Gorgonstar, a small company created by the designers. Soon afterward, the rights were licensed to Avalon Hill, which made several minor revisions and published the game for many years. "Titan" went out of print in 1998, when Avalon Hill was sold and ceased operations. A new edition of "Titan", with artwork by Kurt Miller and Mike Doyle is expected to be shipped by Canadian publisher Valley Games after July 2008. [cite web|url=http://www.valleygames.ca/750.html |title=750 Special |accessdate=2008-07-18 |publisher=Valley Games]

Each player controls an army of mythological creatures such as gargoyles, unicorns, and griffons, led by a single titan. The titan is analogous to the king in chess in that the death of a titan eliminates that player and his entire army from the game. The player controlling the last remaining titan wins the game.

Gameplay

The main game board is comprised of 96 interlocking hexes, each with a specified terrain type.

Each player's army is organized into "legions" of one to seven creature tokens stacked face down. The legions move according to die roll, subject to restrictions marked on the board--Most board spaces can only be entered or exited from certain directions. No two legions may occupy the same hex on the game board. [http://www.milwaukeerumble.com/colossus/TitanRules.pdf]

If a legion moves into a hex which is occupied by an enemy legion, the two legions must fight to the death on a tactical map specific to that terrain. The terrain usually gives a battle advantage to creatures native there.

Each time a legion moves, it may recruit one additional creature if the territory to which it moves is native to at least one creature already in the legion. For example, centaurs may recruit in the plains and woods, ogres may recruit in the marsh and hills, etc.

Each creature may recruit its own kind, but multiple weak creatures may be eligible to recruit more powerful creatures. For example, one ogre in the marsh or hills may recruit only another ogre, but two ogres in the marsh may recruit a troll, while three ogres in the hills may recruit a minotaur.

The victor of each battle is awarded points based on strength of the creatures vanquished. For each hundred points a player earns, he is awarded an angel, a strong creature which can teleport from its own legion to aid an attacking legion in future battles. Also, for each one hundred points a player earns, his titan becomes stronger in battle. Finally, at four hundred points, a player's titan gains the ability to teleport on a roll of six, attacking any enemy legion regardless of position. [http://www.milwaukeerumble.com/colossus/TitanRules.pdf]

Strategy

The "Titan" rules offer incentives for movement and attack. While players in a game like "Risk" may choose to wall themselves in as much as possible and build their forces, a player can only build their armies in "Titan" by moving to new terrain to recruit creatures. This can lead to situations where a player has to balance the risk of moving into a dangerous area versus the gain of a powerful addition to their army.

Designer McCallister writes of the critical importance of blocking--Arranging one's legions in a defensive position to prevent another player from easy movement of recruiting.cite journal |last=McCallister |first=Jason |authorlink= |year=1983 |month= |title= The Giver of the Law - Titan Design Notes|journal=The General |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages= |id= |url=http://files.boardgamegeek.com/geekfile_view.php?fileid=7650 |accessdate=2008-08-11] There are a variety of general strategies players use to traverse the map with their legions. One example of this is what McCallister calls "the caravan", which is keeping legions following each other on the outer ring of map spaces where they can protect and support each other. Given that the outer ring is not the most desirable place for recruiting, the Caravan is usually used as a short term strategy for protecting forces until a better recruiting area can be found.

Writer Gerald Lientz emphasizes that the main strategic rule of movement is to keep one's enemies in front of you at all times--Since the movement system often allows movement in one direction but not another, the worst situation a player can find oneself in is where an opponent can follow one's legions with no risk of retaliation. [cite journal |last=Lientz |first=Gerald |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1983 |month= |title= A Game Player's Fantasy|journal= The General|volume=20 |issue=2 |pages= |id= |url=http://files.boardgamegeek.com/geekfile_view.php?fileid=7650 |accessdate=2008-08-11 |quote= ]

Unlike many wargames, players are not allowed to examine opposing enemy forces (they are hidden under legion markers) until they engage them in battle. This secrecy allows opportunities for deception and bluffing.

Other key strategy decisions that occur in "Titan" include:

*Whether to split a legion into two legions for faster recruiting, or keep it unified for more effective fighting.
*Whether to recruit creatures which are better at fighting, or creatures which have more potential for further recruiting.
*Whether to risk losses in attacking in exchange for the potential benefits.
*Whether to defend against an attack in hopes of inflicting maximum damage, or concede, thereby halving the points the attacker gains.
*Whether to use the titan as a powerful attacker, or shield it against any possible danger.
*Whether to hide a weak legion in favorable terrain, or keep moving it in order to keep recruiting.
*Whether to move a legion to a hex where it may recruit, but will be forced by the movement restrictions to move in an unfavorable direction on the next turn.
*Whether to grow a moderately weak legion, or sacrifice it to divert an enemy legion

The game does not appear to be designed for casual play, with moderately complex rules and potentially long play time (the game box claims a typical length of 2-12 hours),

Contents

"Titan" has a huge number of game pieces to play with. Many players like to add additional characters, usually of even more power than the standard characters, also some such variants can drastically change the balance of the game. Here is a complete list of everything that is originally included with the game:

*1 Masterboard (22"L x 16"W x 3mmH)
*1 [http://www.milwaukeerumble.com/colossus/TitanRules.pdf "Law Of Titan" Rule Book]
*4 Playing Dice (Standard Die size for most board games)
*6 Battlelands Sheets (11 areas and 1 rule sheet (8 1/2" x 11"))
*8 Character sheets (Each character sheet holds 49 pieces that are 1"L x 1"W x 2mmH)
*1 Hit Counter Sheet

The updated Valley Games edition of the game includes hardback battleboards instead of battlelands sheets.

References

External links

* [http://wolff.to/titan/ "Titan" Home Page] Bruno Wolff's "Titan" page, with rules errata, tournament results, etc.
*
* [http://www.valleygames.ca/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VLY%2D004 Titan page at Valley Games]
* [http://colossus.sourceforge.net/ Colossus] A Java rendition of the boardgame, at sourceforge
* [http://www.milwaukeerumble.com/colossus/TitanRules.pdf Law of Titan] Official Titan rules