Titan VG Edition - (Valley Games, Inc.)

[cofunguy]

Well I'm glad multiplayer is here. But sure be nice to have some indicator when seeing the games from the "lobby"/chat room who's turn it is!!!

[LordGek]

I just grabbed the game as I always promised I would once that got some sort of local stats included.

While still just learning the game, I must add to some earlier consensus that it really isn't THAT complex a game.

You start your turn deciding if you want to split up some of your current legions (what the game calls your individual stacks of units that can never have more than 7 units within them). No board space can have more than 1 legion, so all split legions must have one of their parts move off the space in the following phase or the newly split legion will simply be reformed into one again.

Next you move your units via a single die roll (you must move at least one of your legions each turn and ALL that decide to move this turn must move the full amount indicated by that one die roll unless you bump into an opponent). I like how in this stage the game even highlights all possible endpoints from a given roll (the game board is essentially a 3 lane round about with each lane only allowing movement in one direction).

If your movement has you landing on an opponent you move into the battle map matching the terrain you and your opponent are battling it out (to win the attacker must clear out all of the defending units within 7 rounds of battle, otherwise the victory will go to the defender). The winner of this battle is given victory points equivalent to the army just wiped out which will allow them to eventually level up their titan (even if not involved in that battle) or recruit angels. Also worth noting here, if the losing stack contained a player's titan (his Chess King piece, as it were), that player is immediately removed from the game.

After all of the battles are resolved (a big part of the game to gloss over, for sure, but it is a fairly straight forward bit of alternating turns of unit movement and rolling attack dice against designated opponents until one side is eliminated or the attacker's 7 rounds of combat are up) then comes the Muster stage. This was the part that always mystified me as an outsider but, again to the game's credit, they make a little more understandable via in-game charts. Each of the Mastermap's little terrain hexes have a number of indigenous species for that terrain and if your army is comprised of a prerequisite minimum number of one of that terrain's troop types (typically 2-3), you're allowed to add that terrain type's next tiered occupant (also assuming your legion doesn't already have 7 units).

So, while missing a LOT of the particulars above there, this is play in a nutshell and it continues until only one titan remains.

[scarypharaoh]

That's a great summary Lord Gek. Thanks for taking the time to post that. It encourages me to give the game a real good go now

I assume you are enjoying it?

[LordGek]

Originally Posted by scarypharaoh

That's a great summary Lord Gek. Thanks for taking the time to post that. It encourages me to give the game a real good go now

I assume you are enjoying it?

I think so. While I feel I have a decent overview of the game, I'm still coming up to speed on the strategies. A tired cliché I know I've used here a zillion times, but I feel pretty much like a newbie Chess player who has just learned how all of the pieces move...but I still haven't a clue how to develop any useful strategies with this information.

I still have yet to figure out the toughest balancing act of all in this game, how much exposure too allow my main man, Mr. Titan. He's clearly one of your army's best units but if he's killed the game is immediately over. So do I give him a minimal escort and keep him out of danger, give him my most powerful units and wreck havoc, or something in between?

[WakeOfPoseidon]

Originally Posted by LordGek

I think so. While I feel I have a decent overview of the game, I'm still coming up to speed on the strategies. A tired cliché I know I've used here a zillion times, but I feel pretty much like a newbie Chess player who has just learned how all of the pieces move...but I still haven't a clue how to develop any useful strategies with this information.

I still have yet to figure out the toughest balancing act of all in this game, how much exposure too allow my main man, Mr. Titan. He's clearly one of your army's best units but if he's killed the game is immediately over. So do I give him a minimal escort and keep him out of danger, give him my most powerful units and wreck havoc, or something in between?

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at with the game. I picked it up when it was first released and played some (often loosing) matches against the AI. I then put it down for a while, because I got sidetracked with other games. With the new update, I've picked it back up again in an attempt to get better, but I'm still very much in the "experimentation" stage. I think I have the basic mechanics down, but with so many "recruiting" possibilities, the strategies take a while to work out. And as LordGek mentioned, not sure when it's better to use my Titan/Angels and when it's better to keep them hidden.

If any of you guys want to try an online game, I'm up for it. Just be prepared to battle an opponent that doesn't know very well what he's doing

[LordGek]

While I'm appreciating the thoroughness of the game's manual, it can be intimidating. So I really appreciate having many of the game's finer little tiddly bits handled for you by the program. Like I assumed I could move to this space on the Masterboard, but as it is NOT one of my legion's highlighted potential endpoints, I guess there is some silly reason I'm missing that explains why I couldn't move there. Or in combat, oh yeah, I forgot that there is penalty for attacking up slope with a non-native unit.

[LordGek]

Hey Gang,

Can little legions ever be merged together? I mean if I have one of my legions knocked down to a single unit, can I either move him onto another legion or have another legion with space in their ranks land on his space to merge?

[drelbs]

Originally Posted by LordGek

Hey Gang,

Can little legions ever be merged together? I mean if I have one of my legions knocked down to a single unit, can I either move him onto another legion or have another legion with space in their ranks land on his space to merge?

Nope.

Nor can you transfer units between legions in the same space. All you can do is split into 2 (or 3) legions, or summon/muster units into them.

[LordGek]

Originally Posted by drelbs

Nope.

Nor can you transfer units between legions in the same space. All you can do is split into 2 (or 3) legions, or summon/muster units into them.

Another thing, does the game cleverly work it so that all regions can have their lowest tiered members mustered via Tower recruits or can one always freely muster a region's lowest tiered folk?

A cute aspect I never really got until learning to play is the whole "3 Card Monty" elements to all of the opponents' stacks. While your opponents need to make public how a given new unit is being mustered (i.e reveal the recruiters and newly recruited unit), trying to remember which of your opponents' dozens of stacks contains which units could easily cause one's mind to explode (especially which one their titan is in).