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Titan (game)
Encyclopedia
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 and produced by Canadian publisher Valley Games became available in late 2008.
Each player controls an army of mythological
creatures such as gargoyle
s, unicorn
s, and griffon
s, 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.
The main game board consists 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.
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, centaur
s may recruit in the plains and woods, ogre
s 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.
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. 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.
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:
The game features moderately complex rules and a typical game length of 2½ hours.
The updated Valley Games edition of the game includes hardback battleboards instead of battlelands sheets, 20 playing dice, and new artwork on the counters. Unfortunately, many owners of the Valley Games edition have found their copies to include black mold on the components, which some describe as smelling "wet".
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
for two to six players, designed by Jason McAllister and David A. Trampier
David A. Trampier
Dave A. Trampier is a former artist and writer who worked on some of the earliest editions of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and was the creator of the Wormy comic strip that ran in Dragon magazine...
. It was first published in 1980
1980 in games
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 1980. For video and console games, see 1980 in video gaming.-Significant games-related events of 1980:...
by Gorgonstar, a small company created by the designers. Soon afterward, the rights were licensed to Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
, which made several minor revisions and published the game for many years. Titan went out of print in 1998, when Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
was sold and ceased operations. A new edition of Titan, with artwork by Kurt Miller and Mike Doyle and produced by Canadian publisher Valley Games became available in late 2008.
Each player controls an army of mythological
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
creatures such as gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
s, unicorn
Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, and sometimes a goat's beard...
s, and griffon
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
s, led by a single titan
Titan (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....
.
The titan is analogous to the king
King (chess)
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
in chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
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
 |
Bush | Desert | ||
| Hills | Jungle | |||
| Marsh | Mountains | |||
| Plains | Swamp | |||
| Tower | Tundra | |||
| Woods |
The main game board consists 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.
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, centaur
Centaur
In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...
s may recruit in the plains and woods, ogre
Ogre
An ogre is a large, cruel, monstrous, and hideous humanoid monster, featured in mythology, folklore, and fiction. Ogres are often depicted in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings, and have appeared in many classic works of literature...
s 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
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
, while three ogres in the hills may recruit a minotaur
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
.
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.
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. 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.
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 features moderately complex rules and a typical game length of 2½ 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 × 16"W × 3mmH)
- 1 Law Of Titan Rule Book
- 4 Playing Dice (Standard Die size for most board games)
- 6 Battlelands Sheets (11 areas and 1 rule sheet (8½" × 11"))
- 8 Character sheets (Each character sheet holds 49 pieces that are 1"L × 1"W × 2mmH)
- 1 Hit Counter Sheet
The updated Valley Games edition of the game includes hardback battleboards instead of battlelands sheets, 20 playing dice, and new artwork on the counters. Unfortunately, many owners of the Valley Games edition have found their copies to include black mold on the components, which some describe as smelling "wet".
External links
- Titan Home Page Bruno Wolff's Titan page, with rules errata, tournament results, etc.
- titan.provider24.biz | TITAN Chee-Wai's Titan page, with lots of useful informations
- Colossus A Java rendition of the boardgame, at sourceforge
- Titan page at Valley Games