Flashback Friday - Titan

uuuuugggghhhhhh

Titan is only on my radar because of information gathered over the years on this site. I know there are some old school F:ATties that swear by it. I'm a lover of Ameri-trash. I'm fragile. I should love Titan, right?

Love it! Play it?—not so much. I am definitely in the "masterpeice" side of the debate though, if there is one. Strategy on the Masterboard, Tactics on the Battleboards, and all the dice. This is one of those games people complain about because there is so much dice throwing and "randomness" but that all goes away because there is so much dice throwing. It turns into a stochastic exercise where you can be reasonably assured of outcomes for a lot of the fights. A lot of fights never even happen because it's negotiated away or just immediately surrendered.

There is a beautiful iOS app, you can play act acts.warhorsesim.com, and in person, the Valley Games edition is a beauty.

The worst thing about it is the people that play it. They are insufferable about how great it is, and it's pretty obnoxious. On that note, I will bow out.

I liked it better as the old computer game, Archon.

I have only played the app, solo. I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind exploring it again. I can imagine it being insufferable with more than 1 live opponent.

I love the idea of it.

Great concept, innovative battle boards, interesting muster rules, tons of monsters...and boooooooooring. I do like the app version, it’s more fun than the physical game.

I have fond memories of playing 6-player marathons of Titan in the 80s, but can't say I have had an urge to dust off my old copy in at least 15 years. In. my mind the system hasn't aged well, and the down time can be terminal to your enjoyment.

You really need to keep people from agonizing about what to do. Make sure they are playing legal and make them go.

I would still play in person -- love the game. I don't want to play with people who spend all day thinking about how to split stacks. Play should move at a decent clip, at least until a battle. Most battles should be conceded...so there's that.

I want to love this but I only played a learning game once that we aborted after a few hours. Gaming time is too scarce these days.

Titan is really fun and interesting, but is just old-school in all the worst ways. Really long play time, repetitive, and player elimination (which can knock you within minutes for a 6-8 hour long game). With that said, it is fun to play digitally, but I run into the problem of playing carelessly and it loses something, oddly enough, in how it plays so quickly and just feels trifling. A great demonstration of how much the computer saves in terms of book keeping but still pale in comparison to regular pc strategy games.

I started to draft up a heavily revised and streamlined game inspired by Titan (that I decided to call "Titanium" for fun), but I just don't think the mix of strategic and tactic works that well. Honestly, I don't even like the Total War games for that very reason on the PC. Give me an in-depth strategy game or an in-depth tactical game, but not a weak version of both together. So while I love Titan, it's day has probably passed. Play it digitally if at all.

Something to remember is that Titan was made for a time when you didn’t go to game night with 10 games in an IKEA bag. You went to play Titan. Everybody came for that, not to check out the latest releases. People prepared to play and anticipated the length, downtime, and elimination. No one cried about it. And then next week- you played it again.

This is how hobby games used to be played.

Absolutely agree, Barnes. It really is great when everyone's expectations are tuned for such an experience, but it's become an unfortunate rarity these days. I had a great group where we played such games (Titan, Age of Renaissance, Here I Stand) weekly, but then I moved away and I've lost it all. That was ten years ago now, and I doubt I'll get to play Titan with flesh-and-blood players again in the next ten.

OMG I can’t even imagine trying to get people to play Age of Renaissance today. And it’s awesome.

Michael Barnes wrote: Something to remember is that Titan was made for a time when you didn’t go to game night with 10 games in an IKEA bag. You went to play Titan. Everybody came for that, not to check out the latest releases. People prepared to play and anticipated the length, downtime, and elimination. No one cried about it. And then next week- you played it again.

This is how hobby games used to be played.

A few of us will play Titan at convention so when anyone is eliminated they can go off and play other games (or not). I love this game! Long: yes. Repetitive: not in the least. I've witnessed many amazingly, tactically brilliant battles and some jaw dropping lucky ones. Is it a game for contemporary gamers? Probably not. It is still playable and enjoy (digital or analog). I'm not looking for a buffet style gaming and fortunately, I have friends who aren't either.

Don't have much to add. Still a great game: the movement mechanic is unique and brilliant, as is the strategic and tactical split and the use of combat dice.

It is, however, too time-intensive for regular face to face play. Thankfully there's a great app version and, failing that, you can play by email in your browser via ACTS.

That said, it does become faster with experience. Not in terms of getting the rules down, but after a few games players learn that calculated aggression pays over turtling.

I happily play all day affairs of Mega Civ and used to do marathon Talisman games. I can't imagine getting fired up to play Titan.

But that's because you're broken on the inside in deep and meaningful ways. TITAN is only for those that enjoy life and its cornucopia of joys and sorrows.

See what I mean by insufferable!?

Anyway, all this chatter made me fire up the app, which intrigued my 7yo profoundly, and then we broke out the actual game and played a little 1v1. He is loving it. Stacks of dudes, all the maps, and my God, the dice. So many. He had Cyclops + Troll swinging at something and got to throw 17 dice. It was beautiful. A big two-handed lob of cubes. So awesome.