FAQ 1.0

For use with Titan, the boardgame by The Avalon Hill Game Company.

from: Mike Schneider, mike18xx@hotmail.com

Daniel U. Thibault wrote me:
... Oh dear, that is an antiquated FAQ! I haven't used
my selinur@IO.com e-address since 1993 or so...

You can also download this document :

• from the site where I found it http://grognard.com/faqs/strtitan.txt
• from this site [5,48 KB]
        

0. About this document

This FAQ has not been produced or endorsed by the The Avalon Hill Gaming Company (AH), nor has it been submitted for such. It was written at the author's whim and will be
revised whenever the fancy strikes him. Revisement is likely as playtesting continues, rule "bugs" are encountered and cool ideas intuited. This FAQ is *primarily* posted in the internet newsgroup rec.games.board. Gaming web sites are free to include this FAQ at their site, provided I am credited and a link to my email address (see at end) is listed.
 

0.0 Table of Contents:

1. What is "Titan"?
2. What is "Strategic Titan"?
3. Differences from "Official" Titan (OT)
4. Legion Movement
5. Towers
6. Legion Markers
7. Mulligans
8. Resurrected By the Gods
9. Options
 

1. What is "Titan"?

1.1 "Titan" is a board game by AH. It is an abstract elimination game, the object of which is to destroy the forces belonging to other players. The game is very popular for its entertaining fantasy theme, asthetics, and creative original approach to recruitment of new fighting units. This FAQ presumes you already know how to play "official rules" Titan. An official Titan FAQ exists elsewhere on the internet; a search for "Avalon Hill Titan FAQ" should easily find it.
 

2. What is "Strategic Titan"?

2.1 Strategic Titan is a variant style of play which reduces the very high luck element of dice-rolling inherent in Titan and (hopefully) the lengthy amount of time often required to play it (Titan's two major flaws), and makes planning of future turn movement possible - and necessary. Strategic Titan does not require anything beyond the basic board game from AH. Subsequent FAQs will address "Super Titan" (made by Daniel U. Thibault, selinur@IO.com) and other suppliments.
 

3. Differences from "Official" Titan (OT)

3.1 In OT, each player rolls a die to determine how many spaces any of his legions must move. In OT, each player starts with twelve legion markers, with him gaining more by eliminating another player. In OT, at certain times, legions containing Titans may teleport, and do certain things after teleporting. In OT, a player may in certain situations re-roll a die (a "mulligan") if it is unsatisfactory. These proceedures and set conditions are changed in ST.
3.2 All rules of OT are considered to be in effect, so long as they are not countered here.
3.3 Optional rules are featured at the end of the FAQ.
 

4. Legion Movement

4.1 Each player chooses his movement number at the time he would normally roll a die in OT to determine it. It must be a number from one to six.
4.2 A player's movement number may NOT be the SAME number as either of his last TWO turns'.
4.21 Movement numbers are to be recorded to ensure this, and are public knowledge.
4.22 The movement number is considered "recorded" when the
player moves a legion and takes his hand off it. He announces the movement number at that time (prior utterances are irrelevent "table talk"). See Mulligans, 7.21, 7.22.
4.3 EVERY legion that the player has, except his Titan's (see 4.7), that is ABLE to move that number of spaces MUST move. (Re-read! Major change from OT!)
4.4 A legion does NOT have to move and attack an enemy legion IF it would "stop short" in doing so, and that attack is its only legal move...
4.41 ...but it MAY.
4.5 If a splitting legion excercizes the option to not "stop short" attack, it will recombine with any other split which has legally not moved for the same or other reasons (major change!).
4.6 A legion DOES have to attack an enemy legion if it is EXACTLY the movement number of spaces away, and that attack is its only legal move.
4.7 A legion containing a Titan does NOT have to move for ANY reason, even if it is the only legion a player has left.
If the player chooses not to move his only remaining legion (the Titan), that turn's movement number is recorded as "pass" (a player may pass in successive turns, counter to 4.2).
4.71 If asked why a legion on the board is not moving, a player must reveal that it contains a Titan (or move it). He need not venture any information if not specifically asked
about that particular legion (the other players must be attentive).
4.8 Excepting the first turn, if a player has one or more legions in the CENTER, he may not select a one as his movement number, UNLESS he has arranged it so that his legion(s) in the center cannot move (e.g., the pertinent stacks will be blocked by others stacks of his, or one which does not move contains his Titan).
4.9 See 5.4.
 

5. Towers

5.1 Titan legions may not teleport to locations other than Towers. As in OT, movement number must be a six.
5.2 Warlocks may not be recruited if a Titan legion's FIRST move is to teleport (they may be recruited on later teleports).
5.3 A record is kept of each Tower a player visits. He may not stop in the same one twice in a row. He is considered "visiting" the Tower he is in at the start of the game , and
may not return to it until he has stopped at another (he may slide through it as many times as he likes, however).
 

6. Legion Markers

6.1 Players begin the game with five legion markers.
6.2 Player do not acquire more than twelve legions, maximum.
6.3 For each enemy legion a player attacks and destroys in COMBAT, he acquires a legion marker, provided his attacking legion survived.
6.4 For every TWO enemy legions a player attacks and which SURRENDUR to him, he acquires a legion marker.
6.5 Defeated legion markers return to their owners for re-use.
6.6 If a legion succesfully defends itself in COMBAT (by destroying all forces, or by time-out), the defending player acquires a legion marker.
6.7 For every TWO successful defenses from attacks in which the attacking player forfeits by NOT moving his pieces onto the battleland, the defending player acquires a legion
marker.
6.8 A player's total number of available legion markers never diminishes, they only accumulate.
 

7. Mulligans

7.1 Mulligans are "luck stabillizers"; each player starts the game with six . Normally they are used to force re-rolls of detrimental dice throws in combat, but may also be forfeited as a penalty for correcting a booboo. A player's number of mulligans should be recorded, as the number will rise or fall.
7.2 A player may use a mulligan to change his movement number after letting go of that turn's first-moved stack (the "Oops!" retraction). If he moves N stacks before "Oops!", he may forfeit N mulligans to relocate them all to their starting positions. He may mulligan only so long as he has yet to actually encounter an enemy stack via either player viewing any creatures of the other.
7.21 If a player, when announcing his movement number after taking his hand off the stack, is in error (the number does not match how many spaces the legion moved via any means), he must "burn" a mulligan correcting the situation by stating the correct number or reconsidering his move.
7.22 After the movement number is recorded, further movement errors by a player are simple illegalities, and he suffers no penalties while correcting the moves, as he wouldn't when correcting a move not in agreement with the die roll in OT.
7.23 A player may use a mulligan to retract a split after the movement number is recorded, but prior to moving the split legions. The recombined stack may not be used to
attack under any circumstances. If that results in no legal moves, then the split may not be mulliganed, unless the player burns enough mulligans to retract his movement number
and start over.
7.24 A player may use a mulligan to enact a split, if he forgot to prior to announcing his movement number, provided that the stack to split has yet to move.
7.3 A player AQUIRES a mulligan whenever an encounter with an enemy results in the removal of one of his legion markers from the board, UNLESS he still has, after the battle, the most legions on the BOARD of any player, or is tied for the lead. The mulligan is immediately available for use if there are more encounters scheduled.
7.4 A player LOSES a mulligan every time he ACQUIRES a legion marker, and it is lost immediately when the acquisition conditions are met, UNLESS he has fewer legions on the BOARD than anyone else, or is tied for last and has fewer total legion markers than other players or is tied for last.
7.41 A Player LOSES a mulligan every time he passes a 100-point mark, unless he has fewer points than any other player or is tied for last after the addition.
7.5 A player may mulligan as many times as he likes, so long as he has them (e.g., he could continually mulligan a very important die roll until out of mulligans or until a satisfactory result is achieved).
7.6 If a player's Titan legion is attacked, he acquires one "temporary" mulligan which only his Titan may use during that combat. If the mulligan is not used in that combat by the Titan, it is lost.
7.7 During combat, while one player is rolling dice, regardless of phase, the player whose creatures are taking damage may use a mulligan to demand that the player inflicting damage re-roll the most recent dice throw. (It is important to roll creatures seperately for this reason.) The player currently rolling dice must give the other time to assert a mulligan before rolling his next creature's strike.
(Note: if the player the re-roll is demanded of then tosses badly, he could use one of his own mulligans to throw again, and this could continue tit-for-tat.)
7.8 If the "Alternate Battlelands" are in use, the DEFENDER rolls a die to determine which battleland is used. If he is not satisfied, he may mulligan.
7.9 Should all basic Tower creatures be gone upon entering a Tower, a player may burn mulligans to recruit the lowest ranking higher tier creature available: Lion/Troll/Cyclops =
1 mulligan, Ranger/Gorgon = 2, Warbear/Minotaur = 3, Wyvern/Gryphon/Gaurdian = 4, Unicorn/Behemouth = 5, Angel/Warlock = 6, higher non-Lords/Archangel = all mulligans, minimum of 7.
 

8. RESURRECTED BY THE GODS

8.1 Should a player's Titan be killed in battle, and that player have 10 mulligans (including one just acquired for losing the Titan legion), he is RESURRECTED BY THE GODS.
8.2 After all of his other legions are tallied and cleared from the board, he places a legion containing a Titan, Angel, and six basic creatures of ANY assortment he desires in any Tower on the board, and acquires six new mulligans.
8.3 If there are not six (or any) basic creatures, see 7.9, and take what is necessary to fill the legion, free of charge.
8.4 This legion is not considered a "starting" legion, and so starting split rules do not apply. On succeeding turns, the player does not have to split or even move the legion
(because it contains a Titan) until he so chooses.
8.5 The player retains all legion markers possessed before Resurrection.
8.6 The player retains his points.
 

9. Starting Options

9.1 Players start the game with nine basic creatures (three of each type), and a Titan, Angel and Warlock, each of which will head one of three initially splitting legion stacks.
9.11 With the above, other non-starting Warlock counters are removed from play. Warlocks only become available for recruitment when they are killed and "recycled". (There are a limited number of Warlocks; if fewer than six persons played starting with Warlocks, earlier moving players could pursue a deliberate strategy of immediate Warlock
recruitment and acquire the limited remainder before others have an equal chance using the same starting moves.)
9.2 Players start the game with a Centaur, Lion, Gargoyle, Cyclops, Ogre and Troll as their six initial creatures. (This opens up more options on the first turn.)
9.3 Players start the game with two Titans and no Angel (DejaNews search for "Double Titan" variant in rec.games.board newsgroup), or two Titans and an Angel in three starting splits ("Triple Titan").
9.4 "Easy-does-it": Players start with fewer legion markers.
9.5 "Bloodbath": Players start with more legion markers.

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Feedback regarding Strategic Titan is desired, especially any notice of "killer" first- or last-moving player strategies which are not possible to counter unless new rules are made to deal with them (example: 9.11), or any other "stagnant" strategies, such a dallying around the same Tower all game (dealt with in 5.3), hogging the Center (dealt with in 4.2 and 4.8), and everybody-grabs-a-Warlock (5.2). Postings to rec.games.board are preferred, although constructive criticisms may be sent to my email.

Mike Schneider, mike18xx@hotmail.com

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"Impending doom takes all the fun out of decadent living!" - Yago