Yesterday, I took home the trophy in the inaugural SWA-sponsored 2010 Northeast Titan Tournament. This followed a pair of preliminary rounds during the previous month. Titan’s the sort of game that makes for great stories – if you like Titan. Otherwise, not so much. So you’re been warned: keep reading at your own peril.
Based on the structure of the tournament, I guessed that was going to need to win two games in the open pool prelims in order to get a seat at the finals. Since my gaming free time is not what it used to be, this was no sure thing. On the first weekend of games, I was the first one out of a three-player board; I was re-learning a lot of Titan nuances in a hurry, having not played seriously for almost ten years. (Oh, and running on four hours’ sleep after a band gig in Pine Plains the night before.) Not an auspicious start! Fortunately, I stuck around for an afternoon session where I won a four-player bout by being the leader when time was called at seven hours. No one got eliminated, but I had built up a pretty powerful Titan and I think everyone agreed that I was the leader at the time. So that was one win – halfway there.
On the second weekend of prelims I only had time for one game, so it was going to have to count. Again, a four-player match, and again facing off against the SWA’s John F., a very good player, easily my better at mastering and moving on the main board. John was already the points leader at this time, but I had outlasted him in my first win earlier. This time around, though, it didn’t go on time: titans went down hard. I managed to devise a train wreck of sorts on the main board, where I was in the best position to clean up the pieces. It worked to plan, and I came out of it with a tough Titan in a non-mustering stack, and not much else. The real upside was that I eliminated two other players, and John maxed out at 12 legions and was denied the use of extra legion markers from eliminated players. I got through that dangerous run of turns when your Titan’s not tough enough to win on his own, and doesn’t have enough of a legion to help or muster with. The end came surprisingly fast, then. A few decent rolls brought me a Warlock, and Angel, and I rolled a ‘6’ on my first chance with Titan Teleport, picked out John’s Titan legion from clear across the board, and shredded it with a combination of Angel-Warlock firepower. His stack was full of strong Jungle creatures, but all those x-2’s are like cheese against angels and warlocks and Titans. So I got my seat at the finals, and had also definitely re-located my Titan mojo.
Which brings us to yesterday’s final. The top six contenders from the prelims were invited, but two were unable to attend, so we again had a four-player setup, using balanced towers to be fair. Honestly, a six-player game is so crowded and full of random mayhem that a four-player final probably made for a better game anyway. It was me, John, Mike, and Nick, who was also the tourney organizer and deserves a big shout-out of praise for the effort and smooth execution thereof. Cheers!
Certain trends emerge when you play a bunch of the same game in a row. As I’ve said, John is excellent on the main board – he gets a lot of good musters and keeps great board position while doing it. Me? Not as good. Even in a ‘serious’ game like this one I don’t keep as close track of what everyone else is mustering as I should, and I always have a very hard time favoring my own long-term mustering tracks versus something I could use right now. I do tend to be pretty mindful of board position at least. But, no, without a doubt my real talent lies on the battle board. I have a very good feel for how to run a battle, and I feel that I often have an advantage over my enemies even when the material is balanced. I humbly credit this prowess from all the whippings I received (and sometimes gave) back with my Buffalo Titan friends from back in the day: Random, Tom, and especially Kevin, who I think can bend the dice to his will. Oh, and I move fast, which I think unnerves some opponents. I’m not into pondering that board for ten minutes each combat phase. Like Antony says, when the battle is in doubt, charge. Using a football analogy, I run the Titan equivalent of the West Coast Offense. Run and gun, run and gun.
OK, so this final got off to a very ‘classic’ start: lots of mustering and splits, a very few cautious probes of battle, but overall conservative, even tentative, play. I myself was doing better on the main board than usual – at its high-water mark my Titan stack featured: itself, a Warlock, two Unicorns, two Manticores, and, well, an Ogre. I also had a jungle legion that got itself a Serpent before all was said and done. Good for me, but others were doing about as well.
The first real game-changing event happened as result of some of my earlier aggressions. I had taken on a combat that was rather a toss-up, and summoned my angel for the win, but it left that stack with but a Cyclops and the angel. For a bunch of turns I kept it out of harm’s way – it was my angel buffer, and I desperately tried and failed to pick a fight elsewhere: I wanted to summon that angel back to a ‘real’ stack and kiss the Cyclops good-bye. But I simply couldn’t get the opportunity. Then, I moved the Cyclops-Angel stack down close to a tower, on the chance that I might just get in for safety and a new basic recruit. On the way, I stopped next to Mike’s Titan legion. Now, John was coming around the outside with the scariest conga-line of legions any of us had seen in awhile. And so Mike rolled his titan legion into my stack mostly for the sake of the safer board position my space would offer.
I looked at his stack: I think it was an Angel and three Centaurs in addition to the Titan. A bit weak given that we were mid-game: his fear of John’s legions was justified. My big mistake of the day: I offered him full points with no battle if he’d lose two of the Centaurs. Mike’s bigger mistake: declining (he’d have gotten one back right away in post-battle muster). We were in the Woods and I think he wanted to at least try to off me with no losses to recruit a Warbear. So, to the battle map we went…
The Cyclops lumbered in and the Angel kept pace. Mike’s creatures didn’t close to combat. So the next phase, I did. I got the Angel and Cyclops double teaming a Centaur, the Cyclops’ flank exposed to another. The trees in the woods were a big help. I snuffed his Centaur, which whiffed on the retaliation. On Mike’s next move, he sent another Centaur into the same breach, instead of his Warlock. And he tried to finish off the Cyclops, I think. In any case, the Angel waxed his Centaur as well on the retal and was now unlocked from melee. On my next move I flew over to his Titan (and Warlock). I hit exactly for odds, three hits on the Titan, and the eleven dice of retal from Titan and Angel only got five hits. So I lived to the next round and hit for odds again, three more, and Mike’s Titan fell. The battle itself was mutual destruction, but Mike was eliminated, I got a ton of half-points, and a lot of board space to work with. Let’s just say that one more time: a Cyclops and an Angel taking out a Titan stack. Woof!
At this point, Nick was hemmed in on the board and falling behind in the muster race, but John was getting nervous: he’d seen me go on a Titan rampage in our last game. So he made the next bold move and sent his ‘Air Force’ legion (4 Rangers, 1 Wyvern) against Nick’s Titan legion that was holed up in a Tower. Nick’s stack was decent enough: a Warlock, some Gorgons, and he should have come out weakened, but alive. Instead, John’s flying range-strikers negated most of the Tower’s inherent defense, and then when they made their suicidal charge on Nick’s Titan, he rolled very, very well. I think there was a point in this battle where Nick’s forces needed to abandon the ramparts, and close on the Rangers in pairings of his own choosing. He put too much faith in John only rolling average, and that’s a game with a high cost to losing when your Titan’s on the line.
So now Nick was gone too, and John, with all the points picked he up, was winning. I smashed my Titan legion straight into one of his tougher stacks, expecting few losses, an Angel summon, and a Unicorn muster. But again, John’s dice were hot, and while I won the battle, I came out with only the Titan, a Warlock, an Angel, and one Manticore. A few turns later I Titan Teleported onto a small, nasty stack of his in the hills, hoping to grab another Manticore, but instead lost the only one I had in the process. I was down to all lords, no mustering potential, and a weak stack at that. But for the next bunch of turns, John couldn’t roll a six to get his own Titan Teleport to stomp me. And just low numbers all around for him, he couldn’t even close with conventional moves. It was just enough time for me to pick my way through a few other battle wins and get an Angel and Archangel into the mix. My hot jungle stack with the Behemoths and Serpent gave me just enough swagger (I was down to three legions total) to not be forced into any bad moves.
Somewhere in there, his Titan stack took out my last speed bump legion. This was good for me, because I had lost track of his Titan, being such a lazy main board player. And for the end game, it was weak! Four Lions, a Ranger, a Warlock, and the Titan. My teleport potential meant he couldn’t risk a split anymore, either. I got close to him and he declined to come after me (he had no angel to summon), and I knew I had him. I got a good roll the very next turn and took him on, lions and all, in the desert.
On paper (cardboard?) it looked like it might go either way, but once the swords came out, it was a rout. My Titan was a 13-4 at this point, against his 11-4, but I also brought two Angels (6-4), a Warlock (5-4), and an Archangel (9-4) to the party. All those flyers, again, essentially negated the terrain advantage for the lions and defenders. And the sand wasn’t helping his non-natives adjust easily, either. I got my Archangel two hexes from his Titan, pasting the Lion that stood between, and my Warlock bringing up the rear to start range-striking his Titan. He was flushed out, to no better position, and this time I had the hot dice on the retals and cleared some spots next to his Titan. Next turn all my tough guys rushed in and finished him, and even if his Titan got all 6’s on the retal, it wouldn’t be enough to take mine out. Victory!
So that’s how I came to be the 2010 Northeast Titan Champion. Everyone seemed to have a good time and the quality of play was extremely strong. I will post some pictures if I can get Nick to send them along. Nick’s going to tweak the format a bit from lessons learned, but I think it’ll be back and even better next year, and I’ll be there to defend my title. Just as long as I can play the Red Legion!
