Last night got off to a slow start with a few games of
To Court the King, where I managed to roll poorly often, actually only about one roll out of 7 went poorly. But always the last one. By then Chris had shown up and we played
Goa. Has it really only been out 3-4 years?
Rudiger Dorn has quietly become one of the premier designers (he also has Jambo, Louis XIV, and Traders of Genoa to his credit). After that, we tried the newer version of
Leaping Lemmings, people should send me their comments (or just put them here) and I'll pass them along...
At this point, several people had to leave, so I pulled out a classic.
Titan. I've been on a kick to revisit old games, and this is one of the worthiest.
Why Titan? Well, it's a direct conflict game with lots of dice. But there are three reasons it remains played (over 25 years after initial release).
- It's hard to gang on the leader -- The masterboard forces you to manuever ... you can't just go after someone wily-nily.
- "Lets you and him fight" doesn't work -- In almost every other battle-y game, if A & B fight while C watches, C comes out ahead. Here, A or B may gain strength (compared to C). Fighting and winning is rewarded.
- Titan rewards multiple plays -- Even after (literally) hundreds of games, you can still spot new things.
Anyway, Jeff and I taught Sean. I had a good opening, but then managed to put my Warlock in the wrong spot (obvious after I started rolling the dice). In the right spot, I needed average luck, and for my opponent to not get slightly above average luck. In the wrong spot, I needed good luck (and none for my opponent). In the right spot, I win the battle in the nick of time ... my Titan exits with one hit remaining. (All hits heal between battles). So I was the first one eliminated. Jeff made one blunder ("I thought that was his Titan stack"), but several turns later maneuvered a crunchy kill stack into Sean's Titan.
You can play (against AIs who were reasonably competent if not great, last time I checked) via
Colossus. You can order from Valley games, although I have no idea about the quality. I'd love to see this getting played more. A classic. (There are other classics I'd like to see played, too. Hence the new label).
PS ... (I downloaded the Colossus ... it still has a few egregious bugs. But I remembered David desJardins'
strategy page ...)
Labels: classics, session report
Why Titan? Well, it's a direct conflict game with lots of dice. But there are three reasons it remains played (over 25 years after initial release).
