TACTICAL TITAN SCENARIOS

When Tactical Titan was conceived, I also had this idea that you would play different scenarios. A scenario would have a custom map, some sort of objective, and special rules. The scenarios could be connected so that completing one was a prerequisite for playing another one. I devised a few of these scenarios, but didn't get to play them much, because players were generally only interested in a straight up battle. I've included three scenarios on this page, only two of which ever got playtested. They have this concept of "Scenario Points" which are earned like experience points, though I'm not really sure what you would do with them. They could be part of how you incorporate the scenarios into a Titan Campaign. I had one idea for a campaign, which I called the "Cloak & Crown Campaign," but it only got outlined, never developed. I had plans for making other scenarios, roughly sketched out in some old notes. There were a dozen or so scenarios arranged in a campaign that culminated in a battle to defeat the Sea King. It would have been a lot of work to handcraft all those maps, so it's not suprising that they were never completed. But just knowing that I got some of the scenarios below to the table is satisfying enough.

Scenario 1 - The Two Towers

This is a two-player battle on the map shown on the Tactical Titan page. This one must have been played multiple times.

Setup

Each player starts the game with a Titan, 2 Ogres, 2 Centaurs and 2 Gargoyles. Choose a first player randomly. That player sets up their units in one of the two towers on the map, and the other player in the other tower.

Objective

Slay the enemy Titan for 2 Scenario Points.

Special Rules

None.

Scenario 2 - Quest for the Colossus

This one did get played a couple of times, according to my notes. Pretty cool since it's such an elaborate scenario.

Summary

In a castle high in the mountains is imprisoned a colossus. Your Titan has been given the task to free this mighty creature. A rival Titan wants to complete the task before you can.

Map

The map depicts a desert, and is longer than it is wide. It has three cave entrances, which lead to an underground map with new regions and hazard types.

I hope it is clear. The cave entrance in the center right of the surface map leads to the underground opening on the left of map B8. The openings at the right on map B8 connect to the openings on the right on map B7, which lead to tunnels that go to the cave entrances in the upper and lower edges of the surface map. Finally, the pit at the top of the tower on the right edge of the surface map leads directly to a spot on the underground marked by a sort of asterisk symbol.

Setup

The underground regions of the map are populated with creatures as indicated on the map.

Supports two players. Each player begins with a Titan, a Warlock, 2 Centaurs and 2 Ogres. Determine the start player randomly. Each player's first move consists of entering the surface map on the leftmost edge. The first player chooses whether to enter from the top or the bottom half, and the other player enters from the other half.

Objective

The objective for each Titan is to rescue the colossus, and bring it off of the map. 2 Scenario Points are awarded for freeing the colossus, and 1 Scenario Point for slaying the enemy Titan. To rescue the colossus requires first unlocking the underground chamber in which it is imprisoned, and then getting it back to the surface and off of the map through normal movement.

Special Rules

The separate regions of the underground map are marked with colored border lines. It is not possible to muster in these regions. The regions are populated at game setup with various creatures native to Bramble and Jungle; these are called the guard creatures. As soon as a character owned by either player enters an underground region, all of the guard creatures in that region are activated, under the control of the player who didn't activate them by entering the region. From this moment on, all active guard creatures get their own turn immediately following the current player's turn.

On the guard creatures' turn, the creatures will attack any player characters in their region. The player controlling them decides on their movements and attacks, but must attack a non-guard creature if possible (even if it's their own character). Guard creatures will never leave the region in which they start, though they can strike or rangestrike into adjacent regions if possible. If all active guard creatures are slain, then this special turn no longer takes place (until more guard creatures are activated later).

Freeing the Colossus

To free the Colossus first requires that a Titan move onto the marked hex on the underground map (it looks like it has an asterisk on it and is guarded by two Behemoths). This signifies the Titan operating some contraption that opens the secret door (marked with a big "S"). At that point the cave wall with the secret door is considered to no longer be present, and the Colossus is under the control of the player whose Titan freed it. Note that this means the Colossus may be attacked by guard creatures.

That player now has to get the Colossus back to the surface map and move it off one of the surface map edges. Successfully doing so earns the player 2 Scenario Points. If the Colossus is slain, the scenario ends immediately.

If a Titan is slain, all characters owned by the same player are removed from play, except for the Colossus if that is one of those characters. If a player's Titan is slain while they control the Colossus, they can still try to get the Colossus off of the map. If a player's Titan is slain, they can still control guard creatures, and even earn 1 Scenario Point by slaying the other player's Titan. If both Titans are slain before the Colossus is freed, the scenario ends immediately. But if both Titans are slain and the Colossus is freed, then the player controlling the Colossus can still try to get it off of the map and the other player can still use any remaining guard creatures under their control to attempt to thwart the escape.

New Hazards and Movement Rules

CAVE ENTRANCE EFFECT ON MOVEMENT: Characters moving from the adjacent hex, through the hex-side containing the cave entrance, don't move onto the hex containing the cave entrance. Instead, they move onto a hex in the underground map. This movement works in reverse as well. Characters in these two hexes are considered to be adjacent and enemy characters in these two hexes can strike one another and are locked in contact, even though the hexes are on different maps. EFFECT ON STRIKING: Characters may not strike across a cave entrance. Adjacent characters separated by a cave entrance are not in contact. EFFECT ON RANGESRIKING: A rangestrike can only cross a cave entrance if either the rangestriker or the target are in the hex containing the cave entrance.

CAVE WALL EFFECT ON MOVEMENT: Characters may not move through a cave wall hex-side. EFFECT ON STRIKING: Characters may not strike across a cave wall. Adjacent characters separated by a cave wall are not in contact. EFFECT ON RANGESRIKING: Rangestrikes may not pass through a cave wall.

LEDGE NATIVE: Gorgon, Serpent EFFECT ON MOVEMENT: Non-flying, non-native characters are slowed when moving up across a ledge hex-side. EFFECT ON STRIKING: Non-native characters lose a skill-factor striking up across a ledge hex-side. Native characters gain a skill-factor striking down across a ledge hex-side. EFFECT ON RANGESRIKING: Same rules as for slopes.

BOTTOMLESS PIT EFFECT ON MOVEMENT: Non-flying characters who enter the bottomless pit immediately move to the marked hex on the underground map, end their movement, and are subject to a 6 die strike at skill-factor 3. If this strike slays them, they are immediately removed from play with no chance to particpate in the strike phase. Flying characters may move from the bottomless pit to the marked hex on the underground map, and vice versa, and are slowed when doing so. EFFECT ON STRIKING: It is not possible to strike from the bottomless pit hex on the surface map to the marked hex on the underground map, or vice versa. A flying character in the bottomless pit hex on the surface map is not adjacent to or in contact with a character on the marked hex on the underground map. EFFECT ON RANGESRIKING: A flying character with skill-factor 4 may rangestrike a character on the marked hex on the underground map. Any character with skill-factor 4 may rangestrike a flying character on the bottomless pit hex on the surface map.

Scenario 3 - Escape from Dragon Island

This one was never playtested.

Map

Setup

Place a Dragon in the Volcano hex. The scenario supports two players. Each player places a Titan and 2 gargoyles in one of the tower regions on the map. Choose the start player randomly; that player chooses which tower each player gets.

Objective

To escape the island using the Magic Cube item. To escape the island requires having your Titan in any Tower region with the Magic Cube, at the start of a movement phase. 3 Scenario Points are awarded to the player who escapes the island.

Special Rules

It is not possible to muster in the Tower regions. It is only possible to muster in the Bramble, Jungle and Water regions.

As soon as a character controlled by one of the players enters the Brush region containing the Volcano, the Dragon is activated, under the control of the other player. The player controlling the Dragon must attack with all other characters they control before attacking with the Dragon. If the player controlling the Dragon attacks the Dragon, the Dragon becomes controlled by the other player.

When the Dragon is slain, it becomes the Magic Cube. Only the Titans may carry the Magic Cube. If the Dragon is slain while in the Volcano hex, the Magic Cube is destroyed and both players lose.

If a Titan should be slain while the Dragon is still alive, all of the other characters belonging to the player whose Titan was slain are removed from play, but the scenario continues and the player whose Titan was slain gains control of the Dragon.

The Dragon will not move off of the island, but may move to anywhere on the island, including the Tower regions, and need not attack.

Adapting Scenario Rules to the Strategy Game

It seems you should be able to do this, though I don't recall any details that I ever wrote down. But here's a rough idea off the top of my head: there are some magic items seeded througout the Masterboard, which have to be captured in battle. One or more of them are used to summon a powerful neutral Legion in the Mountains or Tundra, or in a Jungle on the edge of the Masterboard, or in a Tower. This legion sits there until a player defeats it, which possibly ends the scenario. Scenario Points are awarded for defeating the neutral legion(s), defeating the other players, and finding the items.

 This page by Steve Barrera 2022

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