Brian Schroth
United States
Middletown
Connecticut
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Titan is my favorite game, a 10 of 10 masterpiece, a flawless creation. When I play it, I feel like I’m playing a work of art. Not the actual pictoral artwork of the game- It’s nothing spectacular. I’m talking about the game itself- the mechanics, the overall feeling of the game. Jason B. McAllister and David A. Trampier crafted a magnificent game.
So what is so masterful about this game? Everything! But here’s a list, anyway.
Titan avoids the standard multiplayer metagame
Titan is a competitive game of direct combat with your opponent. Yet unlike every other game of this type, Titan has no problems with multiplayer dynamics. Almost every other game out there has no means of dealing with this problem. Player 1 is winning? Well, everyone else will be teaming up against him. Player 2 might attack him and player 3 who was losing jumps ahead while they fight through no skill of his own. There are some games out there that avoid this problem, but most of them do it by having minimal interaction between players. Yeah, there isn’t a lot I can do to gang up on the leader in RFTG. But that’s just because it’s one of those so-called "multiplayer solitaire" games (yet I still love RFTG). This problem is usually severe in direct conflict games, often rendering them unplayable as a free for all. Yet here’s Titan, a dice-rolling slugfest elimination game, and it doesn’t suffer from this problem at all!
Titan solves this problem in an elegant and effective way. Attacking is good! It scores points! Player C doesn’t cheer when A and B get into a fight, waiting to pick off the weak survivor of the battle- he cringes, because the winner may very well come out stronger than he went in! No vulture effect in Titan. What about ganging up on the leader? Not really possible. The weaker players will want to attack each other to more easily score points and catch up to the leader. Even if they want to team up on the leader, they’re restricted by the movement system. If the leader’s stacks aren’t in range, they can’t attack him, regardless of any desire for ganging up.
Titan is DEEP
A lot of games out there are easy to learn. I like those games. You can pick up a high ranked Euro, play it once, and have a pretty good idea of the strategic arc of the game. You won’t have mastered it, but you’ll understand what’s going on. In Titan, you only scratch the surface in one game. New players will really have almost no idea what’s going on on a deep strategic level in a game of Titan, even after a play (or a few plays!). I’m not saying Titan is head and shoulders above all the Euros in terms of depth- there are plenty of deep Euros. But Titan is one of the deepest. It takes a long time to master (I certainly haven’t come close, I don’t have that many plays).
Titan is epic
I’m usually not one to care about theme in a game, and Titan’s is really nothing special. Fantasy creatures, battle, whoop-de-doo. But it gives a great feel to the game. The elimination aspect of the game fills it with tension. Your Titan is always in or close to danger. The feeling of building up your legions is very satisfying. Sometimes Titan games drag on for a long time, but that time is always exciting. There’s nothing better than an epic 4+ hour Titan game that ends in a Titan v. Titan battle. No matter who wins, everyone goes away satisfied that the game they just played was, in fact, epic.
Titan is balanced
This is actually what initially brought me to the conclusion that Titan is a work of art. The whole mustering system, from the recruitment tree to the precise layout of the masterboard, is calibrated to make the game great. The risk:reward balance of the various levels of creatures is perfect. No track is overpowered, no track is underpowered. And the way the various tracks cross over into others is perfect. Every mechanic of this game just clicks together. The way it favors the attacker to just the right degree to encourage aggression, without making it a pushover? Perfect.
Titan incorporates extreme levels of dice rolling without being a luckfest
This is just my personal preference, but I love rolling dice in a game. And I’ve noticed a lot of people share that feeling. But I also hate games with large luck elements. Titan solves this. Everything in Titan is determined by dice. Yet luck is generally a very minor factor in a game of Titan. Players can move to mitigate luck (make one legion need a 2/4/6, another need a 1/3/5) or to enhance it (make all your stacks need a 4, because you are behind and need to take risks). There are so many dice rolls in the game that they tend to balance out well. The way the combat system plays out mitigates luck, both due to the sheer number of dice rolled and the way creatures can soak hits without dying neutralizing minor variances. And of course, since fleeing is often the best option, combat can and often does skip the dice altogether. The end result is that Titan satisfies dice fans without diluting the strategic depth.
Titan works with a wide range of player counts
Titan is an epic 2 player duel, if that’s how you want to play it. But it also works great as a 3 way free for all, or a 6 player massive brawl. Each number plays with its own flavor, but the game stays great with any number. It is significantly more "casual" and less strategic with 5-6, though- but a very fun game no matter what.
So there are my thoughts on why Titan is a masterpiece work of art, deserving of a 10/10 glowing review. But does that mean it has broad appeal? No! Don’t be fooled. Titan is a terrific game, but it is a niche game. There are many aspects of Titan that make it a less than ideal choice, depending on your circumstances. Not flaws- the game is flawless. But just because an ice cream sundae is great doesn’t mean I want it on top of my steak dinner. It has an appropriate time and place.
Titan is long. Not as long as its reputation leads people to believe, but it is long. Especially the first few games. A first game could take 5 hours. And since new players don’t really know what is going on in the game, those 5 hours might seem kind of dull. It could feel like a roll and move monopoly/candyland- "I roll, I move, if I can recruit I recruit. Where’s the strategy? It’s just about who gets the lucky rolls to recruit more". That’s how it can feel to a new player.
This is really the core issue with Titan that might drive away a potential purchase. This game has a high learning curve. It takes a few plays to appreciate. It’s hard to enjoy a 5 hour game when you don’t really understand it. A lot of people have hundreds of games and limited playtime- the prospect of finding the time to invest in learning this game might not be worth it for some. Titan requires a potentially large block of time, too, so if your gaming time consists solely of smaller time blocks, Titan is not for you.
Titan has player elimination, which is a great strength and a potential hazard. In Titan, if a player is in a hopeless position, he’ll soon be eliminated and not have to waste his time trudging through the rest of the game. This is a great strength of Titan. However, it’s not always feasible to have an elimination game at your game night. Now what does he do? Well, he could watch, or read a book, or browse BGG, or wait for another guy to get eliminated and play a short 2 player game. Or go home. Or go to the next table at the convention. This can either be no problem at all or a big a problem. That’s why Titan is a niche game. And of course, it plays terrifically as a 2 player game, where this is never a problem at all.
So should you buy Titan? Well, if you don’t have time to invest 10+ hours in learning a game with a steep learning curve, no. If you don’t envision your group being able to deal with the elimination problem, no. If you just don’t like combat games, or dice rolling, than obviously this one is a bad choice.
But if you have the time to set aside to really learn the game, and can deal with elimination and potentially many hours-long games, you won’t find a better game than Titan.
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Michael Wohlwend
Germany
Karlsruhe
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Agree
Except that I like it most with 2-4 players. With more at least one is eleminated early in the game and can watch video the next few hours (we started again if that happened too early, so after 30min...).
What's also worth playing are the original smaller battle boards from the very first design. They had only 5 hexes with terrain. Of course range-striking creatures are worthless here, but the battles were interessting and the defender had a slight advantage (I think he entered on two hexes whereas the defended entered on three)
Michael
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Ray.T
Thailand
Bangkok
Bangkok
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I also agree, but like Michael, I think the game is best with 3 or 4 players. 6-player games can be fun, but certainly more intense, and what to do when a player gets knocked out early? 5-player games are awkward and 2-player games are only good for teaching a new player the basics - though I hear from some that they have had good experiences with a 2-player game.
Titan does have one flaw that can be a real problem sometimes. That flaw is what does a friend do when he/she is knocked out early? Do they just wait around for many hours watching TV?
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The consensus in my old group was that Titan is the perfect 3-player game. This was back when there weren't so many 3 player options out there.
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Chris Drake
United States
Springfield
Missouri
Check out my sale list for some great deals on older wargames
Currently Playing Red Barricades Campaign game III
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RayGuns wrote: I also agree, but like Michael, I think the game is best with 3 or 4 players. 6-player games can be fun, but certainly more intense, and what to do when a player gets knocked out early? 5-player games are awkward and 2-player games are only good for teaching a new player the basics - though I hear from some that they have had good experiences with a 2-player game.
Titan does have one flaw that can be a real problem sometimes. That flaw is what does a friend do when he/she is knocked out early? Do they just wait around for many hours watching TV?
Get two six player games going, that way the first two-four out can play a different game. As an added bonus, when the two titan games are over seat the top four players in a championship game. 
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Cole Wehrle
United States
Austin
Texas
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jumbit wrote: The consensus in my old group was that Titan is the perfect 3-player game. This was back when there weren't so many 3 player options out there.
Still my favorite three player game. (Thanks for the thoughtful review by the way).
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John Richert
United States
Cordova
Tennessee
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In our games, they did a variety of things.
1) Sit around an talk.
2) Watch TV
3) Pick which game he would play with the next player out.
Titan is an entertaining game and often eliminated players would just watch the game. New players saw some of the nuances of the game, more experienced players were able to see what was going on and got almost giddy waiting for the ultimate clash to occur.
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joel fournier
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
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I give up, what is RFTG? It is not in the database.
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Jeff Pratt
United States
Anacortes
Washington
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joel4nier wrote: I give up, what is RFTG? It is not in the database.
Race for the Galaxy
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This is a super assessment.
I've played the game for 25 years and never tire of it.
Moreover, I've played chess, backgammon and find elements of both
in this game.
Superbly realized.
Great pleasure in recruiting, and the various mythological characters.
Brilliant work: great review.
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