| Game | Titan | Complexity | Low-Medium |
| Company | Avalon Hill | Time | 4-6 hrs |
| Period | Fantasy | Solitaire | Low |
| Type | Fantasy | Rating | 8.5 |
Titan is a fantasy wargame. Players take the role of a Titan, a mythical warlord, as they move legions of monsters across the mapboard. The object to the game is to dominate the entire mapboard by eliminating all opposing Titans.
Titan has both a strategic and tactical level. On the strategic level the players move his legions on the Masterboard. Whenever two opposing legions encounter each other, a battle ensues. To resolve the battle, the legions involved are moved to the tactical Battlelands, where individual creatures move and engage their opponents.
The Masterboard consists of an abstract hexagonal matrix. Each playable space on the Masterboard is connected to two to three other such spaces. The connecting hexsides each have different movement arrows to regulate movement through them.
Each playable space has one of several different terrains. The terrain of the space affects the type of creature that a legion can recruit there, as well as the Battleboard used during combat. Being in favourable terrain can turn a losing battle around.
Each player's army of monsters is divided into stacks called Legions. Monsters (called Characters in the game) are further subdivided into three classes, namely Lords (Titan, Angels, Archangels), Demilords (Warlocks and Guardians) and Creatures (everything else). Legions may each contain up to seven Characters. The contents of each Legion is hidden from other players until exposed by combat or mustering.(See below)
A legion may grow by recruiting creatures as it moves. (See below) As the Legion grows, it may split to facilitate further growth. When a Legion splits, each of the new (and remaining) Legion must have at least 2 Characters in them.
Legions may never combine, even if the resulting legion has seven or less Characters. Creatures may not be transferred from one legion to another, even if they belong to the same player. The only exception to this rule is the Summoning of Angels during/after combat.
The number of spaces a player's legions may move is determined by a die roll at the start of his turn. The player must move at least one, but up to as many of his legions as he wishes.
Each legion must move the exact number of spaces indicated on the die, unless blocked by enemy legions. Opposing legions are those not owned by the phasing player, and players may not grant free passage through their legions to another player. Players may (choose to) be friendly to each other. Their legions may not.
Movement is controlled by movement arrows through playable hexsides. Generally, a legion has a choice only in the first space it moves to. Thereafter, it has to move in a path indicated by the movement arrows until it has moved the required number of spaces, or it moves into a space occupied by an opposing legion. An exception to this is a legion located in a Tower space containing a Lord. On a roll of 6, this Legion (which needs to reveal its Lord) may move to any other Tower or space on the map within 6 spaces if its current tower.
Players may move over spaces occupied by friendly legions, but in no case may two friendly legions end the turn in the same space.
After a player accumulates sufficient victories in battle, a superior mode of movement called Titan Teleporataion become available to him. At this stage, he may teleport the Legion containing his Titan to the location of an enemy Legion of his choice on a movement roll of 6. This ability makes it difficult for enemy Legions to hide from him.
A legion may recruit creatures only when it moves during movement. The creatures that are eligible for mustering are dependent on:
Only creatures native to the terrain of the space the Legion is currently in are eligible for muster. Furthermore, a legion may muster a creature only if it
There are fixed numbers of creature counters. Creatures eliminated in the course of play are not recycled into the game. Once the counters are exhausted, the creatures of that type cannot be mustered.
When legions owned by two different players land in the same space, combat occurs. The moving player is the attacker, and the player whose legion was originally in the space is the defender. Battle is to the death; only one legion may survive the encounter.
Combat is resolved on the Battleboards. Each terrain type has a different Battleboard. The Battleboard is divided into a hexagonal grid. Each hex has a different terrain type that affects combat.
Combat is divided into seven rounds. If the attacker fails to eliminate all defenders at the end of the seven rounds, the defender wins, and all attacking creatures are eliminated. A typical round is resolved as follows:
Players may reinforce their legions during the course of the battle. The attacker may summon an Angel and the defender gets a free muster on round four.
The attacker may reinforce his forces with an Angel on the first turn after he eliminates an opposing creature. He may only do so once per battle. The Angel must be in another friendly legion on the board. He takes the Angel from the legion and moves it onto the Battleboard during movement. The Angel stays with the legion after combat (if it survives).
The defender may muster a creature on the fourth round of combat. The procedure is the same as mustering during movement.
The maximum number of creatures in each legion is 7. If the addition of a creature causes the limit to be exceeded, the reinforcement is forfeited.
There is only one winner in a game of Titan. The game ends only when every other player is eliminated by losing his Titan piece.
Titan is called a "slugathon", and the description is apt. The game takes a rather long time to play, especially when many players are involved. Experienced players take considerably less time as the results of minor conflicts can be "negotiated" rather than slugged out. Of course, it does take some experience to get a feel of what are the most probable results of that particular engagement.
Another feature of the game is that players get eliminated as the game progresses and do not necessarily get to play the game to completion. This being the case, it is generally a good idea to bring along smaller games that can be played by those eliminated early in the game.
One last note. Player cooperation in this game is very limited. There is very little one player can do to assist another in his attacks against their common enemy. However, this does not mean that player interaction is impossible. This is one of the most played games in my collection.