Astra Titanus is a sci-fi themed hex and counter game pitting a solo player against a card-driven AI. The player takes on the role of a fleet admiral of the Terran Defense Force (TDF) defending a quadrant of space from enormous robot space dreadnoughts. The player’s fleet is made up of comparably tiny faster-than-light (FTL) capable capital ships and escorts facing the bulk of the Titans, gigantic spaceship/mobile arsenals bristling with armor and weapons of enormous destructive power and bent on the annihilation of the admiral’s forces and those they protect.
What you get in your zip-lock pouch: A cardstock 11 x 17 cardstock map with ‘hexes’ Titan cards (they drive the Titan’s AI actions for movement and combat) Titan Status Board (to track damage to weapons and drives) A Rule Booklet (6 page, full color) 1 Scenario Booklet (4 page, full color) Scads-o-Counters representing defending fleet ships, missiles, asteroids, etc. Two teensy-tiny six-sided dice like the Pirate ship game (not sure these come standard)
Preview the rules/components:http://victorypointgames.com/details.php?prodId=140
The components are good quality but obviously small press. Artwork is present mainly on the counters and is decent hard sci-fi standard. There are no glossy maps, plastic ships or art-filled rulebooks like you may find in Hasbro, Fantasy Flight or other larger players but the components are still good. I will note the counters are decent stock, in full color and are already die cut. This is a welcome change from some games’ counters I’ve had to cut out by hand with scissors. A couple of smaller zip-lock baggies are provided for the counters and everything goes back in the larger bag nicely.
I found the rules to be well organized and well explained. They are written in the style of SPI and Avalon Hill hex and counter games with numbered paragraphs and subsections explaining each aspect and game phase. The numbered sections make referencing different rules very easy. Examples for many sections are well provided and easily found in sidebar blue text. There’s also some fluff thrown in, though most of that is sprinkled through the scenario booklet.
The turn sequence is: 1. FTL Jump Out (for TDF ships) 2. Draw Titan Card (will determine how the Titan(s) moves this turn) 3. Titan Movement (following course set by the Titan card) 4. TDF Attack (Non-Missile Fire from the Good Guys) 5. Titan Attack (uh, Bad News for in-range Good Guys) 6. Missile Phase (Good Guys Launch and/or Move Previously Launched Missiles) 7. FTL Jump In (Good Guys Exit FTL and re-enter the board) 8. Victory Point (Check to see if either side has Won) 9. End Phase/Repair: TDF units and Titans may attempt repairs
The scenario booklet uses the same numbered paragraph format and contains eight specific scenarios. Six scenarios are single Titan battles and the other two introduce two Titans at a time. As expected, the scenarios break down what forces are used (types of spaceships for the good guys and Titan specifics for the AI), where forces begin, any special rules and the victory conditions.
Counters represent ships and the Titans. Titan stats are not depicted on the counter but are tracked separately on their own status board (more on that in a minute). Capital ships counters have damaged stats (they start the scenario undamaged) on the flip side. A successful attack will degrade a cap ship to its damaged stats. A successful attack on a damaged cap ship destroys it outright. Escorts---destroyers and frigates--cannot survive a successful hit. The flip side of escort counters is an FTL counter so you can flip them over to indicate they are using FTL without needing an FTL counter. FTL travel is covered a little later.
Stats for the ships include weapon strength and range, the ship’s defense rating and its move rating. If a ship has missiles it will have a number of dots on the counter equal to its starting number of salvoes. Ammo is limited so missile counters must be tracked. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Resolving attacks is pretty simple. Roll a d6 and add the attack value of the weapon being used. Compare that sum to the defense of what you’ve declared you’re attacking. If you equal or beat the defense, the attack was a success. Successful attacks degrade Titan systems, degrade undamaged cap ships, degrade objectives or outright destroy escorts and damaged cap ships. Ships can combine their attacks (each ship beyond the primary attacker adds +1 to the attack result while forfeiting a separate die roll) . This increases the likelihood of damaging a single system in exchange for potentially damaging more systems on the Titan.
Titan cards provide the AI for the monstrosity as it careens toward your forces spewing destruction as it goes. Every turn you flip over one of these cards and follow its orders. It will explain how the Titan will move during the Titan movement phase and its priority of targets for each weapon system when the Titan’s turn to attack comes. During the Titan’s attack phase, the player consults the Titan Card and uses each weapon system on priority targets, going down a logic tree to systematically destroy enemy ships and objectives.
Titan status boards are used to track damage to the Titan’s weapons and drive. As damage accrues, the Titan’s ability to move and shoot lessens. The same short hand annotating weapon strength and range as well as the defense of each system (weapon or drive) is noted here instead of on the Titan’s counter. Marker counters are slid along a track for each system as damage occurs. The status board also has a turn sequence block as a handy reminder.
Movement for player ships is different than for the Titan, which stays on the board the entire time. TDF ships move via FTL. Cap ships entering FTL are marked by a counter. Escorts can be flipped over since their flip sides have the FTL icon. Being in FTL protects an individual ship (can’t be targeted or otherwise affected) but it also ensures that ship will not be adding its firepower to the combat this turn.
Looking at the turn sequence, you can see this provides an interesting mechanic as a ship enters FTL at the start of the turn and is basically immaterial until near the end of the turn. Part of the skill and luck of the game is figuring out which ships to jump and where best to move them so they can damage the Titan while trying to stay out of its reach. Of course, if the scenario requires you to protect two space stations and you manage to save your fleet, you still lose the game due to objective destruction.
Overall, I like Astra Titanus very much. I think it presents a classic war game and story theme using intuitive mechanics. The card driven AI is excellent and a great solution to figuring out how the bad guy will act that can be so challenging in many solo games. The components are good and the rules are easily understood. Game play is scenario driven so players as well as the publisher can easily develop things further. About the only drawback right now is the game is unbalanced for two players as the Titans are darn tough to beat. One solution for that is to always play a scenario twice, swapping sides after each game. Another solution is the publisher has mentioned working on some additional tweaks to make two player gaming more feasible.
If you like wargaming or just fancy the idea of trying to beat a pre-programmed opponent, you should give Astra Titanus a look.
