For more information on Titan see my Titan Home Page.
This is pretty much what I sent in as my WBC report.
People seemed to be happy with starting preliminary play at 9 instead of 10 in the morning, so we'll keep that for next year. Having just the semis on Friday and Final on Saturday again seemed to mostly work well. Unfortunately final regular David Finberg wasn't able to qualify for the semis in part because he was GMing Galaxy Trucker and was only able to play in 4 of his allowed 6 games.
Our Japanese players brought gifts this year. As has been custom the last few years, Akihisa Tabei brought old style replacement counters for the finals participants in both the multi-player and two player Titan events. Yoshiya Narita presented the GMs with tins of candy with Titan art work on them. The candy is gone, but I'm saving my box.
This year there were 7 three player games, 20 four player games and no five player games in preliminary play.
A few years ago when Valley Games did their Titan reprint I was hoping it would help our attendance. It may have helped a little, but I do not recall seeing any games this year played on the reprinted version. That suggests that we didn't retain many new players who would have the newer version of the game.
So this got me thinking it might be interesting to see when the players this year first played in the multiplayer tournament and how often they played. I couldn't go back to the Bill Scott era as I don't have a copy of any records he kept. So I only have data from 1994 through 2014. (I remember some of the people that played those years and a few of us did play this year. But I don't remember well enough to use the data.) I also didn't look at the two player data. (I have a fair amount of that data, but not all of it. Also there is lots of overlap in participation between the two tournaments.)
So for the 34 players that played this year, the following are counts of how many first played in the following years:
1994 9 1996 2 1997 3 2000 3 2001 1 2002 3 2003 1 2004 2 2007 1 2009 1 2010 1 2013 4 2014 3
I am somewhat surprised that over a quarter of this year's players, played in 1994. It looks encouraging that 4 players who first played last year came back, even though we had two more total players participate last year.
I also wanted to look at how often this year's participants have played:
Years Number of people 1 3 2 5 3 1 4 1 6 1 7 1 8 2 9 1 10 2 11 2 12 3 13 1 14 1 15 1 16 2 17 1 19 3 20 2 21 1
This has this year's participants averaging a bit over 10 years of participation.
I think this gives a good hint at one a number of us consider each other friends at this point. Especially considering the amount of time is involved in playing Titan at the WBC.
I think these numbers suggest that Titan has a solid core of participants, but we are getting new people slowly and we are losing people slowly too. (This data doesn't show it, but we took a big hit when Euro's became popular. But since then things seem to be changing slowly.)
In one of the early games, Yoshiya Narita had his angel legion strip Julie Ehlers' titan legion to just the titan. However later in the game, when Yoshi's six high titan legion tried to finish off Julie's lonesome titan, she was able to mutual with Yoshi's titan, taking him down with her. She even won the roll off to finish ahead of Yoshi that game.
In semi-final 1, Dan Strock decided to split with titan, troll, 2 gargoyles and three ogres in the hills and rolled a 6. He was then forced to choose between being in the plains 4 away from one of Steve Koleszar's legions or staying in the hills 6 away from one of Akihisa Tabei's legions. He opted to just risk a 6, but Aki rolled it. Aki had angel, minotaur, troll, gargoyle and 3 ogres and eliminated Dan.
Aki eventually got hydras in his titan legion and rolled a 5 to catch Jonathan Barnes' weak titan legion and eliminate him.
Steve got serpents in his titan legion. He then chose to attack in the marsh with guardian, wyvern, ranger and 3 trolls (with angel to summon) against angel, dragon, 2 minotaurs, 2 ogres and got terrible luck which resulted in Aki getting titan teleportation. Steve had a chance to roll a 6 to catch Aki in the brush, but didn't get it and then Aki rolled a 6 to catch Steve in the plains. Steve had 2 serpents, but Aki had 4 hydras and was able to eliminate Steve to win the game.
In semi-final 2, Julie Ehlers attacked with titan(6), angel, behemoth and 3 cyclops in a desert, losing 2 cyclops and the angel, but earning a angel. She was then attack by Jason Ley with angel, 3 trolls and 2 cyclops. There was a big swing when Jason got 9 hits of 15 dice from a troll and cyclops string up a dune at a cyclops and the cyclops got only one hit in return. He went on to eliminate Julie in the battle.
David des Jardins attacked Kevin Hillock's legion of 3 cyclops and 4 rangers in the plains with titan(6), griffon, ranger, cyclops and 3 lions. David attacked a cyclops and ranger with his titan and griffon. The cyclops took 5 hits and the ranger 3 hits. Kevin then had a ranger over fly and attempt to pin two lions (hoping to keep the titan exposed) and kept two rangers back to move next to the titan after the upcoming exchange. The ranger lived and Kevin was able to put two rangers next to the titan and got 4 hits getting David's titan up to 5 hits. David's (summoned) angel and lion whiffed and his titan only got 3 hits, leaving both rangers alive. The lion then got 3 hits and the angel 6 hits, but it was too late as Kevin got the hit he needed on 8 ranger dice to finish off David's titan.
Jason then attacked Kevin in the tundra with titan(8), warlock, 2 minotaurs and 2 rangers against angel, 3 cyclops and 2 lions. After setting up a situation where Kevin was guaranteed 4 cyclops and 1 lion swings, the titan was killed by two hits from an angel and 6 hits from the first two cyclops swings.
In semi-final 3, Bruce Rae attacked 3 centaurs and a warbear in the woulds with titan, 2 angels and 2 cyclops. He lost both angels to hot dice and then the last of the cyclops were recruited before his next turn. Bruce did not move down on a one on his next turn, because it would have put him 2 in front of Yoshiya Narita's titan legion with serpents. This was Yoshi's only legion and there was a good chance that it would move past and Bruce's titan could escape. Unfortunately Yoshi rolled a 2 and sat under Bruce's titan, prompting Bruce to withdraw.
Art Wines was looking good with 2 dragons, 2 minotaurs a warlock and lion in his titan legion when Rich Atwater attacked him with 3 rangers, 2 cyclops, behemoth, guardian and an angel to summon. Art won, but was left with titan, minotaur and (earned) angel.
Art later attached Rich with angel, 2 warbears, 2 trolls, cyclops, gorgon and an angel to summon against two giants, 2 warbears and 2 warlocks. At a key point 2 trolls whiffed against a 5 hit giant that turns the battle into a definite loss (instead of being close). Rich survives with giant and warlock.
After Rich's survivors had grown to giant, angel and 2 warlocks, Yoshi attacked them with titan, serpent, warlock, 2 behemoths, cyclops and gorgon and lost a serpent, behemoth and cyclops.
A bit later Art had lost track of the content of one of Rich's legions and moved to the plains 2 in front of 2 angels, 2 behemoths, 2 gorgons and serpent with titan, 2 minotaurs, dragon, unicorn, warlock and ranger thinking he would pick up some easy points. Instead Rich killed him, surviving with behemoth and serpent.
Yoshi's titan legion grew back to titan, 2 behemoths, 2 gorgons, angel and warlock and attacked 2 serpents, behemoth and angel in the jungle. Yoshi failed to kill everything by turn 4, however a surviving serpent killed the titan with its retaliation on turn 3, so a serpent recruit was moot.
In semi-final 4, Aaron Fuegi had a close call when he attacked 3 cyclops and a behemoth with titan(6), 2 rangers, warlock, cyclops, angel to summon in the marsh. He allowed 2 behemoth swings on his titan (about a 45% chance of being kiled), but only took 4 hits. This gave Aaron a lead in points, but his best recruit was a warlock.
Pete Gathmann is forced to attack 2 rangers, 2 gorgons, centaur, lion and troll with titan(10), behemoth, angel and an angel to call. At the end of the battle a ranger needs to get 2 hits to kill the titan, but only gets one. Pete ends up with titan(11), archangel, angel.
Aaron caught Pete's titan stack with his hydra stack and eliminated Pete, while getting titan teleportation. Unfortunately half points put him over 500 and he missed his change to get an archangel.
Sean McCulloch got titan teleportation as well, while Michael Pustilnik was stuck at 375 points. However Mike did have a legion with colossus.
Sean teleported on Mike in a tower with titan(10), 3 warlocks and 2 hydras attacking titan(9), 2 rangers, 2 gorgons, angel and troll. Mike wins the battle ending with titan(11), archangel and angel. There was a discussion about this battle on board game geek after the convention.
Aaron then teleported on colossus and angel, losing 2 angels and ending up with titan(13), warlock and 2 ogres. Mike declined a chance to teleport on this legion with titan(11), warlock, archangel and angel and instead gets a second warlock.
Aaron cathes Mike's titan in the tower with 5 hydras, wyvern and ranger. Mike sets his titan up front and survives 70 hydra dice up the wall (needing 6s), taking 9 of his 11 hits. Mike went on to win the game.
In the final, Akihisa Tabei made a very strong titan on titan attack against Rich Atwater in the plains to eliminate Rich.
Michael Pustilnik attacked Kevin Hillock's angel stack and won, but Kevin attacked the survivors and killed them.
Mike took a ranger with his titan(7), 2 minotaur, 2 ranger, lion legion below Aki's 2 minotaur, gorgon, troll legion in the mountains. On his next turn Mike split out ranger, lion and then attacked into the mountains with titan(7), 2 minotaurs and 2 rangers (and no angel to summon). Aki could have killed Mike's minotaur, but took a 50% shot at the titan instead and missed. Mike survived with titan, angel and 2 minotaurs.
Aki then attacked Kevin's titan with titan(8), 2 angels, 2 rangers, troll and an angel summon against titan(7), giant, 2 warbears, 2 rangers and a warlock. Kevin should have killed an angel on average, which would have caused a mutual, but didn't. Instead Aki survived with titan(12) and 2 angels.
Mike was stuck with titan(8), angel and 2 minotaurs and Aki would have killed him on a 6, but didn't get it. Mike rolled a 1 and then a 4 and was one turn from getting a dragon, when Aki got a 6. The final battle was titan(13) and 3 angels against titan(8), angel and 2 minotaurs. Aki gave Mike a chance to go 13 for 18 to get a mutual, but Mike only rolled 12 hits. Giving Aki a clean win.
Fin Sem Pre Opp Opp Opp Opp Opp Opp Game
Name Ran Ran Ran 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Kil 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Kil Gam Gam Numbers
Tabei, Akihisa 1 2 5 2 1 0 0 7 11 20 13 0 47 67 6 2 12 14 19 25 27
Pustilnik, Michael 2 3 6 2 0 1 0 6 9 12 8 0 37 46 4 3 6 7 14
Hillock, Kevin 3 1 2 3 0 1 0 9 8 13 7 0 38 39 4 1 5 13 21
Atwater, Rich 4 4 8 1 2 1 0 7 15 11 7 0 49 50 4 2 8 18 24
Fuegi, Aaron 5 5 4 2 1 0 0 7 13 12 7 0 47 43 4 1 8 15 25
Ley, Jason 6 6 7 2 0 1 0 6 5 5 5 0 18 21 3 6 9 23
Koleszar, Steve 7 7 10 1 1 1 0 4 8 8 8 0 30 34 3 5 7 20
Narita, Yoshiya 8 8 19 0 2 1 0 2 16 19 13 0 64 64 6 4 7 15 18 24 26 27
Wines, Art 9 9 3 2 1 0 0 9 11 6 8 0 37 35 3 6 13 21
des Jardins, David 10 10 11 1 1 1 0 3 6 5 2 0 20 16 3 5 10 16
McCulloch, Sean 11 11 12 1 1 0 0 4 2 8 4 0 14 26 2 15 26
Barnes, Jonathan 12 12 13 1 1 0 0 3 7 9 3 0 25 29 3 16 19 25
Strock, Dan 13 13 1 4 0 0 0 10 8 15 12 0 42 50 4 2 4 8 17
Ehlers, Julie 14 14 9 1 1 1 0 4 17 18 15 0 64 63 6 3 4 8 11 18 20 22
Gathmann, Pete 15 15 14 1 1 0 0 2 8 7 7 0 35 31 3 6 11 24
Rae, Bruce 16 16 17 0 2 2 0 1 14 8 7 0 48 47 4 4 14 20 23
Platnick, David 17 17 15 1 0 0 0 4 2 4 4 0 9 13 1 20
Harrison, Joe 18 18 16 1 0 0 0 4 1 2 1 0 3 5 1 10
Achterberg, Brady 19 19 18 0 2 2 0 0 12 11 8 0 48 50 4 17 18 22 25
Iannuzzi, Anthony 20 20 20 0 2 0 0 1 15 14 11 0 61 61 5 12 14 19 21 26
Johnston, Tom 21 21 21 0 1 2 0 2 13 16 9 0 49 56 5 12 13 17 22 26
Finberg, David 22 22 22 0 1 1 0 1 12 11 8 0 46 50 4 7 11 21 27
Sutton, Brian 23 23 23 0 1 1 0 1 12 8 6 0 46 37 3 1 12 13
Thompson, Justin 24 24 24 0 1 0 0 0 7 2 5 0 22 15 2 5 9
Nowak, Walter 25 25 25 0 1 0 0 0 5 2 2 0 17 11 1 1
Betz, Joseph 26 26 26 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 6 6 1 16
Needham, Randy 27 27 27 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 7 5 1 10
Dobyns, York 28 28 28 0 0 1 0 1 7 3 1 0 24 14 1 2
Wolff III, Bruno 29 29 29 0 0 1 0 0 7 7 7 0 27 33 3 3 23 27
Woodson, Robert 30 30 30 0 0 1 0 0 2 3 2 0 7 13 1 11
Levy, Keith 31 31 31 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 1 0 6 6 1 9
Nied, Kenneth 32 32 32 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 7 5 1 10
Billings, Jeff 33 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 6 6 1 9
Northey, Rick 34 34 34 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 5 0 6 15 1 22
Not only did Aaron Fuegi win the 2-player event again, he has appeared in the semifinals of the event for six years in a row, an unprecedented achievement. His opponent, Dan Strock was making his first return to the title game since the change in millennium.
The most interesting of the quarterfinal matches was between Bruno Wolff and Jason Ley. Bruno's titan was being chased by a serpent stack but Bruno rolled a one to escape into a tower before being caught. Jason, with a chance for a unicorn in his 5 high titan stack on a 1 or 6, rolled a five and stopped under the upper circle. Bruno's 6 roll allowed him to teleport into the mountains above Jason's titan. Jason might have survived on a 1 or 3 to get his second unicorn, but rolled a 2 to the brush instead. Bruno with 6-level titan, two warlocks, 2 rangers and a gorgon easily won against 7-level titan 2 minotaurs, warbear and unicorn. "It's not how lucky you are; it's when you get your luck," quoted Jason.
One semifinal pitted Dan Strock against Art Wines, who had eliminated multiple champion David desJardins in one of the quarters. Art made an early attack in the brush with titan, 3 warlocks, cyclops and ranger against 3 cyclops, 2 gorgons and an angel. Dan had a cyclops knock off a ranger in a blow with 5 sixes on 9 dice. The opening allowed both gorgons to reach the titan plus put an angel in a bramble hex, unreachable by the gorgons, losing a skill factor. The three swings are good enough on average to kill the titan immediately, but Art didn't have the ability to kill all three of the defenders even had they not rolled average. The opening created when the ranger disappeared was crucial.
The other semifinal was a contrast in luck again for Bruno. His first three rolls saw maximum recruits for both his stacks. But he was in a position where neither main stack could recruit on a five. For the next three turns, he rolled a five, moving only small stacks because recruiting was possible for both large stacks on any other number. Aaron subsequently chased and eventually caught Bruno's titan. Bruno's 6 high titan absorbed two blows from an angel and two ranger blows and still lived, but even poor battle rolls by his opponent could not save the titan through the entire battle.
During the final, Aaron had some outstanding recruiting. He had multiple early turns with four or more stacks recruiting, and even one turn where he went six recruits for six stacks. Dan was attempting to chase stacks and accumulate points as the only way to compete. So when he went into a battle in the marsh, he had with his titan 2 lions, 2 cyclops and a ranger, with an angel to summon, against the all native stack of 3 ogres, 2 trolls and 2 rangers. Dan's strategy was to attempt to come out of the battle with a ranger recruiter plus his titan, to immediately receive a second ranger and earn an angel, plus be very close to 200 points. His attack failed when his titan took one too many hits from the 2 skill level creatures.
The 2-player tournament finished early on Friday, an effect of starting at 8:00 pm on Tuesday instead of the long standing 10:00 am Wednesday start time. Players are reminded that the tournament will begin next year at 8:00 pm Tuesday but it is still possible to contact the GM for special circumstances.