How would you play Adeptus Titanicus solo?

[Brother Tyler]

Recently, @Inquisitor Eisenhorn brought the subject of cooperative gaming up in a discussion in the Amicus Aedes forum here. That evolved into discussion of playing solo. That discussion has potentially inspired a project in which members of the community might present their ideas for playing solo and cooperatively, either as individual projects or, if we can gather sufficient material, a consolidated project. For example, I

[Noserenda]

Its already been done, someone wrote a whole big solo AT system including sieges and stuff a while back, though my hard drive failing means i dont have a copy anymore

[Brother Tyler]

Well I don't want to poach anyone else's stuff, but I'd love to see that stuff added to our resources topic.

 

We're not limited to someone else's stuff, though, so there's room for creative hobbyists here to develop things. ;)

[schoon]

Call me curious!

 

...I'm also one of those creative types who would be happy to help out on something like this.

 

But I'd also love to see what someone's already put together for it. 

 

Noserenda, do you recall who put that together, or could you find out?

[Noserenda]

Looked for it and didnt find the version i remember but there is a post by a Ash Mayhew (21/4/20) on the AT2018 facebook group with something, it might just be that i read a later/earlier version of his rules, google wasnt any use but its clogged by the terms being a bit too generic/used by painting companies :( 

[Gillyfish]

 

 

Looked for it and didnt find the version i remember but there is a post by a Ash Mayhew (21/4/20) on the AT2018 facebook group with something, it might just be that i read a later/earlier version of his rules, google wasnt any use but its clogged by the terms being a bit too generic/used by painting companies  

 

I don't recall seeing that one. Interesting...

 

I guess one option as a starter for solo play might be to select legios, always roll for seioris traits on both sides.

 

The harder part is stratagems. You could just play without them, but they add a lot to the game, or you could just play with battlefield assets and/or legio specific stratagems, so it is more limited/flavoured and less about when you play it/counter it. I suppose it depends on whether you want to genuinely 'play' both sides or have one act automatically, the way you can the genestealers in Space Hulk. If the latter, then you would have to wrok out behavioural principles and, possibly an advantage in points/models for the side you aren't playing.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Orders would be difficult too. Maybe some sort of flowchart? But so much deliberate thought goes into order decisions, it's hard to think of a system that could replicate that process.

[apologist]

Musing about single player Adeptus Titanicus, it might be fun to explore something beyond pitched battles – in short, rather than trying to simulate or emulate the two player experience, look to other game ideas and mission types. What do Titans do besides fight other Titans in roughly even fights? Here are a couple of rough ideas.

 

+ Infocyte: Threat Detection +

Perhaps Warhounds (or other Scout Titans) doing some actual scouting? A table set up with dense terrain and randomised 'blips' would provide a player versus environment setting.

 

I think pressure of some sort is important to make a compelling game experience. These might include:

• Time limits – a set number of turns, activations or perhaps the blips start disappearing after a certain point? 
• Environmental dangers/effects – burning buildings or being out in a hostile sun might raise reactor heat; frozen warzones might require you to push a certain amount or suffer damage. The Open War cards would likely provide some good inspiration here.
• Automated enemies – some blips might reveal minefields, Titan Hunting infantry, or similar existing Battlefield Assets that will attack.

+++

 

+ Fall-back Corridor +

A damaged battlegroup attempts to make its way back across hostile territory before enemy forces can catch them. With a limited pool of battle-ready Princeps and Moderati, tough decisions have to be made on whether to man all the friendly Titans with skeleton crews, or abandon precious resources to ensure at least some escape.

 

A preset table randomises the amount and extent of damage done to the battlegroup prior to the game, which has to be managed as the Titans make their way across the board from the hostile table edge (where the battlegroup begins the game). 

 

The battlegroup will be targetted by off-table enemy Titan fire, which targets either the Titan nearest the hostile table edge; the most exposed Titan (i.e. out of cover); or the most damaged – this determined by randomisation, or perhaps by a preset behaviour table based on the enemy's Legio. The enemy Titan fire can be reduced or distracted by firing back off the table – but of course this requires you to turn and fire back slowing you down...

 

The strategy is built around properly managing your damaged Titans and assigning your crews well.

 

+++

 

These missions would perhaps be nice to fit in with existing campaigns:

 

Game 1: Two player standard AT game.

Game 1a: Single player – loser plays Fall-back Corridor, starting with the damage sustained from Game 1.

Game 1b: Single player – winner plays Infocyte: Threat Detection, the automated enemies being ramped up/pre-prepared by news of friendly defeat.

Game 2: Two player AT game affected by the results of 1a and 1b.

 

+++

 

Great idea for a thread; I hope we can all explore the idea further.