“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

Issue #16: The Play Book

As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, we wanted the Talon Rulebook to be thin and streamlined. This way, new players can pick up the game and understand the system as quickly as possible. As such we’ve moved not only the scripted scenarios into the Play Book but also some of our other “chrome-y” features: Transports, Terrain randomization, Design your own scenario outline, Empire War, Space Empires Crossover, other Battle Modes… When I get a new game, I always like having a thick scenario book. It means I’m going to get a lot of replay out of my purchase. We hope you feel the same.

Like we’ve talked about in previous Talon Tuesdays, there are a bunch of different ways to play the game.  Last week I discussed our default win condition – Last Ship Standing.  It’s an important game structure for Talon but it is just one of many ways to play a battle. We call the other options Battle Modes. They’re alternative victory conditions and objectives, some of which are used in the scripted scenarios and all may be used in Design Your Own Scenarios.

Planetary Invasion

This Battle Mode is critical in Empire War battles and in the Space Empires crossover. Here we capture the feel of a troop transport landing. Transports can’t take too many hits but all they need to do is land on the planet counter to be successful. In this Battle Mode, one side plays as the defender, the other the invaders.  The Invader must add at least 2 transports to his purchased ships (assuming this is a Design Your Own scenario) and the defender must place the Planet in his setup area. If the Invaders land 2 transports, the game immediately ends and the Invading side wins.  Otherwise, the normal Last Ship Standing rules still apply with an added twist—Transport ship points are doubled for degree of victory calculations AND landed transports count as destroyed enemy ships. This means your chances of getting a devastating victory are much increased and your Lifetime Score will be bolstered by effectively landing or destroying transports.

You may, of course, decide to spend your Ship Points buying more Transports, increasing the odds that you can successfully land one. There are only 2 Transports included in the game box for each faction. However, if you are bringing greater than 2 Transports, the excess Transports may be deployed during the Reinforcement Phase at the owner’s discretion. (This is slightly different than the excess ship rule in the Space Empires Crossover section in which the owning player MUST deploy the excess ships, the rules are different in Space Empires to match the scale of that game.) So if you bring more Transports, you can also try to time the landing and try to open a favorable FTL window for your additional Transports to drop in to sublight speed.

You’ll see in the Reinforcements section that FTL drives must be cut off a certain distance away from ANY nearby vessel with an active NFTL drive (except for Missiles, Fighters and Bases). From a mechanics standpoint, this is to prevent dropping in a ship in an unfair position (such as setting up a perfect alpha strike on a downed shield immediately on entry to the battle).  So as a Planetary Invasion battle progresses, the Invader may try to pull enemy ships away such that a FTL “window” opens allowing the Transport to drop in very close to the planet.  Likewise the defending player may try to spread his ships out to prevent this, however, being spread out may mean exposing your ships to more focused fire and losing ships in a battle like this will only make it easier for the invading Transports. In either case the defender will likely need to leave at least one ship in close orbit around the planet, flying combat air guard.

Orbital Conquest

Think of this as Planetary Invasion, except both players are the Invader. There are two planets in play, one in each player’s setup area. One represents a planet, the other a large moon or adjacent planet within the same system. You must land your transports on the enemy planet while defending your own.  The same landing and point rules apply as in Planetary Invasion. This one can become a bit of a knife fight depending on the ship selection.

Convoy Intercept

During long FTL journeys, it is sometimes necessary to drop out of FTL and recalibrate your navi-computer to avoid collision with large celestial gravity wells. This is also the perfect opportunity for an ambush. Both sides can only use 200 Ship Points, one side is the Attacker, the other is the Convoy. The convoy side must add one and only 1 Transport to his ship purchases.  The goal of this Battle Mode is to get the Transport OUT OF THERE. You need to keep that ship alive until its FTL drive spools and it can jump to FTL. Once a Transport escapes or is destroyed the battle does NOT immediately end. Instead the game proceeds for determination of degree of victory. The Convoy side wins if the Transport escapes and as in the Planetary Invasion Battle Mode, escaped or destroyed Transports count as DOUBLE.

Worm Hole Blockade

This Battle Mode is like Convoy Intercept except the Transport can only exit the map by using the Worm Hole. Its FTL drive does not work.

Escort Zone

It was not uncommon during the war for two small escort groups to engage each other. As in Convoy Intercept, the sides are limited to 200 Ship Points and must deploy one Transport. However, here, both sides play as the Convoy Side and are trying to get their Transport out, while destroying the enemy’s. If both Transports wind up being destroyed or retreated then the battle proceeds as a Last Ship Standing battle. So if the enemy manages to get his Transport out first, it will be imperative for you to follow suit, otherwise, if yours is destroyed you will fail!

Base Assault

One side plays as the Defender, the other the Attacker.  The Defenders must deploy a Base to their starting area. The Attackers win by destroying the base and, like the Transports above, the Bases’ ship points are DOUBLED for degree of victory calculation.

Priority Target Mission

Both sides must deploy one ship that costs more Ship Points than any other ship on their side in the battle. This ship is the Target Ship for each side. The goal is to destroy the enemy’s target ship without losing yours. These types of battles can get very interesting as the more expensive ship packs a big punch.  Do you use it to try and destroy the enemy’s target or do you play it safe and hope your support units can get the job done?

Jim and I are VERY pro-feedback. We’ve already received some great feedback and caught an area that needs clarification in the Rulebook when it was released in November. I’ve caught a couple punctuation typos in the flavor text of the Playbook so far.  I know when I read rule books and catch typos, I used to always get so frustrated. How could they miss this? Did they not read their own rule book?  We do and at GMT we have the luxury of an entire team of proofreaders (generally a party outside the development team, which really helps). Still, mistakes happen and we want to do everything we can to continue to improve this game system going forward.

Talon Play Book

We hope you enjoy reading the rest of the Play Book. Hopefully you will find some time over the holidays to do so and then brace yourself because (to the best of our knowledge) the game will be shipping soon.

Previous Article in the Series: Talon Tuesday Issue #15: Lifetime Score

Next Article in the Series: Talon Tuesday Issue #17: The Critical Damage Table

Author: Bob Seifert