“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 of the Talon 1000 expansion. Since Space Empires:4x Replicators is also releasing soon and there is crossover between the two development teams, Replicator articles will be featured as well.
Issue #41 Talon Solitaire Part 3: The Ships and Empire War
As a team, we are really pleased to offer a strong and enjoyable solitaire system for Talon. The solitaire game mode will be part of Talon 1000 – an expansion that is set to ship in the 2nd quarter of this year. This article series explains how we crafted the solitaire system and how it works.
Previously, we discussed the simplification of the decisions for the AI and discussed some of their ships’ features.
There are currently three AI ship classes: DD, CL, and BB. They rate at 50, 100, and 200 Ship Points to streamline scenario balancing. Not only are the ships run by an AI (on your tabletop), but they actually are an AI race. They are an empire of machines. These ships are a scourge to everyone. The Terran and the Talon, as well as future empires, battle them. After looking at these ships, we’ll talk about the Empire War.
DD:
The AI DD is a 50 point ship, which is pretty standard for a DD. Like all AI ships it has wide firing arcs for its two Laser weapon groups. Lasers are the ultimate quick firing weapons, even better than Phasers. It only has one red box and no yellow charge boxes. The laser does either 1 or 2 damage each turn it fires. Like all AI weapons, the damage it does is the same at all of its ranges (to streamline firing decisions). For its price, this can be an annoying ship to face.
CL:
The AI CL is a 100 point ship, which is pretty standard for the CL class. It has wide firing arcs, like before but the CL is the first AI ship to mount the Cobalt Cannon. The Cobalt Cannon is a powerful but slow firing “big” weapon (akin to the Wave Motion Gun or Fusion Cannon). Combined with the pair of Lasers, this is a versatile and dangerous ship.
BB:
The AI BB is a 200 point ship, which is high for a ship of its class. Mounting 2 Cobalt Cannons and a Laser, it has a lower maximum alpha strike, but a higher minimum alpha strike than the BB in the Terran and Talon Fleets. It can be particularly devastating since it, like the other AI ships have a wide firing arc. This massive ship, if left unchecked, can wipe multiple ships at once in two different directions.
Fleet design is easy since all three classes have Ship Point costs that are multiples of 50.
Empire War:
Of course, individual battles are one thing, being able to translate individual battles into a campaign adds a layer of depth to the solitaire experience. In Talon 1000, there is a new Empire War map. Since the AI can be the opponent for either faction, there are effectively 4 different Empire Wars that can be fought in solitaire mode – the player can lead either the Terran or Talon against the AI on either existing Empire War map. Some additional points on the Solitaire Empire War:
- At the start of each Empire War, the AI will roll for a Fleet Ratio. This represents a balance of the 3 ship classes the AI will try to maintain. When constructing ships, the AI attempt to bring its fleet to that ratio. It can have a small ship or large ship emphasis, or somewhere in between. This brings more variability to the Empire War.
- There is an algorithm for fleet assignment on the Empire War map.
- The AI will retreat, at times, to preserve its fleet.
- The AI does not get Bases or Starbases (unlike the human player), but does get extra ships to offset that loss.
- Unlike a human player in a normal Empire War, the AI does not need transports to take planets.
The random AI scenarios and the Empire Wars together make for a near infinite level of replayability for the solitaire gamer.
Previous Article in the Series: Replicator Tuesday Issue #40: New Terrain Counters
Next Article in the Series: Replicator Tuesday Issue #42: Changes to Technology Reveals (Part 1)
Author: Jim Krohn
Very excited about this, I love the look of these new ships.
Due to the simplicity of the AI ship this might also be a good option for new or young players to control these in a FTF game I assume?
Sure. I had not thought of that, but not having to decide Available Power would make them easier to control for a young player.
My 7 years old son really loves this game, but sometimes it’s a bit hard for him to decide what to do. So he is very excited about this. Also the easy fleet design/ point system is big plus.
I need to play longer games to see how it feels, but the ‘takes three rounds of a ten round game’ aspect of the Cobalt gun is off-putting. OTOH I suppose it’s the AI ship unless as Ben points out someone who wants a pared-down system takes The Tech as their fleet.
So excited that T1K is (maybe) right around the corner!