Avalon Hill’s Game, Titan: The Arena, is a simple yet fun, and deceptively strategic game of gladiatorial combat, where fantastic creatures do battle with one another to the death, while the bloodthirsty onlookers look on and bet on their chosen champion.

Titan: The Arena is actually a reworking of Reiner Knizia’s game called Grand National Derby, but Avalon Hill’s remake was quite significant from a game play standpoint. In 1997 Fantasy Flight in turn reworked Titan: The Arena to their own version, Colossal Arena, which boasted more monsters, new artwork, and a slightly tweaked rule set, but was basically the same game.

In a nutshell, in Titan: The Arena players assume the role of coliseum spectators, betting on one or more of the eight mythological monsters of their choice who are engaged in a battle to the death within the arena below. Aside from merely betting on the combatants, throughout the course of the game players may help the cause of their favorite monster, or hinder the survival of their opponent’s creatures.

Game play is fairly straightforward. At the start of the game, the 8 monsters participating in the battle (Titan, Dragon, Hydra, Cyclops, Troll, Warlock, Ranger and Unicorn) are laid out across the table. Printed on each card is that monster’s specific power (For example, the Ranger gives it’s owner the ability to draw 3 cards, while the Troll grants it’s owner the ability to pull any previously played visible Troll card back to his/her hand). Players at the start of the game are handed 5 chips each, which they can use to place bets on monsters. Players also at the start of the game draw a hand of cards. There are 11 cards in the deck for each monster type (cards have a power of 0 thru 10). A few “Spectator” and “Referee” cards, which are explained later, round out the card deck.

A game of Titan: The Arena consists of 5 rounds. In each round, players take turns playing one of the cards in their hand on one of the creatures still left alive in the arena. Players may only play a card on a monster as long as the card they are playing is of the monster’s suit (i.e. Troll cards must be played on the Troll, etc.). Whatever number is present on the card played represents the creature’s current health, so a creature with a power of 10 is doing much better in the battle than a creature at power 0. If another plays a card on a monster that already has had a card played on it, then the health number on the new card supplants the old number. The round continues in this fashion until at least 1 card has been played on each available monster, with one creature having the lowest health (i.e. no ties). That creature then ‘dies’ in battle, removing it, and any bets on it, from the game.

During each round, players also have the option to place one of their 5 bet markers on any creature that is still alive, and has not yet had a bet placed on them this round. In this fashion, players can ‘invest’ in particular creatures. Bets made in round 1 are worth 4 points, round 2 bets are worth 3 points, etc., down to round 4 bets that are worth 1 point. No points are awarded for round 5 bets. Additionally, during round 1, players may opt to make a ‘secret’ bet on a creature of their choice. This secret bet, worth 5 points, is unknown to the other players unless the player with the secret bet wishes to make his bet known. At the end of round 5, the point value of all bets that players have placed on creatures that are still alive are tallied up. The player with the most points in bets is the winner.

Placing a bet on a creature has other benefits beyond calculating your final score. If a player plays a card on a creature that he has more valuable bets over the other players, then he gets to activate the creature’s ability if he/she wishes. For example, if a player who has a 4-point bet on the Ranger (and no other players have any bets on it) then plays a card on the Ranger, he may activate the Ranger’s ability and draw three cards. Because the creature abilities are very powerful, there is quite an incentive for players to guard the livelihood of creatures that have bet heavily on.

There are other cards that a player may play during their turn. ‘Spectator’ cards behave like typical creature cards, except that they do not permit players playing them to activate the creature’s special ability. ‘Referee’ cards allow players to perform other types of card manipulations.

At the end of the final round, there are 3 creatures left standing. These are the trio of creatures that have survived the confrontation in the arena. Secret bets (if any) on these creatures are revealed, and points are tallied. The player who has the most points on the surviving three creatures is the winner.

Titan: The Arena is a very quick game to pick up, and while the theme is light and straightforward, there is enough room for strategy here to keep more serious gamers happy. The card art is eye-catching, and the theme is fun enough to keep both old gamers and young entertained.