Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan, is one of the most fascinating places in our solar system. With its thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere and surface lakes of liquid methane and ethane, Titan presents an eerie yet captivating world that starkly contrasts with our own. The Cassini-Huygens mission unveiled its complex weather system and revealed landscapes eerily similar to Earth’s, with vast dunes, river channels, and possible cryovolcanoes. NASA’s Dragonfly mission is set to return to Titan in 2034. But until then, much of this world remains shrouded in mystery.
This mixture of fact and mystery makes Titan a brilliantly flavourful sandbox for a futuristic sci-fi setting. Imagine if human colonisation led to a booming hydrocarbon industry that (quite literally) fuelled man’s exploration beyond the boundaries of the Kuiper Belt. And then, as these space capitalism narratives generally do, it all gets torn apart by corporate entities and warring factions. What remains is… a brilliant place to get your miniatures on the tabletop and roll some dice.
The Factions
Based on my own miniature collection, here are the initial factions who’ll be shooting it out under rust-coloured skies.
The Ethane Frontier Corporation: One of the major players in the Titan Hydrocarbon Industry and the only company to survive the war. They fight to clear out or eliminate all other factions from the region. Typically, they use a mixture of androids and mercenary companies to do their fighting.
The People’s Government of Red Mars: Communist Mars has the biggest human population in the solar system, and the government will do anything in its power to secure Titan’s hydrocarbon infrastructure and resources.
Titan’s Remaining Human Survivors: Millions of people still live on Titan, ranging from former industry workers and their families to criminal gangs and maddened cultists.
Creatures of Space: From the walking dead to the creatures of the warp, it isn’t just humans fighting it out on Titan. All other monsters and horrors are welcome here.
The Battle for Kraken Coast Hydrocarbon Refinery
We played out the Data Drip scenario from the brilliant Sci-Fi Skirmish Scenarios book.
A Martin Heavy Trooper opens fire on an Ethane Frontier Corporation Android.
The Gasmen: A mercenary company hired by the Ethane Frontier Corporation.
Martian troopers guard a data portal in the Kraken Coast Hydrocarbon Refinery.
There will be more coverage of this game in an upcoming episode of the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast.