In a previous message on Internet, Brian Bankler went through a detailed analysis of water vs titanium routes in the basic game, concluding that the titanium route doesn't seem powerful.

I don't think you've fairly represented the Titanium route. In particular, your turn 7 move for Titanium development, buying a second Titanium, is *extrernely* weak. After getting to 4 Water (a mega) and a Titanium, you have expected 40 production. Buying a second Titanium and running it in place of a water gives you an expected procution of 41. You can do better by:

• Buying a nodule, then you can crank both a Titanium and Man each turn while steadily building your savings (with cards left over) until you hit production of 74 (Water and Titanium mega-cards). True, there may not be a nodule left but in your general description you talk about the water guys buying two nodules at times and in your description of the water strategy, they've only bought one by this point - this would seem to imply that nodules may still be available for purchase.
• Saving your cards. If the water types are running flat out, they're about ready to push the phase at this point. Saving will yield you about 80 pts in the first round which should be enough to get an orbital lab. This will boost your income by 17, easily catching up with the water types. Then, having caught up in production, you can afford to spend a turn buying robots and then start cranking out titanium to beat the band.

There are a host of other options, depending on specific circumstances. My general point is that spending 0 your cards to gain 1 pt of expected production is very weak; there are almost always better things to do...

The Outpost Expert Rules are available free by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to TimJim Games, 1010 El Camino Real #140, Menlo Park California.

Views from the Internet

Enemy at the Gates
Barbarian, Kingdom, & Empire; The Game
Avalon Hill "De-emphasizing" Boardgames
Figures Needed?
Comparing Water and Titanium in Outpost
We The People I
We The People II