In Titan, board control means that your stacks occupy strategic locations on the board and hinder the movement of your opponents. Your stacks are in a position to attack your opponents, but they cannot effectively you. In the midgame you should have several of the most fearsome stacks on the board and will have a good chance to win before the end-creatures are recruited.
A typical game
Board control is the strongest in the mid-game, while the recruiting strategy is strongest only after recruiting end-level creatures. If you are the only person using the board control strategy, then you are the only one with a chance of winning in the mid-game. Also, since board control is strong in the mid-game it means that you you will very seldom die in the mid-game and should at least always survive to the end-game.
Board control best suited for those games where you don't get a minotaur or wyvern on turn 4. However, if you have a good recruit, you can still use some strategies of board control, but you will find that you have to adapt it to suit your situation.
Rangers are the key for board control, because they reproduce quickly and are deadly in combat. Therefore, keep your ogres and centaurs together in the initial split so that you have the chance of getting a ranger on the third turn. Don't muster a third tower creature or a third lion/troll if possible. Go directly for the ranger. Once you get one, keep splitting and get more.
Cyclopses are also key, because they are the best fighters of the second-level creatures and even fight better than some third level creatures. Cycs are expected to kill rangers, gorgons, warbears, minotaurs, trolls, and lions. They are even better in native terrain, because they become 9 * 3 on defense and are quite difficult to kill. When combined with rangers, they allow a stack to recruit in almost every terrain. In a game when cycs are being recruited quickly, you might want to pick up the third cyc instead of a gorgon, so that your stack does not dead-end.
Gorgons are also worth mustering because they fly, rangestrike, and are brush natives. They only recruit in the brush so reproduce more slowly than rangers. Ideally your ranger stack will contain a few gorgons, but having a seven-high ranger stack is fine too.
Warlocks are also awesome attacking creatures. The fact that they can rangestrike titans is pretty gross. One warlock makes for a good defensive piece - two or more warlocks makes for a kill stack. If you don't believe me try attacking an enemy titan with two warlocks in the woods.
The ranger or ranger/gorgon stack should be able to attack and destroy most stacks on the board. It can defeat another ranger stack if it gets to attack. The attack stack gets 14 rangestrikes which might be enough to kill a ranger before it even gets a chance to swing. On top of that you get an angel summon and the first chance to engage creatures and pin them.
Titan stacks are much easier to kill than angel stacks. To defeat the titan stack all you have to do is kill the titan. But you have to destroy the entire angel stack to win against the angel. This makes early battles with angel stacks unfavorable, because there is a good chance of losing and there isn't much reward for winning.
Going out of your way to make an attack sometimes just isn't worth it. A lot of times you won't get the roll that you need to reach the enemy. However, there are a two reasons to go out of your way to kill stacks:
These are some of the few attacks that rangers and gorgon might lose:
When you are all alone you can make these fun splits:
Your attack stacks should occupy the spaces next to the tower(or even
better in the tower), because this is where their influence is greatest.
Being next to the tower increases movement options which means that:
Ideally, your stacks will be in adjacent towers, because this further increases safety and makes killing enemies easier. Opposing stacks trapped between the towers cannot safely move. So while it is immobilized, one of your stacks can kill it from behind.
Devote one stack to guarding the inner circle, because a colosuss renders your ranger fleets obselete. Leave a strong stack underneath the mountains or tundra and attack any stack that comes within range. A wise opponent will not risk their stack for a warbear or minotaur, because they defend poorly. However dragons and giants are formidable foes in their native terrain and it is difficult to defeat them. Because of this, you should take prophylactic measures to prevent giants/dragons. Move your split offs to the terrain where your opponent doesn't recruit. If you have three stacks positioned correctly your opponent will only recruit a giant/dragon when he rolls a one. This should delay him long enough so that you can threaten that stack with your offensive stacks in more favorable terrain.
Your non-ranger stacks should be either recruiting towards the top-level creatures or impeding enemy movement. You should have stacks covering all of the recruiting lines. Ideally, you will win the race to each of the end-level creatures. The two lions that you split off should try to get hydras. The two centaurs that you split off might turn into colossi. It doesn't take that many good rolls to get these creatures. Your recruiting advantage lies in the fact that your stacks can wait indefinitely for recruits in optimal areas, because your opponents cannot effectively threaten your stacks. Do not move your recruiting stacks into unsafe territories, because it simply is not worth the risk. Risking five or six creatures for just one recruit doesn't make sense. If your opponents want to kill your recruiting stacks, make them fight through a bunch of rangers first.
Often you will win before the endgame where the creatures at the top of the evolutionary tree dominate. When you are the only one with end creatures the game should be easy to win. However, when the situation is reversed it is much harder to win. A non-titan stack that contains end-creatures is easy to kill - just kill the titan. Find and surround the enemy titan with several of your legions. Impede the movement of the titan and then attack from the rear.
A titan stack with end creatures is harder to deal with. What you want to do is destroy all of the other legions and force your opponent into move compulsion. Then you can wait unitl the titan is in non-native terrain and attack. It may take several assaults to kill the titan. If this is the case, then the first assault not try to kill the titan directly, but should focus on weakening the stack.