I just played a game with the Warlord and found it to be better than it appears (At least in that game) The conscription mechanic is a bit restrictive being as unlike the Gladiator, you can no longer use the printed abilities on your followers (If you conscript them), but being able to take powerful cards away from other player and turn them into a +1 to Battle for you is quite nice. It compliments taking more and more followers from other players.

It plays a lot like the Gladiator, but where as I find the Gladiator's armor ability to have it's uses and Life 5 even more so, I really like that the Warlord has a Fate value of 2 over the Gladiator's 1.

The Warlord is also Strength 4 - Craft 3, which is great for "Bad draw" games as it a large curve for character growth.

Tavern Maid hands down. Her irritating character abilities and the idea that a tavern wench can become the ruler of the world make her supremely fun to play.

I enjoyed playing the sprite, even though everyone laughed when I draw her at the start I managed to whoop ass in that game.

What made it more fun was she also got turned into a werewolf. During the night phase I was picturing a poodle flying around on gossamer wings to Flight of the Valkyries.

Spider Queen. So many possibilities to control the most random element of the game: movement. My new fav.

Tavern Maid is also good times.

Dragon Priestess is crazy good if you're playing with Dragon Kings.

I do not have a favorite character because they kept the game generic and did not use a High Elf. :-) So a lot of times I will grab my Teclis Warhammer model and use him as an Elf. I am glad my fantasy army survived!

My favorite is the Swashbuckler. Even though it's kind of high risk high reward, I really like the fact that I can do so much more during my turns than normal, thanks to his ability to draw extra cards and play extra turns. He makes me feel like I'm playing at twice the speed.

Being able to reliably use the Tavern is also nice (there are basically no bad results, since winning against the Farmer gives you an extra turn), and I prefer Good over Evil.

I too perfer the Swashbuckler .
The first expansions i got was Reaper and Dungeon, so he is actually the one I have drawn the most, and I usually win with him aswell.


Depending on what expansions and characters you play, who is best varies. My adventure deck is reaper+firelands , and I play with Dungeon and City aswell. This means that two characters in particular become really good:
Knight - I take the ferry(from city) to the temple early in the game.
Elementalist - he eats Ifrits for dinner(they are elementals, had my adventure deck been bigger this would not have worked as good)



I enjoy your movies Fritz, been subscribing since I started with Talisman a couple years back.

In our group the Swashbuckler is cursed. He ALWAYS dies horribly and quickly.

He's actually died on turn one. Move. Draw Basilisk. Doubles. Pick new character.

We finally had a game where he did well, so maybe the curse is finally broken...

Barbarian

I have no clue why FF removed this character from basic version of Talisman...but..well...they stripped game from many cards.... unfortuantelly my nr.1 character is among them....

And yes, I still play 2nd edition...which for me is only real Talisman game.

Barbarian

I have no clue why FF removed this character from basic version of Talisman...but..well...they stripped game from many cards.... unfortuantelly my nr.1 character is among them....

And yes, I still play 2nd edition...which for me is only real Talisman game.

You should really try some 4th edition. 2nd edition is really cool and I even enjoy 3rd edition but some of the mechanics and extras really add a cool factor never before seen in Talisman. Yeah, I am bummed they bumped some of our traditional characters, but this is the best overall edition of Talisman yet. By far.

I used Strange Eons to print character cards for some of the missing characters in the game and use the miniatures from 3rd edition, some Ral Partha minis and other warhammer minis. Making character cards is EXTREMELY easy. Just print on thick card stock double sided or you can print on thinner stock and tape or glue together......

Barbarian

I have no clue why FF removed this character from basic version of Talisman...but..well...they stripped game from many cards.... unfortuantelly my nr.1 character is among them....

And yes, I still play 2nd edition...which for me is only real Talisman game.

You should really try some 4th edition. 2nd edition is really cool and I even enjoy 3rd edition but some of the mechanics and extras really add a cool factor never before seen in Talisman. Yeah, I am bummed they bumped some of our traditional characters, but this is the best overall edition of Talisman yet. By far.

I used Strange Eons to print character cards for some of the missing characters in the game and use the miniatures from 3rd edition, some Ral Partha minis and other warhammer minis. Making character cards is EXTREMELY easy. Just print on thick card stock double sided or you can print on thinner stock and tape or glue together......

I tried 4th edition and I am really dissapointed... for me there is too many wrong changes they made , also a lots of errors in card mechanics, skipped text on adventure cards/character cards which leave players to figure out how to use mechanics(common mistake when using Assasin character skill Assassinate)... I also dont like these cheap not painted figures(they are probably the reason of removing soo many characters from the game), also the balance between enemies and items/followers is different than in 2ed edition....now after few first rounds I am already full of items and have to start leaving them on the board because mule is nowhere to be found(I am not sure but in 2ed editon I could buy mule in the village...)also fate tokens???game is already very easy why making it easier?......no point really to write all those mistakes here... I did it on boardgeek forum and I was bashed by 4th edition "fanboys" who even never seen 2ed edition....

I still play 2nd edition which is much better game more balanced without exploits like using thief as a caravan item hauler what is only annoying not fun... for me this new version of talisman lost his soul somehow... Of course I understand young people here who play this new talisman because they never seen previous version, so for them this game is amazing because they cant compare it to old one...I spent my whole childhood playing 2en edition and it always be board game nr.1 for me.

The biggest issue I got with this 4th edition is the fact that FFG took content from old basci game + 4 expansions and splited it into like 8-10 expansions to 4th edition...(dont know how many of them there is..4 main expansion plus few card decks...) all of this just to increase profit....

Now wait for 5th edition ..which is going to be not compatibile with 4th edition and...it means you will have to buy all new expansions once again this is called bussiness....

I been playing Talisman from the 80's and am no "fan boy". It took me awhile to prefer 4th edition, and if it makes you feel any better 2nd Edition City is still my all time favorite expansion among all expansion editions.

I think that it easier to figure mechanics now than back in the 80's! I now can go online and look at official FAQ's, I can got to at least 2 forum's and I can email the company for a direct game play question.

I had lots of 2nd ed problems back in the day. Lots.

I prefer plastic figs to paper stand ups, in fact I use the 4th ed figs when playing 2nd edition. I know there are some characters not re instituted yet, I think some for political correctness. Not for any reason because of plastic models, there are 2 huge plastic models, Dragon Rider and the Magus (I think).

I have not found carrying stuff is any harder in 4th than 2nd, it depends on randomness of each game. You can go to the city easy enough.

I do think that the lay out of the 2nd edition expansions were better, but 4th is polished and more balanced. I do not like the lay out of the 4th edition expansions. I am not familiar with 3rd edition, but think they may have copied that.

FFG did not create 4th edition, they took it over from the folks who did the Black Box edition, that's why its really called Revised 4th edition, and its is licensed and is still under the influence and control of Games Workshop.

I tweaked my 4th edition set the way I prefer it. And that is easy to do. And many people do!

I tried 4th edition and I am really dissapointed... for me there is too many wrong changes they made , also a lots of errors in card mechanics, skipped text on adventure cards/character cards which leave players to figure out how to use mechanics(common mistake when using Assasin character skill Assassinate)... I also dont like these cheap not painted figures(they are probably the reason of removing soo many characters from the game), also the balance between enemies and items/followers is different than in 2ed edition....now after few first rounds I am already full of items and have to start leaving them on the board because mule is nowhere to be found(I am not sure but in 2ed editon I could buy mule in the village...)also fate tokens???game is already very easy why making it easier?......no point really to write all those mistakes here... I did it on boardgeek forum and I was bashed by 4th edition "fanboys" who even never seen 2ed edition....

I still play 2nd edition which is much better game more balanced without exploits like using thief as a caravan item hauler what is only annoying not fun... for me this new version of talisman lost his soul somehow... Of course I understand young people here who play this new talisman because they never seen previous version, so for them this game is amazing because they cant compare it to old one...I spent my whole childhood playing 2en edition and it always be board game nr.1 for me.

The biggest issue I got with this 4th edition is the fact that FFG took content from old basci game + 4 expansions and splited it into like 8-10 expansions to 4th edition...(dont know how many of them there is..4 main expansion plus few card decks...) all of this just to increase profit....

Now wait for 5th edition ..which is going to be not compatibile with 4th edition and...it means you will have to buy all new expansions once again this is called bussiness....

I am another gamer that is 35 years old and has been playing for 20+ years, so I don't think I would be considered a "fan boy" either....I LOVE 3rd edition since that was played a lot by our group but I understand why some people dislike it.

There is no doubt 4th edition has its flaws but it is also the most complex version. There have been mechanics added after the fact which has caused some blunders but overall it is a great edition. As far as the miniatures, I wouldn't have it any other way. Being a gamer I will not use plastic/cardboard standees in games. Those are pieces reserved for the likes of Candyland and Uncle Wiggily! :-) In 4th edition we have 61 characters thus far and there are only 60 in 2nd edition if we do not count Timescape. So, the characters they have dropped have been replaced..... I would prefer we have our Skaven, our Slayers, High Elves, Chaos Warriors, etc. but I guess they went with a more generic fantasy approach.

My hope is once they release a revised FAQ they will combine all the rules into one giant rules PDF with all the corrections. If they do not I will probably amend all of them and combine them myself.....

Releasing expansions like they have for the business side of things is intelligent and allows a player to mix/match the way he may want to.... 2nd edition had, what? 6 Boxes to purchase to complete the game? 4th edition we have 13 , so yeah, that is a lot especially when it retails over $400. But not everyone likes every expansion so you do not necessarily need to get every one.

Well we use the standees as are detailed on Talisman Island. Printed professionally and then sleeved (they are the same size as the Adventure Cards). We prefer these over unpainted grey or poorly painted miniatures any day!

Barbarian

I have no clue why FF removed this character from basic version of Talisman...but..well...they stripped game from many cards.... unfortuantelly my nr.1 character is among them....

And yes, I still play 2nd edition...which for me is only real Talisman game.

Mentioned this on BGG, but funny how you complain about a missing basic character, when he wasn't in the base game of 2nd edition, Barbarian was an expansion character (caveat if you had a localised version, it might've included base + expansion, Finnish version was like that).

Also loved your complaint about how 4th edition is a money grab, miniatures and all, yet for 2nd edition, you had to buy the miniatures separately, but not one issue did you raise with that part of the so-called money-grabbing.

Removed characters is another bit where you're off the mark, 2nd edition and 4th base games have the same number of characters (14, 4th edition even gives you minis right away, no extra spending). Dungeon expansion for 4th edition comes with almost 3x the amount of stuff 2nd ed Dungeon came with.