Okay, it may sound lame, but I won my very first game of Talisman - ever! All the games I played in the past, regardless of which edition, I've never won.

Today, I drew the Warrior. I was up against the Dwarf and the Monk. I was the second to get a Talisman behind the Monk, however, I was the first to reach the CoC! I was followed closely by the Monk, who proceeded to kick my butt! It wasn't looking good, but I did have one spell in reserve - HEALING! When he knocked me down to one life, I cast healing to bring me back up. Then I finally was able to finish him off with the Runesword (I had encountered Mephistopholes earlier in the game). The Dwarf was chugging along in the Middle Region with a ton of life, making his way to me. He finally got bogged down Dicing with Death and lost his last two lives.

Whew!

And in case anyone's interested, here are the stats for the core game characters since I bought the 4th edition:

Assassin: 2/0

Ghoul: 0/2

Priest: 0/2

Warrior: 1/2

Dwarf: 0/2

Monk: 0/1

Wizard: 1/1

Sorceress: 0/2

Druid: 0/2

Troll: 0/1

Elf: 0/1

Congrats with your first win then

If you like to post your statistics, then you can also do it in this topic.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Sounds like you had a great game!! Always more fun when you are all racing to the CoC like that. I couldn't believe it when I played the Knight against the Assassin (who absolutely trashed us all on the previous game), and got my own back on him by winning. Such a deep feeling of satisfaction rolling a 6 on the CoC spell and taking the Assassins last pitiful life from him LOVE this game!

Yeah, it really was a great game, and I don't just say that because I won.

I've played many games that always seemed like they were kind of one-sided: one player would get all the good draws, and one would get all the bad ones, or the dice favored one character over the others.

Not this time! Everyone had their shares of ups and downs, and remained relatively equal in power until the end.

Of course, it turns out that it wasn't nearly as close as I had originally thought since we were reading the monk's card wrong, and allowing him to add ALL of his craft in battle - that would have made a huge difference during the endgame.

katana_one said:

Stop lying, nobody's buying it .

katana_one said:

Reading is very under-rated.

Dam said:

Well, it doesn't help that "Craft value" is only defined once in the last paragraph under "Craft" early in the rulebook. It's easy to glance right over it. Since this distinction is so important, it probably should have been mentioned first. Or maybe a glossary? Maybe in the next printing...

In any case, now I know - and knowing is half the battle ...

katana_one said:

Yes it is easy to mistake Craft Value with total Craft, as you'd think they were one and the same. It does tell you in the rule book as you say, but it should be made clearer. Even I was confused when I first read it.

Pfft, thorough reading of the rulebook is all you need. Little attention goes a long way .

Dam said:

I shall smite thee with thy Doomsword and send thee to hell

It is the reason for errata corrige of italian version, too (about monk above all)

Jimsan Ixata Centarus said:

Yeah, there was something on Talisman Island about that ( that Nexus corrected the text of the monk..

I had my first ever win by PvP at the CoC tonight! It was a superb game! I was actually behind my wife- she reached the CoC while I was still at the Mines. However, I caught her up and managed to gain more lives before I reached the CoC (as my Runesword gave me a life for every Pit Fiend I killed), even though her CoC spell was successful every turn. But because her Dwarf wasn't as developed as my Thief, the Thief trashed him in both battle and psychic combat for several turns, with the Dwarf's 7 lives soon reduced to 1. Even his fate couldn't save him from my Thief's mighty power. One final die roll sealed the Dwarf's fate, and he died at my Thief's feet. That is the first time I have played this where it was a real race to get to the CoC and do battle at the centre of the board. We both thought it was a fantastic climax to a great game. I even managed to fight the Sentinel this time, and won, as he was the quickest way for me to reach the middle region and PoP as my wife had already entered the inner region for the third and final time (she got chucked out the last two times! Haha). I have always loved this game, but the 4th ed is MUCH better than the 3rd ed's Dragon King climax, and it is even better when it is a close race. Can't wait to play again.

wastedyuthe said:

Cheater, cheater, wife-beater . Runesword gives you a life when you defeat an Enemy (at least IIRC), Enemy = Adventure card with that keyword. Sentinel, Wolf-pup, Pit Fiends don't count). Runesword of old was worded Monster, so no life for Dragons or Animals back then either.

wastedyuthe said:

And just how did Dwarf or Thief initiate psychic combat if I might ask??? Unless mentioned as ability (Wizard, Sorceress, Ghoul, Dark Cultist), all you can do is battle against another char. I'm personally hoping for an Object/Follower that allows people to attack in psychic combat. Necromancer Staff or something could be the name.

Dam said:

Man I need to go over these rules again!

I will look at the Runesword card when I get home. It probably does say something like "when you kill an enemy in battle", but I was just focusing on the "battle" and not the "enemy" keyword. I forgot that the word "enemy" literally does just mean any card with that word on it, not anything you see on the board. Even so, I would have still beaten them, and even without the extra lives, I still had enough, AND had a healing spell, AND had a follower tart (can't remember who) who would have healed me back to full too. So my wife had no chance.

So, you can only encounter in Battle on the CoC? I don't remember reading that in the rules at all. I went through them when I landed on the CoC to make sure we were doing it right. The bit that I read for the CoC when you land on it with someone else already there said you must "encounter" them. I assumed that meant Battle or Psychic Combat. Again, even if it was just supposed to be battling, I would have still won as I had higher stats than her in both Strength and Craft. Mwahahaha!!

If 2+ characters are at CoC, their turns consist of encountering each other, so in that sense no different than if you'd encounter a char on the Outer Region. If you have no option there to initiate Psychic Combat, why would you have one at CoC? Other than taking the Craft-path, so you probably have a lot of Craft.

"Psychic Combat occurs when:

(snip)

2. A character whose special ability permits him to attack
another character by psychic combat elects to do so." (p. 12)

As for Runesword, IIRC "Enemy" is capitalised even. Same deal on the Fate Stealer, no Fate from non-Enemy battles.

Dam said:

Thanks Dam. Like I said, I need to read the rules again for some of this to sink in. I do remember it saying Psychic combat can only be an option for those who's abilities allow now. I just forgot last night for some reason. Still, like I said, even with just battles I still would have won the same. It's a bit unfair that you can't use Psychic Combat- why not for heaven's sake? If you have to with certain enemies, then you should be able to with each other, right?

When I first started, I re-read the rules after every game or two and I always seemed to find something I missed. Playing the game helps to bring all the concepts together. After one game we played, it was asked, "Did we play without any rules mistakes?" That seems to be a goal for just about any game you play, but this games seems to take a little longer. Reading here at the forum also helps and you always get quick answers.

Play game, have fun, play game, re-read rules, have fun, play game, have fun, etc...

Too true GregC. That certainly seems to be the case with me and my group too. We'll get it right in the end. At least we are having fun while we are learning