The Harbinger is coming - New expansion announced!

By talismanisland, in Talisman

Oooohhhh, its gonna be punishing. Gotta admit I was disappointed with the Possessed abilities. He looks so awesome.

Power in simplicity... Just wait till you try him. :)

Hi, guys. I have a question regarding the Harbinger himself and I was hoping someone could help me out. The Harbinger character card throws me off when it says "Whenever the top Omen is discarded, move the Harbinger to this card."

What does that part mean? Does he just leave the board?

I haven't got this expansion yet, so I don't know if it talks about this in the rule sheet.

Hi, guys. I have a question regarding the Harbinger himself and I was hoping someone could help me out. The Harbinger character card throws me off when it says "Whenever the top Omen is discarded, move the Harbinger to this card."

What does that part mean? Does he just leave the board?

I haven't got this expansion yet, so I don't know if it talks about this in the rule sheet.

Yes, the Harbinger is leaving the board and waiting for someone to draw an Event card to summon him back to the board.

Thanks Nemomon. :)

Hi, guys. I have a question regarding the Harbinger himself and I was hoping someone could help me out. The Harbinger character card throws me off when it says "Whenever the top Omen is discarded, move the Harbinger to this card."

What does that part mean? Does he just leave the board?

I haven't got this expansion yet, so I don't know if it talks about this in the rule sheet.

Yes, the Harbinger is leaving the board and waiting for someone to draw an Event card to summon him back to the board.

So don't draw events :) . hehehe

We played it once so far with a group of three using all expansions except the Dragon. Harbinger is a very nice expansion. A must have for experienced players. The Harbinger event mechanic worked well for us and I love how the omen cards change the game as things progress. My advice is to not to look at any cards before playing. Don't look at any Harbinger cards. Don't look at the numbered Omen cards. Read the expansion rules and just let it unfold...

Edited by HarleyWarren

My advice is to not to look at any cards before playing. Don't look at any Harbinger cards. Don't look at the numbered Omen cards. Read the expansion rules and just let it unfold...

Oooh!

Not sure if I can resist the temptation.

I already have some queries from reading the pdf rulesheet, and may have some more due to me being a bit pedantic, and a friend I regularly play with overthinking.

That's like telling your kids not to shake their Christmas presents... As if :) .

Dammit FRP Games has let me down, it was due on Thursday. Anyone got tips on how to deal with them?

Got mine today from Funagaingames, over the pond and happily in my hands!

Finally got mine on the 4th, believe them bad reviews you hear about FRP.

Still got a problem with the Possessed, on the face of it reasonably powerful, but the wording of his life gaining abilities is 'replenish' in both cases, his life value being 5 meaning he's stuck at a max strength value of 5 - Whole game. If games drag on, and we level up to OP stats, he's at a massive disadvantage. And he only starts at craft 2, so it'll take ages to level that up.

To even make his abilities make sense I have to custom him to allow him to gain strength trophies as well and trade them in, then add his strength to his life value for his attack roll in battle.

There aren't that many characters who have a Strength value of 5 or more, though. Most have 4 or less. Why are you concerned about his?

Finally got mine on the 4th, believe them bad reviews you hear about FRP.

Still got a problem with the Possessed, on the face of it reasonably powerful, but the wording of his life gaining abilities is 'replenish' in both cases, his life value being 5 meaning he's stuck at a max strength value of 5 - Whole game. If games drag on, and we level up to OP stats, he's at a massive disadvantage. And he only starts at craft 2, so it'll take ages to level that up.

To even make his abilities make sense I have to custom him to allow him to gain strength trophies as well and trade them in, then add his strength to his life value for his attack roll in battle.

I have not played the expansion yet, but reading the card it says that his Strength Value is always equal to his life. A value is what is printed on the card, not including cones and objects. So he should not be stuck at maximum 5 Total Strength the whole game, as he should be able to gain cones just like any other character. The only thing that would fluctuate is his base value which would be between 1-5. Even then, if he Gains a life (eg: Pool of life), then his Strength value could exceed 5.

Am I mistaken?

Edited by chemical22

Yeah basically The Possessed's main ability is to heal life and also get rid of some faceup cards he doesn't like. Downside is he has to keep using those abilities to keep his life up or else his Strength value (but not total Strength) goes down.

Its not though, the card says 'Your strength value is equal to your current life', not your strength value is equal to your current life plus strength values gained from trophies'.. With no life limit extensions that value is only ever 5 at most.

Edited by Dungeon Crawler Jack

Its not though, the card says 'Your strength value is equal to your current life', not your strength value is equal to your current life plus strength values gained from trophies '.. With no life limit extensions that value is only ever 5 at most.

The bolded part doesn't exist in Talisman language. XD

"Value" is strictly the number printed on your character card, as chemical22 explained. Your Strength and Craft cannot go below their values, e.g. if you lose Strength via the Random Spell.

Basically Strength or Craft = value (number on card) + points (cones) + modifiers (cards).

For Possessed, Strength = value (= life) + points (cones) + modifiers (cards).

For example, the Warrior's Strength value is 4. If he has 5 red cones, his Strength is 9, but his Strength value is still 4. If he loses all his Strength, he loses all his red cones, but his Strength value untouched and is still 4 (+0 cones = 4 total Strength).

If the Possessed's life is 4, his Strength value is 4. If he has 5 red cones, his Strength is 9, but his Strength value is still 4. If he loses a life, his Strength value will now be 3, and his Strength is 8. Then if he loses all his Strength, he loses all his red cones, but his Strength value is untouched and still equal to his life (3).

Edited by Artaterxes

Well, I got my copy on Saturday--and for the record, I stand by what I said before about that raise. The characters are excellent, the new Enemies and later Omens are PURE EVIL, and the Cursed possessions are genius, plain and simple. Best of all, there's absolutely no dilution of the Adventure deck, and only the tiniest bit for the Spell deck. It's really a staggering amount of new material for a small-box expansion. I can't wait to introduce the rest of my group to this monster.

Played it this weekend for the first time... our entire group got smoked by the Harbringer with the first 4-6 rounds. 3 Events in a row... between the omens and the events, we all lost 3 lives in 3 turns. Ouch.

Wow. sounds like it isn't so much the herald of the apocalypse, it's the apocalypse itself...

So just thought i'd shara that I have HARBINGER!!!!! It only took just over a week from US to UK. Nice! I'm away for the weekend but as soon as I am home I am all over it! Can't wait to play it. Am opening the box right now and having a peek! eeeekkkkkk sooo exciting!!!! :D :D :D :lol: :lol: :lol:

I got mine too.. Its pretty nasty

I played with Harbinger the first time last weekend. Seems like we were drawing from the Harbinger deck more than the Adventure deck. None of us was leveling up at all, except the Ascendant Divine, who probably only got one strength and one craft. We drew no Omen deck reversing cards so we were pretty over the game a few hours in and played to hasten the Apocalypse. One of our players had the card that let him win (Apocrypha?) when everyone else lost so at least there was some closure.

Overall, the Harbinger deck kicked our butts and now the player who was the Ascendant refuses to ever play Harbinger again. It was cool to play with it to see it in action but it really does seem to change the game dramatically.

I played with Harbinger the first time last weekend. Seems like we were drawing from the Harbinger deck more than the Adventure deck. None of us was leveling up at all, except the Ascendant Divine, who probably only got one strength and one craft. We drew no Omen deck reversing cards so we were pretty over the game a few hours in and played to hasten the Apocalypse. One of our players had the card that let him win (Apocrypha?) when everyone else lost so at least there was some closure.

Overall, the Harbinger deck kicked our butts and now the player who was the Ascendant refuses to ever play Harbinger again. It was cool to play with it to see it in action but it really does seem to change the game dramatically.

We had a similar butt kicking - no progress game. There is no doubt that the Harbinger changes the game.

The conclusion that we came to is that you have to change your style of play and use more of the regions to your advantage. If you can do that, it makes for a really interesting and strategic game.

Me and a friend also had our butts kicked.

We used the Armageddon Omen deck and it got to a point where my character got killed, and we were on the last omen.

We agreed that my friend would be the winner rather than carrying on.

I reckon players would have a better chance if other regions, and/or the Dragon expansion, were used.

I couldn't imagine playing the Harbinger with only the base game. That would be so deadly - there is no way to get out of the path of the Harbinger and it's omens!