Played two games yesterday of the basic version box set of talisman 4th revised edition, here are my findings comments etc I know this wont be new but just wanted to get some feedback really.

We played two two player games with the same two people first game I drew the Priest and my bro drew the druid!

He lassie slapped me, I felt this was due to the druids epic woods = all new spells and the alignment change the priest was pretty lame and I think I only really used the pray +1 ability once in the chapel the rest was history.

Second game was a lot more fun I drew wizard my brother drew fighter and in the end we ended up fighting on the steps of the crown of command.

Overall it was a very positive experience even though we were really just getting the rules down for future larger games I do have some moans I hope that you guys can kick out of me though.

1) I felt a lot of the game was decided in the character selection the priest was imo just class 1 lame his ability to remove spirits I find rubbish because there are very few in the deck (or at least I found) so killing them without getting XP isn't really something I often want to do! The wizard was very good but due to the lack of spirits as mentioned above there was little chance of me actually getting my craft to a reasonable level to match my bro on the command steps. his always has one spell skill was good until I got the counter spell about 1/3 of the way into the game and as a fighter he never touch me with a spell until he was killing me with the CoC spell (that may have just been due to the 1v1 fact). In addition spell casters can't just buy +1 to craft(like a fighter can buy a sword etc) in the market for a couple of gold where he can. (First game so I hope I was playing him wrong) bottom line is I felt spell casters were weak basically

2) Dropping items, If I drop an object that is surplus it goes on the square in question that means that the next person to land on it cant pick up another encounter card? (this ends with a lot of spammed spaces!)

Overall I will repeat it was a great game even two player, I suppose I just want some ideas of what I was doing wrong etc…!???

Lilikin

thanks in advance!

Welcome to the world of Talisman. Nice that you had a good time playing, and hopefully a lot times in the future.

1) Yes, the characters are not perfectly balanced. Or at least their abilities require you to play pretty different with different characters. I think Warrior is one of the more powerful characters in the game, but Wizard is very good too. The Druid and the Priest is weaker by my meaning, but they can be useful too if played right, and I'm sure others will disagree and tell you that character X is better than character Y. We all have our personal favorites. But all characters are not for everyone, and some take some time to "get" how to use in their best way. Spellcasters may not match the warrior in melee, but can make use its spells to make a hard time for the warrior, stealing magic items, missing turns and such, without encountering him in close combat. But the warrior will probably take back items each time he has the opportunity to land in the spellcaster and fight him/her.
I would recomend that you each draw 3-4 characters and select on of them to play. This would give you some choices to try out new characters (not getting the druid each time) and be able to stick with some of your favorites. The ones you didn't choose could be backup-characters in case of death =)

2) Yes, dropped things stay on the board and counts as a card already lying there when drawing new ones. But usually someone want to pick it up. If not useful it might be turned to a gold at the alchemist.

Happy playing!

Lilikin said:

The priest is just one of the weakest characters, because he can´t use a weapon in battle.

I agree that you don´t want to trade your spirit trophy´s for a spell.

The Priest should try to hit the temple in the middle region.

The druid is one of the greatest characters in the base game, because you are playing on the mainboard. He will visit a lot of woods, and with his alignment change, he can benefit from most weapons that he draw.

However, this will change a little when you add the region boards to your game. Most people will go there, and those boards have no wood spaces yet. Perhaps this will change when the Forest expansion will be released in the future.