So played my first game with the Tech priest and I didn't get anywhere with leveling up. His stats were so middle of the road it's laugable. Anyone have any tips? Maybe I was playing him wrong.

All the other players were running around the board leveling up and I couldn't even win a combat to save my life. Eventually got corrupted and got a character which actually did stuff.

I'm in the same boat as you. Really, Talisman or Relic, a Priest is a (Tech-)Priest. I'll copy-paste my own thoughts on him from BGG:

"So far I'm finding the Tech-Priest the weakest, he has the lowest overall starting stats (11 points) and no real go-to stat, Cunning 4 isn't really a go-to stat even if it's his best one. Others with starting stats no higher than 4 have better Str and WP than the Techie, I'm guessing his starting Wargear caused that dip in his stats, which is unfortunate as Wargear isn't that great TBH, even with the Techie getting +1 use, it's still 2-3 uses at most."

Hope for Frag Grenade (normally 1 charge, but Techie +1) which gives you an extra combat die, use it to gain a couple of early levels, in a dream situation you'll draw something that let's you add charges to your stuff to keep Frags running longer. If not Frag, Executor Pistol (+3 Cunning combat) makes him Cunning 7 in combat, hunt those Yellows and pray to Omnissiah that you don't draw any curveball enemies (strength or willpower enemies in the Yellow deck).

First game Tech-Priest was in, he didn't manage to defeat five enemies total, couldn't even sniff at levelling up.

I had the exact same problem. Your only hope is buy a ton of equipment and somehow stack your stats, but other characters like the SM or the Inquistor have such high assest limits anyway, not sure what the Tech Priest's advantage is.

Until I hear a viable strat, I'll be picking someone else out of my two picks if he shows up again.

Yet you still sport that avatar ?

You gotta be kidding. I've played a few games now and no ones ever had an issue doing well with the tech priest. All you have to do is pick decent starting war gear at set up or acquire some asap and then you snowball into power fairly quickly. For example a krak grenade adds an extra 3.5 on average (no explsotion factored in) to your roll and doubles your chance of gaining an explosion, not only that but you can use it twice. Simiarly most of the cards that add 3 to your roll can be used 3 times. While other characters certainly have high asset limits they don't get free gear while they level nor as many uses on charge token cards. All I'd recomend is picking some stat buff (preferably cunning or a frag grenade) at setup, hit up a few cunning challenges and then either change in for levels to get more gear or simply sell the trophies then go buy gear. You start a bit slower than anyone else but you have the potential to have much higher stats than any other character in the game simply because you can just accumulate an assload of gear with plenty of uses.

Dark Bunny Lord said:

Umm, no. His attributes on level 12 are: Str 5, WP 7, Cun 10. Those are horrible "max" attributes. The maligned Psyker from the other thread on level 12 has WP AND Cunning maxed, not to mention free Power card every turn. No wargear gives attribute boosts, they either give combat or skill test bonus (relics can give both). Plus, he is still limited to 1 weapon used per combat like every other character.

Dam said:

Umm, yes. You're not taking into account his ability. Tell me what other character can possess every single buff from every single piece of gear in th game. While he's cerainly limited to one weapon/armour use per roll you also have to factor in passive equpiment buffs (which to my knowledge aren't limited to one per) allowing you to blow by every inner teir challenge.

That said having an extra charge on every weapon and being able to simply stockpile them so nigh every combat roll you get you can use them with abandon knowing you'll just be getting more free ones and every one you get will have an extra use is amazing. I'm not familiar with your experience of course but we've had him played in 4 games now and he's never possed an issue for people playing him.

Dark Bunny Lord said:

Then again, who needs all those? Some/most don't even need any assets that boost anything because their attribute(s) are already so good. I prefer an attribute of 12 compared to his max 10 (and even that's only in one stat, he needs a lot of wargear to get even with chars who have better stats, in a race game he won't have the time as often as you'd think) as then he needs two assets to get even with my pure 12 (one to boost combat, one to boost skill tests). Thus, all those assets that don't count for the Tech-Priest, also don't count for me because I don't need them and additionally don't have to luck out in drawing them.

My take on Wargear is that it is generally weak, on the Techie or on another character. +3 combat cards might come in handy early (but the Techie needs to draw Executor Pistol for +3 Cunning in combat to get good use from his starting card), but turns weak around midgame when you're hitting those 3 Power cards (except Ogryn, but with Str 12, he'll plow through just about all Str combats). Power cards are just way, way more useful than Wargear, even if they are single use.

Don't know how long your games are taking but mine, 3-player, have settled to around the 90 minute mark (going by the number of total Threat cards drawn each game, around 30 turns per player roughly I'd say), currently using the Chaos Manufactorum ending. In that 90 minutes, most characters can collect up to 3 relics and hit level 12 (if needed), thus giving them ample stats to handle the inner tier without any boosts from wargear. Tech-Priest needs to hope he doesn't draw any Missions involving Str or Cunning, so no killing Orks or Tyranids or being in a certain space during the Acquire Asset step of the Engagement Phase as he'll be still working on them while others hit the center. He could of course swap his Mission, but that requires getting to the Ultramar Emissary space and could leave him with another bad Mission.

A single war gear card makes up that gap though and then some usually is my point. Not only that he's not spending time acquiring most of them as he gets them as he levels and a single +3 stat not only get's him up to others it often excels him. Sure there's a level of luck involved on the gear draw for that to work but this games frought with random luck. Now if he had to run around grabbing it to even get a start sure, but he doesn't. Usually he's got around 7-8 different pieces on top of relics.

I just haven't experienced this character having any sort of significant drawback so far, while his raw certainly isn't the highest I've simply seen him played on par with the other characters and occasionaly pulling ahead of the others thus far.

As for my games our first took a good 3 hours (had never played before) we're getting down to just shy of 2 with 4 full players.

I wont argue that wargear is better than power cards it certainly isn't, but it's availability to most of the characters is significantly less and it's something most of them, as such, can't use every encounter where as the tech-priest will be getting his wargear every encounter usually (not to mention we're not talking about "you can use power cards OR wargear" as both work together as far as I'm aware. Certainly having a raw stat beats a gear stat if two characters have their total at the same in terms of reliability, but the gear gives more versatility where as the raw stat will always be "only" that stat (not to mention the plethora of other effects you can come across).

Agree to disagree then? I'll just finish by saying that immediately after reading the rules, I knew I was never going to use the "deal 2, pick 1" character selection method, but would instead use the old and trusted "deal 1, pick 1" from just about any game with variable player characters. Not only would RAW screw up my stats, but it would mean some characters would see more action than others. After the first game with the Tech-Priest, I can honestly say, he would've never gotten picked again, period, if there was any choice in the matter (at least until an expansion comes out, but at least in Talisman, each expansion's characters have more and more power creep, they aren't weaker than base characters…), all nine other characters would be picked instead of him around here.

My personal preferences would by Psyker (he's just a monster, maxes out two stats so options and keeps on gaining Power cards) and Ogryn (simple yes, but hit those Reds and not caring about exploding dice in Str combat is massive).

The Tech Priest is somewhat of an odd duck.Got to play with him in yesterday's game. I was also pitted against the Rogue Trader. Note how dangerously close they start to each other. The Priest can lose his starting Wargear on Turn 1, especially since the Trader can employ one of his starting Power cards to move up to the printed number.

I got to go first. fleeing from my opoonent(a good houserule, in general, with these two characters against one another), so I did okay.

I'd say the strategy is to stockpile Wargear, cashing in small trophies for Influence, or one big trophy for lots of Influence at least once. And hope for some good draws from the Warghear deck. I'd agree than bering able to sustain yourself in the long term , drawing bonuses from Wargear all the way is not guaranteed.

I did get to Level 5 with him in yesterday's game,with the Battleship Scenario and could have probably won. I got to choose a relic which increases my Life value by 4 to sustain more blows and was pressured into the Inner Tier by the leading Rogue Trader. Died there with a Corruption count of 5 having not completed any of the prerequisites for skipping, after my Strength plunged to 1 and I lost 3 lives twice.