Our next talisman game is tomorrow

I've played quite a lot of games in the past, but surprisingly, it seems the Minstrel is quite good. The Dwarf seems to win often, too. Having all expansions makes it very hard to land a character too often.

I haven't played a lot of the characters that I have (I have every expansion to date). Therefore, I can't give a good answer on this. These are characters that I myself have played as (that I remember);

Base Game:
Minstrel (Won Twice)
Dwarf (Won Twice)
Prophetess (Won Once)
Troll (Hasn't Won)
Elf (Game was cut short)
Sorceress (I think)
Monk (Hasn't Won)
Reaper Expansion:
Merchant (Not Sure)
Sage (who wasn't as awesome as he appeared to be) (Game was cut short)
Dungeon Expansion:
Absolutely none.
Frostmarch:
Ogre Chieftain (Won Twice)
Highland Expansion:
Rogue (Hasn't won, forfeited)
Sacred Pool Expansion:
Magus (Hasn't won, I think)
I haven't played as any Dragon characters because I just got it.

I have a unique way of choosing a character; the owner of the game (moi) rolls a die. He then rolls the amount's worth of dice (for example if I rolled a 4, I would roll 4 dice afterwards). Then I add those numbers up, and count down into the pile, until I find, say, the 16th character card from the top down, pull it out, and set it facedown in front of me. Then, everyone else does the same, starting clockwise. Once everyone finishes doing this, we flip up our characters and play.

We do this again if we are killed.

TalismanAttack said:

We use character draw tokens.

It's ultimate random.

You can take a look here

 We just a system where everybode choose numbers between 1 and the maximum number of characters (can't choose same numbers) and then just counts through the character deck and everybody gets their characters and must choose one to play with and one as a reserve in case the first one is killed.

As for favourite character... it depends, if I just want to win the game I would go with Fire Wizard, although there are characters that are more interesting to play with. I prefer characters that can affect the game, and not characters that are affected by the game. I played Dragon priestess a few weeks ago, and I will never do it again. She needs a perfect game to win, but when that happens she will win.

The Watcher said:

I have not play with dragon priestess yet, but if she has followers and she pray at each dragon, then she can easily gain a strength or craft i think.

You can also discard those trinkets to pray.

But maybe you are right. I play rather with a other character.

We have play our 17th game today!

(Using all region boards and the dragon expansion)

Assassin vs Philosopher

When we started the game, we drew some cards on the mainboard.

The Philosopher drew some nasty enemies, and before he knew it, he was dead!

Yes, he was dead indeed.

Both characters has not gain any level ups yet. This was funny.

Assassin vs Sage

When the Philosopher died on the ruins, the Sage came into the game.

My Assassin was entering the Highland.

Oh, what is the Sage doing. He is going into the Dungeon.

He should be crazy i think. Suddenly i was feeling that i must go too!

You know about the Dungeon right? level ups goes fast there you know. So i was rushing into the Dungeon following the Sage.

The Assassin has gain some level ups.

The Sage found his tomb there. He died there too!

Assassin vs Conjurer

Yeah, i know...it's crazy!

The Conjurer came into the game.

The Assassin got in trouble. He drew the mighty Gate Keeper and has lose one life.

The Assassin got stuck in the middle of the Dungeon between a lot of Dragon Scales.

Bad die rolls for moving, and soon he only has one life left.

As fast as i could, i run towards the exit.

Finally i could feel the fresh air when i landed on the ruins with 1 life left.

Mainwhile the Conjurer was just traveling a bit on the mainboard.

My Asassin got a lucky roll, and landed on the village. He use the gold, and has full life again.

I went into the Dungeon again and was leveling up a bit.

The Conjurer was following me, but she was not strong, but she got a Toadify spell.

Finally, she landed on me, and casted Toadify. haha, she rolled a 2. no effect!

This time, i will not be beaten by Toadify again. i was so lucky!

After that, combat has take place, and i killed her! Yes, she challenge me with 1 life!! haha

Assassin Vs Martyress

While i was killing a bit in the Dungeon, the Martyress came into the game.

She was not so interested anymore to win the game, so she has travel a bit on the mainboard and was playing with dragons!

My Assassin went to the Dungeon Lord, and killed him. I landed on the crown, and Cadorus who was King, was a piece of cake.

Happy end for me!

The statistics are as follows:

1: Assassin 3W

2: Prophetess 2 W

3: Wizard 2W/ 1 lose

4: Swashbuckler 1 W

5: Warrior, Druid, Warlock. Martyress 1W/ 1 Lose

6: Dark Cultist, Elf, Dwarf, Philosopher 1 W/ 2 Lose

6: Knight, Dread Knight, Priest, Monk, Djinn, Sage, Conjurer, 1 Lose

7: Troll, 2 Lose

I have a group of four that play a few games every weekend (have every expansion, although got the dragon this month) we deal out 3-5 characters randomly and pick one to play. I would have to say that the three big winners are the gypsy, prophetess and the dark cultist. although the characters from the dragon and blood moon all have a few wins under their belts.

Velhart said:

All of our characters are in alphabetical order. 60 in total, including the 12 Mephisto Characters + Pathfinder & Construct from Jon New.
Lottery balls drawn from a bag to see which character each player has to play!

Ell.

 I mostly, only play with my wife, other than my granddaughter last weekend (6 years old) and that was just for fun.

We shuffle the character cards well and deal 5 to each; you pick from that. 

 When we got the Blood Moon recently, we decided to deal 7 cards. My wife pulled Vampire Hunter on 2 of 3 games over Memorial Day weekend, and she loves that character. She likes being 'good', though prior to this, I would say her favorite character was the Dragon Priestess.

  I like characters like the Minstrel, for obvious reasons, but also Valkyrie is a strong favorite due to her special abilities. I occasionally like the more strong characters like Minotaur and Ogre Chieftain, but it always seems that

 I can't get more Craft when I'm fairly strong, and I can't get more Strength when I'm bigger in Craft. Not always but maybe 2 out 3 times.

  Well, in general we play more when we first get a new expansion set, but we eventually play almost once a month, on the weekends.

 - Oberon

talismanamsilat said:

My characters are in alphabetical order too:)

Sadness covers the land as the Rogue finally loses a game. Grave Robber found himself (itself ? ) up against two powerhouses, Rogue and Warlock, if he wanted a challenge, he got it. Of course, Cairn Caretaker came out in the first five turns, so levelling up wasn't all that bad. Both Grave Robber and Warlock were Toaded after rolling 1 on Toadify Spells they themselves were casting and the Rogue met the Reaper twice with no Fate left.

Rogue needed 4-5 attempts to pass through the Mines, despite Craft 11, then Craft 13! But Acquisition on the Warlock's Talisman saw him forced to backtrack from the Pits, while the Rogue and Grave Robber closed in on the Crown. Rogue reached it, but with 2 Lives left, Warlock cast Curse of the Werewolf on her, she rolled a 1 and being a Lycantrophy already, lost a life and had to roll again, rolled to have the WW attack her at Str 8 and lost the battle, dead!

Grave Robber reached the Crown, but the Warlock made it up there thanks to his Healing + St. Josephine. Epic battle followed, Warlock spell-cycling like crazy and coming up with 2x Energize, Psionic Blast, Bolster, Strength and Invisibility among others to overcome a 2-point advantage going in in favor the Grave Robber! Both were down to 1 Life when Warlock drew the Bolster. Even worse the Grave Robber, he had the Wand, but had been stuck with a spell he couldn't get rid of (though the Warlock too had 2/3 spells he couldn't get rid of).

Game lived up to the name of the game, Talisman. That is, I think at least 9 Talismans were seen in the game. 2 Warlock Quests, 1 from the Dungeon deck (out of the two cards drawn), 1 from the Adventure deck, Hermit, Casket and a slew at the Temple. Ironically, Warlock had to take a Quest to find a Talisman, after having already Alchemied two previously and having ditched another two as he had full inventory (all in the early going).

When we play we draw 3 random characters and then pick one. My favorite so far would probably be the minatour even though i've only played him once.

Updated my "My Talisman Statistics" thread over on BGG:

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/402911/my-talisman-statistics

Just throwing out my tier ranks for the characters here, you can check the detailed stats in the thread.

Elite tier:

Alchemist, Gypsy, Rogue, Troll, Warlock

Still can't believe the Rogue is kicking so much ass. Troll I bumped up to this tier because despite being a mid-game replacement 8 out of his 20 games, he has still bagged 8 wins and even two as a mid-game replacement. Oddly though, out of this list, if I were handing out characters to a new player, only the Troll is one I'd think would work, spell-cycling is its own form of art, you have to know the spell deck reasonably well.

Upper-mid tier:

Dark Cultist, Dwarf, Elf, Gladiator, Merchant, Monk, Necromancer, Ogre Chieftian, Sage, Valkyrie

Even with her 4-4 record, I'm still not sold on the Valkyrier being an Elite character. She has nice starting stats, effective Str 4, Craft 4 and is among the Top Slayers list despite only 8 appearances, but her other abilities don't really come into play that often. However, should she rack up more wins, I don't mind bumping her up to Elite.

Mid tier:

Amazon, Assassin, Doomsayer, Knight, Prophetess, Swashbuckler, Thief, Vampire Hunter, Warrior, Wizard

Low tier:

Druid, Ghoul, Grave Robber, Highlander, Leprechaun, Minstrel, Philosopher, Sorceress

I'd say most potential risers into mid tier are probably Leprechaun (robbed of one win with HBV, would've been a mid-game replacement victory as well) and Sorceress (another HBV victim, plus totally handed another victory to the Prophetess), with probably the Ghoul, Minstrel and Philosopher closest to the tier beneath.

"Oh crap" tier:

Priest, Sprite, Vampiress

Should point out perhaps that my rankings are based purely off how well a character has done in our games plus in some cases the feeling I have about a character's perception (Valkyrie a prime example). I know my buddy Velhart likes to rank characters in terms of coolness/interesting abilities + how powerful they are, but I'm all about winning.

 My friends and I like to just choose our own characters. I don't think we're hardcore enough in Talisman to really gauge the best and worst to choose from.

Nonetheless, my favorites are the Dragon Priestess, the Sprite, the Vampiress, the Minstrel, and the Cleric.

We don't choose, we use single random draw, "you drew it, you play it." Basically once a character is used, he is set aside so the available pool gets smaller and smaller until all the characters have been in a game, then the pool is back to full.