Talisman Board Game Starting Tactics

 

Those of you who know me beyond 40K, know I’m a big fan of Talisman, and fancy myself as a rather ruthless player of the game. That said, I do believe I have yet to beat Jawaballs who is a really ruthless bastard in the game…

One of the main criticisms that I often hear of the game, and why it’s hard to get some of the guys in the board gaming group to play it or take it seriously is the random nature of the game. Munchkin players and mathhammer dudes HATE that they can’t plot everything out and minimize the risks.

Personally I feel that if you approach Talisman in this manner, you are missing out on some of the finer points of the game, and how some players can constantly win over other time and time again, bypassing that “randomness” in the game.

To borrow from 40K, if we take multiple units of the same type to get past the random nature of the dice, why can’t the same thing happen in Talisman only applied to the cards?

So how about some super-secret tactics?

What are some of the things that ALL good players tend to do in the game?

Drawing a good character is the starting point, and while you can win with a gimp like the Elf, some dudes have an easier go at it over others- you think 40K is “balanced” in terms of units and codexes, take a look at Talisman- after all it is a GW game…

Depending on the players and the characters they draw, if you are under powered, then the first order of business is getting yourself killed as quickly as possible- often a direct run into the dungeon will take care of this, and then you draw a new character from the deck. The key to this strategy is getting yourself killed as quickly as possible- if it takes 5+ turns then even with a good draw on the next character the other players might be ahead more than you can catch up.

So, let’s say your character isn’t that bad, maybe you drew one of the classics like the Thief or the Wizard- what next?

 

The Ruins are the place to be!

Hanging out in the outer region, even with the expansions in play, good player will try and bounce back and forth around the Ruins space- since landing on it allows you to draw two cards at a time- possibly drawing two magic objects, followers, or events.

Given that most spaces are one card draws, it is like doubling your turn every turn.

After that, regardless of what character you draw the next step is to get some coin and purchase a suit of armor- a 50% chance to negate losing a life is HUGE in the beginning of the game when having to search for some healing can take away form critical time spend trying to draw magic objects or level in strength or craft. Later in the game, one can ditch the armor...

Beyond that there are lots more tactics used in the game, if we can call it that, but that is enough for now- Fritz can’t give everything away, especially since I’m trying to get up to Jawaballs’ man cave sometime soon for a game of Talisman!