Talisman, as I know it

One great game that one of my gaming buddies Simrion has is Talisman 3rd edition. It's a very fun game with many twists and turns to it. I've tried to purchase it for myself many times in the past, but now days even the primary game (sans regions) is costly. And that is trying to procure it in a second-hand manner like eBay, to say nothing of the realm expansions (usual auctions end up around $150). Along with The Lost and the Damned its one of those items that keeps eluding me on eBay.

Talisman is one of our go to games when someone doesn't show up on games night. When one looks at it, Talisman is one of GWs better games. Rules are not overly complex, game length is just about right and its engaging with several strategies of play. It's also a classic with some readers remembering the older versions of the game. It gives good value for its cost (non-inflationary that is). The goal of the game is to amass enough power, garner a talisman and ascend the tower to slay the Dragon King. In theory a player can do this a number of ways, but one must remember that at the same time other players are attempting the same thing.

To start, each player randomly draws cards that list characters and the corresponding mini they will use on the game board, and many GW favorites are there: chaos warrior, goblin fanatic, chaos dwarf, and witch elf by way of example. Each character card has the figures special abilities on it. Some are better then others but all start within the same basic range. (There is quite an active community online still and fans regularly make their own characters for the game.)

The outer realms are boards (which are also known as regions) tie into the main game board adding the forest, maintains, city and dungeon respectively. This are stand alone expansions which further add to the cost of the game (GW never does anything cheaply). When in these outer realms teh playr rolls a d3 rather then d6 which causes you to move slower through the area.

Game play is fairly quick with lots of GW rules sprinkled in "if a conflict in the rules arise roll a d6, 1-3 you are right, 4-6 the other interpretation is" (paraphrasing here). Roll a d6 move to a space and draw the requisite cards indicated by the space. Initially in the hand many encounters will be deadly depending on ones character. Fights are either strength or craft. Warrior types do better at strength fights initially while spell casters usually go better in craft fights. One of the other players at the table rolls the dice for the opponents of the current player's turn (if any) so all of the players stay fairly involved even when its not their turn. I wont delve to much further into the rules but they can be found here.

I'm of the mind set that playing warriors are better if you want to win. Even the good characters like the Ranger, Templar and neutral ones like the barbarian are well worth it. Certain specialty ones like the Assassin are a toss up at times. Spell casters seem to be weaker as you are paying for the ability to cast with much lower strength scores to start and limited capacity for special rules involving combat.

Magic is a random mechanic and probably handled as well as can be. A character has to be able to cast spells (some can't) and have enough craft to do so. Spells are draw from a continuously recycling deck (all decks pretty much are in Talisman, but magic tends to go the quickest). Some spells are far better then others and some magic items boost a character's spell casting. On top of all of this, some characters have special abilities when it comes to spells that make them better still.

With all this said, there are certain strategies one might undertake and certain items and cards that are better then others. For one when your character is power enough challenge for the title of High Wizard and/or Sheriff boosting craft and strength. It gives enough of a critical boost to help you amass enough power to take out the Dragon King.

Another strategy is to attack other players which you are allowed to do if you land on the same space.  Personally I only do this on occasion as its usually not worth it. Typically the only time you really attack another character is if they have a talisman and you need one.

Other strategies include if you are evil looking for the Doom Sword which restored lost life on hits), looking for the Sword of Power in the Forest and the Hammer in the Mountains. Usually when I play I head for the Mountains or Forest when strong enough depending on which character I'm playing. In all the years Ive played Ive tended to shy away from the dungeon and should probably try that out as a strategy the next time through. The Mountains probably the best bet as its seems to have the greatest rate of return for the time spent there.

In any event I've enjoyed many a rousing game of Talisman with my gaming friends and over time I usually win (much to Simrion's wife's dismay). In fact the last two times I've played I've won!

If you can get the third edition its well worth it. For a product I give it 5 out of 5 stars, its that good.

Nippon Castle for Warhammer- Part III

Wow, the Nippon castle has been garnering a lot of attention on the web, keep up the comments guys and many thanks; especially the shout out here, thanks Scot!

I've stepped back and taken stock of where I am with the project at this point which is to say a lot further along then when I really picked it back up in October. Overall I'm pleased with the pace I've been on and have been enjoying the whole project. I've even found time to work on other projects like the siege equipment, paint a few units and other things that strike my fancy.

But, the title of this post says Part III so what am I working on right now in relation to the Nippon castle you ask: As I mentioned in Part II I've been re-reading my stack of White Dwarf magazines from the range of #220-235. In particular, in #225, Nick Davis' "Jungle Fever - Part 2" where he covers the creation of his Lizardman Castle has been of particular interest. #224 is where the rules appeared for 5th Edition Siege rules for moats which I'm drawing on as well, so here is the point of this post, moats.

As you can see, I've started on the beginnings of a moat for the castle. The moat will obviously surround the entire castle to simulate a Nippon fortress situated on the lowlands of Nippon (or Nihon?) near rice patties perhaps? I deliberately started at the most difficult part of the moats, the corner towers knowing the wall sections would be far easier. I also took inspiration from the corner board sections of 3rd Edition Talisman.

From there, once finished I also have been formulating ideas to create a way to raise up the entire thing so it will sit on a series of cliff walls to simulate a mountain top type of castle. That is further off and I will be using fair amount of paper-mache to make the mountainside.  In this, the 6th Edition High Elf Army Book has some interesting photos of minis and mountains so we'll see.

Note- my overall progress of my Nippon Army is tracked over here at Dogs of War Online.

Speaking of paper-mache, I took a brief side track to work a tomb/barrow, first seen in the 6th Edition General's Compendium on page 52. I started out when I looked at a barrow I created about 15 years ago. I was going to pull that apart but just decided to create something from scratch. Then remembered the barrow in the a fore mentioned General's Compendium. You'll have to excuse this photo as I remembered to take it as I was applying the paper-mache. But I digress, here is the barrow:

As you can see, the top will be removable because I'm insane apparently and need to add all kinds of stuff to the interior..

And if the barrow/tomb were not enough of a bonus, I've also been working on redoing the river pieces of the terrain that Jeff and Dave created 25+ years ago! I widened them a few years back but now I've added gravel to the river edges and will be painting them shortly. Need to add a few more bends and another river crossing part. You'll have to excuse the quick photo on this one too, I only remembered to take a picture after I had already started on it and undercoated one.

I think that's all for now. Good gaming in the new year everyone.

WM

Part VIII of the Repainting my 3rd Edition Wood Elf Force

I've actually been busy in real life as well as with Warhammer stuff. Over the last few months I've done lots of work on my Dark Elf force along with my wood Elves I've been chronicling here on the blog. Interestingly I've been working on the Wood Elves in the autumn and the Dark Elves in the echoing their basing choices.

Quick aside: the progress on the Dark elves can be found here. I'll have some new photos up soon of their progress.

As we all know, Wood Elf forces in 3rd Edition Warhammer are heavy with bow armed troops. This also carried over to later editions. In 3rd the compulsory choices are archers of which the minimum to field is 30. Aside from my Skarloc Wood Elf Archers all the bow armed units in the army are the result of the PBS3 -Plastic Warhammer Regiment Boxed Set. I know I've said it before, but while not the best miniatures that GW ever produced they are some of the best value around, even now as everyone and their brother has some spare ones to sell on E-Bay or trade. Additionally, to me at least these "looks like Warhammer to me" in much the same way 3rd Edition Talisman "As I know it."

So with all this here are the units I've completed, not one but two units, 20 strong of Wood Elf archers. As you can see green predominates but I continued with the black and white accenting to tie them into the other units of the army, along with the autumnal basing or red, orange and yellow. This now brings the fire power up to 82; three units with 20 and the Skarloc Archers having 22 in the regimental box set.

The 2nd unit (2nd as in I pictures the first unit here and Skarloc's counts as unit #1 for my army) followed by the 3rd.

To close out, I'll also need to get pictures up of my Elven Attack chariot that I painted up for the Wood Elf force, it came out well and I realized I finished it several months back. I now have a sizable force of Wood Elves repainted and have come a long way when they were simply an Ally force for my mega-battle with Dave and Jeff.

Warhammer 3rd edition, back to the best edition- Part II

As I outlined here I've really returned to my roots as it were in regards to Warhammer. Unlike the ass-hats of the OSR movement on the D&D side however I bear no malice or ill-will towards anyone who plays a different version of Warhammer than I do. I find their "your fun is wrong" statements amusing if nothing else. And with the demise of the traditional rule-set of Warhammer Fantasy Battle this is more pronounced with folks going either the Age of Sigmar route, 9th Age or Return of Kings.

For me its why bother? Yes its cumbersome, but with the good olde' orange rule book and Warhammer Armies you have all you need to play a great game.

Talk about value on this thing: It has 11 of the 12 armies contained within (Norse appeared in White Dwarf #107). In addition there are new rules for war machines, and great rules in my opinion for allies and mercenaries which Warhammer always seemed to struggle with to find a good balance for.

So with that in my mind here is where I stand for each of the armies and potential future plans:

Dark Elves- When complete they will total around 4,000-5,000 points. Details on the progress of the army can be found here. For the most part I largely have all the minis needed and just need to round out a few here and there to fill up certain units rank and file. They also have 25 hobgoblins as allies which I'm looking forward to painting (see below).

Wood Elves- As I've been outlining here on the blog they will come in around 4,000 points when complete. Like Dark Elves these pointy ears are a repaint of my existing models. As I also noted, they originally served as allies for my Empire force, but over the years I collected enough to field a force in their own right.

Almost all the models are 3rd edition ones with a few 4th edition ones mixed in like the Glade Guard serving as Kin Band warriors. 

One of my most heavily converted dragons, circa 2006

High Elves- This will be tougher. Not because I don't have minis but because I have a force of at least 10,000 points of High Elves painted and another 4,000 points unpainted... But they are a 5th edition force in composition and models. This isn't a problem per say, but I'm not going to convert them back to 3rd, but rather leave them as is. Easy enough to play 3rd edition games with them, but unlikely to get a lot of the 3rd edition/4th edition range save for two: one being that ever elusive Elven Attack Chariot (for me).

The Empire- Actually my second army in 3rd Edition (more on that in a bit). Like my High Elves these guys are more configured for 4th-7th than 3rd edition. The good news its easy enough to use them in 3rd edition which I did in a battle around December.

Bretonnia- When I first played 3rd Edition I played my initial force as a Bretonnian force... Now I I can't stand Bretonnia due certain posters on a website that promotes them (you know the one). Ever wonder why the Word of Hashut #10 is the way it is? There you go. Right now I have a mixed force that is probably around 1,000 points. I don't really see my doing anything with them anytime soon.

I will be finishing up a Bretonnian canon however as it was one of my first mini purchases ever. Maybe even a small scenic base too. 

Chaos- My chaos force is largely done. it dates back to 1991 and sports a lot of original paint jobs from that time. As of late I've been splitting out the 5th/6th edition minis from the earlier ones. One "new" unit is a repaint of chaos warriors on foot. Right now I have 16 and have been scoping out the remaining 4. Highly unlikely to field 20 at once as the point cost would be over 1,000 points, but they will look cool none-the-less.

A unit of 25 Beastmen with some gors from 5th/6th and Talisman plastic Beastmen is also "under the brush", but back burner right now. 

Skaven- As my buddy Dave collected them way back when he got all of them from the joint plastic regiment boxes. As a result of this over they years they never had much appeal. I'd say I have 10-20 plastic ones. I could see a unit or two for allies, but I'm highly unlikely to gather a full force especially when one considers the amount of minis needed to field a Skaven force.

Orcs- From my Chaos Dwarfs force I've got more than enough to field a Orc and Goblin force but not too many in the way of 3rd edition minis. If I did I'd be looking for the orc and goblin war-machines to round it out. Hell I might just get them anyways as the minis are so cool.

Dwarfs- Like the Wood Elves the Dwarfs are an outgrowth of needing allies for my Empire force in larger battles (as I was the only one playing the "good armies".) The Dwarfs are the force I've changed the least over the years. What I have done is add more minis to them. The leftover from the Battle for Skull Pass box set have also made their way to the army. Right now I have four units to go with the 6,000 points of painted minis I already have. They were also the first force I thought of painting in a coherent scheme rather than individuals except for one unit where I purposely painted each mini different. As a result the unit is a miss mash of colors but the army is predominately green and yellow. All in all the force works.

Slann- Ahhh Slann. I have zero Slann minis unfortunately and I think I only ever actually saw a few in person painted (Dave had some). For some reason they were fairly hard to come by in the States in the late 80s and to try and collect them now? $$$

Undead- This will be a bit easier. Due to summoning spells in 3rd edition WFB everyone had a Undead plastic box set. Because of this I have one unit of cavalry, one unit of infantry and some extras. Coupled with the zombie plastic box set from 6th means I have the nucleus of a small force but needs some touching up on the first two. At some point I envision a small force along the lines of the ones presented around White Dwarf #142ish.

"Extras"
Norse- Only appeared in White Dwarf #107 and I have to say it let me with a meh feeling for the army. I have a few scattered Norse minis, but don't see myself undertaking this task for another human army largely composed of  infantry. Don't get me wrong the minis are cool, but where are the Norse riding war mammoths???

Nippon- My attempts at Nippon have been on again and off again as the mood strikes me. Now not a 3rd edition force the army list for 2nd could be modified to work with 3rd. I have a sizable force but its going to take a lot more time and a lot more lead. I do have almost every ninja model from the range which is kinda cool!

I think if I could get 1-4 of those damn Temple Dogs it would help!

Mercenaries and Allies- based on having so many armies I can usually field any allies needed. In terms of the mercs? I have the following:

• Chaos Allies- both chaos dwarf war machines, a mortar and multiple bazukas!
• Old Worlder Ally contingent- toyed with the idea of converting my Bret force to this contingent.
• Halflings- Got a fair amount of these for a small ally force. 
• Giants- Two giants, one old school.
• Ogres- Unit of 8 detailed here.
• Half-Orcs- this is going to be a quest. I want the 2nd edition range which goes for $$$ on eBay. 
• Hogoblins- 25 old school hobgoblins including Baron Brightgore on the painting table!

That about rounds out where I stand in Oldhammer, a lot done, quite a bit to go by that's the fun of it.