Another GW classic given the FFG makeover. High levels of quality throughout and some great game pieces.

I had a lot of fun painting these and the player cards help your decisions with the colour schemes, if you’re feeling less creative. My general method was to paint flat colours then dip in some Army Painter Quick Shade. After that was a touch of any details and to paint in the eyes.

This version maintains the feel of the original from an artwork perspective, but deals with it in a much more colourful fashion. Some may prefer the linework of the original.

I’ve found that this version is much more quest like in that the characters have to explore to really build up their attributes and skills. This aspect of the game can take a very long time, but it is key to the survival of the inner regions. On the plus side there are hundreds of adventures and side quests to explore. The multitude of expansions builds on this.

A great game to get into if you’ve been bought up on the Games Workshop 2nd edition. Great for collecting as there are loads of expansions (both large and mini boxed varieties) available. I now keep the GW version locked away for viewing purposes. The cards seem so fragile compared to the FFG version. You also get plastic coins and cone tokens instead of the previous cardboard squares. I seem to have completely skipped the 3rd edition and it has passed me by, so can’t comment on developments from that version. As an interesting aside, the most recent expansion, Talisman Dragons, harks back to the little known final expansion of the GW range. You can find the occasional copy coming up on eBay for crazy prices.

Overall, a nice set of packs to get hold of. Superb quality as always. Good if you enjoy painting your figures as there’s a wide variety of them. I think FFG have given this series plenty of support, so you can probably count on more expansions. This is the game where you want to set aside a few hours to play to really develop your characters. Alternatively, if you’re extremely lucky with dice throws you can head straight for the middle! It’s relatively easy to get into and really beautiful game to look at.

Buy Talisman here