The_Warlock said:

You have a point.

collecting low strength enemies to defeat highter strenght enemies. And with visiting the enchantress you can try to build your strength up a little.

mmm, maybe that i must try the ghoul someday.

Okay, just completed 30th Upgrade + Reaper game. Stats to follow, first some notes.

Only 2 have been 2 player games, so 28 3-player games. That means each game will have 1 win and 2+ losses. Also, doesn't matter how a char was in the game, if you started with char X and he died during the game, you drew char Y as replacement but that char didn't win either, both X and Y are marked with a loss (regardless of the turns they were in the game). Only thing that I haven't yet encountered, though it's been close twice, is how I will mark a char that dies before their first turn (Reaper has twice in recent games landed on a char who hasn't yet gotten their first turn). Probably then wouldn't mark it as a loss, but will see.

Second point is that I use the BI board, with only the Village errata from sheet in Upgrade used. That means no Fate refill.

Finally, old Assassin rules, can only Assassinate already face up cards, not cards he draws.

Those should be most of the key points.

Name                     #/W/L/D/R
Assassin               6 2 4 0 0
Dark Cultist           6 2 4 1 1
Druid                      5 1 4 0 2
Dwarf                     6 3 3 0 0
Elf                           5 0 5 1 1
Ghoul                     6 1 5 1 2
Knight                    5 3 2 0 0
Merchant               6 1 5 0 0
Minstrel                 5 1 4 1 1
Monk                      5 2 3 1 0
Priest                     5 1 4 2 0
Prophetess          6 2 4 0 0
Sage                      6 3 3 0 1*
Sorceress             6 0 6 2 2
Thief                       6 2 4 0 0
Troll                        6 3 3 1 2*
Warrior                   6 1 5 1 2
Wizard                    6 2 4 3 0

Code:

# = number of games characters been in

W = win, last one standing at the Crown, naturally

L  = loss, as mentioned above, get marked for this if you were in a game, and didn't win

D = mid-game death, character died before anyone reached Crown

R = mid-game replacement, because previous entry happened

* = mid-game replacement character who won a game; so far only Sage and Troll have pulled this off

Since each game results in 1 win and 2+ losses, I'd say 50% or better is a very good score. That leads to a top ranking (purely on stats) as:

#1 Knight 3-2

#2 (tie): Dwarf, Sage, Troll (3-3)

 Will probably play picks instead of random chars for the next 2 games to get each char to a minimum of 6 games.

One last note. Warrior's only win came in one of the 2-player games (that was Warrior vs Sorceress). Since then, no wins, but he's been killed by the Reaper once (Reaper has notched on quick account total of 4 kills in 30 games; there still have been only 2 Toadings in all those games, so Reaper is 2x as "effective") and twice he's been a mid-game replacement, so up against it.

P.S. If someone wants to bother with more specifics of each session:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/plays/thing/38025?userid=166107

Dam said:

Interesting to see that the Wizard, Assassin and Druid lose four times !

And the elf is really bad if i look to the statistics.

I have not try the elf yet, but he is not actually  a combat specialist. Warping through the woods is the best ability he has. I think you must make full use of it..

And the fourth edtion has also no bows.

Not only has the Wizard lost 4 times, he also died during mid-game in 3 of those games ! Just can't seem to stay alive. Druid's losses come down to 2 times being a replacement, but also in that spell-cycling in the Woods is nice, but won't win you games. Str 2 just tends to hurt a lot to begin with. Assassin, well, even using the old Assassin, he still has same win-loss as Prophetess, Thief and Dark Cultist. Not bad company.

As to Elf, yeah, that's what you must do, but if the draws don't come, they don't come and you won't get any boosts. Today's game had among other things a first turn Giant on 1 Woods space, later there were 2 Dragons in 2 Woods spaces, then a Miser Dragon, finally Witch in the Woods next to Graveyard and Path-finder in the Woods near City. If it weren't for the Reaper killing Elf, he might've had a decent shot at winning the last game.

Today, the fifth battle has been fought !

It was my Prophetess vs the Elf.

I must say that both characters are very good. My Prophetess became very strong, but the Elf has cast the random spell card on me. I lost all my strength, and later in the game another strength, and one craft because of the rod of ruin.

But i came back with a lot of craft points and won finaly the game !

Luckily, the elf has only gain a talisman until later in the game, after i was already in the inner region.

But they was a chance for the elf, because he beat me in pvp combat, but he choose for the magic crown instead of my only talisman cardHAHA

So here are the statistics

1 Assassin/ Wizard : 2W/ 0 lose

2 Prophetess : 1W/ 0 lose

3 Dwarf/ Elf/ Troll : 0 W/ 1 lose

4 Dark Cultist 0 W/ 2 Lose

------------

PS : I think that the Dwarf don't like this because he is standing next to a Elf !

 My favorite character has to be the knight. he's very strong at the start, and his praying isn't that bad at the temple. he's got the wins over here. And we always let people choose their characters.

grim_reaper_zig said:

Ugh, to each his own, but doesn't that lead to the same characters being picked every single game?

Velhart said:

If you were already on the CoC then you don't need the Talisman any more so why would he take it ?

BanthaFodder said:

From the way it's worded, I'd say they were not yet at CoC.

I give my two cents for the statistics. Here's the same table of Dam's, which I find interesting and clear, that depicts my first 5 games with Reaper Expansion.

Notes:

- All 3-Player or 4-Player games; one started as a six-player game but two players left early in the game and their Characters were put in the box and possessions discarded.

- Comprehensive use of Fate rule (FFG Board)

- No house rules applied (i.e. Assassin can assassinate Creatures he's just drawn), except some additional cards added to the deck (only one of 5 games)

These cards are: 8 Bags of Gold, 3 Two Bags of Gold, 1 Raiders, 1 Market Day, 1 Giant, 2 Dragons, 1 Book of Spells

The stats:

Name             #/W/L/D/R
Assassin       1 0 1 0 0
Dark Cultist   0 0 0 0 0
Druid              1 0 1 0 0
Dwarf              3 0 3 0 1
Elf                   0 0 0 0 0
Ghoul             0 0 0 0 0
Knight            0 0 0 0 0
Merchant       2 0 2 0 0
Minstrel         1 1 0 0 0
Monk             0 0 0 0 0
Priest            1 0 1 1 0
Prophetess  0 0 0 0 0
Sage              1 0 1 0 0
Sorceress     2 0 2 0 1
Thief               1 0 1 1 0
Troll                2 2 0 0 0
Warrior          3 1 2 0 0
Wizard           1 1 0 0 0

Comments: Dam plays with the same persons every time; I played with different people almost every time and what the newbies lacked in game knowledge, they made up for luck.

All victories were pretty sound, except the Wizard's that defeated the Druid in an incredible final confrontation. Druid had 11 Strength/15 Craft, no Fate, 4 Lives left; Wizard had 8 Strength/14 Craft, no Fate to Spend, 3 Lives left. Nobody had useful Items such as Armour and Runesword; Wizard won a couple of battles too.

The most dreadful Character so far is the Troll; I'd like to see the Troll against Sorceress, Wizard and Dark Cultist all at once. Dwarf could have won many times, but Luck or bad play toned him down (especially yesterday, a player wasted an easy victory to reach a ridiculous 23 Strength, Objects included, and die before reaching the Crown).

Dam said:

That's right.

The Elf has not reach the inner region and the pvp battle took place in the outer region earlier of the game.

Ah, my misunderstanding.

Although it raises an interesting question about when to take a Talisman. The Solomon's crown is a pretty useful artifact

and there are many ways to acquire a Talisman. If it was early in a game I would take the crown also. Especially from a spell cycling character

like the prophetess.

Very early on not a problem, but if you have a full 4 objects and no mule etc and way too weak to get to CoC then it is an option worth considering

to ditch it, pref turn to gold.

It also depends on the number of players, 2 players this is an easier descision than 4+

Now that you are speaking about turning talisman objects in gold,.. I think it was not bad to keep it with me.

What would happen if they are no talisman cards anymore and someone complete the quest of the warlock hahahha

Bad luck for him.

This idea is very nasty hahaha

The_Warlock said:

Troll dreadful, as in too dominant? He was 2 wins in 2 games if I read that right. As to Dwarf, good do know, was really wondering what the hell was going on there . Also, 23 Strength, that's just wasted time (unless everyone is all about getting 20+ stats).

Dam said:

I should have said terrific, not dreadful, but to me it's dreadful because I've always lost to the Troll. I'm never good with Strength based Characters: give me Troll, Warrior or Assassin and you'll see how many Spirits I can draw in a row. As the Warrior, I came up to the nonsense of having 5 Strength/7 Craft when a much more lucky Minstrel reached the Crown.

The Dwarf first apparition was a late game replacement and he couldn't do anything good. The second Dwarf was played by a newbie that did really good: had a good rush and was first to the Crown with remarkable stats (can't remember exactly), but finally lost to... the Troll of course! Troll had 12 Strength (Dwarf 10) and 7 Lives + St.Josephine. Dwarf fought hard and brought the Troll to 2 Lives (Josephine included!), then his Armour betrayed him an he lost. He definitely deserved a victory that time, but Troll is vicious. Last game went as I told you: it was a wasted victory. I told that player that he could have won at least 1 h 30 minutes before he died by the Command Spell, but certain people like the Diablo-like progression and don't understand the meaning of "strong enough". 

His death left a lot of goods for my Merchant to grab in the Crypt, I reached the Crown and faced the Warrior as I told in another thread. I could have won; I should have, in fact, but I had 3 lives and lasted 3 Turns. With Armour and exactly the same Strength as the Warrior, Runesword by my side. Still he's advantaged, but you could see how lucky I am with the dice.

Well, in the end it's luck that governs Talisman. I should be the more experienced player but I'm usually the weaker, who knows why. I won one Talisman game out of 30...