| abstract
| - The game was created to look like its original tabletop counterpart, but the graphics looked to outdated. After Nomad Games fixed the visuals complaint, it now has a highly detailed and interactive game board. The gameplay feels as though a person is indeed playing a Talisman game, but there have been enough tweaks to the game that differentiate this title from being just a Talisman clone. However, the drawbacks of this game is that it still relies on RNG (random number generation) for a huge chunk of the player interactions with the board or against one another, be they on specific tiles or in battle. This may be a breaking point for some prospective players who like to remain in complete control. Talisman: Horus Heresy keeps some of the basic statistics associated with a player's chosen character, but makes a couple of thematic changes for continuity. Instead of a health pool, a player has Resolve, which works in the exact same way as health - lose it all and your character is eliminated from the game. Fate received no changes and still works as a re-roll mechanic in times of need. The same can be said of Resources, which replaces Gold. The way in which combat resolves has had a decent rework that makes much more thematic sense. Strength and Craft stats have been replaced with two different combat statistics: Close and Ranged Combat (making much more thematic sense for the W40k universe). All characters start with a base value that can be increased throughout the game. There are tiles that can increase one or more of these values with an RNG roll or a player can gain experience points on them by winning encounters. The experience points mechanic replaces the trophy method used in the original Talisman, where a player could hold on to defeated creatures and then discard them to increase one of their statistics. Now a player earns experience for each defeated encounter, which in turn increases the statistic once enough experience has been earned. What most people love most about this new approach is that it feels so much more realistic and immediate, giving a strong sense of character growth as you play the game. The Strategy stat is used to hold Strategem cards. These are essentially spells. Just like a player's combat statistics, this stat will need to be leveled up in order to increase the maximum number of Strategem cards a player's character can hold. All of the statistics start at base values depending on your chosen Warlord and all of these cannot be depleted beyond their starting point, except Resolve and Resource. All of these changes make sure that Talisman: Horus Heresy feels distinctly different to the classic Talisman game. The core mechanic of a die roll to move is still here, though - the old-fashioned movement mechanic seen in many tabletop games and even some digital board games. In this game, a player can re-roll using Fate if they feel they have no benefit from or want to avoid particular tiles. The usual encounter deck is filled with Dataslates which consist of combat encounters, special characters, equipment, resources, and other special event cards. Some tiles require a player to encounter one or more Dataslates at a time, which will either be of great benefit or a significant hindrance. Some Dataslates will remain on the tile and will reduce the number of new encounters a player might have there, if any. Another difference from Talisman that players like is that encountered Units are divided into Loyalist or Trailer camps, adding another dimension to combat. A player can try to rejoin a Unit to their side, which avoids a combat and any subsequent penalties should they fail. Some Warlords have abilities that use or somehow interact with collected Units, such as sacrificing one before combat to get a +3 to their roll. Just like in the original Talisman game there are tiles that have their own text effects. These generally don't have any Dataslates to encounter, but will have their own RNG roll events or encounter requirements, such as passing to the inner ring. A player can encounter anything from shops to buying equipment to their home planet, where they can roll for a number of different positive (and negative!) effects.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)