Talon: Fleet Combat in Defense of Earth

I can't believe Sag is interested in this game, I checked it out pretty thoroughly and there wasn't a Star Wars logo in sight... are you sure this is the game for you Sag?

Come on man, let him enjoy this. He still believes biplanes can fly in space. Don't take that away from him.

Michael Barnes wrote: Come on man, let him enjoy this. He still believes biplanes can fly in space. Don't take that away from him.

A billion dollars agrees with him....

BIPLANE IN SPACE

Josh Look wrote: Still have not received mine, still hasn't even shipped yet if the "Your Account" section on GMT's site is to be believed, and given that I was charged on January 9th, I'm kinda pissed about it.

Michael, did you get a review copy? If so, nice to know they got those out before getting it to playing fucking customers.

My CC expired Dec 2015, so the charge was declined. I P500'd this so long ago I completely forgot that I had any outstanding purchases on that card. GMT never notified me. I asked them about tracking info today and that was how I found out. I'm pretty annoyed.

Got it today and the build quality on the board is absurd. You could kill a man hitting him with this box edge on. Don't know why GMT went from paper to eight-fold heavyweight board. The game would be better served with independent hex boards, thinner, that could be dropped.in place piecemeal when the battle moves. Apparently GMT's current clientelle thinks weight is a good indicator of quality.

That said, the ship chits are a little thin.

There's a Defiant and a Voyager on the Terran side, so a little Star Trek peeks through.

Looks very nice.

And for the record, I was overloading photon torpedoes two decades before I was playing with biplanes. That's a relatively new hobby.

S.

Got mine today. Looks pretty awesome, can't wait to play.

May need to set up a web cam and skype this one. Nice big counters.

Or play by forum.

I received my copy yesterday. I'm reading through the rules. I hope to play it this weekend unless Mardi Gras lures me away instead.

Got mine Thursday. Also agree that it looks good, but I won't have any chance to get to it (beyond maybe rule reading) till next week (and given my backlog that would be super fast).

I'm willing to set up a learning game via forum if anyone is interested.

Played a game of this today over at Look Manor.

I thought it was pretty good and I think it accomplishes what the design sets out to do. Certainly more streamlined than Fed Commander with a better interface. Writing right on the large counters works very well. No separate papers or play mats, no dials or status markers (mostly). And it was fun.

We were talking and I'd love to see a compare and contrast between this and Blue Max and Flying Colors as it strikes me as very similar to both games.

We were also talking about why a person would chose to play this over Star Wars Armada and outside of the fact that this game goes for $40 and Armada is $300 we couldn't think of a compelling reason. Pretty tough to top a 3d Star Destroyer.

Well, I also really like having something that's self-contained and isn't something that periodically evolves. You take 6 months off from keeping up on Netrunner or Armada and you're not entirely aware of the "state of the game." Sure, you could play in a vacuum and not care about that kind of stuff, but the bigger issue is how complete is the game? Balance issues seem to be far more present in customizable games.

Also, it sets right the hell up and gets playing. I love Armada, but damn to I hate wading through cards for 45 minutes to an hour before I'm actually playing.

Armada is two games in one -- the build and the play. I don't care for the build.

Armada is bigger to store and buy.

It's also a far more deluxe experience.

I was rereading Talon's rules tonight and thought of Blue Max. Funny you should mention it.

REALLY simple rules. Amazingly simple.

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1520920/sme...-these-erase-complet

So this guy may absolutely have a legitimate problem, but this is not a game I would want to try to support with the component obsessive crowd.

It comes with A tablet of record sheets for those too cowardly to write on the components. I haven't had trouble with any of mine.

Comparing Talon to Armada is almost not fair. Every single gameplay aspect of Armada is hugely superior. It's just no contest as to which is the better game and that is before figuring in the appeal of the models and the setting. The detail is far greater and the differences between ship classes are more meaningful. You've got crew, weapon loadouts, fighters that do more than act like weaker, more maneuverable capital ships, and very not-tank-maneuvering. It has innovative, custom engineered components and extremely high production values across the board.

But Talon is cheaper, plays quicker, and offers greater accessibility overall, so it's not without certain advantages. It also very specifically references SFB, which Armada definitely does not. It has the impulse turn threading, which can means some very different kinds of planning are involved. It's also logistically smaller overall. It has functional but uninspired visuals and the only thing really innovative about it is that it so successfully streamlined and modernizes an antiquated previous design.

In sum, Talon is like a sensible 2016 Toyota with good safety ratings and high gas mileage. Armada is a Ferrari. If you have the wherewithal to get the Ferrari, why would you pick the Toyota?

There are reasons, sure, but for me I would almost never choose Talon over Armada. Which is an odd sticking point because Talon is really good...granted, this is also coming from someone that was able to heavily invest in Armada so those unable or unwilling to do so may have a different perception of that dynamic.

I'm not big on the fleet building myself, Josh- I just use that Fab's Fleet Builder and tweak what it gives me. If I were playing competitively against folks in a store or something I would do my own, but for casual games with friends it gets you up and going much, much quicker.