Talos: Collapse

Talos Collapse is a strategy role playing board game that takes place in the fantasy world of Talos. The world is on the verge of collapse and the only safe place is its capital – Talos City. You are the leader bearing the noble mission of saving your people from perishing. You levy an army and advance towards Talos. Travelling through different realms you will meet hordes of hostile creatures and slay each and every enemy standing in the way of your cherished goal. In Talos, you will find an immense stronghold and will have to face an army of guards that surely won’t let you in. What should you do to them? You will have to defeat them, of course. Finally, drained by the numerous bloody battles, having most of your loyal troops you take over Talos City to only find another three conquerors and understand that only one will survive…

At the start, each player creates a hero by selecting one of 7 available classes and a set of basic skills. As the game progresses, you will learn new advanced skills. To do that, your hero will need to develop a certain type of a character and gain a required number of character points by choosing corresponding options when playing an Event Cards. At the same time, limited by a selected type of character, the player might have to face some very tough choices. For instance, choosing the “Evil” option in an Event Card obliges you to make an assault upon a fortress (which is a very uneasy task). This is where players might start asking themselves if they really are that evil? Wouldn’t it be in their benefit to choose the “Good” option to avoid danger? The choice is up to the player…

The game’s signature feature is the combat system. In the beginning of the battle, the player arranges his troops in his part of the battlefield. After that, the same arrangement is implemented by the creatures of the realm in which the combat is taking place. The player to the left plays for the creatures’ army. Striving towards their own victory, the players’ key task in such action will be to play for time and inflict maximal losses to the opponent. The battle process is a turn-by-turn attacks of the opponents’ units until a complete defeat or retreat of one of the armies. Smart tactics, clever manoeuvring and right order of actions is the key to winning the battle. After the battle is over, the player will have to restore and heal the troops injured in combat. Smart battle timing is also very important: if the fight takes too much time, it delays the players reaching Talos City, entering which sooner than other players is one of the games’ priorities.

The player needs to be well prepared to fight the Guards of Talos. The long way you have to make through the realms of the game is designed to prepare for victory by collecting and improving your skills, army, spells and artefacts. If you fail to develop your assets to a sufficient level there is a major risk that taking over Talos City will become an overwhelming task. Having a strong army but lacking resources to cast spells, the player will suffer too many casualties which will further lead to losing to other, better prepared, players. This diversity makes the game both complex and very interesting to play again and again.

–description from the publisher