Talon (3rd printing)

Welcome to the Talonverse! Talon is a game of tactical space combat set in a growing universe with its own history and back story. This game introduces battles during the First Talon War between the Terran Confederation and the Talon Empire. This is a Fleet Combat game. Battles with individual ships can be fought, but the game easily and quickly simulates combat with fleets of 3-10 ships. These are fleets of Capital Ships.

Despite that, the rules are incredibly simple. This is NOT a game about fighter combat in space. Most ships in the game are large and you must balance your ships' power output between shields, weapons, sensors, and maneuverability - you are not just doing an Immelman. Each faction has unique abilities and each ship has unique features. Proper strategy involves assessing the different abilities of your ships and the enemy's.

This is an accessible game. The complexity of managing fleets of capital ships has been baked into the game system, leaving the player free to make interesting decisions. It is also a fast-paced game. Small fleet scenarios can be played in one hour, larger ones in under two. This makes the game thematically rich and full of quick but meaningful choices. How can the game do all this? All a ship's energy use is integrated into something called a Power Curve. All a player has to do is adjust the speed of the ship. A ship's speed determines how much Available Power it gets to charge weapons faster, reinforce shields, tighten turns - but there will never be enough of it.

The game is fought on a map - distances moved, firing arcs, shield arcs are distinct and easily resolved. The game uses very large, laminated counters. All of a ship's systems are displayed directly on the counter and lamination allows you to mark damage and other ship info with a dry erase marker. All of the important information is at your fingertips, at-a-glance, on the map. Being able to see the battle unfold on the map allows the game system to handle a much larger number of ships without confusion and effort.

Photos on BoardGameGeek