Really for the attention of Neil and Rich H, but if anyone else is interested...
We played the game slightly wrong, it's trade THREE successful missions for a relic, not one. I played an open hand test game with it tonight using the Callidus (to see if she was quite as good playing how she was supposed to) along with three random characters. Now a couple of the other characters did far better on missions, but her ability to pick her fights (ignoring enemies when they gang up on her while other players got pasted) meant she still won more fights and levelled up quicker than the other characters. In fact she struggled to complete missions because her first mission out of the hat was kill an elder, and as the decks still haven't shuffled through properly, it took about halfway through the deck before she completed that mission... by which time she was on about level 8 anyway. She went into the middle toting only a single relic, having completed just 4 missions.
End game, I sent the callidus in first, (level 12, 1 relic, 8 influence, a whole bunch of trophies) she jumped a few spaces as she met more of the entry criteria - you need a relic to get in, but if you are high level, have lots of influence, and lots of trophies, you can jump forward several spaces, saving a great deal of time. Knowing she was likely to win it, I chased her with the commissar (level 12, 5 relics, 9 influence, no trophies) and a rash inquisitor (level 7, 4 relics, 18 influence no trophies)
The inquisitor ran in, rolled a 1, got three corruption cards, 2 of which gave him extra corruption, on top of the 2 he went in with - broke his corruption threshold, that guy went straight out of the game. Character reset, but it was getting late so I just counted him as dead.
The commissar pursued the Callidus but she got to the middle first and started to throw corruption cards onto him. He reached the middle and had one chance - a roll of 6, with the exploding mechanic, would win it for him. He didn't roll a 6, and in fact rolled the one result that gained him his final corruption card - he too was out of the game. The Space Marine had caught up a little while the others were playing shenanigans in the middle but was nowhere near attempting to get in, the Callidus just needed a 5+ to win, and luckily I had a card with a power of 5, so it was game over.
In summary, this looks like a fun game. I need to spend about an hour just boxing the various decks, but once they've all shuffled through, it should be good, cos there are good things in those decks to, same as talisman. The middle is not to be entered lightly, as you can easily get your character reset. And it's important to pay attention to the text on your character - though that will be much easier when watching one character rather than four like I was attempting. But it's all about balance - the callidus completed barely any missions, but levelled up and ran in with barely any equipment and won the game. But if the commissar had gone in first, he would have probably thrown corruption at her and won it. But if you risk it too soon, you could end up obliterated in one turn like the poor inquisitor... it's tricky.
Oh, and I found a ruling in the book... says that fans of Talisman will remember being able to hit each other, you can't in this game as we are all imperial agents, we're on the same bloody side, though we can use some cards to meddle with each other, but normally nothing more than minor pilfering to aid your own chances. They do plan to introduce a fight each other ability in later expansions - I guess when they put bad guys in there.
But yes, will be good to play this down the club in a couple of weeks...
