[geoschmo]

I am no fan of the Tailsman myself. I used to think it was no great deal because of the research cost involved to get it, but too many people have learned more efficent colonization and research techniques now for that to still be true.

The biggest problem is not that it is undefeatable, because it is not undefeatable. But it takes a lot of effort to defeat. Personnaly I like to play the diplomacy game. I don't like big coaliitions early in the game. I like to have different alliances with different people over the course of the game and try to play one against the other. And I like to pick my allies and enemies on a geographical basis which I think is mroe natural for a strategy game. But having a tailsman player in a game takes that element out because you are forced to make alliances with everyone else and go all out to get them.

What has ended up happening to me in several games is we are able to knock off the tailsman player, but their presence has forced me to cooperate with a player that in a more natural game would have been my enemy. And allowing them to expand while I concentrate on the tailsman player ends up biting me anyway.

It doesn't bother me at all when the players in my games vote to ban the religious tech. I think the game is better without it.

Geoschmo