Trying to type this while getting my car serviced. I miss my keyboard.
Talisman gardens is a little interesting. The Sims would have you believe that they're not competitive against BMU, but I don't believe that. I must be programming in wrong. Or there's something in the play rules. Prolly me. Anyway, WV helps a LOT. You can really grab tons of cards. OTOH, I might expect envoy to win, except it Doesn't have the best long game to get every province. Either way, I doubt you should contest gardens very early...
I think the main weakness of Talisman-Gardens is that when you buy Gardens you don't get to multiply them, and when you buy Talisman, you're not buying Gardens. This puts a considerable slowdown on a goal of ending the game on a three pile with lots of Gardens.
Still, if I were going to play this, I'd want to buy Talismans as often as possible in the early game to get all ten of them, but also acquire a card that gives me +buys, then go for acquiring one Gardens and using the spare buy (and multiplier) on copper. Copper bloating might be troublesome of course, as it might cause more harm from keeping the talismans apart than it helps by boosting VP. Regardless, in a Talisman/Gardens game estates are probably out: the onus is on activating the Talisman effect as often as possible, and that means multiple buys on non-green cards while still buying gardens often enough to end the game reasonably fast.
Here's my try on it, though in a real game I'd expect to lose a few gardens to the opposition as well:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/25/game-20120425-060807-d6175c97.htmlAll in all, it looks a lot slower than BM+Envoy, especially seeing as BM+Envoy can take gardens off me too.
OTOH, in the presence of certain engines, I can see Talisman -> Gardens being pretty damn strong. A classic Fishing Village / Wharf set, f'rexample, could build as normal but with some Talismans en route, then switch to Gardens late instead of or in addition to the usual Provinces. F'rex:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/25/game-20120425-061625-0d96ba5e.htmlThose were both one off tries, I'm probably not playing either set optimally, but you get the idea
As for Worker's Village, my main problem with it here is its cost: exactly the same as another Talisman or Gardens. When can you find time for that?
I guess you could play to buy up Talismans and Workers Villages before even thinking about Gardens, and then go mega-explosion, but I think pace is vital here, and that approach might be too slow.