Talisman: The Frostmarch
2-6
9+
60+
A continent of ice dominates the horizon...
It is the Frostmarch, brought here across the northern waters by the Ice Queen. Armed with the Crown of Command, she is transforming the realm into a desolate, frozen wasteland.
Can you overcome the raging storms and strange creatures that inhabit this bitter land? Will your blood freeze when you behold the Ice Queen’s cold, cruel gaze?
The Frostmarch expansion offers players 4 new character cards and plastic figures, 84 Adventure Cards, 20 Spell Cards, 24 Warlock Quest Cards, and 3 Alternative Ending Cards – including a final climactic battle with the Ice Queen!
Brace yourself against the onslaught of the Frostmarch!
User Reviews (2)
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Unboxing.
Although most aren’t as bothered with the packaging as I am I feel it always deserves a small shout, the box art is nice and the quality of the box itself is sturdy and well made as usual with most FF products.
The miniatures, four of, are of a slightly better quality than previous releases and are rather nice sculpts, especially the Orc Chieftain who is quite a large mini compared to the others. When looking at the stat cards however two of them seem a little pointless! The Necromancer and the Warlock are too similar to other mage/cleric style characters seen in the previous releases and bring nothing groundbreaking into the mix! The Chieftain is raw power and makes for a good power gamer choice whereas the Leprechaun can generate money so rapidly with the aid of his skills (teleport to any space on a move roll of 6 and claim 3 gold when on any woods space) that when we played the first game our Leprechaun player almost broke the bank!
The new adventure cards are good, nothing too outlandish or pointless so a good mix of new interesting enemies and a couple of nice new pieces of equipment and event cards (I’ve lost count of the amount of time I’ve used the word ‘nice’ so far. I think I’m developing a theme here!). The new warlock quest cards add a little more variety to gaining your Talismans and some of the more difficult quests add a new level of strategy to a sometimes too random game.
Finally I get to the main selling point (apparently!) of Frostmarch, which are the alternative ending cards. These are played instead of the usual ‘get to the crown of command, cast and win’ style of goal, which would be really good for a change were they better! The new Warlock quest (which we played first and decided that we probably wouldn’t play again) gives each player four warlock quests to complete and when done the first player to make it to the crown of command with all four complete wins instantly. this sounded good at first but we soon realised that this dragged the game on for AGES as people spent many turns trying to land on one particular space that they needed to complete a goal.
The crown and scepter offers only a small tweak to the standard goal of the game so is rendered only slightly better than pointless.
The Ice queen card is the only one really worth playing as it adds, what can only be described as, a boss character at the end of the game who must be fought and defeated in order to win. Her strength and craft level, as well as her abilities and actions for if she beats you in combat, make grinding to strengthen yourself a must and makes for a more combat oriented game.
Overall I would only give Frostmarch a 6/10, only half of the new characters are worth playing with and only one of the alternate endings is any good! overall a nice game expansion but I’m glad i didn’t pay full RRP for this one.
Overview
Talisman: The Frostmarch is an expansion for Talisman that introduces alternative endings, warlock quests, four new characters, spells and more adventure cards. The theme focuses on how an Ice Queen has taken control of the realm, transforming it with an eternal winter (yes, this is for you, Narnia lovers :)).
Components
The most important components are the three alternative ending cards and the 24 warlock quest cards. These really will impact you gaming experience in a good way and I always play with them, regardless of whether I employ the rest of features found in The Frostmarch. The alternative ending introduces fresh ways to end the game (and as such they replace the victory conditions of the basic game). The hidden alternative endings are most fun, since they are kept facedown on the Crown on Command. The first character to get there will draw one of them and find out what the victory conditions are for this game. The revealed alternative endings (only one of these is included in The Frostmarch) can be chosen at the start of the game and thus all players know what the new victory conditions are.
The Warlock quest cards bring variation to the somewhat tedious quests found in the Warlock’s Cave of the basic game. Instead of rolling the die to decide which of the six possible quests you are given, you draw one of the quest cards. Included are also adventure cards and spells that are mostly in line with the eternal winter theme of the expansion.
Difficulty
This expansion does is extremely easy to use, in terms of the difficulty of the rules. The frostmarch rulesheet is a single sheet with a few, easy-to-learn rules. In terms of difficulty for the player character, The Frostmarch does not present anything substantially more difficult than the basic game. It is more of the same, although the alternative endings and warlock quests introduce a welcome moment of uncertainty when it comes to victory conditions and the hunt for a talisman.
Will you like it?
If you like Talisman and Narnia, you will probably like this expansion. I you’re in to only one of them, I am not so sure. The Forstmarch stays well in tune with the basic game, but it does not offer much beside alternative endings and warlock quests.
Pros and cons
The greatest pro of The Frostmarch is the alternative endings, although they are much too few to really make an impact. You will have to buy more expansions to get a deck of alternative endings that can really spice up the game. The warlock quests are welcome and extremely easy to use. The four new characters (leprechaun, ogre chieftain, warlock, and necromancer) are not so interesting, however. The leprechaun offers interesting special abilities (with the occasional teleport and great money-making skills), whereas the necromancer and the warlock are only slight variations on the different spell-casters of the basic game. The ogre chieftain is better than the troll and with his ability to dominate monsters and use them in future battles he can easily become very strong quite fast and compared to most other characters he is a bit too good.
Value for money
At almost $25 (MSRP), The Frostmarch does not offer much more value for money. You only get two new alternative endings (the third alternative ending card contains the ordinary victory conditions from the basic game) and the warlock quests that are really compelling. The rest is, sadly enough, somewhat bland.
Summary
The Frostmarch is not the strongest Talisman expansion, but it can be a great addition if you already own several other expansions. If so, you will also profit more from the alternative endings (the provide more suspense the more of them you own and use, as every fresh card add uncertainty as to when you are prepared to take on the Crown of Command and the possible endings). The ice-and-winter theme is good, but as it only appears in the new adventure cards (and some of the new spell cards), you only sporadically get the winter feeling (and sometimes it is not welcome at all, as when you draw a frostmarch adventure card in one of the desert spaces).