Avalon HillAvalon Hill Talisman ALLIANCES

Although you could simply just take the extra cards and minis out of the quest packs, add them to the base game, and not use the cooperative-play elements of this expansion, you would not be receiving the full impact of the expansion. This is definitely a primarily co-op play xpac. It's in the name: Talisman Alliances.There are five trials to complete. Each trial is about the full length of a Talisman game, so unless you're going to play for ten to twelve hours straight, the trials are not really meant to be done in one sitting. Think of it like five interconnected games that are played separately, like a large quest.When you complete a trial, you open the trial box and trial envelope for that trial. The box contains a new mini. The envelope contains the character card for the new mini and some other miscellaneous cards (adventure, spell, item, etc.) to add into the game.You can always return the items to their respective boxes and envelopes (there are instructions in the back of the rulebook for doing so), and play again. But my guess it will lose some of its magic.As someone who has played Talisman for many years, co-op play feels a strange. But I do enjoy co-op games, so it's a welcome option. And the difficulty of the game is determined by how many players are playing. There are enemy character cards that are both put on the game board during set-up and distributed throughout the adventure deck. The more players that are playing, the more enemy character cards that get both placed on the board and distributed into the top half of the adventure deck. The rest get distributed into the bottom half of the adventure deck.Playing through the game, our group hit a lot of spots in the rules that left ambiguities that we had to discuss and come up with our own answer for. I feel like in general, book editing is a declining art form, but this rule book feels like it was especially rushed. However, one has to keep in mind that it's a board game rulebook, not some holy text. However your group wants to interpret any ambiguities it finds is perfectly fine if you all are having fun.All in all, our group found this to be an enjoyable expansion for a good price. In my opinion, if you enjoy Talisman as a competitive game and want the option to occasionally play the game cooperatively then this is a good purchase for you. However, if you don't like competitive games and you're thinking about buying the Talisman base game and this expansion to use strictly as a co-op game, I feel like you might end up disappointed. There are many vastly superior co-op only games out there for groups who focus on co-op gaming.

The new features were super fun and challenging we played for five hours figuring out the rules and playing and we almost lost it was exciting and we beat the first trial it was hype I can’t wait til we get together again for the next game on to the 2nd trial definitely a great purchase loved it 10/10