At long last comes the fourth and final corner to the world of Talisman. Long rumored to be a forest-based expansion full of myth and magic, The Woodland does not disappoint. This expansion is “chock-a-bloc” full of weird, wonderful and worthwhile adventure.
Let’s start...at the start!
Upon entering The Woodland, a character must pick from three random Path cards waiting at it’s entrance. Some are superb that everyone will be racing to pick up, such as Wyrd Path (which gives you a Destiny Card immediately) others, like Vile Path (which forbids you gaining or healing life) you’ll likely avoid like the plague. Either way, if you want to experience the magical forest, you have to pick one. Paths all come with a certain ability/benefit and a certain challenge. The harder the challenge the greater the reward when you make it through The Woodland to the Meeting with Destiny space.
The reward most sought after is one of the new Destiny cards. These are basically super ability cards that do not count toward your carrying limit, you can have as many as you can get your hands on and they can (almost) never be taken away from you once you have them, so the race will be on to get the best of them. My personal favourite is The Divisive which - aside from giving you a +1 to your Craft and fate values - allows you to pay a dark fate to force another player to ditch a follower of your choice! Simply brilliant. Imagine forcing your opponent to ditch a mule or horse and cart - along with all the objects it is carrying - then, if they pick them all back up, just doing it again...and again.
The magical Fae have returned to Talisman and bring with then a fantastic new fate mechanic that can turn your world upside down! Folks, it’s the dark fate that is what’s so exciting about this expansion - for those who love PvP action and those who shy away from it - The Woodland forces it on you regardless, so be prepared.
Until now, players could pay a fate to re-roll a die they rolled. Now, fate has been split between light and dark fate. Light remains the same meaning you can re-roll your own dice, but now, using dark fate you can pay to re-roll an opponents die roll! It’s no wonder one of our players, Shawn, has nicknamed this the Evil Expansion! Yes ladies and gentlemen, menace abounds between these trees…
Like all the other corners, The Woodland comes with its own ‘adventure’ deck full of all manner of surprises; some good, some bad, but almost every one new and exciting. Best of all, the majority of them have different effects depending upon what kind of fate you are carrying. The stranger Titania, for example, will either give you 1 Craft, 2 Lives and you full compliment of spells or make you lose all your dark fate, half your lives and discard all your spells. You really have to think now before spending any fate tokens.
Worthy of note are the many new ways to be turned into a toad including the Toad King himself! There are actually 7 cards in The Woodland deck that can potentially turn you into a toad. Don’t let that scare you off though because you may be lucky enough to find Nuadu’s Torc, the highly sought after object which prevents you from ever being turned into a toad!
There are 5 new characters introduced and every one of them comes with their own set of tokens. Fiddly, some might say, but I encourage you to hold off on judgement till you’ve tried it since it is limited and they will only come in to play under certain circumstances. Trust me, after a few games, it becomes second nature.
Leywalker - If you are looking for something new and exciting this character will be a favourite. He comes with Portal tokens that can be placed anytime someone casts a spell (including himself). These tokens can then be used as portals he can teleport to instead of moving with a die roll. Not only that, but when you do use them you gain a spell too! The Leywalker also starts on the Portal of Power so it won’t take long to figure out to place a portal token pretty quickly to ensure a fast return to the middle region. There is so much potential with this character. Play your cards ..er, tokens right and you can be a hop, skip and jump away from the Crown of Command even when you are deep in the Dungeon!
Spider Queen - Probably the most complicated of the new characters. It’ll take you a few games till you figure out the best strategy with this one! She has 6 dual sided Spider tokens that she can place web side up on other players spaces at the start of her turn. The tokens force opponents to stop in the spaces they are placed but give her the option of stopping or not! If another player is stopped by the web token it is flipped to a crawler side which she can use to change her opponents die rolls whilst on this space. Very crafty, very nice, very evil..and she looks like she’d truly enjoy watching you struggle in a giant spider web too.
Scout - I predict this will be an easy top three pick for most people since his abilities are incredible to say the least. His tokens are known as Hidden Path tokens and can be placed on any enemy, stranger or place he draws. What’s cool about this is that only HE can encounter cards that have a hidden path token on....can anyone say Pool of Wisdom? But it goes one step further...the scout does not HAVE to encounter them either - can anyone say Demon with a Craft of 10? As if this ability wasn’t enough the Scout also gets to add 1 to his movement die. Now that’s nice. I need a 4....or a 3....either one. He doubles his chances, which means he can safely double his risk which means potentially double his reward.
Totem Warrior - He comes with Totem Spirit tokens which allow a +1 add to attack score and/or the ability to heal 1 life, gain a spell or replenish a fate. Pretty powerful, but you do need to defeat an Enemy before you can put them into play so it’s somewhat tempered. The fact that you begin with an Axe (which gives you a +1 in battle) will certainly help you get those tokens sooner rather than later though!
Ancient Oak - Like the name itself this character is slow to start but will ultimately end up being an incredibly strong and solid character if you can make it through the early game. His tokens are known as Growth tokens. They too are dual sided and you can flip them each turn. Red adds 1 to Strength, blue adds 1 to Craft so you have a lot of flexibility once you get going. The problem is though the getting going. As a part of nature, Ancient Oak cannot use any weapons which makes it difficult to power up in the early game so a lot depends on the cards drawn and you’ll have your fingers crossed there are no really tough baddies drawn early on. As long as you remember he is able to heal in any Woods or Forest space you should be fine and then watch out any seasoned warrior who thinks he can go up against a mighty centuries old oak tree!
The theme of The Woodland is wonderful and it feels as if you are exploring another realm that, so far, is an undiscovered part of the Talisman land. The amazing artwork has a lot to do with that but so does the background characters - the Fae, Oberon, Titania and Queen Mab all weaving in and out of the trees around you. Celtic myth and legend seep through. It’s magical, mysterious and magnificent fun! The Woodland forces you to think more strategically than you possibly ever have in this game, but it still brings the random joy that is quintessential to Talisman.
It’s good. Really good.
Edited by adjogi
), I was soo waiting for someone to finally post about The Woodland.