Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Friends and Frenemies Expansion

This expansion is 100% compatible with the main game, but you do need the base game to play. This effectively increases the size of the map, so make sure you have enough space available to play on (we use a dining room table for ours, so it wasn't a problem). The difficulty is definitely increased by adding the Initiative soldiers into the game, but you can also sort of "pick and choose" which elements you want to incorporate into your game.You might, for example, simply choose to bring in the new Big Bads and player characters rather than increase the map size or use the soldiers in any meaningful way. We've played with a variety of options using this expansion, and to be perfectly honest the new characters, alone, heighten the experience and are worth the price if you just wanted to add two new Big Bads (Dark Willow is super difficult to fight) and 6 new player characters (Faith helps at tables where multiple people want to be a slayer) into your game. My favorite of the new characters is Dawn because her ability to magnetically attract demons is just hilarious and on point for who she is.Simply put, this expansion is worth the money if your gaming table enjoys the base board game and LOVES Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

Wow, love the expansion, in our experience it makes the game significantly more playable. Love the new characters and the expanded playing board! If you get both from Amazon like we did, it’s the cost of a normal board game (50 bucks) and absolutely worth it. While the soldiers CAN make the game harder, if you play as a team and use the new swap station efficiently, it’s fantastic. From us, it’s a must buy!

I'm a huge board game fan and a huge buffy fan. The game was fun to play and easy to learn. This is the expansion and adding more favorite characters to the base!

If you like the original game you're definitely going to like this one. The soldiers add a lever of difficulty and the new characters and big bads are so fun to play with. It adds a lot to the original game and playing against Dark Willow is really fun (and brutal). As the original game, great entertaining game in general, but if you are a fan of the series is a must have.

Since I've been a Buffy fan for years, I snapped up the base game as soon as it came out. Surprise, surprise, it was actually really fun to play, even for non-Buffy fans. Getting the expansion as soon as it was released was a no-brainer, if only for the new characters (Anya, Riley, Tara, Oz, Faith, and Dawn) and the Big Bads (Spike & Dru, Dark Willow). We've played a few times now with differing results.First, the soldier expansion makes it harder since it adds another way to lose and more demons/vampires/townies to keep track of. Plus, soldiers can actually hurt characters. The new spaces in the Sunnydale Outskirts are interesting, too. One even lets players switch out their characters without losing all their stuff (and getting whatever the new character starts with). It's a good strategy when a game turns and you discover your mix of characters isn't helping you win.The best part is the new available characters, though. Each is unique, and I must admit I laughed hysterically when I saw Dawn's special ability was to draw all demons and vampires toward her. Tara is especially useful since hers allows townies on the apocalypse track to get turned into wounds. In the base game, you got screwed if you let too many townies die. Now, you can just flip 'em over and heal the wounds to stay alive.It's understandable you can't play with Spike or Willow if one of them is the Big Bad, though it would've been fun to imagine alternate dimension versions battling it out. I also wish we'd gotten new monsters. Oh, and the one new artifact card has a red back instead of the purple that the base set has. I don't know if that's an error in ours or not, but we've decided just to live with it. Yes, the expansion is expensive for what you get, but honestly, I'm glad we did. As much as we play, the new characters and Big Bads made it totally worth it.

Great expansion, makes the game way more fun

Awesome Expansion!!!!

Adds to the complexity of the base game. We haven't won since adding it. An essential addition.