The Fellowship Risks a Riparian Path

"Upon the west to their right the land was treeless also, but it was flat, and in many places green with wide plains of grass. On this side of the River they passed forests of great reeds, so tall that they shut out all view to the west, as the little boats went rustling by along fluttering boarders. The dark withered plumes bent and tossed in the light cold airs, hissing softly and sadly."

~ The Fellowship of the Ring      

Book II, Chapter IX: The Great River

By this time, it is common knowledge to even the newest of Lord of the Rings fans that the Fellowship of the Ring was initially broken when Gandalf the Grey fell into shadow while fighting the ancient Balrog demon deep in the recesses of Khazad-Dum in Moria.  After this tragic event, the mourning companions made their way to the enchanted forest of Lothlorien to be greeted by Celeborn and Galadriel, noble and powerful Elves who, despite their reclusive nature, knew much about the darkening days of Middle-earth.  The Fellowship regains some level of morale while resting in the the peaceful lofts of this mystical woodland; however, soon they are off again to continue their quest to destroy the One Ring.  They take to following a water route for the first time on the Great River, Anduin, as they depart Lothlorien.  

Most of us know the final tragic events that conclude the first Lord of the Rings novel; however, it is before these events that a relatively mild literary alteration to the Fellowship's quest down the river occurs.  A narrative unfolds that can only be told in the form of a quest from the Lord of the Rings: LCG.  Instead of experiencing a rather uneventful week or so as they travel down the Anduin, the Fellowship is ambushed by a savage Hill Troll one evening as they make camp and must escape down river as a whole host of enemies take to the shore to assail them.  What happens next can only be described as a nightmarish Journey Along the Anduin!

I hope you enjoyed the thematic introduction to this post.  I found it fitting considering both the heroes that I'm about to introduce as well as the quest itself relate so closely to that portion of the novel that it is inspired from.  In case you haven't realized by now from the title and cover photo, this post will chronicle my initial play experiences with the Journey Along the Anduin Nightmare mode.  To those of you that are still unfamiliar with what Nightmare mode is, check this previous post out, wherein I discuss it in more detail as well as how my first playthrough of Nightmare Passage Through Mirkwood.  

The original Journey Along the Anduin quest from the core set has always been a favorite of mine because it was the first quest that I got absolutely stomped by, many many times.  These days, however, with the greatly expanded card pool, my win-to-loss ratio is much better.  But just when I thought those Hill Trolls are not so big and bad anymore, the Nightmare mode revision arrives and changes all that.  The original scenario started you out almost instantly in turbulent waters as a Hill Troll rushed out of the riverside thickets and attacked your heroes.  There were always the classic ways to deal with him (Feint, Forest Snare, etc.) and once he was killed, your party could jump in their canoes and paddle down river.  The important part was that he was dead, and even though there may always be another Hill Troll that may show up to avenge his brother, you had the confidence you could deal with him too.  Nightmare mode, on the other hand, brings about a definitive end to this feeling of comfort and safety.   

For now, let's take a brief pause from the new dangers that arise next to the Great River and jump back to our originally established narrative.  The Fellowship is now only made up of eight members since the untimely loss of Gandalf.  Aragorn has now taken up the unofficial mantle of the party's leader and is always vigilantly assuring Frodo Baggins' safety, but nobody is more concerned about Frodo than his trusty gardener, Sam Gamgee.  Collectively, these three heroes make up the first player deck, which is tri-Sphere in nature.  Though tri-Sphere decks can be a very tricky thing to pull off and make work, this particular deck has some powerful attachments that can make Lore-orientated Aragorn synergize with both the Leadership sphere (through Sword that was Broken) and the Spirit Sphere (through Celebrian's Stone.)  Additionally, Steward of Gondor is in the player deck, and once it is in play it also goes to Aragorn in an effort to generate the maximum amount of resources for him to pay for all three spheres.  To round out the deck, several thematically appropriate allies and events are in it such as Bill the Pony, Arwen Undomiel, and Campfire Tales.  Finally, at a starting threat of 27, this deck is well below the engagement cost of many of the nastiest enemies (including the Hill Troll) and it also has the ability to reset to this threat at any time thanks to Aragorn's powerful on-card ability. 

To further protect and ensure the success of the quest, the Fellowship is also comprised of an Elf, a Dwarf, and a Man of Gondor.  Together, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir are the heroes who make up the mono-Tactics deck to accompany the first one.  Since this is a solely Tactics based deck, it takes up the role of attacking and defending against any and all encountered enemies.  Each of the heroes have attachments uniquely suited for boosting their individual strengths.  Legolas is always on the lookout for a Rivendell Blade and Great Yew Bow to string up.  Gimli anxiously awaits for a Dwarven Axe or two to land in his strong, sturdy hands.  Finally, the Captain of Gondor is hopeful that a Gondorian Shield will protect him in the heat of battle and his Horn of Gondor is always there to sound for aid if the day grows too dark.  The high starting threat of 31 for this deck is a bit daunting at first, but since these heroes serve the purpose of ridding Middle-earth of enemies anyways, it is a threat level worth risking.

Even with Nightmare mode engaged, the opening setup and encounter with the first Hill Troll played out just like the old one.  A new, constantly nagging enemy did make their appearance right from the get go, however: Brown Water Rats, complete with beady little eyes and gnawing incisors.

These are, to my knowledge, the first enemy yet that are impervious to any form of player-dealt damage and effectively remain a constant nuisance throughout the entire quest.  However, their addition makes perfect thematic sense if you consider the ambushed heroes dealing with a leaky boat and a continual water rat infestation (reminds me of that scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when the underground rat horde attack Indy!)  Yet, just one set of rat enemies are not too much to contend with.  I actually found myself applying their continual attack of one each round as an undefended attack in which Gimli took the damage.  If anything, they offer a nice way of boosting Gimli's attack power up early on, but after that they just become a headache.  If two or even three copies of the Brown Water Rats come into play, though, you could have a real nasty problem on your hands.  You wouldn't want to broadcast it too much that you lost a quest on account of a few rats, now would you?  Thankfully, during my first couple playthroughs, I only encountered one copy each time.

After my heroes took out the first Hill Troll, jumped in their canoes, and headed downstream the Anduin, many more enemies rushed out on shore to engage them.  During one game, I did have to suffer a loss early on during this stage on account of both Goblin Snipers appearing in the riparian treetops; two damage each round to both player deck heroes was just too much to deal with and I had no way of ridding myself of their foul arrows.  Another of the new enemies did emerge that I was able to bring out of the staging area and cross blades with, the Anduin Troll Spawn.  This rambunctious, lumbering mass threw a massive boulder right at Boromir's head, but luckily he dodged it without harm, regained his footing, and with the assistance of Gimli and Legolas the three companions smote the troll down, slamming face first into the turbulent running waters.  Another of the new nightmare enemies are the Marshland Outlaws.  The heroes did not encounter these rouges during any of my initial playthroughs; however, they did pop up as a shadow effect once or twice.

When not dealing with the new enemies, the Fellowship did have to journey through some new hostile locations as they drifted down river.  More than once, the Gladden Marshlands came into view and my heroes suffered the consequences of being in that dreadful place.  At a ridiculously high threat of ten, it was essential to have a copy of Secret Paths in my player deck to deal with this location since the only alternative was to significantly damage my heroes to decrease its threat.  Likewise, even after traveling to this location, a quest point level of ten is also extremely high, making the Gladden Marshlands one of the most heinous of any locations that I have yet to see in this game.  Finding themselves in A Flooded Ford may also be the heroes' fate throughout the quest.  This location has an ongoing effect that reads "Each card revealed by the encounter deck gains doomed X. X is the number of progress tokens on this card." The best way to deal with this location is to be absolutely sure you can quest through the entire value of its quest points in one phase; otherwise, any remaining progress is going to add a horrifying amount of doom increase the following turn during the staging step.  Taken together, these two locations are extremely wicked and can heavily slow progress, halt it altogether, and end the game early.

Just when the Fellowship thought they had made it to safety and escaped the worst of the enemies and locations, a final pursuit on the shore took place.  Remember how you always had that feeling of security once one (or even both) of the Hill Trolls were defeated and placed in the victory display?  That all changes with Nightmare mode's new treachery card.

Pursuit on the Shore's when revealed (and non-cancelable effect) reads "Search the victory display and encounter discard pile for the enemy with the most hit points. Return that enemy to the staging area. If no enemy was returned by this effect, Pursuit on the Shore gains surge."  Now, if this treachery is revealed early on in the quest before a Hill Troll is slain, it will still cause problems with its surge ability or possibly returning another enemy that was just killed.  However, if this card shows up mid-to-late game, guess whose coming back?  The Hill Troll.  Theoretically, since there are two copies of this treachery card and two Hill Trolls, the worst case scenario would be that you would have to deal with the Hill Troll four different times!  In both my initial games, this treachery did bring a Hill Troll back from the victory display and my heroes had to deal with it all over again.  

After two losses, I finally pulled off a narrow victory on the third try against Nightmare Journey Along the Anduin.  Throughout this post, I might have made many of the newly added cards sound terrible and hard to cope with, but that is exactly what makes this scenario so much more fun now!  Similar to Nightmare Passage Through Mirkwood, I really found myself having to think long and hard before I took any actions.  Throughout this quest, the combat was explosive each round as I battled the trolls, but I also had to worry about the foul locations and pulverizing treacheries that could crop up.  Between the two nightmare quests, I do think I enjoyed Journey Along the Anduin better than Passage Through Mirkwood.  It has always been a favorite of mine, and its Nightmare mode makeover make it all the more thematic, engaging, and entertaining.  I don't foresee myself ever going back to the vanilla version of this quest now, unless of course I get tired of all the Hill Trolls massing on the shore!

Thanks for reading and be sure to watch out for rats during your next aquatic quest!