The Marks of Soft Feet

"If a man must needs walk in sight of the Black Gate, or tread the deadly flowers of Morgul Vale, then perils he will have. I, too, despaired at last, and I began my homeward journey. And then, by fortune, I came suddenly on what I sought: the marks of soft feet beside a muddy pool. But now the trail was fresh and swift, and it led not to Mordor but away."

~ Aragorn

The Fellowship of the Ring

Book II, Chapter II: The Council of Elrond

Though I'm a little late to the party, I have finally had the chance to play all three of the core set nightmare mode renditions of the original quests.  My initial thoughts on each one were that they do a great job of updating these quests while also making them feel much more thematic and distinctive.  My favorite nightmare makeover was, without question, Journey Along the Anduin due to how different it felt and the increased level of peril throughout it.  After playing each of these three "new" quests, I began to develop a few expectations for the next round of nightmare mode enhancements that are focused on the Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle.

The first expectation is a rather obvious one: each of these quests will all be harder, but not in a hit your head against an Osgiliath ruin way, but rather in a more engaging, thematic, and involving manner.  Another expectation that I had was that I would enjoy the new nightmare mode enhancements better than the original version of the quest.  But enough about all that, let's start off with the very first Adventure Pack quest to be released, the Hunt for Gollum, to see just how different it is once you travel there in an all new nightmarish reality.

In the original Hunt for Gollum scenario, I really enjoyed the gameplay mechanism in which the players are searching for Signs of Gollum, or clues, in order to pick up his trail.  The opening narrative explains that everyone's favorite grey wizard has asked the heroes to search for the skulking creature and they begin their hunt in the Anduin River Valley between the Misty Mountains on the West and the dark forest of Mirkwood to the East.  The whole quest revolves around the ongoing pursuit for these hidden clues, but it is enhanced by the fact that the heroes are not the only ones looking.  There are several dangerous Hunters from Mordor who are also searching for Gollum, and they become much more fearsome when there are fresh tracks and additional clues unearthed from the encounter deck.  To further build upon the theme and location setting, there are also some scurrying Goblintown Scavengers that have descended from the depths of their Misty Mountain home to cause some trouble.

Before the horrendous search begins, let's introduce the heroes that Gandalf specifically chose to hunt the creature down.  Serving the roles of Leadership and Lore are Sam Gamgee, Pippin, and Faramir.  By and large, this player deck is a Ranger/Trap one with several affiliated allies, a couple Forest Snares, and three copies of my personal favorite trap card: Ranger Spikes.  As always, Sam is joined by his trusty steed, Bill the Pony, and is also on the lookout for a Steward of Gondor to purchase for Faramir in an effort to adequately fuel the allies and traps.

Accompanying the Hobbits and young Gondorian Ranger are Legolas, Beregond, and Glorfindel, hailing from the Tactics and Spirit spheres, respectively.  The Elves know the Anduin River Valley region well and bring a powerful attack strength that will be invaluable against the agents of Mordor, and Beregond brings his usual assortment of attachments to prepare him for any hostilities that may arise.  Patrolling Vassals of the Windlord and Winged Guardians also kettle high above the area and may drop in to assist the heroes if need arises.

From the onset of the quest, one of the first things nightmare mode does to further complicate the heroes' search is to add several treachery cards that give a distinct advantage to the Orcs and Goblins who are also traipsing about the river lowlands.  When The Enemy's Trail is encountered, a previously "missed" clue (usually due to its appearance only as a shadow card effect) is revived from the encounter discard pile and placed on a Mordor traited enemy in play. However, if the heroes have already successfully discovered a clue and claimed it, the Restless Hunters treachery effect takes it directly off of them and places it on a Mordor enemy instead.

During my first playthrough, both of these treacheries appeared early on when there were no clues in play yet; so, they simple surged to the next card without an effect.  If these effects occurred late in the game, however, they could culminate in some seriously bad results, especially in the final phase of the quest in which each player must have a clue attached to one of their heroes in order to participate in the questing phase.  To further deter the players, a few inhospitable locations have also been added that the heroes must deal with in their search for Stinker.  To add to the restrictions caused by lack of attached clues, the Watched Path location prevents all players from drawing cards through card effects if they have yet to acquire any Signs of Gollum.  Though this isn't the most damaging of restrictions, it does also bring a hefty threat of three to the staging area.  Likewise, also sitting at three threat are the Dark Pools which are immune to progress tokens while in the staging area (sorry Asfaloth lovers!)  This murky location comes with a rather nasty forced effect once the heroes travel to it: "After Dark Pools becomes the active location, each player must discard an ally with the highest printed cost among the allies he controls."  I found myself leaving this location in the staging area for the duration of the quest in order not to make my best two allies start a new northerly segment of the Dead Marshes.  

"...where the warg howls, there also the Orc prowls."   ~ Aragorn, FotR

Remember some of the previously mentioned boosts that the Hunters from Mordor receive in nightmare mode?  Well, they're not over quite yet.  These big bad Orcs are now patrolling with a scouting pack of Hunting Wargs as well as a Hunter's Lookout to fall back to and build up their defenses.  This new enemy and location both assure that more of the Orc Hunters will be on the prowl as well as much more dangerous to the heroes.  Overall, the trickiest part of this quest is to find the perfect time to seize the clues in the staging area and escape the region (beat the quest) as quickly as possible before the Hunters get out of control.  At one point, there were two clues in play, which made each Hunter of Mordor surmise a threat and attack strength of six.  Luckily, a handy copy of Radagast's Cunning kept the quest phase from going completely downhill, but it goes to show that these Orcs are not messing around as the search heats up.

That just about sums up many of the new treacheries, locations, and enemies in the new nightmare enhancement of the Hunt for Gollum.  I have saved the best (well, my favorite) new addition for last, and that goes to the other new Creature traited enemy: the Ravenous Hawk.  Perhaps it's my favorite because I'm a huge fan of birding and raptors or perhaps it's because the artwork of a deranged hawk eating a deer carcass is awesome beyond words.  At any rate, I was actually looking forward to these guys soaring out the encounter deck and extending their talons toward Beregond's face.  Unfortunately, that young whippersnapper Faramir decided it'd be a good idea to throw some traps in the staging area, and both of the evil hawks that arrived on the scene were imprisoned!  So, throughout the quest, I never had the heart to engage and kill these awesome birds (and coincidentally, Faramir didn't mind the attack boost either!)

My initial reactions to the Nightmare Hunt for Gollum quest are positive across the board.  The original quest was never a particularly difficult one, and even with this nightmare mode enhancement, it didn't appear to be too over-the-top on the brutal scale.  It's just a fun, thematically distinct quest that is now even more focused toward finding clues and high-tailing it out of there before the Hunters from Mordors find you (or the Ravenous Hawks gouge your eyes out.)   I'm really looking forward to my additional playthroughs of this quest using other heroes and deck builds.

Thanks for reading!