And we round out Nightmare Black Riders with Nightmare Flight to the Ford. In one respect oddly the Nightmare version of this quest can work out more normally than the standard version, though due to my hero lineup I’m going to be kind of just ploughing through much as I would in the standard version.
I refer of course to the Fell Riders, where in standard difficulty you’re almost forced to engage all of them with one player otherwise the Ringbearer’s life is reduced. The Nightmare version of Fell Riders instead reduce the Ringbearer’s life if you chump-block them, but due to my starting threat levels, I will probably nevertheless be immediately engaging them with the first deck. This of course was the problem I mentioned in the Nightmare Shadow of the Past blog post which caused me to switch out Hama for Beorn – I can’t really avoid immediately engaging Fell Riders, so I need to have some way to immediately deal with them, and since it’s plural I couldn’t just go for a classic Hama-lock.
In general, as with the other two Black Riders quests, Nightmare plays quite similarly to standard difficulty, only more difficult (obviously). The Ringbearer’s life is gradually sapped away, every round and by assorted encounter card effects, and you race to reach the end of the quest before it hits 0. The big memorable difference is the Nightmare version of the Ford of Bruinen, which puts Nazgul into play rather than getting rid of them. It’s a shame to lose that very thematic effect, but obviously Nightmare is supposed to be hard and the standard difficulty Ford of Bruinen was tremendously powerful if you could get it set up right.
So how do I approach this quest? Well, it’s important to note that Power in Their Terror is in this quest as well, so I still want to be careful about my choice of allies. General order of the day is just to quest as hard as I can, but that can only really be achieved if I also get rid of all the Nazgul who are going to swarm me. I already have the means to beat them in combat once I’m set up (helped along by Haldir’s newly acquired attack boost), but the fact I have to immediately engage Fell Riders and I start with two of them in play is a bit of a problem, so I want to think about ways of controlling the potential Nazgul swarm early on.
Vigilance Against the Darkness
Heroes:
Gandalf
Beorn
Galadriel
Allies (11):
Arwen Undomiel x3
Galadriel’s Handmaiden x3
Bilbo Baggins x2
Treebeard x2
Bofur (Sp) x1
Attachments (25):
Bow of the Galadhrim x3
Gondorian Shield x3
Unexpected Courage x3
Mirror of Galadriel x3
Light of Valinor x3
Gandalf’s Staff x3
Nenya x3
Wizard Pipe x2
Shadowfax x2
Events (14):
Feint x3
A Test of Will x3
Elrond’s Counsel x3
Dwarven Tomb x3
The Galadhrim’s Greeting x2
Thoughts: Given that this quest is something of a rush to the finish, I omitted Gather Information this time, and Greetings are back down to a x2 as threat isn’t as much of a concern as in the previous quest. Instead the Handmaidens are back to provide a bit of extra willpower towards that quest rush, and Treebard is down to x2. The rest hasn’t changed.
All Strengths Combined
Heroes:
Balin
Haldir of Lorien
Denethor
Allies (5):
Elrond x3
Gildor Inglorion x1
Faramir x1
Attachments (19):
Fellowship of the Ring x3
Lembas x3
Steward of Gondor x3
King Under the Mountain x3
Dunedain Mark x3
Celebrian’s Stone x2
A Burning Brand x2
Events (26):
Daeron’s Runes x3
Gildor’s Counsel x3
Secret Paths x3
Noiseless Movement x3
Fresh Tracks x3
Campfire Tales x3
We Are Not Idle x3
Sneak Attack x3
Parting Gifts x2
Thoughts: No Elf-stones this time – as nice as it is to get allies cheap, I can afford them. And Path of Need isn’t be needed here as there isn’t a specific moment when all the Nazgul appear at once, it’s mostly just the normal run of random encounter deck reveals. Burning Brand, as useful as it is, is still a lower priority than most other things so it gets the bump down to x2. And instead I have some means to potentially avoid getting swarmed by too many Nazgul at once. Noiseless Movement and Fresh Tracks can both stop a Nazgul engaging me, and the point of damage from Fresh Tracks could allow me to take it out slightly faster if Haldir isn’t fully geared up yet.
The rest of the deck hasn’t changed.
https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/7450/thelineunbroken-nmflighttotheford
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/13049/thelineunbroken-nmflighttotheforddeck1-1.0
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/13050/thelineunbroken-nmflighttotheforddeck2-1.0
Warden of Arnor 