Wow, so after four more attempts at Nightmare Shadow and Flame I can tell you I made a mistake in judging its difficulty big time! Four more losses against this quest and my first attempt at it remains my best attempt as well!
I got crushed after a few rounds the first three attempts and then lost/conceded during staging the fourth attempt. I had Leaping Flame appear as the card during staging making the Balrog attack the first player. His shadow card was Flame of Udun which reveals another three shadow cards from the normal encounter deck one of which was Inner Flame giving The Balrog +3 attack (putting him up to 9) and instantly killing Elrohir....... utter annihilation... Goblin Swordsman was also added to the staging area as it was one of the other shadow cards.. I've conceded or lost a hero during staging a couple of times before but this was probably the nastiest staging I've ever encountered just utterly demolishing a hero instantly and eradicating any hope I had that attempt/round.
Now playing this quest with Galadriel and keeping your threat at zero is a no brainer and a very easy way to overcome the Balrog attacking. If you have 3 Galahadrims Greeting and 3 Elronds Council you should be able to reduce threat back to zero and stop its attacks even if a doomed card appears using Galadriel.
I see pretty much any deck without Galadriel struggling against this quest however as it punishes you for both chump blocking AND using a powerful single defender so any type of defense will be challenged greatly.
I used a combination of chump blocking and using Elrohir as a super defender and if I get a really lucky start and first few turns and great draws I may be able to beat it eventually but it is very very hard for my decks.
I also run x3 Feint and x3 Feigned Voices both of which are amazing for this quest but only really give you a temporary respite...
Pretty much to beat this quest you need to stop the Balrog from attacking as often as possible whilst also attempting to keep your threat at zero (or at least reducing it back to zero several times to stop attacks).
Every single attack can risk your entire game and potentially cause a loss or crippling blow you cannot come back from. The other nightmare cards (other than the attack cards) really aren't that bad and the entire focus of this new nightmare quest is the force and strength of the Balrogs attacks and your party attempting to bring it down before these attacks decimate them entirely. Something else to note is that if you cop a doomed card during setup or the first turn you will miss out on not having to deal with any attacks from The Balrog until turn 2 and may very well lose simply because of this, the first round is absolutely critical! If you can get a second round in without any Balrog attacks with a feint from one deck and Elronds Council from the other even better! I cannot stress enough how important it is to stop the Balrog from attacking as much as posible and getting through the entire quest as fast as possible.
Now for a rundown of the new nightmare cards.
Servant of Flame is an awesome new nightmare card that although not very keeping with lore has fantastic art. I really don't think that Durins Bane actually controlled or led Orcs so this new enemy is quite strange. Perhaps it is an Orc Sauron has sent to help/keep an eye on the Balrog however its name Servant of Flame quite strongly suggests it serves The Balrog itself. Anyway on to the cards actual abilities. Without damage on Durins Bane its a pretty strong enemy with 5 attack and 4 defense and reasonable 5 hitpoints (which stops Gandalf from killing it outright). This can be a little difficult to deal with, especially early game, but is not THAT much of a threat. Its three threat in a quest you need to get through fast is pretty nasty as well. If you have damage on Durins Bane it has only 3 attack and 2 defense and becomes much more managable. The shadow effect is truly nasty bringing a new card into staging, because it has to have the shadow or flame trait it means it can only equip Durins Bane with a counterspell, Flaming Sword or Many Thonged Whip all of which are AWFUL cards that make Durins Bane much stronger and difficult to deal with. I had this card appear a few times, each time it was an enemy it was pretty nasty but easily overcome with my strong decks, when it appeared as a shadow card however it was devastating and the Counterspell I attached to Durins Bane stopped me from using A Test of Will on something I really needed to cancel. This put me in a very bad spot and contributed towards the loss I had that round. The shadow effect also seems to imply he helps/serves Durins Bane directly providing it with one of its very powerful weapons or a counterspell.
A fairly nasty new card that is pure evil as a shadow card.
Captain of Mordor, a new enemy that is not quite as rough as the last one but still pretty nasty. More or less as easy to kill with low defense but decent highpoints and its attack of 4 isn't too bad but nothing to laugh at either. Its single effect of reducing the engagement cost of all enemies by 20 can either do more or less nothing (if there are no/few other enemies in play or if you plan to engage all enemies anyway which is often the case so that you can kill them quickly and only have to fight Durins Bane on its own again) or can destroy you if there are several enemies you don't want to engage and already have to deal with attacks from Durins Bane. Every run in I had with this card was fine but I can definitely imagine it bringing down several strong enemies from staging as well as itself and rampaging a player. Due to the very low threat you play with during this quest this effect may not even do much anyway. The shadow effect is not so bad but if it came up the round that you need to place the last required damage on Durins Bane before being able to discard it, it could very well spell a loss. Pretty cool thematically as he leads a charge of enemies being a Captain of Mordor.
The locations seem nastier than the enemies in this nightmare quest and Fiery Depths is the first of two very difficult to deal with locations. First off 5 threat is very troublesome... very troublesome indeed, especially considering its hard to travel to and also cannot be explored while in the staging area!!
Pretty much you have to travel here the turn it is revealed which means some damage to some heroes (or just one in solo play obviously) as well as some minor healing to the Balrog. If you already have too much damage on your heroes this could kill someone. As well as this because it says you must im not sure if you can travel there if Durins Bane has no damage on it. This is how I played which made it much much harder. Its not quite as bad if you can travel there when there is no damage on Durins Bane but still a very very nasty card.
No shadow effect however which is very good, there are more than enough nasty shadow effects in this quest!
And the other super nasty location... Crumbling Stairs only has a threat of 2 and once it is the active location and out of staging does not contribute its effect. It does have 5 progress points however so can slow you down fairly badly. Its effect is devastating while its in staging as events (lowering threat, stopping attacks etc) are integral to this quest and holding Durins Bane off long enough to defeat it. This location whilst not as bad as the other has a shadow effect that can be truly brutal discarding all event cards in a players hand... Again you need these events for this quest so this can be utterly crippling.
Ok so even though some of those nightmare cards were pretty nasty there aren't that many of them and spread throughout a decently sized encounter deck means you also do not have that many appear in most playthroughs. It is the following five nightmare cards that are the true challenge of this quest, here they are:
First off Terrible Strength. This cards effect only kicks in if the character is destroyed so as long as you don't chump block it does nothing. If you do however..... it completely gets around this doing the rest of the damage to another character AND exhausting them! If your chump blocker only absorbed one or two damage this could easily kill another character and if you don't have a second ally to sacrifice to this effect it can easily take a hero out. Very nasty effect but only triggers if the defending character dies to the attack. I really love the way Durins Bane is portrayed in this card as it is very different to usual and looks fantastic, you'll notice each of these 5 "attack" cards have really cool art potraying very different and interesting versions or portrayels of the Balrog or its devastating attacks. This version seems quite reptilian and looks a bit like Diablo from Diablo 2. He is flinging/throwing aside the defending/destroyed character it seems and grasping another in his hand that the first character could not protect due to the Terrible Strength of the Balrog.
Number 2 and another one that is very nasty but not one of the worst two. I will do the worst 2 of these 5 attack cards at the end. The Dark Fire simply heals the Balrog for each point of damage it does with this attack. If you chump block this could be alot, if you used a strong defender and took no damage/only a point or two then it only heals a few points of damage or none and is fairly weak. Towards the end of the quest when you desperately need to get more damage on Durins Bane this could potentially heal it to a point that you cannot hope to overcome it anymore. In most cases not that bad a card at all considering but definitely has the potential to be just as strong as any other attack cards given the right conditions. The art on this card show a close up of the Balrogs face and the flames that surround it. It looks very demonic in this picture.
The third and last of the new Attack cards that are nasty but not the worst of the bunch. Flame of Udun (AWESOME card name by the way) deals Durins Bane 3 additional shadow cards from the encounter deck instead of the Balrog deck. These three shadow cards could be devastating or could have no effect. Either way though unless you get Inner Flame as one of them or get 3 cards all with shadow effects you are almost guaranteed that this will not be as bad as one of the other attack cards effects and results. This may be my favorite shadow card to see dealt to Durins Bane as it is usually not very powerful and gives a temporary respite. Like any of the attack cards however it has potential to be utterly devastating and as mentioned above it bringing out inner flame during staging resulted in a loss during staging so hey maybe I'm badly estimating the power of this card!
Every other time I had it appear however it was not very bad at all and was definitely preferred to many of the other attack cards. The art on this card depicts the Balrog as entirely covered and surrounded by flames. It also appears to be pressing forward as all the flames are blowing backward, as well as this it is brandishing its Whip of Flame.
Alright time for the two nastiest new nightmare cards!
Morgoth's Bidding makes the Balrog attack again if its attack destroyed a character. Therefore if you chump and get this card get ready for a second attack! I know this may not seem as bad as Terrible Strength at first but remember this second attack gets a second new attack shadow card which could in of itself be utterly devastating as well. You could even (Eru forbid!) cop two of this shadow card in a row allowing the Balrog to attack three times. If it has Fiery Sword or the Whip attachment the extra attack is an even more devastating effect. One hell of a nasty nightmare card... it makes using a chump blocker very very dangerous...
The art on this card (which the flavour text gives away) is of a character being sliced by the Balrogs sword, probably in half! It is cool thematically as The Balrog instantly destroys a character with a fast single sweep of his blade and is able to make a second attack immediately before the heroes can even react or strike back. The art is not quite as clear as it could have been and really is just of a faceless ally being hit with a large amount of flame, if not for the flavour text you would not really be able to tell its even a sword. A very very cool but weird name for this card as well, the attack the Balrog is making with his sword is clearly not Morgoths Bidding as Morgoth is in the void... but the Balrog did originally serve Morgoth and did his every bidding so its destructive nature and actions are somewhat ALL Morgoths Bidding in a way.
Ahhhhh Blazing Grip.... potentially the only reason I have not yet beaten this nightmare quest yet!
Oh whats that most of the other attack cards all punish you for chump blocking so instead you should gear up a strong defensive hero, give him Sentinel and use him for the majority of defensive duties (or all if possible) against Durins Bane? Yeah nope.... If you do that and this card is revealed you are in for a nightmare of a shock.... your shield, your armour your every attachment will be discarding AND that hero will instantly take one damage. Without any of the defensive boosts (Arwen is the only boost you can still have after equipment is discard) the most defense you can have on a hero after this card takes effect is 5 (Beregond with Arwen) and this is pretty unlikely. You are more likely to have either 3 defense on someone like Elrond or Elrohir or four defense if you have Arwen buffing them. Durins Bane has 6 base attack (9 if sword is equipped.....) already so after stopping 3 to 4 of that the hero will still take at least 2 to 3 damage as well as the one damage this card instantly deals. This is enough to outright kill a hero in most situations (especially if they have ANY damage on them already whatsoever) or at least critically wound them. Without any of their attachments anymore even if fully healed you have lost your awesome defender and in a very bad spot. Unless you got an army of chumps (you were somehow able to afford and play as well as all your awesome attachments) or a full hand of all the attachments you just lost or another character just as built up you will be put in a very very hard to come back from situation that you will almost 100% lose. As most of you will know my playstyle depends heavily on Elrohir to take on almost all defensive duties as an almost unkillable tank. Against The Balrog he falls easily.... Even combining the use of chumps and Elrohir as a super defender has not worked so far...
Because of the variety of attacks the balrogs attacks can have and how badly they can punish you for both using chumps or a strong defender it is very hard to plan a defense against it and both luck as well as stopping attacks in the first place play a very large factor in beating it.
One last thing to mention about this card is that if it appears when you have chump blocked it deals 1 damage to the ally instantly (which often kills chumps as the majority of chumps used only have 1 hitpoint) which discards them and makes the attack undefended... unless you have Beorn hero or Beregond with Citadel Plate this amount of undefended damage will kill a hero for sure. So in reality this attack card actually punishes both chump blockers AND proper defenders.... The only answer to this card is chump blocking with an ally with more than one hitpoint, I honestly cannot think of any other way around it...... one hell of a nasty card...
The art for this card whilst simple is amazing and highly thematic, it simply potrays a character being grabbed by The Balrog and destroyed/greatly injured by its massive strength and intense heat alone. The heat and crushing hand alone destroys any equipment that character might have had and also instantly damages them. The Balrog obviously then can use its other hand (or sword or whip) to utterly destroy this character.
Alongside those new nameless one enemies in nightmare foundations of stone this may be one of the nastiest nightmare cards to date.
Hope you all enjoyed the read and hopefully I can beat this quest before I get another 10 losses in and get frustrated! Without Galadriel hero I'm pretty sure this quest is just as hard as Nightmare Escape from Dol Guldur or Nightmare Return to Mirkwood!
Just on his own, but then there are technically two players.
