I recently received the last three Dream Chaser Nightmare Packs and as these have not yet been spoiled anywhere else I am posting them here for any who may be interested. I have not actually played any of these three new Nightmare quests just yet but I am quite eager to try out Nightmare Drowned Ruins when I have some time to do so. I am not a big fan of the sailing mechanic so the other two are not quite as exciting to me but of the two others City of Corsairs looks more interesting, especially given only half the quest is spent on the water and the second half is spent on land. Not only this but it is also the final epic showdown against Captain Sahir.

Lets get to the spoilers!!

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First off is The Drowned Ruins which is a fantastic quest but somewhat easier on the combat side, I actually played it quite recently and found that once you are setup combat is a breeze and only the nasty underwater locations and questing continues to pose any real challenge. The Nightmare version looks like it changes this big time! Not only do we see two new heavy hitters, the Great Shark and Undersea Cave Troll but we also see four copies of the new Submerged Dead enemy which has more or less the same ability as the awful Cursed Dead enemy from The Lost Realm but with stronger stats! The Shark gets buffed the further along you are for each Underwater location you have explored and the Undersea Cave Troll has a brand new excess damage ability as per the trademark ability of Trolls in this game. The new Grotto and Underwater locations provide new nasty ways for the encounter deck to hurt you and the new location Flooded Caverns can really ruin your day not only by boosting the total threat in staging but also by removing Underwater locations from your victory display placing them back in the Grotto Deck..

Lastly we have the two new treacheries: Sulfur Cloud and Pit into the Depths.

Pit into the Depths forces you to flip an active Grotto location to its Underwater side which can really mess with your board state and force you into travelling to an Underwater location well before you are ready to do so. Sulfur Cloud can severely limit how much progress you can place on an active Underwater location for a round by forcing you to raise all players threat by half the amount of total progress that you want to place that round! This could be extremely detrimental forcing you to stay Underwater longer than you want/can afford to do so or by bumping your threat by a ton. Overall this Nightmare quest looks a ton harder than the original and certainly seems to buff what I have always thought was the easiest or least troublesome aspect of this quest which is combat and a lack of any real boss or pseudo-boss enemies.

My pick for Nastiest card/s: Great Shark! Either a ton of threat in staging or one very nasty foe! Flooded Caverns and Pit into the Depths are close runners-up as they can really hinder your progress or decimate your careful planning entirely.

My pick for best art: Great Shark!!! Just such a great piece of art and such a deadly looking beastie! I love the marbled look on the top half of the shark. Submerged Crawlway also features some fantastic art.

Here is an imgur album for those who wish to peruse at their own leisure: https://imgur.com/a/PKAbNiM

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Next up is A Storm on Cobas Haven, the ultimate Naval Battle quest! One of my favourite aspects of this quest are the unique Dol Amroth objectives you need to take control of. They provide additional effects for players to trigger in order to help them in this overwhelming nautical gauntlet. We get two new Objectives in the Nightmare version of this quest and on top of this you no longer get to choose which Objective starts in the staging area during setup and this is now random instead! The new enemies are pretty deadly as the Ramming Ship can inflict some serious damage on Player Ships and the new Corsair enemy; Fang of Sahir provides additional direct damage to ships if you can’t take an additional attack instead. Some of the new Nightmare locations follow in a similar suit by providing even more direct damage against Player Ship cards, this clearly seems to be the main focus for the cards added in the Nightmare version; a ship-ton of extra damage dealt to Player Ships! At least the new Objective card Docks of Dol Amroth provides a new way for players to heal their Ships. Both new treacheries also focus on Ship cards either stopping them from readying – Grappled!, or by seriously crippling a specific Ship card by breaking its rudder! – Broken Rudder. One really neat new mechanic that we see in both this Nightmare quest and the next (City of Corsairs) is that certain encounter cards trigger nasty effects when they are revealed during Sailing Tests. This works really well both thematically and mechanically especially Broken Rudder which is an absolute homerun thematically. This Nightmare quest seems to really add a lot and it will be interesting to see just how much this actually changes the original quest.

My pick for Nastiest card: Honestly nothing seems THAT bad in this Nightmare Quest but the Ramming Ship probably wins just because it has such low engagement and can do some really nasty damage to one of your ships early on. War Torn Waters would be my choice of runner-up as it can attach to objectives you have already claimed negating their beneficial ability until you can reclaim them while simultaneously doing additional damage to your ship objective cards.

My pick for best art: This is a hard choice indeed! There is some really beautiful art in this pack but I have to go with Docks of Dol Amroth ultimately, the picture I took doesn’t really do it justice and others who get this pack will hopefully see what I mean and agree. Aearlang, City Under Siege, Sea Wall and Grappled! are all really gorgeous as well.

Here is an imgur album for those who wish to peruse at their own leisure: https://imgur.com/a/F0apx2n

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Last up is The City of Corsairs. I am a big fan of the second half of this quest once you are no longer sailing along the coast and are instead struggling to survive on the streets of Umbar itself while you also attempt to pursue Captain Sahir. In the Nightmare version of this quest the infamous Cursed Sword has its own card and it provides Sahir with a nasty effect that punishes you for chump blocking against him. Well before you even make it this far however you have to avoid the new Patrol Ships that are eager to seek you out and engage you if you are off course. They can even enter play during Sailing tests which would result in quite a nasty surprise indeed! The new Corsair Loyalist enemy has one hell of an ability, it may not seem like that much of a threat at first given its stats but undefended attacks with a base attack strength of 4 are no joke at all and can immediately result in hero deaths if you can’t avoid or cancel them somehow. Four resources isn’t that hard for an enemy to achieve either especially in the Nightmare version of this quest. If one of the new treacheries such as Slave Trade or Raise the Alarm triggers in a big way you could see a Corsair Loyalist with 4 resources very quickly indeed. The last new enemy; Umbar Patrol, can also quickly rack up resources on enemies providing another way for the Corsair Loyalist to become a hero killer! The final treachery included in the Nightmare version of this quest; Inspiring Fury, gives the strongest foe in play one hell of a boost during its next attack. This Nightmare quest looks like it makes what was already quite a tough quest to begin with into even more of a tense bloodbath. Enemies will be fierce indeed with all the new cards that provides them with resources and the various ways that this quest then punishes you and buffs enemies for letting resources pile up on them. The more I write about this quest the more I am wanting to play it! I remember the original version being really fun and the showdown at the Shattered Monument against Captain Sahir is just so satisfying and epic.

My pick for Nastiest card: Corsair Loyalist for sure, undefended attacks higher than say 2 or max 3 attack strength are really bad news and will inevitably result in hero deaths if you don’t very quickly do something about them. With how quickly enemies seem to be able to obtain resources in the Nightmare version of this quest I imagine this foe will more or less always need to be defeated quickly to avoid said hero deaths. Inspiring Fury is certainly the runner-up as it provides the strongest enemy in play with three additional shadow cards and even worse immunity to cancellation for any shadow cards it receives during its next attack.. This treachery triggering on Captain Sahir while he has the sword is likely to be quite troublesome for even the strongest of decks!

My pick for best art: This is a tough one as nothing stands out specifically but quite a few of the pieces are really nice, unfortunately my pictures simply do not do some of them justice. Some of my favourites include Umbar Patrol and Corsair Loyalist as well as Umbar Bridge and Patrol Ship. If I really have to go with just one it would have to be Raise the Alarm, which some may find an odd choice. There is just something about the overall vibe and look of the art that I really like, it perfectly captures the theme of the card itself as well as the story behind the latter part of the quest. Foreign invaders have landed in Umbar and the alarm has well and truly been raised!

Here is an imgur album for those who wish to peruse at their own leisure:

https://imgur.com/a/lMTSGhx

I’d love to hear others thoughts on these new Nightmare packs and what your picks would be for nastiest card or best art. These are the final Nightmare quests for the Dreamchaser cycle and I am very interested and excited to see what FFG have in store for us when it comes to Nightmare Sands of Harad and the Haradrim Cycle. I can’t wait to see some dark yet beautiful Desert, Jungle and Harad themed Nightmare art. As always I hope you enjoyed the read and more importantly the new Nightmare spoilers!