The Dead Marshes Adventure Pack
After scouring the Emyn Muil for signs of Gollum, the heroes of Middle-earth followed his trail south. Now Gollum takes desperate risks to elude the heroes in a realm of treacherous fens and mires.
The Dead Marshes is the fifth Adventure Pack in the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game! The hunt for Gollum draws to a close… unless he finds his way to escape once and for all.
The Dead Marshes introduces a Quest featuring the unique, new Escape mechanic that allows players to experience how slippery Gollum can be! With 60 new cards for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, The Dead Marshes enhances existing decks with new Allies, Attachments, and Treachery cards. This expansion also offers players an iconic Hero and a wholly fresh Quest experience.
This is not a stand-alone deck. A copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Core Set is required to play.
User Reviews (2)
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David in a previous review talked about the new cards that were in this expansion set. I am going to talk about the quest itself. The entire point of the quest is to try to get your hands on Gollum. But of course Gollum does not want to be captured, and he brings to this expansion an escape mechanic.
How the escape mechanic works is at the end of each questing phase 1 card is dealt per player from the encounter deck. So after you have already exhausted characters to commit to the quest, you have to exhaust additional characters to get past the escape test. A number of cards in the encounter deck have an escape test number on them. So if you are playing the game with two people, pull two cards, and count up the escape number on the cards. If you have exhausted enough characters whose hero points are higher than that target number you have successfully passed the escape test. If your number is equal too or lower you have failed the escape test and you place two token on Gollum. Anytime Gollum has more than eight tokens on him, he escapes and returns back to the encounter deck.
This is where you must use every ability you have to look at the top card of the encounter deck. If Gollum is wasted as a shadow card, he is placed back into the deck and you will have to wait for him to be shuffled through for a second time. There is no way to keep your threat low enough for this to happen. You will lose the quest and Gollum, the sneak, with escape.
Once you relocate Gollum, try to to put the correct number of tokens on the location, and end the scenario. There is one final escape test, but if you pass, you have your hands on the ugly creature, and you are off to your last adventure in this series.
To play this adventure be sure to bring cards that let you view the top of the encounter deck or Denethor. And have as many allies that can commit to quests as possible.
As mentioned in another review this pack also has helpful player cards. So put your boots on and enter the marsh. It may be a frustrating search but Gollum must be found.
The Hero
Boromir: A Tactics Hero with a threat cost of 11. Will 1 Attack 3 Defense 2 Hit points 5.
This character has a powerful ability that allows him to refresh for the gain of 1 threat. He has a second ability that is more thematic, but really it is only useful in absolute desperation measures. He can sacrifice himself to do 2 damage to each enemy engaged with a player. His ability to attack or defend multiple times should not be downplayed. Often, gaining 1 or 2 threat per turn, in exchange for characters surviving and killing monsters faster… is never a bad thing.
The Player Cards
With this set, the addition of a 1 cost eagle in Vassal of the Windlord really boosts the strength of eagle and tactics decks significantly. The previous Support of the Eagles is much stronger with this cheap ally. The player cards in this set may actually be the strongest in each sphere in a single pack. Fast Hitch increases the power of hobbits significantly and really makes a hobbit focused deck a much more interesting proposition. It gives a hobbit the ability to refresh an extra time per turn. Dunedain Watcher gives leadership some ability to cancel effects that typically it does not have access to. Elfhelm is a powerful spirit ally that can actually fight well and his ability to prevent threat gain makes him a plus in just about any deck.
The Quest
The Dead Marshes as a quest involves finally trying to get your hands on the elusive Gollum! That is what the whole quest line has led to. The quest is exciting and flavorful. The quest is not overly difficult and frustrating. It also offers a change of strategic play that is not so tedious or single-minded as Hills of Emyn-Muil.
Conclusion
This pack comes highly recommended for the quest, the hero, and the player cards. You really can’t lose with buying this pack. The new Escape mechanic is complicated, so you must be sure to keep the insert for the quest. That is probably the only complaint I would have about the quest. After not playing it for a while and revisiting it, the escape mechanic took some getting used to.