DECIPHER.com > Lord of the Rings > Expansions > Reflections

Keep On Moving

by Brad DeFruiter
Decipher Game Designer

Elendil was one of the leaders of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men that overthrew Sauron. As leader of the faithful, he was a great mariner who gathered the Númenóreans and in nine boats landed in Linden and established the Kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.

The Mariner makes a big splash in Reflections. If post-Reflections playtest decks are a sign of things to come, we will all be seeing quite a bit of Elendil. But you all knew that when he did show up, everyone would take notice.

With a hefty twilight cost and spotting requirements, Elendil will not be showing up in any starting fellowships. But it is worth having an extra copy of him in your draw deck. A natural vitality of five is nothing to take lightly. It pretty much means that killing Elendil won't happen very often. Then when you take into account his Aragorn-like strength number and Elendil becomes a minion's worst nightmare.

His special abilities don't fall short either. With all the site control going on and the influx of new, cool Gondor artifacts, Elendil's regroup ability will turns some heads. You don't have to liberate every site either for Elendil to have a profound affect. Just liberate a site at the right moment and shake up the game in your favor.

Elendil's fellowship special ability is the one that really turns some heads. Play an artifact on Elendil and the move limit is increased. Many a story has been and will be told of Elendil increasing the move limit and helping set up a triple move from site six to site nine for the win. Of course the artifact to play on Elendil is the legendary Narsil.

Narsil, Blade of the Faithful – like Aiglos – is a hand weapon that offers a strength bonus that is determined by how big you want it to be. The more Gondor artifacts you play the bigger the strength bonus. Elendil with his blade are pretty hard to combination to beat. The extra vitality helps keep Elendil on the table and the response text helps take care of any 'surprise' wounds that might pop up.

But it is often the second copy of Narsil that is more important. Elendil will discard the first copy of Narsil during the regroup phase and that second copy of Narsil will be played in the following fellowship phase to increase the move limit. Now, break out the traveling music as Elendil pushes minions aside. Move on, Mariner, move on.

April 15, 2004