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So I'm still new to 40k and I'm building my first 1000 point (for now) Necron army. Looking for a good HQ to buff some of my troops and I don't see a lot of talk here about the Traveler. I think he's a cool looking model and I like his story. I also like the look of the Immortals (and DMs) the best and the thought of an HQ that specifically aids and pairs with Immortals well sounds fun. I don't see a lot of talk here about him. Why's that?
My other thought was Orikan but I see him around in comments and army lists and I like to be different. Maybe not the best idea for a newb haha.

So far all I have is randomly:
2 - 12 warrior units
1 - ghost ark
1 - Triarch Stalker
6 - scarab bases
1 - reg overlord
1 - unit of 5 immortals

Going to get TBs next for rec legion and can maybe work out a low point Decurion

What would be good to add if I choose Anrakyr? Or should I avoid him and just go Orikan or other?

I mean, he mostly gets use in the Pylonstar because he has Relentless as part of his Warlord Trait and he has Counter Attack to help on the odd occasion the unit gets charged.

Otherwise just stick him with some Wraiths I guess.

Can't advise you directly as I haven't used my Necrons that much, and I don't use Special Characters. However, you should play what you like, so if Anrakyr fits your play style, then go for it.

Dew wrote:

What would be good to add if I choose Anrakyr? Or should I avoid him and just go Orikan or other?

Anrakyr has some funky uses that come to light with his being a must include in a Pylon star.

His Mind in the Machine ability can be used to get an extra round of shooting from a randomly chosen gun on an allied Renegade Knight.

His BS 5 and Tachyon Arrow combos with the Destroyer Lord's Preferred Enemy to mean that that arrow hits 97% of the time.

His Warlord trait can also be used to give a unit of Wraiths equipped with Beamers Relentless. Wraiths don't normally have that unless they are in a Harvest formation. The Warlord Trait also grants Crusader in addtition to Relentess so it can restore 'Fleet running' to the Wraiths who might be slowed down by attached ICs and actually boost their virtual Initiative so they can sweep units.

Also, giving a unit of Immortals Furious Charge and Counter Attack is nothing to sneeze at.


So, is Anrakyr awesome? No.

Ideally, Anrakyr is used in a list that combines a Wraithstar with a Pylonstar or that combines a Pylonstar with a Renegade Knight.

The Warlord Trait grants Crusader and Relentless with a 12" bubble of influence so Anrakyr can often break off from the Pylonstar to join the Wraithstar for assault duty all the while still granting the Pylonstar Relentless.

Like the others mentioned he is kind of a niche HQ, I would not rush into acquiring him. I love Orikan, but you need a unit to stick him with, lychguarh or even wraiths. I focus on getting wraiths and a spyder first to complete a canoptek harvest. Nemesor is a must also.

Anrakyr is an HQ you will not get much use/efficiency out of if you don't take advantage of his rules to the absolute best. In a decurion, everything is relentless, so there's not much for him to buff. The Immortal squad getting the buff, is at most times a 5-man squad camping objectives at the back. If you're going to include Anrakyr, I guess you would have to invest in Immortals to make the buff worthwhile. (Nightscythe possibly and even a Lord with Veil or similar).

Orikan is only used in very certain situations. (And that's melee deathstars). Lychguard definetely do much better with Orikan arround, while the Wraiths are more debatable due to him limiting the speed of the Wraiths.

The named characters are quite limited in what they do. Noone is "a must" from them, but each one has a different flavor to add in your army. Your army, specifically, and from the looks of how you want to build it, does not seem to benefit from Anrakyr. However, if you like the model, it's entirely possible to go for the model and use him as a regular Overlord with a Warscythe (and any other upgrades you like).I am , personally, using Imortekh as my overlord most of the times.

Anrakyr is hard to use with Wraiths, as some people suggested, because 1) he is moving 6" a turn and does not have Wraithflight severly limiting the Wraiths' movement 2) he lacks an invulnerable save and will get picked off very easily in the case of challenges 3) He's far too expensive for an overlord with nothing but a Warscythe 4) You're going for Decurion so Wraiths (if you include them) will already be relentless 5) even if they weren't it's really not too much for Wraiths to be relentless. Their beamers are situational and, generally, most people avoid them.

Also, not getting him and going for Orikan instead is not a choice you have. Unfortunately, for the Rec.Legion you need an overlord and not a cryptek (Orikan is a cryptek). Instead, if you want to include Orikan, or Obyron, or any other lord/cryptek you would have to invest in a Royal Court. (Which honestly is quite useful, just about every list uses them. Our HQ's are pretty good)

Instead, your choices for Rec.Legion are Anrakyr, Zahndrekh Regular OL and CCB. From those, CCB is not very usefull most of the times, just nice in an AV13 spam list. Otherwise, due to the OL being alone and not very survivable, it's only a nice way to give up Warlord slain too easily. Anrakyr, as already said is very hard to make use of in a Decurion and Zahndrekh is not "bang for buck" but quite a fun overlord to have, due to the flexibility with the Warlord Traits. Mostly, however, I suppose most people find more value in plain overlords as you can buy upgrades for them as you want and make them fit the rest of your army.

The biggest issue I have with Rec.Legion is that Overlord requirement that cannot be cryptek/lord. I cannot find too many uses for those overlords outside of Lychstar, so it limits you to having to play Lychstar if you want to waste no points. However, lately, I made a Decurion that included, as per the usual, a small Immortal squad, that I also bought a Nightscythe for. Then, I bought Veil of Darkness, Staff of light and MSS for my Rec.Legion overlord and joined him with the Immortal squad. That way, they're less prone to dying immediately to assault and they can veil out, next movenemt phase. They're my "blink everywhere on the table, be quite tough to die and contest objectives" squad. Tried to keep this OL's cost at minimum with 115 points, but still I don't find this investment worth it.

Generally, the Overlord required for both Rec.Legion AND Royal court (before it lets you get any of the good crypteks/lords) is why I sometimes avoid fielding Decurion. 2 Overlords are way too many points not efficiently used.

As for you, I think the best choice is to buy the Anrakyr model. Try Anrakyr out if you want for some games and then you can switch to regular OL and still use the same model. I think it'd even be WYSIWYG. Zahndrekh, as already mentioned, is a very nice choice, especially for you since you're going with shooty force. Rec.Legion/Deathmarks/Judicator Battalion is, probably, a nice force for Zahdnrekh. Put the 10man warrior squad in the Ghost ark and the 14 squad on foot with Zahndrekh for maximum efficiency.

I'd also consider a cheap Veil of Darkness OL since, it's my favorite artifact of the Necrons, from 3rd edition. It's something very unique only to us, it's very fun (at least for me), sometimes it catches people off guard and with good tactical use it can really stand out and benefit you a lot.

As always, tons of good info here. Thanks for all the advice. You all make good points on Anrakyr and Orikan.

The thought of a specialized Immortals unit was fun but I see where it may be a bit of a waste..

 necr0n wrote:
Zahndrekh, as already mentioned, is a very nice choice, especially for you since you're going with shooty force. Rec.Legion/Deathmarks/Judicator Battalion is, probably, a nice force for Zahdnrekh. Put the 10man warrior squad in the Ghost ark and the 14 squad on foot with Zahndrekh for maximum efficiency.

I'd also consider a cheap Veil of Darkness OL since, it's my favorite artifact of the Necrons, from 3rd edition. It's something very unique only to us, it's very fun (at least for me), sometimes it catches people off guard and with good tactical use it can really stand out and benefit you a lot.

I will look into Zahdnrekh now, thanks for all the tips. I do like a more shooty force and I only want to go Decurion for the sweet sweet 4+ RP
The Deathmarks are a lower point method of achieving that. The JB would put me over 1000 points but I already have the Stalker so might as well complete the formation. Who stays at 1000 anyway right?

Dew wrote:


I will look into Zahdnrekh now, thanks for all the tips. I do like a more shooty force and I only want to go Decurion for the sweet sweet 4+ RP
The Deathmarks are a lower point method of achieving that. The JB would put me over 1000 points but I already have the Stalker so might as well complete the formation. Who stays at 1000 anyway right?

At 1k points you could go for a pretty beefed up Rec.Legion + 1 or 2 Deathmark squads. Then, at 1.5k you'd just sprinkle it up with the Judicator Battalion and maybe one more Tomb Blade squad. If you want I could draft you a quick plan, but I thought you might want to save that part for yourself!

 necr0n wrote:

Dew wrote:

At 1k points you could go for a pretty beefed up Rec.Legion + 1 or 2 Deathmark squads. Then, at 1.5k you'd just sprinkle it up with the Judicator Battalion and maybe one more Tomb Blade squad. If you want I could draft you a quick plan, but I thought you might want to save that part for yourself!

I am ALWAYS open to suggestion. Especially when I'm coming in as a newbie to something. I like taking solid existing plans and ideas to learn good foundations and basics and then season them later to my personal flavor. Thanks dude!

Wait...Anrakyr can MiTM Allies of Convenience?

That sounds fun to pull off with a Heldrake or Ionhead (use Drones instead of a SMS though).

Dew wrote:

 necr0n wrote:

Dew wrote:

At 1k points you could go for a pretty beefed up Rec.Legion + 1 or 2 Deathmark squads. Then, at 1.5k you'd just sprinkle it up with the Judicator Battalion and maybe one more Tomb Blade squad. If you want I could draft you a quick plan, but I thought you might want to save that part for yourself!

I am ALWAYS open to suggestion. Especially when I'm coming in as a newbie to something. I like taking solid existing plans and ideas to learn good foundations and basics and then season them later to my personal flavor. Thanks dude!

What do you like? What do you find attractive? What do you plan to buy next as a Rule of Cool?

Do more warriors do the deal for you? Our number is legion?
Are you interested in Lychguard?
Are Ghost Arks really cool boats you might want to invest in?
Is a Monolith the most iconic vehicle and you want to buy it?
Do you like the croissant-nature of the Nightscythe? Do you like its speed?
Are you more excited about Immortals and want to include a beefed up squad or more?
Tomb blades are honestly amazingly useful in any list, pretty cool looking models and very fast/killy. Are you into those?

I can make a core, but I'd be forcing some of my choices in you. For example, I'd probably include a Monolith in a Deathmarks/Pret 1.5k list, but it's because I already own one and it's also not the "strongest" choice. I have some ready, I just need a little more direction, since 1.5k is quite a lot for only Prets and Deathmarks to fill!

 necr0n wrote:

Dew wrote:

 necr0n wrote:

Dew wrote:

What do you like? What do you find attractive? What do you plan to buy next as a Rule of Cool?
I like a shooty based force, with Immortals and Deathmarks being my favorite looking models. That single eyed sniper? Coolness. I did just buy a box of Tomb Blades yesterday since I knew I would need some at least.
I'm not a huge fan of the "Matrix" looking spiders and wraiths and stuff, I signed up with the Necrons for their cool robot-skeleton-terminator vibe so I like to showcase that. Of course, winning is fun too so I'll do what I need to do! lol

Do more warriors do the deal for you? Our number is legion? Forward march!
Are you interested in Lychguard? Yes, Lynchguard or Prets or both. I know I will need a close combat unit somewhere and even though I read wraiths are the best I would be interested to see if one of these are a good enough alternative
Are Ghost Arks really cool boats you might want to invest in? Of the few games I have played so far, my Ghost Ark full of Warriors has been my most effective unit so far. Parking on objectives and pouring out the shots
Is a Monolith the most iconic vehicle and you want to buy it? I haven't spent a lot of time researching the Monolith or the Nightscythe since I have been focusing on building a smaller base foundation for the army but I'm all ears!
Do you like the croissant-nature of the Nightscythe? Do you like its speed? See above,Yes but I would be most intrested in the troop transport utility aspect
Are you more excited about Immortals and want to include a beefed up squad or more? yes yes. Like I said I was looking Anrakyr originally because it looked interesting to roll him around with a "specialist" Immortal unit
Tomb blades are honestly amazingly useful in any list, pretty cool looking models and very fast/killy. Are you into those? They look a little goofy to me but like I said I just picked up a box for rec legion. I think I'm going to like them a lot for their mobility (something I'm missing right now) and point scoring capability. Just need to figure out how to outfit them

I can make a core, but I'd be forcing some of my choices in you. For example, I'd probably include a Monolith in a Deathmarks/Pret 1.5k list, but it's because I already own one and it's also not the "strongest" choice. I have some ready, I just need a little more direction, since 1.5k is quite a lot for only Prets and Deathmarks to fill!
yeah I'm not looking to go competitive or anything, just a fun cool army that I can hang with to play at the local game spots and at least not get creamed every time
1k and 1.5k lists.

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