Necron HQ review, The Traveler has come!

Anrakyr, The Traveler, is a Necron Overlord that formally ruled of the world of Pyrrhia. Unlike other Necrons, he awoke with his faculties intact. He decided to reunite the fallen Necron Dynasties. He grabbed some guys, left his Tomb World zoomed off into the stars with the purpose of reunification and.....wiping out all foreign invaders who occupy any Tomb Worlds. Some Necron leaders see Anrakyr as this great guy, a savior and liberator of their race. Others see him as a brigand or a simple threat. He sounds all bad ass doesn't he. I guess he is like a Necron revenge filled pirate or viking.

Since there is no pic  or model I looked up this schmuck from Star Trek Next Gen. I hated this character, but he was the "Traveler." Thank you Google Image search! He is pretty much as  lame as Anrakyr though.

Anrakyr is another typical Overlord. He has: WS 4, BS 4, strength and toughness 5, wounds and attacks of 3, initiative 2, leadership 10 and a 3+ save. He is armed with a Warscythe and Tachyon Arrow. He allows a Royal Court to be taken and can also purchase a Catacomb Command Barge. He has the Counter-Attack and Furious Charge special rules along with the usual Necron HQ rules. He also has Pyrrhian Eternals and Mind in the Machine specials as well. He only costs as many points as Sandy Koufax had career pitching wins.

Pyrrhian Eternals- are a unit of Anrakyr’s personal Tomb World Immortals. This is a single unit free upgrade for, DUH, Immortals. It gives them Furious Charge and Counter-Attack. Well just what I want, close combat Immortals? No wait, nobody wants that.

Mind in the Machine- is a special ability he has for who knows what reason. It allows him to take over a vehicle and shoot the weapons. During Anrakyr’s shooting phase choose an enemy vehicle within 18” and line of sight. Then roll a D6 and get a 3+.  If successful, then you can fire all the weapons on that vehicle. You cannot change the facing, but can ignore previous movement, stunned and shaken damage. Destroyed weapons cannot be fired either. A fun trick to have, but is it really that effective?

Here is another HQ that can easily be replaced with a cheaper boring Overlord. Anrakyr’s abilities are just kind of blah. A “free” upgrade for an Immortal unit is cool, but the upgrade stinks. Who wants close combat Immortals? Nobody. Even if it wasn’t one, but all Immortal units, it would still be a pretty lame upgrade. The same for the gun control rule. Yeah it looks great to be able to shoot an enemy vehicle, but most of their guns will be trained on your army, not theirs. Yeah you can still get a shot or more off at the enemy with their own vehicle, and it might cause some damage. However, the range is short and guarantees something else, Anrakyr will need a ride to effectively get into range.

He is one guy I think will really need a Command Barge to be useful. By useful, I mean get to within range to control an enemy vehicle (not that I am a huge supporter of this ability). The Barge should get him there fast and safe. However, it also will probably get him shot down the next turn. 18” is one move away (or less) from melta range. The Barge also ups his cost by 1/3 and I’m not a huge fan of that. Why? Well a bare bones Overlord, with Warscythe and Barge is only 15 points more than Anrakyr’s base cost. I’ll take that over the alternative.

Wait he also has a Tachyon Arrow! A 30 point one shot weapon! Wait why? It was like they had to justify or pad his points so they gave him this weapon. This is a useless piece of wargear weaponry. I don’t care that it is S 10 and AP 1 with infinite range. It is a 30 point piece of one use wargear! PFFFFFFFT! JOG ON!

Another named HQ that is over-priced and underwhelming. This is becoming a thing with this force organization slot isn't it?