“Cast off the shackles of your slumber! The galaxy shall be ours once again!”
   –Anrakyr the Traveller

The Imperium has stretched and spread across the galaxy, settling thousands of worlds and waging constant war for the glory of the Emperor. Yet unknown to most, a threat lies slumbering beneath the surface of countless planets. They may rest in deep caverns or at the bottom of the darkest oceans, but when the Necrons awaken on their Tomb Worlds, the Traxis sector will experience death on a scale unlike anything it has yet witnessed.

Legions of Death is the second deluxe expansion for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, and it introduces the Necrons to the game as a completely new faction. Playing the Necrons offers a experience unlike any other faction, as you enslave units from the other factions and harness your own discard pile as a source of power. In our last preview, we looked at Nahumekh, a warlord obsessed with creating a galaxy without biological life. Today, we turn to the second warlord included in this deluxe expansion!

The Traveller

Many Necron lords forge dynasties on their own Tomb Worlds, working to establish a single kingdom. One Necron warlord has a greater vision—he is known among the Necrons as Anrakyr the Traveller. Far from being content with a single world, Anrakyr knows that there are still countless Tomb Worlds that have not yet been awakened. He knows that this entire galaxy once bent the knee to the Necron race. Forsaking his own world, Anrakyr now travels among the stars, awakening Tomb Worlds wherever he find them and working to forge a single, united Necron empire.

Warhammer 40,000: Conquest invites you to play as Anrakyr the Traveller (Legions of Death, 6) and awaken Necron Tomb Worlds across the Traxis sector, starting in the Legions of Death expansion. As his ability, Anrakyr allows you to both awaken units from your own discard pile or enslave those of your opponent—as a Deploy Action, you can use Anrakyr to deploy the topmost unit from any discard pile! Of course, if you want to deploy a unit from a non-Necron faction, you must ensure that your enslavement dial is set to the appropriate faction, but your opponent will soon learn to fear the sight of destroyed units returning to battle against him. 

Anrakyr’s signature squad helps you use your discard pile as another resource in your battle to conquer the sector. The first cards you’ll find are five copies of the Pyrrhian Eternals (Legions of Death, 7). This army unit starts out unassuming, but for each card named Pyrrhian Eternals in your discard pile, the Pyrrhian Eternals gain increased ATK and HP! With five copies of this unit in the signature squad and Anrakyr’s ability to recur your units from the discard pile, you can be sure that these units will frequently find their way to the battlefield to plague your enemies.

To ensure the right cards end up in your discard pile, you may use Slumbering Tomb (Legions of Death, 8), the support card from Anrakyr’s signature squad. As an Action, you can exhaust Slumbering Tomb to draw two cards and discard any two cards from your hand. In this way, you tailor your hand while putting other useful cards in the discard pile for later. You may also choose to use the Pyrrhian Warscythe (Legions of Death, 10) against your enemies. This attachment gives Anrakyr the Traveller a heightened ATK, and after he attacks, you can choose to discard the top two cards of your deck—putting more cards into your discard pile where you can use them.

Anrakyr’s signature squad concludes with a single copy of the event, Awake the Sleepers (Legions of Death, 9). In many ways, this event serves as the fail-safe for your deck—after all, if you discard all of your cards from your deck, you immediately lose the game. To prevent that from happening, you would play Awake the Sleepers, which simply allows you to shuffle any number of Necron cards from your discard pile into your deck. Not only does this allow you to bring back useful tricks and units, you can leave units like the Pyrrhian Eternals in your discard pile to fuel your conquest.

Rise from the Tomb

As you might expect, Anrakyr’s signature squad isn’t the only collection of cards that interact with your discard pile in Legions of Death. You can rely on the Decaying Warrior Squad (Legions of Death, 16) to be at hand when you need them—as a Combat Action, you can deploy this army unit from your discard pile to any planet, potentially punishing your opponent by suddenly appearing at the end of a combat round.

As you delve deeper into the Tomb World, you may also choose to dispatch a squad of Deathmark Assassins (Legions of Death, 17) against your foes. This unit reads, “Reaction: After the combat phase begins, discard the top cards of your deck. This unit gets +X ATK until the end of the phase. X is the printed cost of the discarded card.” Not only can this unit become one of the most dangerous attackers in your army, it also rewards you for running more Elite units with high costs!

Obviously, the Necrons excel at getting the most out of their discard pile. You can easily recur units with Anrakyr, but in most cases, an event is gone once you’ve used it once—unless you have a Harbinger of Eternity (Legions of Death, 24) among your armies. This powerful Elite unit allows you to play each Necron event card from your discard pile as if it were in your hand. Even though you must remove the card from the game after you play it in that way, you’re getting twice the effectiveness out of every Necron event.

One event you might want to duplicate with the Harbinger of Eternity is Recycle (Legions of Death, 30). This event simply allows you to discard two cards from your hand, then draw three cards. Though its effect is simple and you still have the same number of cards in hand after using it, seeding your discard pile with useful cards essentially increases the overall number of cards at your disposal throughout the game. 

Finally, you can use the cards in your discard pile as an offensive weapon with the Particle Whip (Legions of Death, 44). As an Action in the headquarters phase, you can exhaust the Particle Whip and shuffle any number of unit cards from your discard pile back into your deck. Then, you deal damage to any non-Elite army unit equal to the number of cards shuffled back into your deck! Once the game has lasted a couple rounds, you’ll have plenty of units in your discard pile to choose from, and at that point, the Particle Whip can destroy a troublesome unit on command, clearing the way for the Necron conquest.

Mechanical Overlords

The Necrons are beginning to awaken, led by Anrakyr the Traveller. Soon, the Traxis sector will run with the blood of biological beings! Pre-order your copy of Legions of Death today, and join us for our next preview to look at the non-Necron cards included in this expansion!