Sauron, the Necromancer
Early in the Third Age of Middle Earth, Sauron began to grow in strength again. He set up a stronghold in southern Greenwood in a location that came to be known as the Hill of Sorcery, or Dol Guldur. There he disguised himself as a dark sorcerer known as the Necromancer and hid his true nature even from the Elves that lived in the northern regions of the woods. He began to draw all foul and evil creatures in the area to his service and in time, his evil polluted the area so fully that the woods themselves were changed and came to be known as Mirkwood.
Gandalf suspected the evil dwelling at Dol Guldur was powerful but most in the White Council believed it was a Ringwraith, not suspecting the truth. When Gandalf learned that Thrain II, father of Thorin Oakenshield, was being held in the dungeons there he stole in. Unable to save the Dwarf, he was given the key and map that allowed Bilbo and company access to Erebor, but also learned the true nature of the evil that was corrupting the region.
Despite the objections of Saruman, who was already falling into darkness, Gandalf convinced the White Council to strike at Dol Guldur. The Necromancer had warning of their coming (perhaps from Saruman ) and though his forces were defeated, Sauron himself escaped back to Mordor. The fortress of Dol Guldur also survived and in time was strengthened back to a mighty garrison which helped extend the reach of Mordor until it was utterly destroyed by the armies of Lothlorien and Mirkwood at the close of the War of the Ring.
The model itself is pretty good for one of GW's creations. When they have something from the films to work from they have done a great job of presenting it. But when they have used their own imagination they often "run home" to their 40K roots (oversized weapons, lots of skulls, etc.). Thankfully the Necromancer really looks like an extension of the Nazgul concept of flowing robes with some armor calling out themes of both Sauron from the Second Age (seen in the prequel of Fellowship of the Ring) and the Mouth of Sauron as seen in Return of the King. Most examples of the model are painted up in the fashion of GW's example which gives the robes a look of ghostly green. For mine though I wanted him to look closer to his Nazgul servants in appearance. So I did his robes black with a reverse-highlighting of green glow to the areas where his inner spirit essence may be showing through. I think I am going to do a little more work on darkening the glowing regions but overall I am happy with him and believe he looks very good next to Khamul and the Castellans.
The Necromancer in the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game
In the Strategy Battle Game, the Necromancer is a formidable model but typically not the most "cost effective" for a game. This may change if GW introduces a new or modified profile for his appearance in the Hobbit films.
Currently he is dangerous in close combat but also wields significant magical power. He can be worn down in time but with proper support from his forces can be a major power on the table.
He has the Ancient Evil rule which gives a -1 Courage to all enemy models within 18". This is a good start to his defense as he is also a Terror causing model meaning any enemy must pass a Courage Test to charge him. The -1 Courage also helps when your enemy army is broken and you want to see them scatter faster and when you have other Courage based tactics in your force.
From an offensive perspective, Drain Soul is a very effective rule. If the Necromancer deals even a single Wound to an enemy model that model will be slain. This means no matter how many Wounds a model can take as long as it does not avoid a hit with Fate it will be slain. In some cases there are strong opponents that don't have any Fate but multiple Wounds (Ent, Eagle, Boromir from the Fellowship). In other cases where the model does have Fate it can often be burned-through via earlier attacks or your opponent may simply fail to make the Fate rolls. In any situation the fact that you can kill the enemy model immediately without having to deal out large numbers of Wounds is very handy.
His only real disadvantage in a combat role is the fact that he has only one Attack. His high Fight and Strength values are great for when he wins the dual roll, but with only one die to cast that's a risk. It is important to at least have him supported by other models or have a banner near by...or both.
Beyond his use in melee, the Necromancer is also a very potent magical force. He has the full staple of "Evil" spells to include Drain Courage, Transfix and Compel (and is almost guaranteed to cast any of them successfully with 2+ and 3+ targets), as well as Sap Will when you want to start wearing down a strong Hero. He also has Chill Soul which allows you to deal a wound from a distance but the relatively high casting target makes it less attractive unless you're really committed to it with multiple dice. It should be noted that Drain Soul and Chill Soul do not work together...you can't use the spell to deliver the wound and have it count for the Drain Soul auto-kill.
The Necromancer in the War of the Ring
In War of the Ring he has even more potential if it were not for one fatal flaw in his profile. He uses the Hard to Kill ( H2K ) special rule, which I have found from experience is really not very hard to kill at all. My Wood Elves easily bring down H2K models in a single turn of bow fire, and I've rarely seen one survive more than two combats in melee. They are also easy prey to many special rule attacks and magic. The Very Hard To Kill ( VH2K ) rule helps for stronger models by giving the dice a -1 modifier and effectively adding one turn of survivability to most models that have the rule.
Though the Necromancer in WotR has some good special abilities, strong magical power and a reasonable profile (including a high defense and a resilience of 2), that H2K has made me hesitant to play him so far. I will likely start fielding him as my Dol Guldur army grows a little more, but under 2000 points I believe he is more of a liability than an asset.
Few of my models beg for new photos as much as this one does. In person the model is far more subdued and the green "glow" more subtle of a feature. The curse of flash photography...
