The prices on Gam$e Work$hop have gone down and the detail on plastic is the same or better than their metal now. Granted it is only the plastic pieces that are cheaper now, but since you can have a full army in plastic with only a few metal then I can afford it more now with a recession on then I could before.

When my wife went into the local Games Workshop last week and saw this she said she would like to get back into Warhammer 40k.

Now I was told that it will be another year before my beloved Space Wolves are released for the latest edition. So who should I collect until then. The main box comes with a nice size Ork and Space Marine army. I'm not the biggest Ork fan. My son has mention he would like to collect Eldar, my wife does not like Sci-Fi games but she likes Tyranids and that is the only army she will collect.

So Necrons or Tau? I'm not sure who to collect.

I always base my army choice on three rules:

1. Dun' play the tinboyz (Space Marines or their stinkin' Chaos offspring), `cuz everybody plays tinboyz. They are boring, boring, boring. And since they're superhuman, you expect them to act superhuman, which leads to disappointment every time they mess something up, without giving you above average satisfaction if they do "their job", i.e. perform well.

2. Pick something that offers few no-brainers, and once you made your pick, avoid the remaining no-brainers that everybody tells you are necessary - they're not. And it's more fun to play unorthodox tactics.

3. Unless you have some very unorthodox, crazy ideas about a themed army, always pick an army whose basic standard infantry you really like to paint. Unpainted troops are crap, because they are not your army, but in the best case some army, and in reality just unpainted plastic. So you're going to paint them, in order to make them yours. Basic troops always are the most cost-effective thing (in points cost) you're going to get, so you'll be painting a lot of them. If you don't like painting them, don't pick the whole army.


So in your case it's simple, because neither army is overly blessed with boring no-brainers - Necrons simply don't have enough room for escapades in their army setup, and Tau are quite challenging to play with all their troops.
Base your decision on whether you'd like to paint everything in a pretty uniform specific color of your choice (by picking Tau, which look crappy if you use different paint schemes within the same force), adding a few Kroot for blotches of color, or whether you'd instead like to drybrush a lot of metal, highighted with some Plates (mostly faces) in a different color (which would be Necrons, unless you want to create a bone-colored or mineral themed army, both of which can look fine if done well).

The tactical choice is also simple: Necrons will always have their army made up mostly of Necron Warriors. So you're fielding an infantry army of what basically works like tactical Space Marines (without regular transports) that cannot reliably be killed.
Tau are highly mobile (though not as fast as Eldar, but hey, I said mobile, not fast - and given their weapons and range, they are more mobile than Eldar), have an unusual range with their weapons, and are just about the only army in the universe that has to be afraid of Imperial Guardsmen with fixed bajonets.
Both are challenging to play - the Necrons because of their limited variety in army setup and their uniform troops, the Tau because of their reliance upon the right distance between them and the enemy.

If you don't like to paint or want to just get them done quickly, Necrons may be the way to go. Spray black, drybrush silver, wash black, base, done. It can probably even be done easier by priming black, paint some metal color, wash black, base and done.

I'm finishing up my tau (We call them Cetti in No Limits )and they have lots of cracks and crevices and bits of detail. Lots of fun to paint and they are neat looking, but time consuming.

Tau for sure, shooty & rock hard all at the same time. Almost the perfect fusion/blend between smurfs, guard, and eldar. I find, imho, necrons to be too similar to SM. If you’re going to have different armies, at least get a different one. I helped my buddy with his devilfish/hammerheads, some of the best models in the game, a real joy to put together, and uber cool.

Tau can be paintet fairly quickly with quickshade dips. Doesn't ruin the large plain areas as regular washes sometimes do. The result isn't spectacular, but for an army that is goint to see mainly gaming action (and no painting contest) it offers added protection (the quickshade works a bit like protective varnish, though you should always give it an extra finish with matt varnish) and saves a lot of time.

Heh - I have mixed feelings about the Tau. On the one hand, they are possibly the best balanced army in regards to combined arms, with weapons that are in many ways similar to those being fielded on today's battlefields.

On the other hand, I do not feel that they fit the mood and style of WH40K all that well. They are definitely a modern army, rather than WWI in a thin disguise.

On the gripping hand, if I were to run X-Com using WH40K I would pick Tau and Imperial Guard as the starting points.... (I really like the Tau, I just don't think that they fit.)

The Auld Grump

*sigh*

I started painting minis.. I managed to get my son to help.. he's 7.. What I do is get him to rough in the colours, then I touch up for 15 minutes, and he gets a reasonable army way better than his peers. I get an opposition for way less work.

I have the Battle of Macrage... and a Tyranid army, Eldar on the list.

Mostly I got sucked in from Battlefleet Gothic, the fleets looked so awsome painted.



Incidentally I did a birthday party on the weekend. I brought in a ton of AT43, and ran a mission where the birthday boy got picked on (worse, since he can't roll dice worth a damn) until the last turn when a (GW) drop pod brought in a unit of Death Dealers. In the ensuing confusion, the birthday boy managed to run one unit across the battle field against all odds, and win the game. His remaining troops were killed to the man.



Anyways, I concur that the plastics are quite good. I have to say though, that the Warmachine mini's are infinitely batter quality. You are more likely to remove a detail than find flash on Privateer Press products.

Play an army that suits your style of play. More than anything else, that will lead to satisfaction. If its painting that turns your crank... head over to Forgeworld, and let me know how your scale Titan turns out.

I think that in terms of game systems, GW does a better job of playing a variety of styles with the same army. With most other game systems you need a completely different army to play a different way.

I wish there were Warmachine players around here.

I have a 75% painted Eldar army, and a zillion unpainted Tyranids that I want to make a zerg army with someday.

I agree with picking the faction that you want to paint, and then figuring out how to play with it.

off topic:
I am the only Hordes/Warmachine player around, which is sad considering I have around 1000 pts worth

on topic:
pick an army based on look and feel, not what is "best". My friend started with marines, he now plays tyranid because he likes a more "horde" based army.

Necron are actually all great at anti-vehicle bacause of Gauss, even if the new rules make Glancing not as destructive.

Both require a much different play style from other more "traditional" armies. I play Eldar as well and I find it harder to deal with a variety of units with them than with Necron. I also wish they would release the Harlequin Codex officially. Some people seem to hate the idea of it because their comparison is a "Temple Assassin Codex" which is no where near like Harlequins vs Eldar. But that is off topic, so I will stop now.

What edition are they up to now? I started at the transition from 2nd to 3rd.

GW needs to redo their systems. The Charts of old are exactly that, old.

I was totally disapointed in the War of the Ring, using the same type of Charts. charts take time to memorize and playing many different systems, I really don't want to have to memorize yet another chart.

AT-43/confrontation has a simple chart and Warmachine/Hordes has no chart (which is awesome).

Charts and tables do not make a game. Good mechanics in absence of the charts and tables make a game. And really cool mechanics that don't require lookups and memorization makes a GREAT Game.

The only reason I'm back into 40k is that my BIGs are into it because their friends are into it. Trying to get them to play AT-43 (or any other game) is like pulling teeth out of a rabid horses head.

Well I hear you CCotD. That is why I enjoyed the Clix games. Quick, simple and just as fun.

Not to disrail this thread anymore but I have to agree with CCotD about War of the Ring - I was pumped about the scope of the game... knowing that I was not going to use GW figures but when I had the demo run - slam the matric chart was there! Dismayed is an understatment. I will most likely still get the game as it has a lot of merit and compaired to the other current line of GW it's fantastic but the "but" keeps on coming back.


Like Kane said when Flying Lead for the Song of Blade system hits I think we shall see more 40k conversions/cross overs.



Lord Abaddon of Wormwood