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Hello ya'll,

You might remember I posted a thread awhile back asking for advice for starting either Necrons or Tyranids. Well, I was about to start up my Necrons when something else caught my eye-the Tau. Now I'm stuck again, Tau vs Necrons. Looked through all the other armies to make sure I wouldn't have to start another thread about this as I bet it gets annoying to you guys, so sorry about that.

As I understand it right now, all this could be wrong so please correct me
Tau
Pros: Long range combat, best shooters from a distance, awesome sleek transports and infantry, also epic mechs.
Cons: Terrible close range, have to figure out how to use Markerlights correctly but awesome once learned.

Necrons:
Pros: Close-medium range guns, can resurrect, cool models like Night Scythes and Wraiths which are epic and overpowered.
Cons: Not so good at long range or close combat.

I would also like to know how Escalation ties in to these, even though I probably won't be using any of the big guns for a while. Just wanted to know your thoughts and opinions. Thanks!

Another thing to consider with Necrons is IMO you have a lot more options to build around for a solid army which gives you more flexibility as the meta changes. The strength of Tau tends to hover around a couple really amazing units that could become obsolete with the next codex/supplement/edition.

Tau cons: people hate you.

Considering that I play tau with necron allies...I say you can't really go wrong as far as I'm concerned.

Buy 500-1000 points of each, see how they play, then expand that one and use the other as an ally force!

While Necrons aren't exactly a rarity, there are too many blueberries in the world today. Also consider that since so many people complain about Tau, they might be in for a nerfing next codex and who knows what will happen to the Riptide, etc.

"But Zultan, are you implying that GW listens to their customers?"

O-Oh yeah...

Necrons, tau will get you a fair bit of negative attention since they are at the top of the game for now.

Necrons, because 'dat painting be so easy. Also they have some cool tactics and stuff, while Tau are pretty much a cleancut gunline.

Tau are cancer.

Necrons are cool beans. All of their units are good (aside from Flayed Ones, which are situational at best) and they're capable of any kind of play style you want. Mobility, shooting, melee you name it, they have a unit that can do it.

Thanks guys! Looks like Necrons are the way to go!

Welcome to the Dynasties, Matthew.

Matthew4194 wrote:
Thanks guys! Looks like Necrons are the way to go!

Crisis (pun intended) averted.

As for escalation, Necrons are one of the factions with the 'cheaper' access to D weapon superheavies (Transcendant Ctan/Tesseract Vault)

They were my 2nd choice if I hadnt gone GK

Yeah, you missed the cons. Close combat isn't a weakness of tau, in part because of a few genuinely decent close combat units, but also because it's not a weakness - it's a Mary Sue strength. Likewise, necron aren't THAT terrible in close combat. I've seen what a mindshackle barge lord can do on multiple occasions (read: fly into close combat turn 1 and then shout "stop hitting yourself" while attacking with a S10 Ap1 doomstick), among other options. Plus, they're still sort of MEq, which isn't the worst thing.

As for your pros, it seems that it's mostly down to what models you like more. That's really up to you to determine if you like robots or anime better.

Weakness in close combat isnt a weakness if you shoot everything to death before they get there =/

Whats hilarious is how people dont know about Chariot Rules..

Most dont know that Chariots give you +1 to your armor save of the rider.

I see this a lot, I laugh a lot.

Necrons, for one reason only. You've already considered them, which means you like them.

 ZultanQ wrote:
While Necrons aren't exactly a rarity, there are too many blueberries in the world today.

ummmmm.......WHAT? haha

I would say go necrons because they are pretty good for a beginner to paint like SUPER easy and then you'll feel better about your army because you can paint it up pretty quickly. Also they are pretty good without having an overpowered codex which is good. Lots of options for builds and stuff.
Just buy a battleforce (or 2) and then an anihilation barge (or 2) some tomb blades and wraiths and bam 1500 point army.
Bare essentials would be 1 battleforce and 1 annihilation barge which brings you to a crispy 750 points

For Tau lots of people don't like the battleforce because you won't always use the stealth suits or the piranha so the savings aren't worth it to some. Riptides are expensive and with people running 1-2 ripides and probably 3 broadsides it gets pricey.
Painting isn't that hard in my opinion but Necrons are waaaaaay easier.

Overall both solid choices and you could just buy the battleforce for each and codex and then start 2 armies haha

 WrentheFaceless wrote:
As for escalation, Necrons are one of the factions with the 'cheaper' access to D weapon superheavies (Transcendant Ctan/Tesseract Vault)

They were my 2nd choice if I hadnt gone GK

Had a lot of extra silver paint sitting around, huh? ;-)

I play both tau and necrons (and played both extensively before they both got new books, thank you very much....).

They are both fun armies, and have their strengths and weaknesses, and both support very different styles.

I can say, the tau book does have better INTERNAL balance - that is, there are fewer bad units in the book. Sure, a few units are quite good, but overall, the book support a lot of builds.

The necron dex, while filled with lots of great options, has a lot of units that are just plain not very good. Now some of this is because a few units are amazing for the points (annihilation barge and nightscythe come to mind) but other units are just plain poor.
Ctan for example, are the joke of the MC world...in the world of talos, wraithknights, riptides and dreadknights their capability compared to cost equation is just dismal.
Triarch preatorians are great on paper...but justbad.
Flayed ones, if you build a particular strategy around them, can work, but are not very good, etc.

Overall, I like the necron codex, as honestly it has a lot more vehicle options - and a lot of cool things you can do with deep strike and movement.

Both can be fun, especially if you stay away from the "spammy" builds out there, so there really is no bad answer.

Best of luck, and have fun!

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

Matthew4194 wrote:
Thanks guys! Looks like Necrons are the way to go!

Crisis (pun intended) averted.

OK, that was funny.

Necrons are more diverse, and an as of yet released codex adds a fun gamble to the mix.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 WrentheFaceless wrote:
As for escalation, Necrons are one of the factions with the 'cheaper' access to D weapon superheavies (Transcendant Ctan/Tesseract Vault)

They were my 2nd choice if I hadnt gone GK

Had a lot of extra silver paint sitting around, huh? ;-)

Well either it was lots of silver, or lots of gunmetal paint

Another plus for necrons is indeed the super heavy units;

They by far are better than the tau ones.

While the Transcendent ctan is not as durable as he would seem (especially against D weapons) he is 10 times better than any tigershark.

The necron pylon, is amazing....the version in the Apoc book (as opposed to the Damnos book) is perhaps one of the best apoc units in the game for the points.

I have used both necron and tau super heavies in many games...the tau ones should only be used if you really really really like the models.....

Tau are better people.

But if that isn't a qualifying issue, Tau are better shooters. In a shooty Edition. Because shooting.

But if that really isn't a qualifier, then Tau. because Robotech. and Anime. and that's awesome.

Of course you might say that's not important and instead chooce Tau because you like being the good guys. and Necrons are not the good guys.

Necrons all day. Tau are lame sauce!

Dalymiddleboro wrote:
Necrons all day. Tau are lame sauce!

Nuh uh!

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 WrentheFaceless wrote:
As for escalation, Necrons are one of the factions with the 'cheaper' access to D weapon superheavies (Transcendant Ctan/Tesseract Vault)

They were my 2nd choice if I hadnt gone GK

Had a lot of extra silver paint sitting around, huh? ;-)

Well either it was lots of silver, or lots of gunmetal paint

I kid because I love. As soon as my 'Nids are all finished being painted, and the wife picks up a few more items to get her Orks up and running, i'm totally picking up either Grey Knights or Tau, myself. :-p

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

Matthew4194 wrote:
Thanks guys! Looks like Necrons are the way to go!

Crisis (pun intended) averted.

You are a horrible person. Crisis averted. So good but yet so bad.

Thanks again you guys!

Do you like manga, mechs, sci fi tech? That's tau........do you like cylons, terminator (movies), and the like? That's necrons....

Oh and you can make a Dalek army with Necrons. necros Daleks for the win.