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OK so I should preface this.  I was fortunate this XMas in that nearly every one I knew around this time for XMas got me GW Gift Cards as there is a store in the local mall in our area.  As such I have a good amount of cash that I can only spend on GW stuff and I don't have anything I'd want to buy for my two existing armies (Orks and Marines).

So I started thinking of doing a 3rd army on the cheap and the only ones that interest me are Tau and Necrons.  Both of which I could build for relatively little cash out of my own pocket to get a functional 1500 Point Army that's effective but most importantly fun to play with and against.  I'm not planning on doing a lot of tournaments and if I do it'll be with my Podding Marines, so the idea is to make a fun list to use in my gaming group and at the local GW.

I broke it down to two lists that could be built for cheap while maintaining the above goals what I would like some help with is this:

1.) Do you think this army would be fun to play with?
2.) Do you think this army would be fun to play against?
3.) Could this build be considered cheesy?

Necrons - 1500 Points
HQ
Lord - Veil, Orb
Lord - Orb, Destroyer Body, Warsythe, Phylactery

Troops
14 Warriors
12 Warriors

Fast
4 Destroyers
4 Destroyers

Heavy
Monolith

I figure with this list I could play it aggressively in order to make it fun.  I  was debating between the second lord and a scarab swarm but I figured I'd go with the second lord even though it's more money out of pocket since the second mobile res orb will allow me to split the warriors and play aggressively without having to worry about it.   Which should make the game more fun for both me and my opponent.

Purchases: Battleforce, Monolith, Lord, Destroyer Lord, 5 Destroyers
I would get some of the models (the destroyers mainly) for 25% off as I'd order through a discount store I use in my local area.

Pro's: Small amount of models means painting and assembly would be very easy.  Almost 100% plastic (Damn Destroyer Lord!!) and it would be very easy to paint up quickly.  Which means I'm much happier quicker as I'm not so hot on playing with unpainted figs now that I have most of my current armies painted.  I'd do the black undercoat, drybrush boltgun metal on them.  Heads of models would get done in Ceramic colors, with a different head color to denote different squad types.  I also love the durability of the Necrons as an army and their mobility.  You can just do so much with it from turtle up or play balls to the wall aggressive and take risks because of your durability.

Con's: It's Necrons, the army I've seen most people *female dog* about online.  And as an Ork player I know just how badly playing against Necrons can be if you're an assault army, especially an assault army that doesn't have Power Armor.  When played intelligently a lot of armies will have no chance.  On a small plus it will murderkill Eldar, especially Mech Eldar and that's always a plus for me (I hate dem weedy Panzee's).

Tau - 1500 Points
HQ
Shas'el - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, HW Multi-tracker, Targeting Array - 97 Points

Elite
Crisis Team - 169 Points
Team Leader - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, HW Drone Controller, HW Multi-tracker, Targeting Array
Crisis Suit - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, Multi-tracker
2 Shield Drones

Crisis Team - 169 Points
Team Leader - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, HW Drone Controller, HW Multi-tracker, Targeting Array
Crisis Suit - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, Multi-tracker
2 Shield Drones

Stealth Team - 190 Points
6 Stealth Suits, Team Leader, Bonding Knife

Troops
12 Firewarriors, Team Leader, Marker light, Bonding Knife  - 145 Points
12 Firewarriors, Team Leader, Marker light, Bonding Knife  - 145 Points

Fast Attack
Piranha Team - 75 Points
1 Piranha - Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Decoy Launchers

Piranha Team - 75 Points
1 Piranha - Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Decoy Launchers

Piranha Team - 75 Points
1 Piranha - Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Decoy Launchers

Heavy
Hammerhead - Railgun, SMS, Target Lock, Mult-Tracker- Decoy Launchers - 180 Points

Hammerhead - Railgun, SMS, Target Lock, Mult-Tracker- Decoy Launchers - 180 Points

I have more warm-fuzzy feelings with Tau as an army that I would get less complaints about walking into a GW store as it's not a MEQ army, and this seems like it would be a fun list to play as and should be somewhat fun to play against too as I'm not maxing out on Hamerheads and I don't have Warfish running around with min'ed Firewarriors.  I do have a good amount of Fireknives though, and I am aware I could drop the sheild drones for another FK suit but I'm trying to keep $$ costs down.

Purchases: Tau Megaforce, 3 Crisis Suits, 1 Stealth Team, 1 Bits Ordered Hammerhead Weapons Sprue

Pros: I like that this list will play very differently than what I'm used to.  I like the idea of taking lots of shots at stuff and then running away afterwards.  All Plastic Army means I can assemble it fast and easily.  Painting would be harder than Necrons but I think it would be a little more rewarding.  It would also take a long while to get used to painting that way.  I do like the models and it has a lot more variety than the Necrons.  Costs a little less too.  

Cons: Troops are very fragile and they will take a lot of punishment quickly I think as if I do it right they won't be able to get shots off at the Crisis Teams and the Stealths.  I wanted to build this list with Broadsides as a third heavy and keep the piranha's with Burst Cannons for more shots but that cost more money and I gave up more firepower outside of Heavy Support and I probably didn't need that much Heavy Support in a friendly list.  While I did mention that I like shooting a lot and running away play style of the Tau, it's one of those things where if I'm caught, it's over.  Necrons don't get a screwed by trick armies that would hurt the Tau.  Also a lot more models to put together and paint, and doing those tanks justice will take some real work from me.  I do like the style though....

That's it basically.  I'd like some opinions on what you guys think is the better choice.

How do you prefer to play an army? From your post the Tau would play more differently than you are used to. Absent any other information I would go with that as a nice substitute for your other armies.

Orks I really only like playing as KoS now. I can field a pretty damn big hoard since that's what I started with, but I don't have any real grots (I have 60 2nd ed ones that I refuse to paint and don't like taking into public). I'm not such a big fan of marching a hoard up the board as it's not as fun as having mobility for me.

Marines I can field almost anything I want, from cheese to friendly. I don't like doing a lot of static troops so lately I've been playing with Mech Marines a lot, troops in Rhinos, Preds and my new Vindicator running support and either assault marines or assault Termies in a LRC.

I have a large amount of terminators with Assault Cannons for my tournament pod army, but I refuse to use pods or a lot of assault cannon terminators in a friendly list. I could put one or two and live with myself when playing at the GW store which has tougher games than my gaming group prefers to play, but I wouldn't field 4 squads of them. I can do static with mobile support if I wanted though. I built Marines as a second army and I put a ton of planning into it so my models are done and marked (and some magnetized) in ways that lets me field them in almost any kind of config I'd want.

Both the Tau and Necrons above have a lot of mobility as I find the more mobile I am the more thought I really have to put into the game which makes it more fun for me.

I had both armies at one time, and sold them both, for different reasons.

Necrons were great at first and fun to paint and I put a lot into building the army, but for me they just weren't fun to play with. I won a few, I lost a few, and at the time I just found my old eldar were more fun to play with. So, I eventually sold the army. Looking back I wish I kept it, maybe I just needed to try some different units and strategies, but I got a good deal on it so I guess I can't complain.

The Tau on the other hand I thought were fun to play with, but I never got the army over 1000 pts (with the old rules). I was doing more of a shooty FW based army. But, I just didn't have the time to keep adding to the army and paint more stuff just because I had so many other projects I wanted to work on and I eventually sold them because I knew I'd never be able to give em the time they deserved.

So if I had to do it all over again, I'd prolly go with Tau. They were fun and the models were great. The necrons to me had great models but the army was boring to play.

Tau as the model look much better and the FW (i know you wana keep cost low) models look stunning especially the special charactor. I was gona start a new non marine army and was gona get tau just for the nice looking models (and the heavy firepower) but in the end decided to do another SM army this time my own chapter, I already have SW, BA, Ultarmarines, WE, deathgaurd.

Personally, I find playing against Necrons to be boring, so I'd expect playing them to be pretty boring, too.

Posted By Lowinor on 01/02/2007 11:35 AM
Personally, I find playing against Necrons to be boring, so I'd expect playing them to be pretty boring, too.

Could you elaborate as to why?  As an assault army with Footslogging Orks, yes Necrons are MURDER, but I haven't tried it with my KoS list and last time I played I phased him out using Orks (though it was 3 Pie Plate Deathskullz with lots of Fast Stuff, and he did go CC Heavy with inneficient stuff like Pariahs, Flayed Ones, C'Tan, etc).

Eh, they just have so much of the "power" of the list tied up in resilience that it doesn't lead to interesting games -- in my opinion, at least. I'm not partial to playing against Thousand Sons for much the same reason. With my Chaos, it usually ends up with me whacking the scary stuff (the parts of the list that can actually move) and then taking care of the slow-moving, er, wounds that are left over at a leisurely pace, because the base infantry, while hard to kill, just isn't very scary. The scariest part of the list is (generally) a deep striking Monolith, and you're usually better off to just ignore Monoliths and push for phase out if they're used anyway. With their scariest source of firepower being AP4 (Gauss Cannons on Destroyers) and them not being particularly dominating in assault means cover isn't particularly important, so battles often feel less tactically interesting as a result. Of course, I play MEq, so armies that care about cover for AP4 fire may think about things differently, and I'm not sure how much you care (or, really, how much you should care, given the overpopulation of MEqs) about MEq players

Well-played Necrons too often force battles of attrition, and I just don't enjoy them, win or lose.

Tau suck! Go necrons.

Tau suck for many, many reasons. Mainly because they suck. But also because people don't like playing against them. And also because they have a much larger influence over the galaxy in the fluff than makes sense. And also because they're anime.

I've never played against necrons, but from what I hear, they're not very fun to play against. My brother has a Tau list, and I enjoy playing against it, win or lose. It depends on your style of play, really, but IMHO the Tau are the better bet.

CK

I have 14 armies, all over 3,000 points. I used to play quite often, and I can tell you a couple things.

 

Necron were my second army. If your gaming circle is not used to them they will dominate for months until your friends learn to adapt and not treat them totally like marines. After that, you will only win about half the time. My basic list for Necrons hasn't changed much since I started playing them WAY back in the days before a codex. My biggest gripe was that the army weighed a TON, but I have all pewter, so you seem to have eliminated that problem. A veil of darkness will confuse and frustrate an opponent. Army list are easy to build as necrons have few options. When things start to go bad for Necrons, there is usually no turning back. The list will get a repetitive feeling after a while, so be warned.

I have had the most fun playing non-traditional Tau. They are a thinker's army and can be great to use. The funnest thing I have done with them is to use as many Kroot as possible and play a close combat tau army. It will give opponents a WTF expression and all will laugh no matter the outcome.

Necrons are very boring when it comes to army design. There are no upgrade options for squad weaponry, no veteran leaders, etc. This is inline with their fluff, but with only two models who can recieve any kind of equipment it makes for a dull pregame experience. This lack of variability can make them become dull over time IMHO.

This same lack of upgrades makes it hard to use all of your availible poiints. With other armies you can add useful items here and there to even things out, but with necrons it isn't quite as easy.

I'd go for Tau as I have to admit that the lack of different troop types and options for necrons puts me off.

Tau are a very versatile army that can be used in a large number of ways. They most definately are not just a pitched battle stand and shoot army.

In Background Tau use lightning strikes and mobility to out manoveure their foes. Using their heavy weaponry and swift hunters tactics. Thus you can have a very mobile mechanised infantry force with lots of battlesuits, pathfinders, vespid, pirahnas, and sky ray. Thats a very mobile elite force that cna use its powerful weapons and markerlights to full effect.

Or you can have a stealthy army. Kroot as troops backed up by firewarriors, stealthsuits, pirahna, and pathfinders.

or the traditonal shooty army with hammerheads, foot slogging firewarriors, and crisis suits, pathfinders.

If used cleverly Tau can be devestating, especially with markerlights, too many people over look these.

Their not marines no, but the offer a very different style of play and they stand up well (good armour, good weapons, good BS. So what if the WS not good? Theres more to winning a battle than being a close combat monster).

I've decided that if I go with a new army for 40k, it'll be Tau and not Necrons. I would like the variety of options available to Tau that are viable enough to work but not so good their cheesy. Expanding Necrons for me would just mean buying Immortals. With Tau I have more options available to try out and experiment with, plus I can vary my paint jobs a lot more as opposed to the Necrons. Plus I don't have to worry about complaints from my gaming group.

I don't want to build something cheesy and go with a lot of skimmers for Tau (hence no Warfish) but it is an option for me in the future so we'll see if I ever wanted to take the Tau to a tournament level.

That all said, I've decided to wait a while on a new army purchase and concentrate on finishing the two armies I currently have to 100% completion, which should take at least till the summer or longer. Who knows by then Necrons may have some rumors about a new Dex or something and things may change. I do appreciate all the feedback from the thread though, so thanks.

The skimmer-heavy army isn't a cheesy build at all. I can't see anyone winning much with such a list. Even an expensive warfish isn't that powerful, nor are the bolter-bait Piranhas. Depending on who you ask, Firewarriors (and their warfish) are only there to take up the required slot and Pathfinders have always been a debated choice and rarely taken in 1500 armies.

Anyway, go Tau if you want more of the KoS feel. I hope that means you'll do the same thing I did and give the crisis suits a pilot jockey 'Mech theme?