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SO i need help, well rather, advice. See, i want to start a new 40K army but dont know what. I've done Marines to death and i'm sick of them. I narrowed the list to about three, Necrons, Tyranids and with an outside chance; Thousand sons (I recently finished their heresy book).
What im looking for is people who have played with these armies or against them. weighing in on pros and cons and personal opinion. I'm leaing towards 'nids because of their speed and close-combat possibliities, but turned off by the model count.
any and all advice will be appreciated and will be rewarded with punch and pie

Necrons
+not a lot of people play this, so you will be unique
+not seen a lot, so many opponents don't know how to counter
-lots of metal models (+++$)
-old codex (might be updated soon)
-not a lot of people play this, so there isn't as large of a community
-small codex (I.E. not a lot of variety)
-bland looking on the table

Tyranids
+many ways to play
+painting is fairly easy
+when played right, can steamroll opponents
-leans toward a swarm army (but can't be played less so)
-many units don't have models; need to convert some stuff (could be a plus to some people)
-can be hard to put together an effective list

I personally have no idea about CSM so I won't even mention them.
I like nids more personally. They are just straight up more interesting than necrons (both on the table and fluffwise)

Out of these I like nids the most personally out of the 3, I find them very fun to play against and have heard many people say this and the people I know who play them say they are a very fun army on the tabletop.
Adding to what PraetorDave said, they also lack personality, like the Necrons, since they are all only animals wanting to feed. This means you could not really make any background fluff going beyond "they destroyed x planet, ate y amount of people" for your army.

Out of your first choices, I would say Tyranids. They're the most different from Space Marines, which you've already voiced to be "done to death". Thousand Sons and Necrons mirror Space Marines fairly closely, in terms of Shooting capabilities and Armor Saves (especially Thousand Sons).

Go with Tyranids. As far as an army that's vastly different from Space Marines, you can't get much more different (save for maybe Orks).

I would say go with Tyranids or even Orks, I thinking of starting Orks and they're just so god damn fun, the best part of Orks is there +5 Armor save ( more or less ) those Thousand Suns AP 3 Bolters? Yeah usless, and so on, but Nids are pretty cool too, I'll do the pro/con thing ( but keep in mind I'm not ITzMLG uber l33t snipez at this game and don't play Nids or Orks(yet) )

'Nids
Pros:
Not meq
Alot of variety when it comes to models
Many ways to play
New codex
Very powerful when used correctly
(They look) fun to paint

Cons:
Painting those models ( just BS the gaunts )
Difficult to play (imho)
Not many units have models
Expensive army
Not all units are useful
and some other stuff

Orkz
Pros:
Awesome plastic kits
Not many medal models except for some stuff which can easily be averted by
Awesome conversion possibilities
Lots of character to the army
Tons of different play styles
Fun to paint

Cons:
Painting those 100+ boys
Expensive
Not as difficult as Nids to play but more difficult them Marines
Hard to move boyz around the table/ into combat
Transporting them could be a challenge

Now I'm pretty bias towards Orks but Nids are really cool to BUT I will only let you pick Nids over Orks if you have an awesome paint scheme for them!!!

Orks are fun; my brother plays them and its a real hoot watching him play, especially when he Waaags! i think its the best. I think that a 'nids army paired up with orks in a doubles match would be a good combo.

Not Necrons and not Thousand Sons, as you'll find they both play nearly identical to Marines with a handicap.

Play Tyranids, eat everything, be happy.

Thousand Sons, though having power armor do not play the same as Marines IMO. They are more magic oriented. I guess it could basicly be said that in space marine terms its almost like having 1 librarian and a bunch of little librarians who have retinues that weild ap 3 bolters. They are very costly point wise and money wise. But there is alot you can do with them because of the large variety of psyic powers.
Just thought someone should take the side of the thousand sons.

LordTyphus wrote:I would say go with Tyranids or even Orks,

Go Orks...I started Necrons as a main army a few weeks ago, but just got converted to the world of Orks. Necrons will be my second line army...especially with a codex update due next year to stir things up.

Orks...just so awesome. The army style options are huge. The opportunity for scratchbuilding and converting is simply amazing. Also, you can aviod painting a ton of Boyz if you want. A warboss allows a squad of Meganobz as a troops choice, a Big Mek allows a Deff Dread as a troops choice. That gives you 2 HQ and 2 troops, covering the required 1 HQ and 2 troops, with as little as 6 models. You could do 2 Big Meks and 2 Deff dreads for only 4 models if you really wanted, and still fill the base requirements. You are now free to load up on more dreads, killa kans, trucks, buggies, etc. Id still recommend some boyz as flak stoppers though.


Im going over the codex now and looking towards doing a mostly mechanized type army.

Well, though I am loath to say it, Thousand Sons are just another MEQ army. You won't really find anything new there to challenge you or inspire you if you're sick of marines.

Personally, I'd go for tyranids. They have some really cool units, have lots of decent builds for you to use and have recently been updated, so their codex is suited to the current edition. In short, you can't go wrong with a bit of Hivemind.