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hey all,
i am thinking of a new army to collect and i am split between two very different armys, tyranids and necrons. as all armys they have there pros and cons but i prefer the rules of necrons, but i prefer the look of tyranids, i love the massive creatures but i also love the the 3+AS on base men, i just cant decide... so i thoguht i would run it past you to see if anyone has a good table tipping edge to why i should go necrons or 'nids. i will be grateful of all input

Chrons are going to be everywhere as they are the new codex. Personally don't care and am hurridly building up an army of them for myself.

Nids kinda suck in 5th ed at the moment. Not saying you can't win with them or that you won't enjoy having them.

I personally would go nids if they excite you though.

Depends if you like combat or not Nids offer fast expendable troops and are heavily combat based. Necrons can also have some large creatures but are mid ranged but even the standard Warriors are juggernauts. Its more down to your opinions and gamestyle.

Nids-
Big mc
Hoarde
Great in assault, with high I, lots of attacks and bodies

Vulnerable to shooting, poor armour

Mediocre shooting, especially long range AT

With synapse whole army fearless

Lots of units rely on synergy and biomorphs to increase the killing power of units

Necrons (from what I know)
-elite shooting army

-High toughness, good armour and regen

-Lots of anti infantry and AT power at long range

-Access to skimmer transports, walkers and heavy vehicles like the monolith. Lighter vehicles can get a shielding ability that ups their armour on the front and sides by two.

-poor initiative and ws even on elite CC units although offset by special abilities and wargear.like the warsythe (+2str power weapon).

-Some extremely interesting special abilities with regard to reserves

-New models!

I hate to say this but, honestly, if you want to win, play necrons.

Now there's a statement that would never have been made a year ago...

CuddlySquig wrote:I hate to say this but, honestly, if you want to win, play necrons.

And if that's all you want out of your army, theres far better games to play than 40k.

Honestly, the last thing I worry about when choosing an army is really how they play. I got into miniature war gaming myself because of the the modeling side of the hobby, and 40K specifically due to the miniature ranges and background.

I would say since you've narrowed it down to Necrons or Tyranids, you should be asking yourself what is the most important things about these two armies to you? Remember, it's your money you'll be spending, and 40K isn't cheap.

To me it sounds like you are leaning more towards Tyranids because you like their aesthetics. if you do choose Tyranids this is good since any army you choose you should like the looks of, you'll be spending a lot of time with them.

No matter your decision, have fun.

Fat_Little_Ripper wrote:To me it sounds like you are leaning more towards Tyranids because you like their aesthetics. if you do choose Tyranids this is good since any army you choose you should like the looks of, you'll be spending a lot of time with them.

This right here. If you plan on painting your stuff, make sure you like what you're painting. You can make a decently competitive list out of just about anything, but you can't force yourself to enjoy painting models you don't like.

Hmm. iIcan see where your coming form but that raises a new dilemma, i love the look of the tyranids buuut... i am not a very good painter, i am average at best that means my army will not look brilliant where my necrons look a little worse but much easier to paint... but i think i might go towards Tyranids

Bugs are bugs, you really can't go wrong on the paint scheme.

I have both.

I started about 2 years ago with the old Necrons. I was torn back then between the two armies because I love playing "the bad guys" , and I choose Necrons because I love undead themed armies.

After getting comfortable with the game I wanted something more updated and more competitive so I ended up going nids.

One big pro tip about nids - you will need to kit mash / build your own models as they never received their 2nd wave. Also building a solid list does require a fairly hefty investment.

Now that the Necrons got their revisement, I went back to them, and I went back with a vengence. I have about 4k points with nids, but with crons I have about 6.5k now. Ive played quite a few games with the new crons and I do enjoy it, but they certainly aren't a CC dedicated army. You can have a few tricks to really hurt your opponent or down right irritate them.

So really, conclusion... choose whichever army visually looks good to you. I know its not a good answer, but if you pick an army you love the look of you will be motivated to paint it. The tyranids , IMO, are a bit weaker mostly because of a bogus FAQ, BUT they can still be very very competitive. If you go to miniwargaming.com and click on "shows" at the top, look up "Beat matt bat reps" and look at a lot of his older videos from this last year. Not only are they some of the best battle reports out there, he played nids and can show you tactics to think "outside the box" and he wins a lot of games with the nids, even vs fairly competitive armies.

Tyranids, there are too many necron players since the new necron codex came out, and there aren't enough nids players.
Once I saw 1750 of nids beat 1750 of marines 1750 of eldar and 1750 of guard plus it was an objective game, with loads
of tanks!

Hmmm, I agree that if you like the look of Tyranids then you should go with them. Don't worry about the painting, I'm a rookie myself, just practice on some general infantry and start up from there. If you really are worried about it then go with Necrons, they are blooming easy to paint with a simple metal scheme.
Another point, my first army was Orks and I let myself get overloaded - unfortunately I found the amount of models to paint too daunting and ended up selling them for Necrons. Bad move, I have to say, but if you think that'll happen to you then Necrons may be better.

I would wait until 6th Edition, before you make a large investment like a new Army. Some of the stuff you buy could end up totally useless, and that is not what you want.

If you can't wait, pick up both codexes, study them, read some battle reports, check out some P&M Blogs and then decide after you've had some time to think, and have all the facts in hand.

Sasori wrote:If you can't wait, pick up both codexes, study them, read some battle reports, check out some P&M Blogs and then decide after you've had some time to think, and have all the facts in hand.

That's a good point, I'd look at the fluff and other parts - perhaps one will make you think 'Sweet...' and you'll want it like hell, or maybe it'll make you think 'Ugh... Boring' and you'll have just saved yourself a bunch of dosh.

sabastionz wrote:Hmm. iIcan see where your coming form but that raises a new dilemma, i love the look of the tyranids buuut... i am not a very good painter, i am average at best that means my army will not look brilliant where my necrons look a little worse but much easier to paint... but i think i might go towards Tyranids

GW's new washes made Tyranids a breeze to paint. Prime them white, find a colour you want for the skin, wash the skin that colour. Maybe paint the skin that colour Then just paint the carapace.

Or be like me and leave their "skin" black and just paint the bones and carapace... I wanted an alienish theme but I have 3 diff shades of brown on their shells