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Hey guys,

Brand new to wargaming, I need to decide which army to start. Tyranids or Necrons. I have watched a ton of battlereports with both of them, but still can't decide.

I enjoy the theme of both of them, and there are certain units from both that I love. Night Scythes and Wraiths are awesome, but I also love the giant creatures of the Tyranids. Is either army easier to use? Or just more fun generally speaking? Easier to paint, assemble, or just being cheaper?

Sorry if this has been asked before. Thanks you guys!

Necrons will be easier to use.

Tyranids suffer from Synapse, which means your army could eat itself a few turns in. There are other problems with the army, but I'll let the angry horde take care of that explanation.

I'd vote Necrons anyways, but I just dislike Nids to begin with.

I think Necrons are the better choice for a newer player. This edition really favors their play style and you'll have fun more easily. Tyranids are a great and fun army but their main strength is not very great this edition and the Necrons not doing much in assault won't be that much of a problem. The Tyranids also have a certain game mechanic that takes some getting used to in the synapse special rule. It makes their learning curve a bit harder than the Necrons. Of course this is just if you like either army equally. Always go with your favorite as you will be assembling and painting them for some time.

Thanks for the opinions guys.

The only thing that I've heard negative about Necrons is that all Necron armies are pretty much the same. Is this true? Also, it seems like there are more kinds of Tyranids than there are Necrons. Is this correct, or am I just imagining things? I'm worried that there'll not be enough variety to choose from when I need a unit with a specific strength.

Thanks again for the assistance!!

Matthew4194 wrote:
Tall Necron armies are pretty much the same

That might be true in tournaments but in casual games Necron lists can be extremely diverse. Almost every one of their units is at least decent and there are no "take this or you'll suck" units in the codex (Wraiths and Night Scythes are super powerful but you can do fine without them).

Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

Matthew4194 wrote:
Tall Necron armies are pretty much the same

That might be true in tournaments but in casual games Necron lists can be extremely diverse. Almost every one of their units is at least decent and there are no "take this or you'll suck" units in the codex (Wraiths and Night Scythes are super powerful but you can do fine without them).

Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

Very cool to know everything has it's place! Thanks for commenting about the painting, I'd hate to not enjoy painting them as I've heard it can take forever to paint some models.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

Matthew4194 wrote:
Tall Necron armies are pretty much the same

That might be true in tournaments but in casual games Necron lists can be extremely diverse. Almost every one of their units is at least decent and there are no "take this or you'll suck" units in the codex (Wraiths and Night Scythes are super powerful but you can do fine without them).

Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

Even flayers? I've mostly heard they really aren't worth it (they can be used in certain cases just usually not worth)

My vote is for Necrons as well. I love the Nids and all... but as someone starting out, I think Crons might be more forgiving.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:


Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

All armies are a pain to paint compared to Necrons. Still nids can be quickly and effectively painted. Perhaps a better way to decide is money. A nice Necron army can be built for quite a bit less than a Tyranid army.

 StarTrotter wrote:


Even flayers? I've mostly heard they really aren't worth it (they can be used in certain cases just usually not worth)

>almost every one of their units
>almost

That said, they're nowhere near optimal but they can pull their weight.

In terms of painting there is no better army for a beginner than Necrons. Spray paint them black or silver, Dry brush a couple of shades of darker silvers, wash them in an Earthy or black tone, colour the eyes and done! As you get better you can try Rust pigments, go for a rusted copper look and OSL but in terms of a first army they're pretty easy to get to a Table Top Standard.

Now as for rules Necrons are probably the top of Tier 2 (4th overall) and their internal balance is not too bad for casual games. In a more competitive scene they have about 2 viable builds which luckily enough are centred around your 2 favourites Scythes and Wraiths!

I have collected and painted pretty much everything in 40k at one point or another and from my own personal experience Tyranids have been the hardest to paint to a nice standard and Necrons have been the easiest.

Tyranids are up there with Dark Eldar in terms of difficulty as one mistake could cost you a game even in casual play. In the competitive scene Tyranids will handle most Power Armour armies without to much trouble and are one of the better armies equipped to take on Daemons but are countered by Tau, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Necrons and JotWW from Space Wolves will make life hard. 3 of those are the common things you will be facing at tournaments(Eldar, Tau, Crons).

For variety of their FOC here's a breakdown for you:

Tyranids
HQ: 7 Options + 1 from FW (3 special characters total)
Troops: 6 Options (1 of these is also an HQ)
Elites: 6 Options
Fast Attack: 8 Options (1 of these is unit + a special character) + 1 from FW (1 special character total)
Heavy Support: 7 Options
Transports: None (2 of your Lord of War options have transport capacity however)
Lords of War: 4 Options which are all from FW

Necrons
HQ: 9 Options (8 special characters total)
Troops: 2 Options
Elites: 6 Options
Fast Attack: 4 Options + 1 from FW
Heavy Support: 5 Options + 7 from FW
Transports: 3 Options
Lords of War: 2 Options + 1 from FW

Hope this helps!

Wow, thanks for all the info! Necrons it is! One last question (probably), is the Necron codex likely to be updated soon?

Matthew4194 wrote:
Wow, thanks for all the info! Necrons it is! One last question (probably), is the Necron codex likely to be updated soon?

The next Necron codex is probably at least another year or two off.

But that's just speculation.

There are a fair few in line before it.
Imperial Guard, Orks, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Eldar, Grey Knights, various Fantasy armies, 9th Edition for Fantasy and possibly even 7th Edition for 40k.

the latest batrep from miniwargaming is Tyranids vs Necrons, might be good for inspiration/deciding.

@Zande4
There are two non special character HQ choices (Olord and Dlord) and there are two from forgeworld, for elotes there are 2 more from FW (stalker and sentinel), and if you count the special scarabs then there is another one for fast attack from FW.

@OP
I would highly recommend starting necrons since they can be forgiving if you make a mistake and take casualties since they have the ability to reanimate dead units. They also have no useless choices and only a few subpar choices (flayed ones and ctan but even those can be used to great effect)

EDIT: Oh and also necrons are much simpler and cannot lose the game in one turn with ease

Welcome to the hobby.

I too, vote necrons.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

Don't let this be your deciding factor though because it's not necessarily true. Tyranids: spray army black primer, paint claws/fangs yellow, paint eyes red. Done! (that is literally what my friend did. It looks really great considering it took about 10 minutes a model).

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

Don't let this be your deciding factor though because it's not necessarily true. Tyranids: spray army black primer, paint claws/fangs yellow, paint eyes red. Done! (that is literally what my friend did. It looks really great considering it took about 10 minutes a model).

Necrons=Spray paint everything something metallic, put in green for the guns and the eyes.

You now have a Necron army.

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

Don't let this be your deciding factor though because it's not necessarily true. Tyranids: spray army black primer, paint claws/fangs yellow, paint eyes red. Done! (that is literally what my friend did. It looks really great considering it took about 10 minutes a model).

How to paint crons: spray metal color of choice, insert green rod if you arent painting it, paint eyes green and done! Of course both races can go much MUCH farther in depth into the details of models if you choose to or they can both be speed painted with ease and still look fine

I have Necrons and Tyranids, with that I would say that Necons are a better army to get started with. I bought my Necrons first and moved into the Nids after I got into the game a little more.

Painting and assembly is going to be easier with the Necrons. You will still want to try and magnetize where you can, but that will also be fair bit less with the Necrons.

I like both of my armies but the Crons are more forgiving and have some great builds.

Almost any army can be easy to paint with a little effort if you aren't expecting ultra-high-end models.

In the last few days I have been mass-painting 'Nids, and all it took was...

- Valspar paint+primer (I picked a nice light green)
- Quick base-coat of a second color on the carapace (rarely requires oodles of precision)
- Weapons/Claws in another color
- Heavy dark wash, or just dip the damn things. :-p

It goes very quickly, and while no one's idea of award-winning, they're looking really solid.

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

Don't let this be your deciding factor though because it's not necessarily true. Tyranids: spray army black primer, paint claws/fangs yellow, paint eyes red. Done! (that is literally what my friend did. It looks really great considering it took about 10 minutes a model).

Of course, I just assumed that the OP would want his models to look... y'know... good.

I started playing Necrons towards the end of the last codex, when a 500 pt army was 2 squads of 10 warriors (their min size) and a Necord Lord (the required HQ), which left just enough room for a resurrection orb. It was definitely a boring army build, because there was almost no choice, but that was perfect because I didn't know how to build an army either.

Painting them was easy too. I primed them with a Chaos Black then dry brushed a silver on them, then green on the eyes. The warriors got a red metallic paint on the necron symbol (carefully laid on so it didn't blob) and the Lord got gold on the necron symbol, so it really stood out. Basing was light colored sand with some cut up bits from the fluorescent green sprue that the templates came on, and I was complete.

Both of these were great for me, because I didn't want a lot of choices for my initial armies and didn't want a lot of complicated painting. Turns out that I'm not as bad at painting as my art teachers thought I was, so I can do a decent job. I have since started painting Malifaux figures, because I love the sculpts and the fluff, and have quite a few Necron models that I play almost weekly in our local game club. The problem I run into now is I don't paint my necrons much, because I am playing with them often enough that I don't want to take the model out of circulation for the amount of time it takes me to paint it.

If you love painting models, and want to paint a lot of them, Tyranids is a good choice. There are lots of cool things you can do with Tyranids and they don't have to all look almost identical. Necron warriors all look the same, there is almost no choice for posing them without doing some cut/green stuff on the models. ( I do have a couple that are standing on one leg with their gun pointed straight up, because one leg broke.) Immortals are a little better, but not by much. Tyranids at least have a few different sculpts for their troop choices. Generally speaking, especially with the new codex, Tyranid armies will have a lot more models on the table than Necrons.

If you want an army that is a little more forgiving for dumb mistakes early on, I think Necrons are the way to go. Their Resurrection Protocol allows you to lose a few models and have them come back. A squad of 20 warriors with a Lord and Res Orb, backed by a Ghost Ark to repair them will take a lot of fire before it will die. They have to kill every last one in a phase, otherwise half of them come back and another 1 or 2 get repaired the next turn. I have told people that Necrons are a good horde army that doesn't require as many models, because the ones that you kill just won't stay dead. 20 warriors is really equivalent to about 35 models, since half of them will come back once and half of those will come back again. I can't say this enough, there is a certain joy in seeing your opponent kill 19 of your 20 warriors and then 10 of them come back. (Not saying it's a good joy, there is a little evil in it, but it's joy none-the-less).

Painting Necrons or Tyranids can be pretty easy, dip the nids and spray paint the crons, but either one can also be a lot more individualized, especially with the new Necron codex (came out right before 6th edition, so pretty new compared to the prior one that came out in 3rd edition).

Simply put the game is really expensive and takes a lot of time to build paint and play. Pick an arm you love to look at and work on and play with. Don't listen to people on the my and you'll get a lot of enjoyment from the game.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
Also, Tyranids are a pain in the ass to paint compared to Necrons.

Don't let this be your deciding factor though because it's not necessarily true. Tyranids: spray army black primer, paint claws/fangs yellow, paint eyes red. Done! (that is literally what my friend did. It looks really great considering it took about 10 minutes a model).

Of course, I just assumed that the OP would want his models to look... y'know... good.

Yeah, without at least a really quick drybrush highlight, a flat black model with a few details sounds pretty bad. WITH some minimal grey drybrushing I could see it working.

OP, when it comes to painting, Necron infantry are extremely easy, and their vehicles (at least in the studio color scheme) are kind of difficult.

Tyranids are harder, but at least all Nids, no matter the size, are painted with the exact same steps.

Crons are still easier overall though.

Rule-wise, you are going to be much happier with much less effort playing Necrons. You have a lot more freedom in selecting an army list without accidentally screwing yourself before the game even starts. And once the game does start, Necron armies in general will be very forgiving of mistakes, while Tyranids will offer constant tactical challenges (any army trying to get into close combat is going to be harder to play than a shooting army).

Unless you have your heart set on Tyranids, go Necrons. You'll enjoy them for sure.

Well thanks everyone! Overwhelming support of Necrons, so Necrons it will be! Thanks for being so helpful!

I love the fluff and the models for Necrons a lot, and I love the idea of building lists from a collection instead of vice versa. The problem is that they are the Ancient Enemy and so I must hate them.

Necrons are easier. Tyranids are more fun to paint and play

It depends on your painting skill, necrons are easy to paint and use (they can even come back to life after dieing!), while tyranids are difficult to use do to synapse, and are all organic, lacking many smooth surfaces besides their armor.