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So I've played warhammer enough a while back to understand the basic gameplay and concepts and ive got a bit of tao and a tiny bit of eldar. Im trying to pick it up again and am looking into maybe a new army. The majority of armies seem to all be somewhat equal so its hard to decide but im caught between is primarily Necrons Tao and Eldar. What ive come to value from playing Tao is primarily BS and Armour save as when i first started playing i didnt know about marker lights and not being able to hit drove me insane, but just looking at basic troops and with marker lights in mind the tao seem so much stronger... theyre gun has i believe a 36 range ap 4 and with marker lights they can hit on 3+... the necrons are about the same only more durable with RP but theyre troops cost more and have less range on theyre weapons so im caught. I also feel like the deathmarks cost so much points when compared to a firewarrior as well... Can someone kind of clarify the differences and play styles like how often the extra range on guns comes into play or how often close combat uccurs (for the necrons wraiths). Im mainly just baffled by point costs and gunrange and how often these come into play... from what ive read necrons arnt very good in CC either so i feel lik ethe extra 12 range on guns is a major advantage also considering they cost less but then again the necrons dont have to rely on marker lights and have RP. For necrons i most like the night scyths doom skyths aniallation barge doom cannon wraiths spyders deathmarks and stalkers ctan shard(not sure immortals or warriors atm cause of pt cost) maybe tomb blades- firewarries broadside crisis sniper drones pathfinders maybe pirahna and gundrones (idk what i fireblade is). Eldar would be wairthgaurd rangers warpspiders shiningspears direadvenfers support wepon battrys and dire advengers (possibly fire prisms). I like necrons because of theyre duribility and they seem like really varsitle and good base stats, tao i feel like the combination of pinning and shootup seems super op but i feel like they could get mauled cause of armor saves, and eldar because of theyre strong units and fast movement. So maybe clarify how viable these stratagys are? Thanks ! Ik this seems like messy rambling lol

I would try to space this out via paragraphs. I gave up trying to read. It hurt my eyes.

I have to agree with the statement above. I did stop reading.

One thing I can say is go with your gut. I am an army jumper and it drives me nuts. I wish my gut a few years ago told me to stick with one army like most of my friends.

Poor formatting aside, to answer some points:

Tau crumple like paper in close combat and will die when shot at. Necrons will take a beating and still be able dish out some pain. The points difference (supposedly) accounts for how the extra survivability of Necrons is more valuable than the extra firepower of Tau. Deathmarks are going to be very expensive because they have extra rules which boost their damage output significantly at no cost to durability.

Wraiths are fast so they will get into combat by turn 3. They are plain overpowered for what they cost so many people will not enjoy playing against them.

Necrons aren't bad in close combat (especially Wraiths) since they never die and have a few CC oriented units. They like to march forward soaking fire into they get into range to shoot the enemy down.

Tau dislike getting close. They tend to use their range to stay back and shoot the enemy off the board. Any dedicated close combat unit will eventually get into combat and wipe them out.

Eldar tend to play fast. Jetbikes will capture objectives while the rest of the force shoots high tech weaponry at key targets. They're pretty weak when it comes to defense, though.

Actually be careful with getting into CC with the Necrons. With their low initiative they can get swept easily causing the entire unit to be taken off as a casualty in one roll. Although the Necrons do have some CC oriented units like Flayers that will most likely be the ones winning the assault. But aside from the dedicated CC units the rest of the Necrons fall to sweeping (which is how Orks deal with Necron lists)

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Actually be careful with getting into CC with the Necrons. With their low initiative they can get swept easily causing the entire unit to be taken off as a casualty in one roll. Although the Necrons do have some CC oriented units like Flayers that will most likely be the ones winning the assault. But aside from the dedicated CC units the rest of the Necrons fall to sweeping (which is how Orks deal with Necron lists)

Sweeping requires you to die in combat, though, and most units aren't going to kill many necrons in cc. Ld 10 is a huge damper as well. Sweeping necrons is a lot harder than it looks

Warriors tarpit pretty well. They aren't great killers in CC, but they are fairly hard to kill themselves.

I posted a better formatted one thanks for all the replies!

Lol it got locked. Use edit, dude.

Aight so, points cost wise: Eldar, tau and Necrons all have generally average cost basic infantry.

Looking at an infantry unit, there are a few basic standards:

Toughness 3 is humans, Eldar, and Tau. It is the average toughness. Anything lower than T3 is like, a little beastie thing.

Toughness 4 is SPACE MUHRINES super tough. So orks, Necrons, and SMs all being tougher than human are T4.

Usually, the "average" statline is:

BS3 WS3 S3 T3 A1 I2 LD8 SV4+ with a S4 rapid fire gun. That's what I would say is "average" in 40k.

So you can see: Necrons are tougher than average, stronger than average, better shots than average, morale-ier than average, and their gun does an extra thing. Sweet! But they pay for that by being expensive.

So then there's tau, who have mostly average stats and a sweet gun. They cost a bit extra, but they're cheaper than Necrons. Eldar are faster than average but more fragile.

Honestly, I would start with "which ones do you think look cooler."

Playstyle wise, Necrons are durable, low range, and possess good dedicated melee units (though their ranged units want to avoid melee.) Eldar are similar, but fast and less durable to Necrons. Tau have middle of the road durability, but no good melee options.

So I've played a little before and have a small understanding of the gameplay and am looking to start again... The three most appealing armies to me right now are Tau Eldar and Necrons and I'm stuck on them for various reasons...

I find the Tau appealing because primarily because of they're firewarriors, they're lower point cost than the Necrons and have an insane gun, the only worry is that they're a lot less durable and im worried that I'd get mauled if I can't take advantage of they're 36 range... They're BS is a bit low but marker lights can help solve this... I'd be going primarily for a combination of pinning units like sniper drones and pathfinders with firewarriors and id probably put in some gundrones broad sides and crisis battlessuites

The Necrons are most appealing mostly because of they're durability and overall good base stats. What worries me with they're warriors is that they're gun is 12 inch less and they do have a tiny bit higher point cost, the other guys I would like are the stalker night/doomskyth deathmarks and wraiths with maybe annialation barge and doomsday but I'm not as sure of how effective these units would be especially the wraith cause I'm not familiar with CC and the deathmarks are basically only good for one turn...

Eldar is similar in base stats to Necrons I like they're durability and would probably get wraithgaurds rangers warpspiders and shiningspears and play a fast moving annialation squad and id mayve throw in some support cannons or something

Im kind of just lost as the armies are similar enough but still different... Im mostly unsure because I'm not sure how often the extra 12 inch range will help the taus guns and also they're reliance on marker lights... The Necrons don't have the same range and I'm not sure how effective they're deathmarks doomskythsl and wraiths will actually be and they're troops cost a tad more points but the overall stats are way better and seem to be the most consistent bunch. The Eldar seem really cool in thought but i haven't gotten to look to closly at they're point costs yet and as they're gun range is really small for some units I may run into problems in CC.

Also as a last thought point costs just baffle me I'm not really sure how to tell if it's a lot or not is there any baseline I can compare too?
Can't really find edit lol

 Dalymiddleboro wrote:
I would try to space this out via paragraphs. I gave up trying to read. It hurt my eyes.

quoted for truth.

The biggest piece of information you left out is how competitive you want to be. Do you want to be able to do well just within your playgroup, at your FLGS, at local tourneys, or ultra-competitive? Once this is determined, it will be much easier to assist with what to play or to tell you if any of these strategies just won't work for you. 40k is heavily tiered and you have to know your competition and their competition/play for fluff levels.

I would say competitively who I would be playing would be casual but I mean that's no reason to take it easy ha-ha I wanna kick butt and get ticked when i lose so I mean as high legit a tier strategy as possible


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I mean like I'm always gonna be playing a game looking to win so I'm gonna want an army to do that

Don't invest in Tau today, because they will get a new codex within a few months.

Eldar and Necron are both solid factions, so go with the one that you feel at home with. Or wait for Tau 7e book later this year.

And find the Enter key

Is there a new necron codex coming out any time soon ?

New necron codex just came out a few months ago.

And Eldar are more durable than Tau, whoever posted something to the opposite hasn't looked at statlines in a while. Eldar have higher BS, WS, and I. Eldar may look like they're supposed to be fragile, but T3 3+ is a sister of battle, and no one really calls them fragile.

Crons are relatively brand spanking new.

not as new as Eldar.

Tau have a decent chance at getting an update.


If i was you, I would prioritize the army that ascetically pleases you the most, then figure out how you are going to paint them (Because painted models roll better dont ya know?) (also because generally you will want to get it all painted and nothing sucks worst them having half your stuff unpainted as you burn out).
Then figure out whats good in the book.

Lucky for you crons and eldar have pretty damn good internals and almost everything can be used (IIRC)

Crons have a couple stinkers in the vehicle department, and Eldar have Rangers and Limp Spears but all in all they're really strong. A Tau codex update is unlikely to change fire warriors drastically.

It looks like either you're very young or not a native English speaker, so I'll try to be clear. Necrons and Eldar recently got a new codex, so they'll probably stay the same for a while. Let me start by saying that all 3 of those armies are good and can be competitive.

Tau (not Toa) just shoot. You won't move your models around much, you shoot. If you don't shoot things before they get to you, you're likely dead. On the other side, it's rather easy to shoot things before they get to you because the army is really good at it. The extra range certainly helps, but it's not like people can't shoot you. Simply put: "Other armies can shoot at what's in range, Tau can shoot at whatever is on the board"

Necrons are a good army. Their models just stay on the field a lot longer because they have better defense. They don't have the weapons with the highest strength or the best AP, but because their defense is so high, they lose few models which means their firepower stays roughly the same until the end of the game (compared to other armies, which lose more models, which means they lose more firepower during the game).
They might cost a bit more points, but they probably stay longer on the board as well. On a side-note Deathmarks are a good unit, they have good special rules.

One thing about Necrons is the way they (can) build and army. They have something called a "decurion". It's hard to explain so maybe search for some information, but it comes down to this: Instead of choosing units, you choose groups of units and you get special rules for that.


I don't know anything about Eldar. I will say however, that Eldar have access to something the other two don't, which are psychic powers (basicly magic).

My vote is Necrons. If you are newer to the hobby, it will be less expensive, easier to paint, and easier to learn on than the others. Plus - space murder robots - what's not to like?

First priority should be what you'd have the most fun modeling and painting. If you have or can borrow each Codex, reading or skimming through those would help.

Play style, generally speaking, Tau are longrange shooters, Eldar are super-fast and deadly, and Necrons are a midrange, super tough grinder army. But none of that matters if you don't like the models so much, so I'd go with which one you think looks coolest or has the best backstory.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Regarding Necrons in particular:

Deathmarks are a solid Elite infantry that are good for doing serious damage the turn they come in. They can Deep Strike onto the board, so range is not much of an issue for them.

Wraiths are one of the best Close Combat units in the game, and move very fast up the board. Range isn't much of an issue for them either, because you want them moving forward to charge, or waiting to crush advancing units.

For Annihilation Barges, range is not really an issue. You push them forward and fire, or push them even further and fire snapshots, which is mitigated because the primary weapon is twin-linked.

If you end up playing Necrons, the formatiom that has Annihilation Barges and a Doomsday Ark isn't so great relative to the other choices, so I wouldn't worry about them too much IMO.

Crusade wrote:
I have to agree with the statement above. I did stop reading.

One thing I can say is go with your gut. I am an army jumper and it drives me nuts. I wish my gut a few years ago told me to stick with one army like most of my friends.

Oh god, I know that feeling. Had to pretty much glue my brain to WW1 and WW2 loving so that I could stop hopping after taking up IG.

Thankfully there's enough variation there to keep me permanently busy.

Marcman, a few points!

Take whichever army has the aesthetics and fluff you like the most. Even if you lose some battles, an aesthetic you can get behind makes it worthwhile.
As for winning stuff, there are a few overpowered/broken lists from Eldar and Necrons that you could take and win 90% of the time without effort, but people will quickly stop playing against you. It's good to want to win, but make sure that you aren't just choosing an army for its abiliy to win alone. Partly because its a tfg move, and partly because it will cost you hundreds of GBP or USD every month to keep up.

And, sidenote, I notice you have a lot of rules discussions in the General Discussion section. Please post future rules questions in You Make Da Call.

Oh and Welcome to Dakka!

Pick an army and stick to it. I am an army jumper, and like another poster wrote, it drives me nuts.

At least with the allies rules it is possible to combine two armies.

If you want to play something fairly varied, you could play Tau though, they have tau, kroot, vespids and even human soldiers.

If you want a less varied army, go with space marines, where everything is power armor and you need to paint the helmet different colours to make them look different.

Eldar and Necrons have recent and very powerful books that won't be replaced for a while. Space Marines is also a strong book and you're never behind the curve with tons of support from the main studio and FW.

Everyone else is a riskier proposition.

play the ones you'll enjoy painting the most.