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Hi!

I have a full 2000+ Tau army, and an Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) army that's almost the same size too.

They're both shooty armies, and I'm looking for something different and interesting to put together, paint and play.

So, which army do I get next, and what units do I absolutely have to get?

You want something different from a shooty army, and choose between Eldar or Necrons?

They are two of the shootiest armies out there (Wraiths not-with-standing).

If you want people to hate you, go for Eldar. If you want them to hate you, but not quite as much, go Necrons. You have picked 2 of the 3 "power" armies (you own the other one) as your options.

If you really want to change it up, and don't care for highly competitive 40K, may I suggest a CQC based army like 'Nids or Green Tide Orks?

I honestly wasn't planning on getting the Imperial Guard until I saw a few MiniWarGaming battle reports where they used a bucket (or was it a box?) for dice rolling, then advanced the human wave, which I loved. I was trying to decide between Eldar and Necron. Now that the IG is paid for and on its way, I think it is time to make a decision and start committing to one or the other.

Id say necron, and use canoptek formation.

Well, Necrons can easily pull off some decent CC based armies. Flayed Ones are point for point the scariest CC unit in the game when it comes to infantry. Praetorians are awesome. Lychguard are tougher than terminators and can kill pretty much whatever. Wraiths are Wraiths. A lot of our characters can do well in CC.

Then for a more casual feel, C'Tan shards are pretty good in CC as well. So, Necrons can definitely do both melee and shooting.

Eldar, on the other hand, are mainly shooting. They're CC units are piss poor, if you ask me.

As a necron player I'd think carefully about choosing necrons. They have countless options but painting and modelling can be a bit... dull... as usual advice is to go for the army your heart tells you to go for, based on a range of factors, painting, modelling, playing, feel, 'the look', your local group etc.

If you really want something CC oriented that's different from Tau and IG, get Daemonkin.

Well if you want something different, this is your opportunity to make a melee eldar army. I believe that all of the eldar melee units (bar banshees, who still aren't too bad considering their pricing) are actually really good. Scorpions with fortune are incredibly hard to kill and have infiltrate too, allowing them to actually reach melee! Banshees are more likely to get melted as soon as they show their beautiful behinds, but you could go for them anyway because their models are nice.

If you want to go melee, I'd recommend scorpions and wraithblades, probably with some transport for the blades as they'll have a tough time reaching the enemy otherwise, and wave serpents are wicked good anyway. For an HQ, you can't go wrong with a farseer, who can support practically any eldar list, and is very cheap considering what he brings to the table. Other HQs you can take are an autarch (could gear him up for melee if you feel brave) for reserve manipulation, or Karandaras to give your scorpions some serious kill power. He strikes at S8 AP2 with an initiative of 7, and if your opponent is foolish enough to accept a challenge from him, he's going to have upwards from 7 attacks, plus pretty much a free wound before blows are struck from his mandiblaster. You could also take a spiritseer if you want some support for your wraith units.

Of course you don't see a list like this much because it is overshadowed by our shooting options, so if you really want to know the must haves, here they are:

Windrider jetbikes: Insanely maneuvrable and more resilient than a space marine, these guys can get where you need them to be easily, hit the enemy like a truck (or a space rocket, depending on how many scatter lasers you take...) and they're also troops choices, so if you take a CAD, they are the best objective grabbers you can get.

Warp Spiders: Insanely maneuverable and also hit like a truck. These guys can get in, hit the enemy with a huge barrage of strength 6 shooting, and be out of the way before the enemy can retaliate. They can even teleport during the enemy turn! These guys can shred nearly anything that isn't a landraider.

Farseer on a jetbike: Fast moving psychic monster. With access to telepathy, divination, and the not to be overlooked runes of fate, this guy gets where you need him and can then support your forces with crazy buffs, or destroy the enemy with an eldritch storm or a psychic shriek. Really is no reason not to take this guy ever, as far as I can see.

Wraithknight: If you can deal with the model (I hate it, others like it I'm sure), this fella is completely underpriced, very hard to kill, and can kill nearly anything. He moves like jump infantry, and can take either strength d ranged weapons for popping any tough target from long range, or a strength d sword for slapping other monsters, while he stomps on anything smaller. If your opponent doesn't already hate you, he will now.

Wraithguard: Give em d-scythes, stick em in a wave serpent. Take squad to target. Get out and delete target. Rinse and repeat if they're still alive after this.

Fire Dragons: The ultimate in anti tank deletion. These fellows can jump out of a transport, run the extra distance if needed, and then turn any vehicle in to scrap. With a whopping +3 to the vehicle damage table (MINIMUM), these guys will kill any vehicle you point them at. They need a transport though, if only we had a really good one....

While these are what I would call the 'must haves' you more or less can't go wrong with any unit in the eldar codex. Our units are only 'bad' in that some of our other ones can outshine them a bit.

This brings me on to why you should pick eldar over necrons. (Please note I do not play as necrons, this is just experience from playing against them).

Eldar do it all. They have a specialist for every occasion. Your army will excel at moving fast. Your army can excel at psychic power. Your army can excel at shooting up close. Your army can excel at shooting from far away. Your army can excel at close combat. Your army could be uniformly coloured or your army could be a massive mix of many aspect warriors, all with their own colour schemes. Either approach would make sense.

Necrons do a couple of things well. They move at average speed. They're not particularly slow, and they have some fast options. Necrons have great shooting, but only really in the 0-24" range. Necrons have some excellent melee in the form of wraiths and flayed ones. Necrons never die. They also never take part in the psychic phase. While you can obviously paint your army in whatever way you wish, I feel it makes more sense for necrons to have a uniform colour. Usually metal. You might want to get a necron player to explain the nuances of the metal menace, as I may be SLIGHTLY biased.

TLDR: You have 2 options: Grind your opponent to death with short range fire power and metal claws. (Necrons).
Annihilate your opponent in an explosion of colour in whichever manner you choose. (Eldar)

Choose Eldar, you know it makes sense!

Take a serious look at a mono harlequin eldar army if you want something unique. It is something different from tau and guards to paint and I promise you that it plays noting like tau or guards.

40k is a shooting game. Tau and IG play very differently. Necrons and elder are also extremely different. In fact, I'd say all four of these aren't play completely different than the others.

I play necrons and space marines. Both are very strong lists. I also have ad mech so that I can play down when I want too.

You already have ig to play down with.

I'd suggest necrons because they will play the most differently from tau. Instead of strong heavy shooting, you will have extreme defense and medium shooting with strong Melee support.