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Hey guys I am new to 40k and in the process of trying to pock an army. Currently my top three are Works, Dark Eldar and Necrons. I really love the look of DE and Necrons. But from what I've read, DE are really hard to play and Necrons are hated. If I'm sold on DE should I take the plunge or sway towards Necrons/Orks as my entry into 40k?

Here's the simple answer: pick what you like. Ignore the rules. Ignore the "meta" (the ongoing rules development which is manipulated to produce the most powerful forces etc.). Rules changes, and with 40K sometimes all too frequently.

Unless your goal is to win top-tier tournaments etc., you're better off starting with whatever army you like best. Visually and background/fluff/lore-wise. Picking any army based on its game performance will mean you'll end up with zero motivation to actually build/paint/complete an army.

Rule of cool.

Ideally, if you're playing with a good group of people they will also be more prone to taking reasonable army lists to play against you.

Full disclosure: I don't like Necrons much, but I'm going to try to be objective here.

They may be one of the best armies to start with, honestly; they're reliable, forgiving, easy to paint, you don't have to make a lot of decisions on how to equip them, and the internal balance is good enough that you can grab pretty much anything in the range and make it work.

I think the dislike stems from the fact that they exist at a weird angle to the rest of the game. Most armies have a certain number of small-arms troops that have to be taken as a tax that don't do a lot of damage, but Necrons use massed small-arms fire as an answer to almost everything. That plus Reanimation Protocols can make it feel like you're getting blindsided by unfair rules when you lose a game to Necrons; once you have time to get over the knee-jerk reaction you will realize they're much fairer than they look on the surface. If you check whether your opponent has seen Necrons before and are up-front about your special rules if he hasn't you shouldn't run into problems.

As for Dark Eldar if they're your first choice their reputation for difficulty shouldn't be the deciding factor. The learning curve is higher and you won't be winning any tournaments with them, but for casual pick-up games you can do just fine without worrying about whether the Codex is strong or not.

In all honesty I don't recommend armies to new players based on the rules unless they tell me they favour a particular playstyle.

Elbows is completely right, pick the one that interests you most. That is the most important thing first and foremost.

Now if you're still undecided then you can look at other things too, such as ease of play/assembly/painting. All three armies have a 7th edition codex but DE and orks have earlier codexes that fall behind on power level. De are a scalpel army and from what I've heard can be harder to play but very rewarding when things go right. Orks are low on power level but I've never seen a sad ork player, it's just a fun army overall. Necron can pull some neat combos but overall they're probably the simplest army to play for a new player. Necron also have the added benefit of being the easiest army (in my opinion) to paint which is great news to a new player as it will allow you to paint your force quickly and it'll look good. If you're interested in tournaments then I'd also probably go with Necron.

With that said remember rule #1, play what interests you most. And welcome to 40k and DakkaDakka

As always, pick what you like the look and lore of first, but also note that yes, DE are in a bad, bad spot right now for new players, orks are pretty much universally loved and necrons do not deserve the hate they get, at all. With all the ridiculous cheese the most popular armies in the game get (space marine and friends) there is no reason that you should get hate for just playing necrons. If you want to make it even less of a chance of you getting hate, don't bring decurion or canoptek harvest formations.

Play eldar with a dark evil paint scheme to look like dark eldar.

Get scat bikes and paint them with skulls and green amd purple flames.

Get wraith knights and paint skeleton and flayed skin on it.

win with eldar cheese.

There are a few things you need to know.

1: Learning to play 40k isn't as hard as it seems. You can learn this game in a few weeks regardless of the army you play by just reading the book watching some battle reports and playing, table top simulator, vassal or just some proxy games.

2:40k is expensive. Armies most decent armies will cost more then 500$, and painting it will take most players months if not years of their free time.

So NEVER EVER take an army just because it is a "good starter army" unless you are one of those guys with unlimited time and money.

OldZoggy brings up a good point.

While you can sell used models for 40-50% of what you paid for them, 40K is awfully expensive to "try". Now if you're willing to retire an army to "loaner army status" then it can be considered. It never hurts to have two armies in case you want to introduce a friend to the game etc. But it's definitely not a logical financial decision to try something which can be $500-1000 only to realize you don't like it.

That's a large part of why I suggest collecting what you really like, effectiveness-be-damned. I have collected and built a rather large 2nd edition Eldar army and I rarely even get to play (and I don't play modern 40K). But I love the models and I can use them in a variety of other science fiction games. I enjoy painting them and I love building the army so it's all worthwhile to me.

Which of the 3 armies have you the codex for? It is important as all of the others have said, to enjoy the army you play. Be it Aesthetics is the diciding factor or the background fluff you like best. That should be the first thing that you should choose when it comes to your first army.

Now on the specifics. Necrons, dark eldar and orks all play and paint differently.

Orks. Are most often promoted as a "good starter army" this is bull gak and either the result of ignorance or a salesperson wanting to sell you some orks on top of the army you really like to play. Orks are 40k on hard mode. Sure you can just push some orks to the other side of the table and hope to kill stuff. But this isn't the way to win at all. Orks have one of the worst point efficiencies in the game, and lack almost all things that make other armies good. This makes playing orks an uphill battle and you will have to plan many turns ahead. Orks are generally a hordish army making your army really large. This sounds fun and all in the beginning. Until you realise that you will have to paint and buy way more models than most players in this game. I rarely have seen a battle with a full painted ork army that included a decent amount of boyz and wasn't painted by someone who could paint in the time of his bozz. So don't go into orks unless you really really love them.


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Necrons

They are easy to paint. No skin no strange stuff just all undead space machines that you can just paint all metallic if you really want to and no body will really mind it. Are they hated? Na not any more. They used to be game breaking good due to them not wanting to die, but other armies have surpassed them. Now they aren't weak either but they are no longer the army every "I just bought this army because I like to win player" is showing up with. But they do play in a specific way and you don't have that much room for alternative play styles. So look at battle reports to see if you like their play style.

Play waht's interesting for you. That's by far the most important thing.

Dark eldar.

Are not easy to paint copaired to Necrons or Orks. You will get better if you paint more, so if you start painting and collecting them start with some simpler cheaper kits such as a box of warriors, and switch to more expensive models when your painting skill has improved. Are they hard to play with na kinda. They aren't that hard to master in a few weeks but they are no easy win button either. They suffer from lower than average point efficiency and require you to play with some tactics in mind. But they do offer extreme flexibility due to high speed and some diverse nasty tricks. This isn't your army if you just like to move in shoot stuff and be done with it, or if you like to show up and be sure that you will win the game. But they are fast moving ( in contrast to orks) so if you make a mistake in your movement you can likely correct it next turn as long as you don't get killed before that. Again look at their battle reports to see if you like their play style, They aren't as powerfull as Eldar who are currently 40k on extreme easy mode. Due to this they have a extremely bad reputation just know that these guys are more capable of winning than most players might let you believe and that there isn't a single 40k army that is really hard to learn.

Orks are super fun to play, unless your local meta is ultra competitive. I still break them out occasionally, because they are so cool. If you like ridiculous models and goofy stuff, I'd go with it (Red Paint Jobs, bomb squigs, etc).
And you could always ally in some Necrons. But as my advice to anyone starting, buy the models you like that's all that really matters.

Have a look at the stuff. If anything makes you go "omg, cool" then that's the one for you. No matter whenever it's DE, necrons or orks. Both in 40k but in life in general don't let other peoples negative views influence your free-time hobby decisions.

Yeah but there is also the issue of can I afford it and do I expect to enjoy it long enough to be worth the investment. We would all be ending up with Gators in our bad tubs if we didn't ask ourselves those questions.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the helpful advice. I went with Necrons as they have a really cool aesthetic and I think I'll have a blast doing some creative stuff painting them. Used to love playing them in DoW so hopefully its similar

I'm sure you'll be very happy with your pick. Enjoy your army and happy wargaming!

For those who helped, I found a Necron army on ebay for $250 with a

1x monolith
1x Doomsday Ark
1x Annihilation barge,
1x Overlord
5x Scarabs
7x Destroyers
20x Immortals
30x Warriors
3x tomb blades
3x Wraiths
1x Stalker
Necron Codex and blast templates.

Seemed like a good deal although i will need to strip several models as I'm not a fan of their paint job.

That's a really good deal Supasnake, I'd be all over that. That'll give you an amazing start to your force.