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Hello Everyone.
Long ago I tried moving from dawn of war to the tabletop. I got a box of necrons and actually painted a few but then other things came up, that was a few years ago. Lately I've been very interested in starting and Altansar Craftworld army but my old love the necrons have crawled up from the sands to tempt me again.

So I can't decide as someone new to the hobby which is easier to play like what are there strengths and weaknesses. I've heard necrons have trouble with larges units like Knights.

Necrons are reliable, durable, and comparatively slow/inflexible. They get across the table by marching slowly whilst shrugging off incoming fire.

They do and they don't have issues with Knights and such. They don't have a lot of different weapons, but their spammable basic weapons can damage anything in the game.

Necrons are also easy to paint, and have a relatively new/consistent range that's plastic except for their special characters.

Eldar are fast and massively overarmed, but much less durable. They get across the table by up and going.

Eldar can be pretty hard to paint or they can be easy; depends on what you're doing with them. Their range is almost all very old, the Jetbikes, Wraith units, and a few plastic characters are new, but Guardians, Aspects, and vehicles are all 4e-vintage or earlier (2005-6, I think).

Eldar also have the advantage of having two Codexes worth of allies (Dark Eldar, Harlequins) that add in a lot of options and flexibility.


You've had the good fortune to pick two armies that are both high on the power curve (Eldar are top of the heap and Necrons are just off the podium), either one is probably going to be fairly easy to learn and can be played with just their core Codex very easily. Their playstyles are pretty opposite; Necrons are slow, durable, generalist, and close-quarters, Eldar are fast, fragile, specialized, and can engage in close or from a ways off with equal ease.

I would agree with the above, except that necrons are not at all slow. If you haven't taken a look at the new necron codex, it contains the Decurion Detachment, a detachment of formations that grants certain benefits. The decurion has the famous ever-living rule that grants a 4+ reanimation roll (now identical to fnp, but better) to you entire army. But mobility comes into play with the other benefits: move through cover and relentless, which are conferred upon your entire army. In addition, many of the most powerful units in the codex are also the most mobile. Wraiths, destroyers, tomb blades, and to a lesser extent Triarch praetorians are all prevalent in the current necron meta, and all are very mobile.

Mobility is not an issue for necrons, but firepower is. Being able to hurt anything on a six is useful, but necrons lack long range and low AP firepower, making it difficult to deal a lot of damage. This is really the core issue with necrons, as we can't answer to the firepower of the eldar or marines. This is why you have heard we are weak to Knights, necrons have trouble with super heavy walkers and gargantuan creatures, as well as some death stars, especially white scar ones with hit and run, since they can't be tarpitted.

Honestly eldar are the superior army if you want to go competetive, but necrons are still strong, mobile, and extremely resilient. It's also worth noting that a lot of people dislike playing necrons because we don't loose many models over the course of a game. You also may have to tone down your list if you are playing against someone with a bottom tier codex like orks or Tyranids, unless they bring a super competetive list. We are Ina unique spot on the power curve where we often can't compete with the best, but we will crush the lower tier codexes. But if you like the fluff and models, necrons can support a diverse range of play styles as long as you don't go super competetive.

Sorry. Comparatively slow. Necrons have Flyers, can Deepstrike, can have MTC across the board, and can use the Veil of Darkness to deepstrike a unit to a spot a long ways off, but by comparison to the Eldar who are loaded down with Fleet, move-shoot-move, Fast Skimmers, Jetbikes turbo-boosting 36", Vector Dancer on all flyers, and the like they aren't particularly noteworthy on the speed front.

You should try their rules before buying more minis. Proxy/ask for a friend's army and test, test, test.

maybe try proxying some stuff before jumping in? Remember you will be building and painting things for some time. Necrons are simple to paint, but look awesome when painted well. Necrons don't have as much flexibility as eldar, any allies are allies of convenience at best so it's a single codex (for the most part, there are a few supplements that make them play quite differently). Both are shooty armies, crons can do choppy ok, if they get to their initiative step their warscythes can put out some hurt, but will die to dedicated CC armies. Eldar are the stronger army, but if getting PUG or playing with friends with <top teir armies, you'll have to power down your lists if you want follow up games >