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From a game play and game plan point of view how do these two armies differ?
Pro's and con's of each compared?

I'm inclined to believe necrons have a wider host I options available to them so does that give them a foot up?
Getting back into the game and trying to pick between these two forces. Not looking to play super competitive or anything but having a good chance is always welcome haha

Thanks !

Hi there ! I picked up Skitarii when I got back to 40k so I can give you some advice about them, even though I'm still beginning.

First of all what do you mean by gameplan and gameplay ? Gameplay I get but not the other one.

I'll start with a list of my own opinion of pros and cons of Skitarii (barring Cult Mechanicus as allies):

PROS:
- Powerful guns, their basic guns are above average and their specials are very powerful, albeit costly for the Plasma Caliver;
- Doctrina Imperatives, one-turn buffs that enhances your BS or WS while reducing the other (like +3 WS/-2 BS), I can give more details if you want;
- Army-wide relentless, allows your guys to always be able to move and shoot at full capacity, and charge;
- Nice Leadership, average of 8;
- The basic Skitarii Maniple gives your whole army Scout so that allows better deployments;
- A lot of cover-ignoring options;
- Fast and hard-hitting walkers such as the Sydonian Dragoon;
- A relatively cheap and powerful walker who can be equipped with heavy weapons to deal with different threats (S10 AP1 Blast anyone)

CONS:
- Fragile units, they're almost all T3 with 4+ saves and FNP. A lot if ID could occur;
- No transports of any kind, so you'll have to walk all the way across the board and get shot in the process;
- Not a wide variety of units, as they were made to be allied with Cult Mechanicus;
- No flamers and few options for blast templates;
- No Psykers at all

I may have forgotten some things but that should cover it widely. Skitarii is mainly a shooting army with excellent firepower, even with their cheapest troops. They can however hold their own in melee, with dedicated CC units such as the Sicarians, and you can boost them even more with the Doctrina Imperatives. They have weapons to deal with everything, but not with every unit. Their only source of blasts is with the stock weapon of the Dunecrawler (the walker tank), but you have other options to deal with cover and hordes in this army. As I said, they'll have to footslog their way but can be relatively fast with the scout rule, and other faction-specific rules like the ones who add 3" to the movement of your Sicarians and Ironstriders. As a whole, they ought to be played with strategy and good placement, because they're certainly not OP in any way, and show their strengths when used well.

As for the Necrons I cannot give a detailed idea but I know them globally. Their army is very resilient, you'll rarely table a Necron player. They have a wide range of models as they are an older army, with a lot more options than Skitarii as the list building. They're overall made for range combat, but can be devastating in CC with the right units. Their guns are scary as well, and they have a lot of really good vehicles that hit hard and are equally resilient. It's an easier army to play than Skitarii, as their resilience and reliable firepower can be more forgiving to bad tacticals decisions or shabby list building.

I hope I helped a bit with this answer, I'm open for more questions if you need !

I'm a huge necron fan so here goes nothin'

PROS:
- Best general gun in the game thanks to the gauss special rule. Can glance or wound almost anything on a 6
- Several cool shooting options (Destroyers have ap3 guns, guass, tesla)
- Several cool melee options (Wraiths, Praetorians, Lychguard)
- Wide range of unit types (infantry, jump, beasts, flyers)
- Super resilient thanks to reanimation protocols
- A bunch of really good formations

CONS:
- Can be swept easily if RP doesn't save your butt
- You'll always fail a blind check
- Unless a unit is really good at melee don't count on it doing much in combat
- Very few weapons fire more than 24"
- No template weapons to speak of except for the doomscythe and doomsday ark
- No psykers
- Only one land based transport
- Flyers can't hover
- No way to remove cover during shooting
- Allies table is not that great

I'd say the lack of psykers are the necrons biggest failing. We can't participate in 1/4 of the game.

Important Necron correction:

Dont forget Tomb Blades!

With cheap upgrades they provide both blast S6 AP5 and ignore cover, and has 3+, T5, RP, is relatively cheap and is a jet bike.

Also I'd argue that although being 1 of 4 phases, Psychic does not represent 1/4 of the game.

Pro: Necrons can both dress up and dress down their power level, giving you more malleability in trying to calibrate to various levels of play/opponent.

Yep, my friend plays skitarii and has a war convo, or a robot death star to play with. I can play whatever flavour army i feel like, albiet not as strong as a dedicated army but Necrons can do everything pretty well. They basically are a stronger version of Skitarii, can do what they do better in most cases. The skitarii do have a very unique aesthetic however.