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My boys are getting into WH40K so I bought them each the starter set of their choice. One picked Necron and the other picked Skitarii/Adeptus Mechanicus.

What I was wondering was if someone could help me pick what I should build from the included models. Many of the units in those starter sets can be built in different ways to make different units. I honestly can not figure out what the current 40K meta is so I'd just be guessing on what each should build. I really don't want one kid to win every time because I picked the wrong units to build for his brother.

Any help on how to make the most balanced set of forces for them fight each other with would be much appreciated.

A few things to know about me: I am an adept model builder, a (pretty) good painter, and have played WH40k but not for a loooooooong time. I played Eldar, Ultramarines, and 'Nids back in the day, Also, I know with me having to build all the models and do most of the painting (The older son wants to learn to paint!!) we will not be playing any time soon!!

Thanks!!

I would probably go rangers, neutron laser for ad mech

Annihilation barge for the necrons

Thanks for the advice, Ozomoto.

I think you should just show the options to your kids and ask them which they like the look of best, to be honest!

That said, neutron laser is generally considered the best option for the dunecrawler.

You could stick to a box of basic troops on either side, then boxes of elites, and then a heavy support so they expand their roles concurrently. I don’t know how good scarabs and wraiths are on the table but they look cool as hell in person when assembled.

I agree that you shouls let the boys picks the units and weapons they want. But you should also help guide them a little so they arent guessing what everything is with no reference (e.g: tell them the eradication ray is a general purpose gun that gets stronger the closer the target is, tesla weapons are lightning guns that are great anti infantry, skitarii rangers are long range infantry while vanguard are close range, etc.)

Rangers, Neutron Laser for the AdMech

I actually don't know what's in the Necron box...

Thank you for all the good advice, everyone!

123ply: I really like what you said. It make a lot of sense Though, back in the day, back in WH40K v2.0 there were some units, or weapons, etc. that were just trash. Thus, I asked what I (as a now inexperienced "new" player) should help my boys pick. If there are no bad options (when used correctly) then GW did a great job over the years balancing all of the units...


Isjagu: The Necron box has:
1x Overlord
10x Warriors + 3x mini-robot-thingys
4x Immortals (Gauss or Tesla) -or- Deathmarks
1x Command Barge or Annihilation Barge (If you go with the AB then I think you get a 2nd [but different posed] Commander mini as well)

It should be 5 Immortals/Deathmarks? I think the kit builds 5.

Would suggest Immortals over Deathmarks as their particular shenanigans (deep striking to counter enemy deep striking) don't have anything to trigger off of in the AdMech at the moment; less from any competitive impulse than wanting to avoid having dead rules on your units. For the Immortals I generally see people field at least one unit with tesla because it synergizes well with the Overlord's buff ability (+1 to hit means you get three hits on a 5+).

For the barge I'd suggest Annihilation Barge with gauss cannon/tesla destructor because that seems like the most general-purpose loadout; you don't have a lot of AT running around (most Necron lists I see rely on Destroyers and Doomsday Arks to kill armour) and if you can build an extra character out of it the Necrons will enjoy having both an Overlord and a Lord to buff their units (the Overlord gives +1 to hit to an infantry unit, the Lord gives reroll 1s to wound to all nearby infantry units). The Catacomb Command Barge's abilities make it effectively a bigger Overlord, which you might want in bigger games but having different buffs does more for you than having redundant buffs when you're just starting off.

As to the AdMech the Skitarii kit gives you nothing like all the upgrade guns you might want (you could take three guns in a squad of ten either Rangers or Vanguard, or four guns if you field them as two squads of five, but the kit comes with one each of the three options...). If you like the arquebus I'd suggest splitting the models into two units of five just because the Arquebus is one of about two guns in all of 40k at the moment that you actually can't move and fire (I think conversion beamers are the other) and it may not be a great introduction to the game to need to nail ten models' feet to the floor to fire one gun. In a more competitive environment I'd usually take an arc rifle over a plasma caliver because it saves you nine points on a squad you want to be as cheap as possible, but for intro games you could easily do either or both.

The neutron laser is very much the obvious go-to all-comers pick on the Onager because it gives you long-ranged anti-armour firepower in an army spoiled for choice when it comes to mid-strength weapons; it can be frustrating as a new player to have a really powerful one-shot gun and see it miss because when you're rolling one die you either hit really hard or don't hit at all (where guns with more shots do something even when they don't hit every shot), but the Dominus' to-hit reroll will mitigate that. The Icarus Array is a tool that can save your ass in some matchups (Eldar, vehicle/Destroyer-heavy Necrons, mechanized Primaris) but doesn't help a lot against folks with mostly ground units, the Eradication Beamer is funny if you can get it to work but the Neutron Laser usually does the same job better, and the twin phosphor blaster is pretty pointless. I always put the extra pintle stubber on my Onagers because it has incredible range and can almost always do something, even if it isn't the most powerful gun in the world it only has to kill a model before it justifies the 4pts you spent adding it.

On the Dominus I prefer leaving the volkite blaster to taking the eradication ray because even though he has an axe he's not really a killy up-close-and-personal kind of character and the volkite blaster lets him contribute better while sitting back with his troops, and I prefer the phosphor serpenta to the macrostubber because as the macrostubber has the Pistol type you can't fire both it and the volkite blaster on the same turn (you get to fire either one Grenade, one Pistol, or all weapons of any other types).