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Hi everyone,

Decided to jump back into 40k and was gifted both the Newcron half of Indomitus, and the DG half of Dark Imperium. While I will probably collect, build, paint, and play both armies at some point, I need help deciding which to go in with first. I was initially sold on Newcrons, but after some youtube research, I feel like they're going to end up overcosted for what they do. DG seems more attractive to me as they had a good bump with PA. From a hobby standpoint, they both seem interesting and with a completely different aesthetic than I'm used to (Nids and Tau in 5th and 6th).

Help me decide? Tell me what I may be missing? What would you do and why?

Thanks!

To me it would boil down to customization. Crons just never seem to have much in that department. Their units always feel prebuilt probably to emphasize their robot nature.

I would say, take a good long look at the Death Guard range and think - "is there enough here to keep me happy for a while"? Because they're not likely to get an update for a little while yet, and they probably won't get a new model wave when they do (or at best, a unit or two). Whereas Necrons are known to get a new Codex this year, and that will bring new units with it, which I'm guessing will keep the excitement rolling for a while.

There's no point trying to figure out whether Necrons will be better or worse than Death Guard on the tabletop, as everything depends on that Codex. It's probably worth painting up and playing with what you have right now to begin with until that Codex drops, but if you really can't wait to start collecting, then performance shouldn't factor into your decision.

...that said? Now would be a good time to pick up a copy of the 8th ed Necron book on the cheap.

As above really.

The boring answer: its always best to pick a faction you like rather than one you think will be powerful, because things change and boredom is the bane of all projects.

The Real answer: the Necron Codex is coming out next month. So depending on what you want to do over the next 4-6 weeks, you should get a much clearer idea of Necron power when things start being leaked/previewed. DG would obviously seem to have the potential to be crazy good with 2 wounds, but it really depends on what price GW place on that.

dominuschao wrote:
To me it would boil down to customization. Crons just never seem to have much in that department. Their units always feel prebuilt probably to emphasize their robot nature.

You've not seen what people do with the Canoptek wraith kit. I've seen simple conversions with the "scorpion" through to using them to make tombstalkers and then even more. There's a load of necron conversions out there. Even many for making some of their machines more canoptek than driven by operators.

In the end they've no limits, sure they are built for purpose but that doesn't stop them being creative. Plus if you read stories like the novella "Severed" you realise that even though the basic warrior is pretty mindless; their leaders are far from mindless.

 Super Ready wrote:
I would say, take a good long look at the Death Guard range and think - "is there enough here to keep me happy for a while"? Because they're not likely to get an update for a little while yet, and they probably won't get a new model wave when they do (or at best, a unit or two). Whereas Necrons are known to get a new Codex this year, and that will bring new units with it, which I'm guessing will keep the excitement rolling for a while.

There's no point trying to figure out whether Necrons will be better or worse than Death Guard on the tabletop, as everything depends on that Codex. It's probably worth painting up and playing with what you have right now to begin with until that Codex drops, but if you really can't wait to start collecting, then performance shouldn't factor into your decision.

...that said? Now would be a good time to pick up a copy of the 8th ed Necron book on the cheap.

Well we know all the new units so you can look at the necrons and decide will that be enough to keep you happy for next decade

Well, I'd go for Death Guard for several reasons:
modeling (more variety of the model poses),
paint job (Necrons are one-dimensional when it comes to painting),
game play (more competitive than Necrons atm).

Both have very similar play styles however for your first army I would consider the following question - how much do you enjoy painting?

If you don't like painting, then get Necrons. I can paint up 10 warriors in the time it takes me to paint 1 Plague Marine to the same standard and that even applies if you decide not to go with the standard silver spray.

Owning both armies, I can honestly say that Plague Marines are better however. More diverse army, better playstyles and the ability to mix up your army later with some renegade knights, allied daemons or Chaos Marines. Necrons lack this.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, I'd go for Death Guard for several reasons:
modeling (more variety of the model poses),
paint job (Necrons are one-dimensional when it comes to painting),
game play (more competitive than Necrons atm).

One dimensional in painting? If you think you can only paint them in silver deathj guard can only be green.

Red necrons,blue, metallic blue, bone, ivor etc. You can do necrons with no more metals than death guard(guns). Actually you can make necrons with zero metal colours lot more logically than death guard.

From the hobbying perspective: DG will offer opportunities for greenstuffing, weathering, blood/mucus effects, customization with other SM lines. Necrons can offer a potentially simpler painting experience, OSL effects, less room for customization, clean lines, edge highlighting.

From a gameplay perspective DG will offer a smaller elite army that relies on combos of special characters and units and sometimes stratagems. Very defensive and slow moving army. Necrons will be overall faster, larger army, very shooty,less tough, much more mobile than DG. Although in the grand scheme of things they aren't THAT fast of an army.

tneva82 wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, I'd go for Death Guard for several reasons:
modeling (more variety of the model poses),
paint job (Necrons are one-dimensional when it comes to painting),
game play (more competitive than Necrons atm).

One dimensional in painting? If you think you can only paint them in silver deathj guard can only be green.

Red necrons,blue, metallic blue, bone, ivor etc. You can do necrons with no more metals than death guard(guns). Actually you can make necrons with zero metal colours lot more logically than death guard.

I think he meant all the models are VERY similar. They're a very boring army to paint a lot of since by their nature they don't have a lot of individuality.

OP: I'd say wait for the necron codex next month. No one knows how they're going to work 100% so random speculation isn't a good way to determine how they'll play. Necrons play style changes with every codex.

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I think I'm going to move ahead with the DG, and I'll hit the Necrons when I'm done.