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Hey everyone,
So my buddy wants to start necrons, he is new to 40k and I have no experience with necrons.
He wants the cheapest way to get 1000 point army for friendly games, he was thinking the battleforce (which is about 600 points I think) what else should he get to get 1000 in the cheapest way? Non competitive.

just let him know that getting into 40k "cheap" is still a lot of cash (kind of like collecting cars on a budget).

Look for deals on ebay, obviously, or a player who is getting out.

Also, as the codex ages (it is still very good, but not cheesy good with newer books out) more and more people will be getting out of it.

I would suggest:

warriors
scarabs (they are fun)
some tomblades (they are fun and good)
a night scythe (its useful).
a few destroyers, they are very cheap on ebay.
a triarch stalker - very cool model, and good.

Oh ya I told him it will end up costing him more than he thinks.
I did look on ebay but not much is really for sale right now which is unfortunate.

Thanks for some of the info.
Would that be in addition to the battleforce?

The best way to start Crons in my opinion would be:
Battleforce:
Everything in there is useful, I'd build Immortals and Ghost Ark rather than Deathmarks and DDA (although the DDA is fun)

Catacomb Command Barge:
Build as Annihiilataion Barge, this then gives you a free Overlord, saving you dropping £15 on a HQ.

That gets you to around 800ish, to go to 1k them maybe add a Doom Scythe if your meta has a lot of fliers, or some Wraiths if CC is more of an issue than fliers.

From an online retailer, you should be able to get this for somewhere in the £100 region, assuming the prices haven't changed wildly since I bought mine. Also, keep checking Ebay, good deals come and go and you don't want to miss them.

Just like Paradigm says, a Command Barge is vital!

Battleforce - $115 / 535 pts
Overlord/Annihilation Barge - $37 / 180 pts

So that's $152 / 715 pts.

I'd probably add another barge or two, maybe a ghost ark, and definitely a lord or two. Maybe even fill out a squad of Immortals from the battleforce.

9 Warriors w/ Lord w/ Res Orb in Ark - 297
10 Warriors w/ Lord w/ Res Orb - 195
9 Immortals - 153
5 Scarabs - 75
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90
Overlord - 90

Comes out to 990 pts. Everything comes out to around 250 USD, add a few pots of paint and a few brushes and he might come out under 300 for a fully playable force.

Disclaimer : It's not the most effective army list, but it's cheap and easy.

 Paradigm wrote:
The best way to start Crons in my opinion would be:
Catacomb Command Barge:
Build as Annihiilataion Barge, this then gives you a free Overlord, saving you dropping £15 on a HQ.

It's actually really easy to build the model in a way where you can use it as either vehicle.

wfischer wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
The best way to start Crons in my opinion would be:
Catacomb Command Barge:
Build as Annihiilataion Barge, this then gives you a free Overlord, saving you dropping £15 on a HQ.

It's actually really easy to build the model in a way where you can use it as either vehicle.

Of course, forgot this. The gun and command deck swap out very easily, so you do get twice the bang for your buck.

Another trick if you're willing to convert a little is to bling up some Lychguard as Lords. So long as you can convert Res orbs (just a ball of GS will do) then you're golden.

Remember e-bay is not the only cheap place to buy. many online stores offer 20-25% off new in box so even the battleforces he can get cheaper.
There are also places like bartertown.

Remind him that comversions can save him money as well. Build immotals out of reguler warriors by adding on xtra gubbins and such. Instead of filling up the swarm base with scarabs, only put one or two on there and have them crawling over spare tank parts to stretch them (might mean having to buy spare bases but the savings are worth it).

The holidays are past but he can tell friends and family that store credit is great for birthdays and such (the local shop or thewarstore are great for these), If you have enough spare models, give him a loaner army for local tourneys, if he wins,he will get free stuff, if not, he got a days playing in and is further hooked.

Oh, and introduce him to magnets, they save everyone $.

I've started the new Necrons with the battleforce and I didn't regret it. As I'm playing them fast (and deadly), I've sold the Ghostark at ebay.

The Lychguard box has so many leftover bits I was able to use it to convert 5 warriors into Cypteks (each one a 16$ finecast model if bought normally) and 1 destroyer into a destroyer lord (what would normally require a 11.5$ conversion kit) with plenty of bits to spare (had to find one extra staff though, as the Lychguard kit only comes with five staffs).

The Lychguard themselves aren't very good, but they look awesome and theoretically could work if you get them into a Night Scythe.

I'd agree with Galorian, get a box of Lychguard, and assemble them as Praetorians with the pistol/voidblade combo and use the spare parts to convert things. Really economic, fills up 200 pts and then maybe even more if you do some conversions. Can't go wrong.

Careful with ebay and necrons btw. I have bought about 40/50ish 40k items off ebay, the only 3 times people have tried to scam me is when selling necrons... could be coincidence, just saying.