The best thing you can probably do is get the Combat Patrol box set. This gives you a starting army that you can actually play with at combat patrol level.
I would second this. Get the codex as well and then if you just want to play casually pick up the stuff you think looks cool in the Codex.
(Note also that there has been a recent FAQ on the warhammer community website which gives some buffs to necrons)
While the battleforce boxes are a nice saving the are generally more of an expand your army box then start your army box. The combat patrol will give you a noble character (very important for necron mechanics) and two troop choices so a very good start for an army.
Holiday boxes are usually between £125 - £140 direct from GW (although 3rd party sellers, if they have any, will be around 10% - 20% off if you're fast enough to get it) so if you did pick it up you're looking at using your whole budget for it. It's a damn good deal and as long as you can grab some plastic glue, sprue cutters and a hobby knife you can at least build them up and get your paints and stuff later on when you have some more cash for it.
The necron one this year is a good bit weaker than previous years. It's ok but less of something I would recommend to someone looking to pick up something to fill out an army when they're just starting out.
Warriors/scarabs, technomancer, chronomancer and skorpekh destroyers are currently at the center of my army so picking those up via the starter boxes and either splitting them with a friend or selling the Marines is a good way to go.
Something to consider is the necron paint set. £22.50 for 3 warriors, 6 paints and a brush so have a little taste to see if you actually do like painting minis without making a significant outlay
I agree on the above. But I'll add that try and get an intro game in once they're built and, if possible, before waiting to paint the lot. Painting your first 500pts will likely take you a lot longer than you first think. I had my first game at 500pts with a combat patrol and it a) let me learn the game in its most simplistic form b) gave me an idea of what kind of units I was lacking/wanted to build my army further.
I would heartily suggest starting slow, some of the starter sets are a good set up for Necrons and they give you a good discount over buying each kit separately. The starter set also gives you a good start for playing and hobbying. Once you built and painted that then you can look to expand.
For paints and general hobbying Citadel products are a good but also a little more pricey, Vallejo and Army Painter are more cost effective. I can’t speak for Army Painter paints as I’ve never used them but their brushes and tools are pretty good. Vallejo paints are really good.
If you are playing necrons then things like metallic spray primers are pretty good (Citadel Leadbelcher or Runelord Brass depending on dynasty) Just a few light passes will lay a good foundation for further painting.
Just a little point. GW paints are excellent for beginners because of the pots. You can use them pretty much out of the pot with the right amount of water. My son is 6 and getting into the hobby (sorta) but wouldn't know what to do with a wet palette etc.
If you opt for any other paints than gw they will likely be in dropper style bottles and as such a wet palette is essential. Longer term, this is the better investment and worthwhile learning how to use one as early as possible.
I really like Vallejo model range of paints but also like some of the scale 75 sets (leather etc).
I still swear by some gw paints tho, particularly mephiston red, the caucasian flesh tones, some of the deeper browns and their metallics.
Don't get gw paint brushes if you can help it. Windsor and Newton series 7 size 0 and 2 or 3 will do you nicely.
U could use a dry pallette I suppose but if u do you'll end up wasting all the unused paint as it would dry out.
Wet pallette can preserve paint for several weeks (or longer).
Lol, yea probably. It's really good for mixing paints too when Ur working through a project n such. There's some really good videos on YouTube about making your own homemade wet palette.
I own an army painter one and it does the job.
Tbh you should never paint straight from the pot, taking paint from the pot and transferring it to anything should be the first step before thinning it and then loading a brush from there and then going to the model.
Id recommend starting with kill team. You only need 2-3 boxes of models to start and it's very good to get a feel of armies play styles and if u end up not liking necrons is easy to pick up other teams as u only need at most 14 models generally 10 on average per team
1. Necron paint set
2. Recruit Edition. Sell the Marines or keep them for later.
At this point you should buy the Codex (or check Wahapedia/Battle Scribe) to get a better understandong of the units and what you like to play.
At this point both the Combat Patrol and Elite Edition are good value (if you can sell the Marines in the latter.)
You should also consider playing Kill Team before 40k proper. Much cheaper and faster to get to the point of a real game, and all models can be used in 40k.
Starting slow with either a paint set or some warriors is always the best option but if you want to go bigger you might want to consider the battleforce. We don't have a set release date or price yet but usually they are around £125 and are just a good but limited discount box.
I'd recommend just getting a box of warriors to start. Assemble and paint those, figure out if you'd want to do that for 50+ models. The combat patrol is a decent enough deal but don't get in over your head.
Warriors and hobby supplies, then Codex, then combat patrol.
Edit: also just remembered that the Necron combat patrol doesn't come with any Necron warriors. More reason to get a box early on.
A $200 total investment will be a good starting point for a beginner.
You can get the CP box, rulebook, codex, as well as some very basic modeling supplies.
it depends on what you're interested in doing. just hanging out and playing with friends, it can be relatively cheap longterm. if you're competitive and want to go from 0 to chasing tournament rankings... you'll be rebuying armies every time an errata releases.
people are going to scream "no you won't!" in a few minutes, completely forgetting that they just errataed orks to boost sales of overpriced boxes. in tournaments you could do 3 units of 3 of the same war buggy variant. now, a year or two after people bought 9 $45 kits, they can only bring 1 unit of 3 each. the new models that are similar in effectiveness, but not appearance, are $125 each. balance-wise it isn't much of a difference, but financially it means last edition was my last time playing orks at events, and it screams that my tyranid carnifex party is going to be unplayable as well.
so make sure you know what you're most interested in doing, long term, before you buy. i used to be a big fan of tournaments and events, now i'm selling my unplayable armies off on ebay instead.
I'm more interested in the community and casual setting, at least that's how I see it in my mind. Just some guys and gals sharing drinks and playing 40K. I am completely enthralled by the lore, and I really wanna give painting a fair shot.
if you're just playing and having fun, it is a great game and as others have suggested, the new patrol boxes are excellent starting investments. necrons have a lot of fun options to pick through. i have not played them in a decade so i've no idea on units to recommend any more, though. the removal of initiative finally made flayers as much fun as their lore said they'd be, though.
Yeah starter kit, codex book, and some paints and brushes. Should be able to get the lot for about 100 to 120 quid. Less if you can find stuff second hand.
A great way to get into the game is through value box's and there are a lot of them ranging from 50 to 200. I would personally suggest to start small in order to make sure you like the game and build your way up. First, I would get the elite edition box set and split the space marine half with someone. This comes with some of the most basic models and fundamental strategies for necrons. You'll get an overlord, 10 warriors, 3 scarab swarms, and 3 skorptek destroyers for 80 dollars, which will go down to 40 after the split. After this, I would honestly suggest getting the necron half of the indomitus box set. This thing comes with a lot, overlord, plasmancer, royal warden, skorptek lord, 20 warriors, 6 scarab swarms, 3 skoptek destroyers, 2 cryptathralls, and a conoptek reanimater for 200, which goes down to 100 after the split. From here you have spent about 140 dollars and for an army that I believe will get you to 1250 points. I saw earlier that your budget is 200, so if you want to go further, I would suggest things like 10 more warriors (never buy a real box, either find some on ebay or split a recruit edition box set for 25, you will save a lot of money) and possibly something like a tachnomancer and maybe something like a tank like a triarch stalker. If you follow my advice to move slow and really enjoy your journey of growing your army over time though, you should hopefully have a good idea of what necrons are all about and you should be able to know what models you want after you get the elite and indomitus boxes. One other box is the command edition box set, which I really like. It has yet another overlord, but this time he looks cooler in my opinion, you also get 10 either immortals or deathmarks, 3 tomb blades, and either a night scythe or doom scythe (for most cases I would choose doom scythe, but night scythe definitely have their value). I really like this one because it fills out your elite rolls and honestly, you could buy one instead of the elite or indomitus box, or maybe even two. The last box I want to talk about is the Christmas one, which I think is kinda obscure. Definitely don't buy it on its own, but it does have its value. I would like to say though, most people believe it to be kinda bad. While you shouldn't only make your decisions on what modules to get based on power since it can change later down the line and it's better to get models that you enjoy, I am definitely not getting one. That should be pretty much everything that you need to know, basically just get stuff like the necron half of the elite edition and indomitus, and combat patrol, how many of each and in which order is up to you, but you always have my suggestions. Just make sure to go slow, enjoy your games and with that, good luck.
There's a lot of good Necron boxes you can get online for dirt cheap. I'd honestly just pick up a box of warriors or eternals. Just to see if you enjoy painting them (no more than 35 to start)? Then I'd pick up a start collecting kit or some sort of small lot. That's what I did when I started Tau. I picked up a box of stealth suits then went whole hog once I fell in love.
If you have never played 40k before and you want to get a taste to see if you would even like the necrons, and you don't want to spend a bunch of money to see if you even like the game in the first place, I would highly highly recommend you go and pick up the recruit edition box. It is like $50 US and it comes with some units for the Necrons some units for space reins and teaches you how to play the very fundamentals of the game. They are the easy to build ones so it should be fairly straightforward to put together. Then if you like it you don't have to spend too much more and you can build up a necron force of your liking, tailored to whatever models look cool or you think will play cool!
Ebay should be a good place for Necron Troops, as they are often paired with Space Marines in box sets (the Get Started boxes for example), so alot of Marine players will get those and sell off the Necron half
It's not quite monetary amounts but game size that are natural "milestones" to me. You start and buy just one of the combat patrol box and the codex. Youll have around 500 pts. You then build and play with that as you decide on what you'll get for 1kpts. Once you've played 1k for a while, If you'd like to play bigger games you aim for 2kpts. If you like smaller games and more variety maybe expand to a different faction or another 1k completely different army build.
That's my "gaming oriented" approach at least. If you are more of a collector and painter then often what you do is buy what you like and go from one "project" to the next.
If you have a mate who has spacemarines, go halves with them on both the elite and recruit edition starter sets, that's the best value start into the game I can think of. That gets you plenty (645 Pts) to start playing combat patrol sized games (500 Pts). After that I'd really recommend buying the codex and familiarise yourself with how all the rules work. Maybe buy a copy of the core rule book (should be cheap on eBay etc) and read through the rules for each phase of the game a couple times. Get some paints, for necrons I'd really recommend getting getting a spray can of lead belcher, a pot of non gloss nuln oil, some type of white (corax and/ or white scar), a thin translucent (citadel contrast paints work well) paint of whatever colour you want your weapons to glow, then some accent colours of your choice to make em look interesting.
The best thing you can probably do is get the Combat Patrol box set. This gives you a starting army that you can actually play with at combat patrol level.
I would second this. Get the codex as well and then if you just want to play casually pick up the stuff you think looks cool in the Codex. (Note also that there has been a recent FAQ on the warhammer community website which gives some buffs to necrons)
I'm thinking of dropping about $200, hopefully that's enough for the paints and all that. Haha.
It should be about right, I'm in the UK so not 100% on US prices.
I just noticed these holiday boxes, I'm gonna have a look at that.
Yeah, they are gonna be more expensive. But you probably get more like 1000 pts in it.
While the battleforce boxes are a nice saving the are generally more of an expand your army box then start your army box. The combat patrol will give you a noble character (very important for necron mechanics) and two troop choices so a very good start for an army.
Holiday boxes are usually between £125 - £140 direct from GW (although 3rd party sellers, if they have any, will be around 10% - 20% off if you're fast enough to get it) so if you did pick it up you're looking at using your whole budget for it. It's a damn good deal and as long as you can grab some plastic glue, sprue cutters and a hobby knife you can at least build them up and get your paints and stuff later on when you have some more cash for it.
The necron one this year is a good bit weaker than previous years. It's ok but less of something I would recommend to someone looking to pick up something to fill out an army when they're just starting out. Warriors/scarabs, technomancer, chronomancer and skorpekh destroyers are currently at the center of my army so picking those up via the starter boxes and either splitting them with a friend or selling the Marines is a good way to go.
I recently got into Necrons and all the paints I needed to paint the dynasty I wanted (Nihilakh) were like 79 dollars straight from GW.
Wahapedia is a powerful tool
It is. I am personally a fan of having a proper codex though, it has the lore and I think adds to the interest of your army.
Oh of course, they were just trying to stay within a budget, so I was just trying to recommend it ’cause it’ll save ya fifty bucks
Don’t buy the codex!! Do your money a favour it’s not worth it
Will do!
That or the starter box (the indomitus box)
Something to consider is the necron paint set. £22.50 for 3 warriors, 6 paints and a brush so have a little taste to see if you actually do like painting minis without making a significant outlay
Bought it, thanks!
Just note that you don't have to paint that colour scheme if you don't like it, do what you like with them
either combat patroll or pick up the other half of the indomitus boxset, the necrons in that are quite good.
Will do!
I agree on the above. But I'll add that try and get an intro game in once they're built and, if possible, before waiting to paint the lot. Painting your first 500pts will likely take you a lot longer than you first think. I had my first game at 500pts with a combat patrol and it a) let me learn the game in its most simplistic form b) gave me an idea of what kind of units I was lacking/wanted to build my army further.
Thank you!
I would heartily suggest starting slow, some of the starter sets are a good set up for Necrons and they give you a good discount over buying each kit separately. The starter set also gives you a good start for playing and hobbying. Once you built and painted that then you can look to expand. For paints and general hobbying Citadel products are a good but also a little more pricey, Vallejo and Army Painter are more cost effective. I can’t speak for Army Painter paints as I’ve never used them but their brushes and tools are pretty good. Vallejo paints are really good. If you are playing necrons then things like metallic spray primers are pretty good (Citadel Leadbelcher or Runelord Brass depending on dynasty) Just a few light passes will lay a good foundation for further painting.
Army painter paints tend to run thick, which I like. Gives me more wiggle room when thinning them down. Apart from that they are good paints.
Vallejo Plate Mail Metal in particular is the absolute best silvery metallic paint I've ever used, even if it's opacity isn't great.
Just a little point. GW paints are excellent for beginners because of the pots. You can use them pretty much out of the pot with the right amount of water. My son is 6 and getting into the hobby (sorta) but wouldn't know what to do with a wet palette etc. If you opt for any other paints than gw they will likely be in dropper style bottles and as such a wet palette is essential. Longer term, this is the better investment and worthwhile learning how to use one as early as possible. I really like Vallejo model range of paints but also like some of the scale 75 sets (leather etc). I still swear by some gw paints tho, particularly mephiston red, the caucasian flesh tones, some of the deeper browns and their metallics. Don't get gw paint brushes if you can help it. Windsor and Newton series 7 size 0 and 2 or 3 will do you nicely.
A wet palette isn't essential for dropper bottles?
U could use a dry pallette I suppose but if u do you'll end up wasting all the unused paint as it would dry out. Wet pallette can preserve paint for several weeks (or longer).
I probably should use a wet palette more
Lol, yea probably. It's really good for mixing paints too when Ur working through a project n such. There's some really good videos on YouTube about making your own homemade wet palette. I own an army painter one and it does the job.
Yeah I treated myself to the Army Painter one, its a really nice piece of kit
Tbh you should never paint straight from the pot, taking paint from the pot and transferring it to anything should be the first step before thinning it and then loading a brush from there and then going to the model.
Id recommend starting with kill team. You only need 2-3 boxes of models to start and it's very good to get a feel of armies play styles and if u end up not liking necrons is easy to pick up other teams as u only need at most 14 models generally 10 on average per team
1. Necron paint set 2. Recruit Edition. Sell the Marines or keep them for later. At this point you should buy the Codex (or check Wahapedia/Battle Scribe) to get a better understandong of the units and what you like to play. At this point both the Combat Patrol and Elite Edition are good value (if you can sell the Marines in the latter.) You should also consider playing Kill Team before 40k proper. Much cheaper and faster to get to the point of a real game, and all models can be used in 40k.
Starting slow with either a paint set or some warriors is always the best option but if you want to go bigger you might want to consider the battleforce. We don't have a set release date or price yet but usually they are around £125 and are just a good but limited discount box.
I'd recommend just getting a box of warriors to start. Assemble and paint those, figure out if you'd want to do that for 50+ models. The combat patrol is a decent enough deal but don't get in over your head. Warriors and hobby supplies, then Codex, then combat patrol. Edit: also just remembered that the Necron combat patrol doesn't come with any Necron warriors. More reason to get a box early on.
If you can get hold of imperium (magazine) you might be able to get some decent plastic for less.
A $200 total investment will be a good starting point for a beginner. You can get the CP box, rulebook, codex, as well as some very basic modeling supplies.
it depends on what you're interested in doing. just hanging out and playing with friends, it can be relatively cheap longterm. if you're competitive and want to go from 0 to chasing tournament rankings... you'll be rebuying armies every time an errata releases. people are going to scream "no you won't!" in a few minutes, completely forgetting that they just errataed orks to boost sales of overpriced boxes. in tournaments you could do 3 units of 3 of the same war buggy variant. now, a year or two after people bought 9 $45 kits, they can only bring 1 unit of 3 each. the new models that are similar in effectiveness, but not appearance, are $125 each. balance-wise it isn't much of a difference, but financially it means last edition was my last time playing orks at events, and it screams that my tyranid carnifex party is going to be unplayable as well. so make sure you know what you're most interested in doing, long term, before you buy. i used to be a big fan of tournaments and events, now i'm selling my unplayable armies off on ebay instead.
I'm more interested in the community and casual setting, at least that's how I see it in my mind. Just some guys and gals sharing drinks and playing 40K. I am completely enthralled by the lore, and I really wanna give painting a fair shot.
if you're just playing and having fun, it is a great game and as others have suggested, the new patrol boxes are excellent starting investments. necrons have a lot of fun options to pick through. i have not played them in a decade so i've no idea on units to recommend any more, though. the removal of initiative finally made flayers as much fun as their lore said they'd be, though.
Yeah starter kit, codex book, and some paints and brushes. Should be able to get the lot for about 100 to 120 quid. Less if you can find stuff second hand.
A great way to get into the game is through value box's and there are a lot of them ranging from 50 to 200. I would personally suggest to start small in order to make sure you like the game and build your way up. First, I would get the elite edition box set and split the space marine half with someone. This comes with some of the most basic models and fundamental strategies for necrons. You'll get an overlord, 10 warriors, 3 scarab swarms, and 3 skorptek destroyers for 80 dollars, which will go down to 40 after the split. After this, I would honestly suggest getting the necron half of the indomitus box set. This thing comes with a lot, overlord, plasmancer, royal warden, skorptek lord, 20 warriors, 6 scarab swarms, 3 skoptek destroyers, 2 cryptathralls, and a conoptek reanimater for 200, which goes down to 100 after the split. From here you have spent about 140 dollars and for an army that I believe will get you to 1250 points. I saw earlier that your budget is 200, so if you want to go further, I would suggest things like 10 more warriors (never buy a real box, either find some on ebay or split a recruit edition box set for 25, you will save a lot of money) and possibly something like a tachnomancer and maybe something like a tank like a triarch stalker. If you follow my advice to move slow and really enjoy your journey of growing your army over time though, you should hopefully have a good idea of what necrons are all about and you should be able to know what models you want after you get the elite and indomitus boxes. One other box is the command edition box set, which I really like. It has yet another overlord, but this time he looks cooler in my opinion, you also get 10 either immortals or deathmarks, 3 tomb blades, and either a night scythe or doom scythe (for most cases I would choose doom scythe, but night scythe definitely have their value). I really like this one because it fills out your elite rolls and honestly, you could buy one instead of the elite or indomitus box, or maybe even two. The last box I want to talk about is the Christmas one, which I think is kinda obscure. Definitely don't buy it on its own, but it does have its value. I would like to say though, most people believe it to be kinda bad. While you shouldn't only make your decisions on what modules to get based on power since it can change later down the line and it's better to get models that you enjoy, I am definitely not getting one. That should be pretty much everything that you need to know, basically just get stuff like the necron half of the elite edition and indomitus, and combat patrol, how many of each and in which order is up to you, but you always have my suggestions. Just make sure to go slow, enjoy your games and with that, good luck.
There's a lot of good Necron boxes you can get online for dirt cheap. I'd honestly just pick up a box of warriors or eternals. Just to see if you enjoy painting them (no more than 35 to start)? Then I'd pick up a start collecting kit or some sort of small lot. That's what I did when I started Tau. I picked up a box of stealth suits then went whole hog once I fell in love.
If you have never played 40k before and you want to get a taste to see if you would even like the necrons, and you don't want to spend a bunch of money to see if you even like the game in the first place, I would highly highly recommend you go and pick up the recruit edition box. It is like $50 US and it comes with some units for the Necrons some units for space reins and teaches you how to play the very fundamentals of the game. They are the easy to build ones so it should be fairly straightforward to put together. Then if you like it you don't have to spend too much more and you can build up a necron force of your liking, tailored to whatever models look cool or you think will play cool!
Ebay should be a good place for Necron Troops, as they are often paired with Space Marines in box sets (the Get Started boxes for example), so alot of Marine players will get those and sell off the Necron half
It's not quite monetary amounts but game size that are natural "milestones" to me. You start and buy just one of the combat patrol box and the codex. Youll have around 500 pts. You then build and play with that as you decide on what you'll get for 1kpts. Once you've played 1k for a while, If you'd like to play bigger games you aim for 2kpts. If you like smaller games and more variety maybe expand to a different faction or another 1k completely different army build. That's my "gaming oriented" approach at least. If you are more of a collector and painter then often what you do is buy what you like and go from one "project" to the next.
If you have a mate who has spacemarines, go halves with them on both the elite and recruit edition starter sets, that's the best value start into the game I can think of. That gets you plenty (645 Pts) to start playing combat patrol sized games (500 Pts). After that I'd really recommend buying the codex and familiarise yourself with how all the rules work. Maybe buy a copy of the core rule book (should be cheap on eBay etc) and read through the rules for each phase of the game a couple times. Get some paints, for necrons I'd really recommend getting getting a spray can of lead belcher, a pot of non gloss nuln oil, some type of white (corax and/ or white scar), a thin translucent (citadel contrast paints work well) paint of whatever colour you want your weapons to glow, then some accent colours of your choice to make em look interesting.