40K: Necrons vs Tau – Who Needs It more?
Hi folks. Of late we have two competing rumors out there that are not entirely incompatable. It looks like either Necrons or Tau are coming up next. But who needs it more?
First the basic jist of the the current rumormill. On the one hand we’ve been hearing for along time that the Necrons are on the hotplate. Just recently (2 weeks ago) we have begun to hear a steady counter rumor that the Necrons may get bounced into early 2012 by a quick and easy Tau codex update.
Lets give both of these races a 5th edition rundown and see where we stand.
Necrons
Minis: Overall good quality plastics, but quite a bit of metal in the range for common units (I’m looking at you Immortals)
Rules: The professional assault victims of the game being pricy, terrible, and subject to phase-out.
Tau Empire
Minis: Very good quality plastics, with a decent vehicle model range and not a huge amount of critical units in metal.
Rules: Also bad at assault, but not with the additional liabilities of the Necrons. Mainly have issues with their amazing 4th edition firepower getting nerfed by all that 5th edition cover. Tau have also gotten a codex update since the last Necron one.
My Stance
So on par, I would say from a monetary point of view, Necrons are in more need of an update, being hobbled by an ancient codex, terrible, complex and obsolete rules, and having more metal models that can be phased out (sorry, couldn’t resist) in favor of new fancy plastic ones. The Tau on the other hand probably offer a low cost “cheap and dirty” product slot with the easy addition of a handful of new units and mainly a new fancy rulebook.
If it was my choice to make, I say Necrons. They have a very different aesthetic than the other armies, and are an easy army for new players to paint up. What say you?
