My First Army: A Necrospective

There's Necron rumors about online, and they've got me thinking back to the days of my first army.  Looking at some of the leaked pictures, I fear that the game is losing its best starter army in favor of making the Necrons into a modern list.  As a Necron fan, these changes are welcome, and I'm very excited to read the new book (November 5th, if things online are real), but I also know that I would never have fallen in love with the game without last edition's Necrons.

I had a general interest in 40k, because it was the coolest thing in the gaming store where I played Magic.  Some of my friends played, and one guy had most of a Necron army for sale for fifty bucks.  So for $110 (because Monolith, duh), I had my first 40k army.  You could fit quarters into the seams between my first Monolith's panels, but other than that crapbox, the whole thing turned out rather nicely.  I decided on a red-and-gold color scheme to mimic Iron Man, but was woefully unaware of metallic paints.  So they were blood red and golden yellow.  The McNecrons were born.

Later, as an employee of the store, I was tasked with advising people on army choice.  I would try to explain the fluff and tactical advantages of each list, and ask leading questions to see if I could find the 'right' army for the new player in question.  But many times it ended up being 'Well, what do you think I should play?'

I always said 'Necrons'.

1. Cheap points

The lowest point-cost model in the book is 18 points (Scarabs notwithstanding, because they're freeeee!).  You got 10 dudes for the same price as 10 Space Marines, but you were 30 points closer to 1500 with Necrons.  Oh, and FREE SCARABS!  36 points of free stuff!  Admit it, you kind of want to buy a box of Necron Warriors right freaking now, just because you get a free fast attack choice right on the sprues.  Destroyer kits are expensive, but no bike of any kind has ever had a good points-to-dollars ratio.  It's the law.  Most everything else was metal, but a good Necron list is mostly warriors, and they were a great way to build up points on a budget.

2. Not Space Marines

I was tempted to make this the first point, but for a new player, the startup cost of the hobby is always a huge hurdle from a sales perspective.  You can still get a playable Magic deck for like 12 bucks.  You can't even get the 40k rulebook for less than 20.

Anyway, Necrons: They aren't Space Marines.  The way I see it, a new player who ends up enjoying the game will play Space Marines at some point anyway.  Many never go back.  At the very least, starting with a non-marine army gives a player a sense of perspective.  I remember my first game against Eldar.  It was in a tournament, and if that guy had wanted to cheat me, he wouldn't have had to try very hard.  It's pretty important to at least have a cursory understanding of other armies, and not just for the sake of knowing how to win. It's miserable for both players to asking/answering questions like 'What kind of gun is that?'  'Do flying tanks do something different?'  'What's a synapse?'  The more quickly a player learns what's going on with non-marine lists, the better time he'll have playing.

3. Not Space Marines Part Two: Hobby Stress

If you don't know what I mean by 'Hobby Stress', check out my post on it.

Necrons are almost completely immune to hobby stress.  They're robots.  They don't have factions or rivalries.  They deploy whatever they feel is necessary to win.  Take nine Tomb Spyders, see if I care.  Nobody has a beef with that.  Paint them however you want.  Sure, it's logical that ancient metal guys would be mostly brown and silver.  I guess.  But they're ex-alive people from all over the universe.  Maybe their metal never rusts, and they've always been purple.  Maybe their living metal bodies can camouflage themselves, so you painted them green and brown.  All of these things are fine.  Somebody who's willing to drop $50 (or more. So, so much more) on a new hobby probably just wants to go crazy with it.  I'd rather sell him exactly the gold/green/pink paint pots he wants rather than tell him he's 'supposed' to pick blue or red.

4. You Can Do This!

Some of the other lists that aren't documented as thoroughly as marines have low hobby stress as well.  There probably are Tau deployment protocols, somewhere.  But it's not likely that anybody at your local shop knows them, or cares.  Of the armies that a newbie can get creative with, though, Necrons are by far the easiest to paint and build.  

With the exception of the dreaded, stupid Monolith, I think Necrons are simply the easiest kits to get on the table.  The green rods liven up the troops to the point that you could get away with just silver and black if you really wanted.  My friends had encouraged me for years to try 40k, but I insisted that my big, stupid hands were better suited to pulling carts or digging trenches than minuscule craftsmanship.  For me, it was a serious barrier to entry.  The Necrons gave me confidence, though.  My first batch didn't look good, but they didn't look that bad, either.  You don't have to worry about facial details, ammo packs, bootlaces, or anything else.  These are models that teach a guy to paint without breaking his spirit.

Also, one of my friends told me to use white glue on the green rods, as super glue would make them cloud up.  I treasured this information.  I went from being a guy who didn't know how to paint to being a guy who knew an industry secret.  I always made sure to tell new Necron players about it, and hoped they were as dorky as I was/am.

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Sadly, I think a lot of that might be out the window, a bit.  The detail on the new models is pretty intense, and there's rumblings about some fluff overhaul as well.  I assume they'll still be on the higher end of the points/dollar scale, but I can't even say that with much certainty.  I'm planning on picking up the new book ASAP, and I'll write a post about the changes.  I'll be all wrapped up in excitement and new models and fluff and kitties.  For now, though, I just wanted to write about my first army, and how good it was to me.