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All in the title, just list your reasons.

There was a discussion at my local gaming store on the topic, so I thought why not share it on the internet.

Space Marines - who doesn't enjoy being the elite force that beats back the dirty aliens and traitors? Come in hard, bring all the tools, adapt to the realities on the ground. Shoot the choppy! Chop the shooty!

CW Eldar - Simultaneously embrace my superiority complex. Exhude a facet of myself I find distasteful, and lampoon it. Better understand why its wrong. And Space Elves.
Tactically, there is something awesome about fielding an army built right such that, if things go well, you always have the exact right tool for the job. But make one mistake, and all your elite soldiers do nothing (Swordwind works this way, even if CWE are OP in general).

Harlequins - ever since my now-fiancee painted mine, just wow. I can't not put them on the table, they look too awesome!

Tau - even when you try to White Knight (for the greater good!), you are sometimes the badguy. Always question what you're doing, and what its effects are. Otherwise, you could be a mindless tool for some other agenda.
And who doesn't like a bunch of high-tech pipsqueaks who shoot the big guys! Fire Warriors, Stealth Suits, and Pathfinders make fun armies. Hammerhead fo heavy support, and a pair of solo crisis suits deep striking to relieve problems. Fun way to play.


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Dark Eldar (finishing up my second troops choice now) - Harlequins just don't work alone, and people hate CW Eldar.

I play Space Wolf because I love assault and the concept of bending rules and unconventional tactics is appealing to me.

I also play Eldar because as much as I love to play, I love to paint more. The models are so awesome to work on with so much potential for cool paint schemes. Painting space marines is fun but the color pattern gets old after a while. Eldar allows for a tad more versatility.

Game-wise the Eldar are a flexible army with more than one play style. I like to field lists that are "outside the box". I relish the challenge of winning with a gimped list.

Harlequins for pretty much the same reasons as Eldar. The models are awesome, the rules are fun and have alot of potential to catch someone by surprise.

Necrons - This was the army that got me into collecting 40k stuff. Up to then, I was playing with my friends' models. What drew me to them was nostalgia for the first 2 Terminator movies, which I was really into as a kid.

Tyranids - I like modeling and paiting the big bugs. I like how Nids look on the table, especially against IoM armies. They also seem to me to be the most unique army as compared to the rest.

Noise Marines/Emperor's Children - I got a good deal on a bunch of CSM/SM stuff from a quitting player, and am building a sort of "non-chaosy" Noise Marine/Emperor's Children type army. Noone in my meta plays Noise Marines, so it seemed like a logical choice to add diversity to my gaming circle. I may even build this army to be compatible as a CSM army and also a 30k Emperor's Children army. Haven't played with any of it yet..WIP.


I also play quite frequently with my friends Deathguard army. This was the army I learned to play the game with. Tough as nails, Nurgle Spawn are priceless, and Typhus with a band of Plague Zombies is alot of fun.

Sisters of battle. Because the armors look awesome, the fluff is pretty cool (they are the badass normal of the setting, along with scion, but with more flamethrower, faith, blind all-consuming hatred for xenos, mutants and heretics, and even more bling.
They are the masters of excessive bling, excessive bigotry, excessive obscurantism and excessive violence. In other word, they are the epitome of what make 40k be 40k.

Also, trollbloods for Warmahorde. Because GW has not understand that Sisters are the epitome of 40k.

I play Catachan IG.

My entire army is made of Rambos. They are all 80s action heroes. If you don't understand why that is better than every other army in the game then I am against everything you stand for.

I also have a few space marines from the Raptor Chapter. They have a fluff and theme that matches with my Catachans.


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 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

Also, trollbloods for Warmahorde. Because GW has not understand that Sisters are the epitome of 40k.

If they made Plastic Sisters I would totally buy some. I like the fluff and the look and the way they play. I refuse to buy anything else from GW unless it is them.

Space Marines, due to the fluff. They are the core of the setting. Ultramarines (rather then BA, who I started painting first) due to the enjoyment of painting blue. Just liked it more then red. This was back when the only real difference in the chapters was the color. As the rules and fluff evolved I stuck with the vanilla boys in blue. Other chapters had special snowflake rules, or advantages/disadvantages, but the vanilla marines just bucked down and got things done. They might be solidly middle of the road, and never the FotM power codex, and I like that.

Eldar is the Falcon grav tank. I’ve got a soft spot in my hear for hover tanks, and nothing is cooler then anti-grav, graceful, deadly machines of war. This grew into a Saim-Hann army, which is still working up. Very fast, very sleek. No mud on our boots.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Also, trollbloods for Warmahorde. Because GW has not understand that Sisters are the epitome of 40k.

If non-40k is on the table, I also have a decent sized Imperial-style ancient Roman Army, and a decent sized force of Ancient Germans.

I started Tyranids back at the start of 3rd edition because they were most like the Zerg (Starcraft having been released the year before).

I dabbled very lightly in Chaos Space Marines, but I just couldn't connect with them, and sold them soon after.

That led me to Necrons, when they got their first codex. They didn't have anything even CLOSE to resembling the cool stuff they have now. How things have changed...

I started up Space Marines in university, my own chapter (the Night Hawks) during the 4th edition codex. Some great times with them. I tried to do some good paint jobs with them, and even somewhat succeeded!

Then there was the long dark period where I played very little, selling my Necrons, and relegating my Tyranids to the back of the closet.

Now is the modern times of post-college! I started up Orks, because... well... ORKS! ORKS! ORKS! I sold my Tyranids to fund this endeavor. The Ork paint jobs were a vast improvement, and they're still good. I learned to highlight much better. This was 6th edition.

Then I started Chaos, mostly Black Legion, but also some Plague Marines and Thousand Sons. My painting skills improved even more, and I was proud to field this army even with unpainted models in it due to the strength of the painted ones. The Hel-Turkey got a lot of looks, but it's nothing compared to what's out there now. Even won a tourney with them!

It was then time to start up the Tyranids again. New codex in hand, I bought lots of Tervigons and Termagaunts because I love the idea of a swarm. 7th rolled in though, and every month that goes by now sees my passion for them fade as most of my forces just can't compete, and I don't purchase Forge World items (codex-pure baby!), even though I know Tyranids only are good with the Tyrannocytes and/or Flyrants.

I picked up some Harlequins for my wife, and when she revealed (unsurprisingly) that she was just doing it for me and quit, I started painting and playing them. I was mid-way through when the Harlequin codex was announced, and I loved it so much I quickly assembled and beautifully painted the rest of the force. My best paint jobs ever.

Of course, Harlequins need lots of support. I allied so many times with my friend's Eldar, that I decided to pick some of them up. Oh, and then the Eldar codex got released. I wanted more bikes anyways, since my Harlequin ones were always doing well, and go figure - they made jetbikes even better (I would gladly picked them up even without the upgrade). Just had a game this past weekend with 9 scatbikes, and they're devastating and fit perfectly with my Harlequin forces.

What does the future hold?

More Tyranids when they get another codex eventually that hopefully brings them back to their deserved position. They are my first love for a reason. Might also return to Chaos when they get a similar treatment. Otherwise, who knows?

Tyranids because I was 13 and friggin Space Dinosaur Bugs! And the White Dwarf I had gotten was the release of Tau issue and it had this amazing Battle Report between Tau and Tyranids. Tyranids lost the match on points, but the Tyranids took the table and there was this bit about the Hive Tyrant ripping open the Commander's Crisis suit, eating him and roaring her triumph while the rest of the Tau moved farther away, keeping their victory. Really inspiring and I still use my 3rd Edition walking Tyrant because of moments like that.

Ultramarines fought Tyranids in the Battle for Macragge starter set. And that same White Dwarf had a good bit on Chaplain Cassius and Tyrannic War Veterans, which I also still use. And 3rd Company was featured in the first GW book I really enjoyed. Fire Warrior. So, I started up Ultramarines 3rd.

Blood Angels fought Tyranids in Deathstorm. See a pattern here?

Astral Claws got started because I wanted a bike army. Ultramarines are my Infantry and basic Battle Company, Blood Angels are nearly all Jump Packs and some Terminators led by Dante, so the Astral Claws we're going to be my Bike Army because White Scars bored the ever living poo out of me. Read into them and really enjoyed Lugft Huron as a leader and grand villain and the idea of using human shields in the Tyrant's Legion lists. They've become my main army now actually but are on hold till the new codex. That will determine if I go for more Space Marines or more humans.

Chaos get started because my friend had it and his birthday was coming up. So I picked up a painted Black Legion Obliterator. It got here and I stared at it for a long time. Painted better than decently, based nicely, great tabletop piece. We were going to pick up Dark Vengeance as a group, I get Dark Amgels, he gets Chaos. He couldn't get the money together, so I bought it myself and looked harder at that Obliterator. Decided my friend didn't NEED a birthday present and started Chaos for myself.

Started with CSM:
The big bad guys with so many different motivations for their angriness.
I think I liked them because of the 4 god views and also some that avoided that all together like the Iron Warriors.
I have enough of each group to fight amongst themselves.
Angry marines with a bunch of demons / possession / engines where you wonder how the heck they got so cozy with the darn things: they tend to bite.

Then went into Inquisition:
I tend to like extremes, these seemed to be the ultimate group for beating on the CSM so was a good fit.
The Grey Knights were part of this at the time, assassins were an added bonus.
Plus they were able to take conscripted armies (a bit of what 7th ed is doing) which lead me to:

Black Templars!:
Fanatics. Oddly enough, not too different from the Khorn Berserkers, they must just LOVE to HATE fighting each other.
Plus the Knights Templar tie-in is a nice touch.
Also being potentially the largest force of loyalist space marines is fun.
I would suggest that BT was happy to assist the Inquisition and it helps them not look too hard at their numbers.
Added bonus: If you kill off a few, no big deal.

Imperial Guard:
The other possible "expendable" force of grunts for the inquisition.
They have become an insane collection all their own.
All I think is tanks and grunts when it comes to these guys.
Plus many of the "Storm Troopers" for Inquisition also have a place here.
Then the Baneblade and Shadowsword hit the collection and we have shoe-in's for LOW.
Drowning the enemy in their blood is not far from the truth.
Lots of little people shifting tons of huge hardware around.
As others have said, SOB is a fine symbol of 40k but the guard are the "currency" that it operates on: lives, expendable fabrication and chain of command.

Thrashed around a bit and got an Imperial Knight... then another:
Good looking model.
Nice guns.
REALLY cool combat weapon.
The mini-titan I imagine as a great moral booster: however big the enemy is, this guy makes them seem smaller.
Plus also this gives a great tie-in to....

Skitarii:
Dan Abnett.
Eisenhorn and the variant books.
When they had to visit a forgeworld and "borrow" something and it all went bad, it was largely due to the Skitarii.
They were portrayed as REALLY bad news.
They look good, have some variety and Mechanicus is coming...

I feel like in 40k the real battle is within humanity and it's "daemons".
They are on the cusp of inheriting the universe but changes for that to happen will be catastrophic.

Now if only the 40k universe can survive the present GW rule-set.

Space Wolves - first army I ever collected, liked the look and battle brother vibe they had.
Eldar - not sure really, got a bunch of them off a friend and they grew on me ever since, I like their aesthetic mostly.
IG - love tanks and artillary.
Nids - love the fluff, differentiation of the models, aesthetic and hand to hand capability (until 6/7th nerfed them).
Orks - second army I ever started, who dosent like Orks.

Tau just seemed to be an army that made sense. They use guns in an age if guns as apposed to rushing with swords and aren't stupid enough to screw themselves over like each other race. Also their units look nice IMO

I play IG, because I had an option to get some IG models cheaper and GK were already taken in my playgroup. Other armies seemed either ugly or costing too much to build.

I play orks and marines. Mainly orks. Now I have enough piece to play just about whatever I want. Mainly I run very dread heavy. Personally, I enjoy the dreads. The models are fantastic. Plus you can get creative with them in customize them. Some people might say its too slow to play right now with the way the game is going, but if you do it right your can stick in in turn 2 or 3. Just have to get there. Most of my opponents don't want to play it because it makes their small arms fire basically useless. I get a kick out of seeing my deff dread make it across the table and just start smashing units and chasing them around on the table.

Chaos (daemons and marines): The Imperium holds back humanity from its true potential. I fight to free my race from this yoke. I also dislike Space Marines for being bland Mary Sues hiding in power armor and chaos is their biggest opponent. Also, I love Lovecraftian things.

Dark eldar: I love the aesthetics and play style. I also enjoy parading around the aspects of real life humanity that I despise as a warning.

Eldar: I got sick of being shafted with gakky codex "updates" for not playing Space Marines.

Orks, because they embrace the ridiculous and cartoony nature of the 40k universe, rather than deny it.

Legion Night Lords- I love the were the good guys but we are still pretty bad vibe, the speed of the army and all the toys. Skrillix/Korn, or Led Zepplin's Immigrant Song are playing in my head.

Legion Iron Warriors- Sometimes you just want to go all terminator and heavy vehicles. I love my Tyrant Siege Terminators. Whenever I deploy them I have "Iron Man" playing in my head.

I really loved my Wraith list from last codex. Alas it is viewed as OP so I don't play it and am going to put in up for sale. Something awesomely fun about an army of wraith constructs marching across the field.

IG Elysians- This is more of a hobby project since I use mostly WW2 miniatures but it plays very quickly. I am not a sit back in shoot kind of person so the IG mech/Armor lists bored me to tears thus why I went back to building IG. Selling my mech list as well.

If I do another army it will be a Tau mech army with minimum of 4 FW squads in DFs, some Stealth and crisis teams, and hammerheads, all in camouflage.

Originally started with Chaos Marines, as I like the aesthetic and bucking the Imperium as a whole, whether to be rebellious or to just revel in the ashes. Now I play daemons as they are a dichotimus fit for me: someone who is notorious for poor rolling playing the lolrandom dex. I also enjoy their nebulous nature and motivations. For practical purposes, I enjoy painting organics more than flat surfaces and trim.

Eldar. Played since the end of 5th.

I like a lot of the armies out there, and if I had the time even to paint the models I do have to completion, or if I had room for them, I would probably start another army as well.

There's always been something about the Eldar though that I've liked, primarily their Psyker focus. It's why I play Ulthwe. Hell, it's why I'm trying to make a storm guardian formation in addition to my guardian battle host lol. Warlocks for days.

I find the CW Eldar distinctly samurai-esque in their approach to life. Focus on a singular path to it's mastery, then move on. Patience. Discipline. Segmentation of social norms. Interesting stuff.

Space Wolves- Since barbaric, but actually cares about human life, also really like wolves

Necrons- Started in 3.5 playing them and preferred when they were all souless killing machines following c'tans, but still like their undead aspect

Dark Eldar- seemed fun to paint and like idea of a quick army that can also act like guerrilla fighters

CSM- Iron Warriors- wanted a gun line army, that was not tau

I left at 3rd and returned with 7th ed.

Chaos - none of us played them from RT to 2ed. Too many rules for pre/teens. Appeared too complicated. So when returning I picked the best two Gods to run with - Tzeentch and Slaanesh.

Sisters - with a Chaos army done I wanted another regiment that was "darker" and badass; whilst reminding me of 2ed. Sisters was that army. Plus I love an underdog. But the price and metal models are no fun.

Valhallan IG: I wanted a more realistic army in warhammer, it was easy to paint them in chinese colours and I like the whole idea of just a normal human fighting intergalactic horrors from across the galaxy. I find the guard a more relatable army to anything else. Lots of room for calligraphy on tanks and planes. Easy to paint and fun to play.

Tau: I loved the East Asian aesthetic and fluff to them, plus I guess I'm a sucker for the closest thing to genuine good guys.

Space marines: I was a child and the big guns were sold to me.

Space wolves: I'm a man and these were sold to me...giant wolves!

Orks: Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks, ORKS, ORKS, ORKS, ORKS...

*ahem* sorry. Orks are fun to convert and scratch build with, they have a great aesthetic, and they're fun to play with and against. What's not to like?

Eldar: I wanted to expand my collection with an army that was opposite to the Orks' theme - Eldar are super serious, no fun allowed, and they're a dying race while Orks are busy reproducing mostly by accident. The models look cool as hell, and they make for a terrific antagonist army to go with my OTHER antagonist army

Nids: I started the bugs way back in 3rd because I have always been a massive fan of Alien and the Xenomorph look. When I was introduced to 40k I was still mainly playing WHFB but the Genestealers stole the show for me, then I saw Lictors and I was in love. I so wanted to play the endless tide of alien monsters that crashed on the enemy like a tidal wave, a true force of nature that was endured but never beaten...Imagine my displeasure at each edition removing more and more of that flavor, making Nids into a sorry army that needs to spam the crap out of a single unit in order to even be remotely competitive. You can pretty much rate Tyranids on a scale of 1-5 Flyrants and gauge how to opposing army is going to do based on that. Casual game? 1-2 Flyrants. Competitive? 3-5 Flyrants. 0 Flyrants? Have fun losing.

Chaos Space Marines and Daemons: I started Chaos up because of the Defiler and the general theme of the army. A group of men driven to rebellion because of how horrible the things they were meant to protect had become. I never really viewed Chaos as the bad guys, more of along the lines of those who would rather die on their feet than die on their knees. That's not to say they aren't evil, but everything in 40k is a different flavor of evil.

Sisters of Battle: When 6th Tau came out I was put off by how powerful the new codex was, even without Riptides. They were just better at what mattered in 6th than any other army out there. Even though my collection was mostly Fire Warriors and Kroot I traded them away to another player for a Sisters army. I was always interested in Sisters and after a few games I was hooked, they are probably my favorite army to play currently because I love being able to put 3x Flamers and a Heavy Flame into a Rhino, run them up the board, and unleash fiery doom on my enemies. I love the aesthetics of the army and feel that they more than any other faction sum up the Imperium.

Black Templars: I started BT back in 5th and loved the way that they played, Righteous Zeal and all. I liked the Vows and being able to field either swarms of power armor or rush the board with LRCs. When the 6th codex came out and BT got rolled back into the SM codex I lost interest...I pulled them out to play once in awhile but I just felt like I was playing SM wrong because they are a shooty army that I was forced into playing a melee list in. With the continuing trend of each edition moving closer and closer to a shooting game I just gave up on them and traded them for a Skaven army.

Space Marines: I still play Space Marines, just an entirely different list. I like the ability co customize Space Marines completely and have used the FW 30k bits to make a chapter all my own and really make them unique. Lots of fun to build and paint.

Necrons: I loved old school Necrons, I still have a good bit of the pewter models that I use in my more modern army. I love the Terminator vide from them and have had any army floating around from 4th that I recently added a little bit to bring up to 7th. I HATE Newcron crap. I have a Tomb King army for WHFB and I don't need Tomb Kings in SPAAAAAACE! I run my Necrons like they were old school, Monoliths, Warriors, Destroyers, Immortals, C'tan Shard....the good stuff.

Renegades: I had a small collection of Catachans from way back in the day but I never really got around to playing IG because they were kind of boring to me, way to static. I read about Renegades and Heretics and in December I started them up! I love the models and I like throwing bodies at my enemies, people are always shocked at how many attacks these guys can throw around in CC. I have a love/hate relationship with IA: 13 because of their omission of a lot of rules but overall I enjoy the army enough to keep playing them for now. Mostly they are going to be built up to be an allied force for my Alpha Legion.


I've owned and played IG, Eldar, Space Wolves, and Grey Knights before but each of those armies just got boring for me one way or another. Eldar were just silly powerful, Space Wolves moved further and further away from Viking and more into Wolf, Grey Knights were fun to paint but I just didn't enjoy playing them.

I am thinking about starting up Mechanicum in the near future too...

I don't currently play the game but I've thought a lot about what army I would like to start when I eventually get back into things and I'll post my eventual conclusion.

I really like shiny forge world goodies, so that immediately narrowed the selection down to some variety of Space Marines. Anything else would be foolish given the way FW is going. There are a handful of loyalist chapters I quite like (none of the 'poster boy' chapters, but some of the niche FW chapter tactics) but I kept coming back to the fact I don't actually like Space Marines themselves that much. In addition while the potential for allies is great if I wanted to keep things fluffy I'd end up with a bunch of disparate forces that look very different rather than one cohesive army.

Thus I settled on some form of Chaos. Not only is the renegades and heretics list really cool, I like the trend of Daemonkin codices focussing on both daemon and mortal units. Chaos also offers more in the way of a cohesive fluff-friendly multi-faction force - you'd expect a Titan to look completely different to the Astra Militarum it's supporting, but a daemon titan can mimic the infantry of the force.

I still had the issue of not really liking the basic space marine look, so I decided I'd go with corrupted sisters of battle instead. If/when we eventually get plastic sisters and slaanesh daemonkin the plan is to field a combined arms style chaos force with fallen sisters replacing CSM models but otherwise a fairly normal Slaanesh-alighned chaos force.

I play Eldar because I enjoy their aesthetic and the excellent lore behind them. I'm looking to expand into Dark Eldar once I complete my Eldar force for the new codex, and find the time/money to do so.

On the tabletop, Eldar are a very challenging and interesting army. You have all the tools you need, but have to bring the right ones into the right place to be effective. I also enjoy the playstyle, picking apart the enemy with excellent mobility, firepower, and psychic support.

Alpha legion / Thousand sons.

Because we are only bad guys on the surface.

And along with the Dark Angels we know many secrets.

Legion of the Damned: First drew me to 40k. Loved the look and lore.

Salamanders: Was originally thinking Fire Hawks as a go-with for the LotD (so as to avoid losing before placing a model on the table). Encountered a fellow newbie at a local Half Price Books who was going Salamanders, and in reading up on their current story... Yeah, same love of fire as the Fire Hawks, but without being stuck up.

Horus Heresy XVIIIth Legion: The current story was nice; the back story... Yep, hooked. Plus the option to run completely different markings (Rams vs. Salamanders) yet still be the XVIIIth Legion.

Imperial Knights/Questoris Knights: I do decal sheets on another site. Month or so back, someone asked me to do a Knight sheet based on a Titan Legion. Ordered one Knight so I could get proper measurements. Month later, and I now have a total of three awaiting good weather for a coat of primer, and a fourth in the mail. Maybe it was the 'got into wargaming with Battletech' aspect that sucked me in for these.

First Army I picked up - Orks: Because everything about them is awesome. The fluff, the models, the possibilities. And everyone else tends to love to fight them, no matter what list you bring. While it was an expensive first army decision, made easier through very careful Ebay shopping, I do not regret picking up this faction. I have fun in every game I play, win or lose.

Chaos Space Marines - The possibility for lore creation was too much for me to resist. Despite my general dislike for Marines in general, playing the 'sith' faction was appealing to me. I think I enjoy the more evil, or destructive factions in 40K than I do the 'good' factions. Dunno. Either way, despite some outdated models, I do love a lot of the anesthetics of the faction. Chaos allows me to be pretty darn creative without overall crapping on the fluff as I build the background foe my warband and/or legion. That, and they help provide a few weaker gaps in my Orks, should I decide to ally.