This topic is something that truley holds me at bay, when I want to really stretch my wings and try new things, but I cant get over my human favoritism. Even though there are armies out there that are just as cool as the Space Marines, but I just cant get away from them, I love humans (even genetically altered ones). Even along those lines, why do you play a certain SM chapter, or a certain Eldar craft world army? Is it the paint scheme, the models? Or is it just the fluff that brings you closer and closer to that army? This is a look into reasons on why people play the army(s) they do...

I play Space Marines, because I feel they're the most rounded force, in terms of different unit types, and all the other forces have too few units types or too many. Like Necrons, they have something like 7 different units
and Eldar they have like a million

I play Space Marines for a few (I feel) simple reasons..
First, I love how the Space Marines look and how all of their armor and tanks and weapons are easily recognizable, nothing to where you have to squint your eyes and tilt your head to tell if its a bolter or a flamer kinda thing, its all there. Second, is I love the fluff behind them, and each Codex chapter, even chapters that are semi important, add their own flavor to the game. But for the space marines, I view them to be guns blazing, only get into CC if forced to, kind of like todays military, cause I feel CC in a war with guns can get you killed faster for obvious reasons...but I dont know how people view armies like Templar (even thought their models are cool and their fluff is great) I just dont see a 7 foot tall uber-human running at an enemy shooting at them with a sword, and expected to win...

I play orks with a lot of mechaniacs because I'm a mechanical engineer by training and love to build stuff with bailing wire and duct tape.

I play Grey Knights because Ben Counters book got me into the game.
I play Luna Wolves (Space marines) be cause I love the Horus Heresy series
I play Black Legion because Chaos is my favorite army in 40K and they are so integral to the story.
I play Tyranids because they are a very solid tourney army.
I play Eldar because they are amazing models and they are the best army in 40K right now.

Darrian

I started back with the metal Cadians because they just looked the most like modern soldiers, and seemed removed from most of the Imperial craziness (servo-skulls and the like).

This reminds me of a time when I was at a friend's place and I tried out WoW. Another guy walked in and said, "Why would you want to be a human? You can be an Orc, or a Troll, or Undead, or an Elf!" I didn't really know how to respond to this, as I viewed it as a game and not a role-playing experience. Finally I just said, "Maybe because I have common ground with them."
That's pretty much how I view the Guard, just everyday guys who have to fight inhuman monsters and crazy aliens.

Yeah, I tried WoW once, never got into it, but I was a human, even when I played Star Wars Galaxies, I was a human, StarCraft, DoW, and pretty much every other game where you could choose a race other than human, I still stuck with humans...why...I have no idea..

My main army is the Thousand Sons and I play them for a lot of reasons.

#1. They have the best fluff in 40k.
#2. They have good models.
#3. I like that you do not see many of them, and I like playing armies that are rare.
#4. I like small elite armies over horde armies.

I only have one army, and its Night Lords. I love the old fiction where they favor no gods and hate any other army that is religious. They were loners among loners and that always struck a chord with me. Now with the rule changes I'm at a stand still with the whole thing....

I have a bunch of different armies so this'll take me abit:

Tyranids - I liked the whole aliens feel of the army, tons of good CC critters running towards you. Of course now the army is all about monstrous creatues.

Marines - 8 foot tall super soldiers, what's not to like. The ultramarines blue appealed to me for some reason.

Eldar - I liked the wraithguard models so I started an iyanden army.

Steel Legion - I loved the models and the tanks. I would have done an infantry horde if the models were cheaper.

Thousand Sons - The egyptian theme, the absolutely amazing models. They also had pretty cool rules in early 3rd edition.

World Eaters - I'd planned to do an all demon bomb with the bikes being demonic mounts. I'd finally found a decent mount when the 4th edition dex came out. So much for that idea.

Tau - I really liked the anime feel of the army (being an anime nut myself) so I converted up a zaku head for my fire warrriors. I just need to finish them.

Demon hunters - When the models first came out I thought they were perfect. I picked up a squad for a painting contest and won another squad so I started an army. When the IG got re-released with the kasrkin models I knew I had the perfect storm troopers.

Necrons - When the plastic models came out I figured they'd make a great army if they were all lighted. I finished about 4 warriors and a lord before I realized it was ALOT of work and stopped.

Lost and the Damned - I'd always loved the genestealer cult ideas. So when the plague monk plastics came out I knew I'd found a cultist. I've got 60 of the little buggers converted and painted up. Luckily I never finished the rest of the army so I'm not out to much. :(

There you have it 10 years of GW.

I have three armies Necron, blood angel and orks. I always gravitate to the orks for two reasons firstly I am not a regiment painter and with the ork models you get plenty of variety and secondly there just fun to kill with. There’s nothing like the feeling and bragging rites you get when a horde of Gretchen kills even a single marine. There is the added bonus as I have flicked through a copy of the new codex there’s lots of background fluff.
I started my blood angels army simply because I liked the Baal predator and the whole vampire thing they have going on. The necrons was because my son liked the fact they get up after they get killed.

I love the look of Genstealers. I also like Insects so Tyranids were pretty much the way to go when I found out about Warhammer 40k. I started in the 2nd Ed. and thir fluff is great and I realy liked the idea of the genstealer cults. Have I mentioned that I love Genstealers?
So Necrons were released and I was like "Wow!" the total opposite I must have them. But it never got more then one box warriors and a destructor.
Then I went to Fantasy Chaos and Collected a 2000 Points Nurgle Slaanesh Demon force which I sold. Worst mistake I ever did.
I started Orks a few month before Armageddon to have a second army. I really liked their simple brutal way and the possibillity to scratchbuild nearly everything. A friend of mine pointed out that I like everything that is many and not human. He was right until I started Chaos Marines which was my first painted army. A little Chaos was in my blood everytime and this army is fool of creepy conversion ideas.

Well looking back I can say I my armies are enraged unhman things. Humans are boring .

I play SW cos they lokk badass, drink bear and fight all day. Plus they have a rugged sence of honour and they have wolves in thier army

They drink bears?!? I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted.

Beef, please don't ever leave us.

Darrian

lol Dang, drinkin bear is impressive to me..Id stay away if I saw them in combat! But what Im tryin to get is a no-sh!t, DKK army, itll be expensive and delicate, but I love the models for one, and I think WWI was the only war that I could consider to be utterly horrible, due to the trenches, "No Mans Land", giant rumbling tanks seen every so often but when encountered, you wish you were dead, the dark night charges over the trenches to the enemy lines only to be cut down from machine gun fire as your running or stuck in barbed wire. I imagine the DKK as fighting in the night or a cloud, fog filled day, where rain is frequent and the death just never stops.
There are alot of IG armies to go with, either just using the GW or FW models, or using them, but converting them heavily, but the straight up gothic (to me) feel of the army and its gear (how its set up) just makes me want to spend the extra money and have an army thats beautiful to the eyes and heart.

I've got a Dark Angel army on the go at the moment ( BEEF don't say a word! ) I currently have two and a half full companies! and just over half a Deathwing company. I chose Dark Angels as my main army becuase I like the gothic, dark, and secretive aspect of the army....I'm not sure if you'd class them as heroic or borderline chaotic ( In reading the fluff, it occurs to me that in their "hunt for the fallen", they have in turn become as sinister and corrupt as those thy hunt! ) after all, the implied killing of "innocent" people who have seen them on the hunt for the fallen and the destruction of a Black Templars battle barge is pretty chaotic to me.

I'm also in the process of building a rather large Grey Knight army, hey, its the inquisition...what more can I say? And strangely enough, I have a battle force of Nurgle Chaos Marines.....itchy and scratchy show!

currently i have ultramarines and tyranids..... working ona word bearers army and am wanting an ork army.... my first army was a night lords army loved the fact that they stood ALONE and the fluff they had, but alas ebay got em to fund my imperial guard, which i didnt really like and they gave way to my 'smurf' marines, which are ok... love the fluff of an all devouring alien race so had to get the bugs..... always liked the fluff of the word bearers but the novel 'dark apostle' did it for me....... and as for orks always wanted them just was always busy with other armies but now might be the time....... WAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! lol

Marines: I just like powered armour and big, powerful guns.

Guard: Huge numbers and big tanks. And I just like the spirit of regular average guys taking on the worst the universe can throw at them.

@ Delophont I wont say a word (for now)

@ Darrian13 Yes they drink Bears (as in the animals) It provides them with protien and keeps them warm at night

They drink the bears’ protein?

This just gets scarier.

-------------------------

As for the original question, I started with Eldar both because I’m an elf fan (stemming from my dad reading me The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as bedtime stories at a very young age), and because the original Harlequin fluff was ridiculously awesome. I still have a copy of WD105- the first half of the RT army list, and the Dance Without End fluff. I’ve been longing for playable rules for Harlies since I got into 40k in ’99.

I made a Slaanesh CSM army because of the new models when the last codex came out, and because I like having both the Eldar and Slaanesh. Both halves of the equation. I also have Wood Elves and Slaaneshi Chaos in Warhammer, and elves and Slaaneshi Possessed in Mordheim. I’m going to in Blood Bown as well; I just haven’t gotten around to putting the Chaos team together.

I made my Dark Angels/Fallen army because of the fluff and the models. I bought 60-odd metal Deathwing shoulder pads (with the wings and broken sword) by weight back at the 01 Baltimore GT just because they look awesome, and I eventually built the army because I had gradually accumulated some SM stuff over the years, and a friend did a 1k tournament with the theme “paint something new or something you’ve had sitting around for a long time”. Since it was the last army I did, naturally it’s the best-painted, so it’s the one I now wind up bringing to tournaments.

Damn right! Just imagine if the bear is an unwilling participant in the drinking. Someone could really get hurt.

BTW, Mannahnin, your dad is awesome. I wish my dad had read me Lotr and the Hobbit as bedtime stories. Very cool.

Darrian

"They drink bears protein".....confirms everything I ever thought about Space Wolves.....camp camp camp.....

I watched 40K played @ conventions and was always intrigued to try it but there was no gaming going on in my area that I knew of Then a guy started it rolling at a local hobby shop and I was hooked. I was drawn to the space marines because I liked the models, particularly the predators, razorbacks, and the new heavy bolter trooper I stayed away from the IG because it would be cheaper and easier to build/paint marines. I played crimson fists because the color scheme with the dark blue and blood red appealed to me aesthetically. Also, the space marines most closely resemble the US military IMO. I didn't know anything about the dynamics of the game or the strengths/weaknesses of any armies. I picked my army solely on aesthetic appeal. The Crimson Fists Space Marines spoke to me and I have played them faithfully to this day.

dornsfist wrote: Also, the space marines most closely resemble the US military IMO.

Really? In what respect? I wouldn't proffess to be a specialist in the US Military, but based on the fluff of the Marines in terms of attitude, physique, etc....I can find very little parallel to any modern force worldwide? I can't imagine any sensible US Soldier of any department willingly giving his life for "INSERT NAME OF PRESIDENT HERE"......or assaulting a gun emplacement with a combat knife screaming..."for the "INSERT NAME" administration"....can you?

I would suggest Cadians or Elysian Drop troopers to be more akin to US / Modern military forces. Space Marines are like a mix between "ye olde English knights", Terminator and Superman.....with a massive emphasis on the "ye olde English knight"......with respect, not many American soldiers purposfully mimick these traits....and lets face it, who'd want to?

Delephont wrote: I can't imagine any sensible US Soldier of any department willingly giving his life for "INSERT NAME OF PRESIDENT HERE"

I guess I wouldn't be sensible then...

Politics aside, the man is still our Commander in Chief. We took an oath to obey his orders, and to protect his office. While I'm sure there are some serving in the US Military who hate the man, I'd feel safe betting my next pay check that the majority of those of us serving would unquestionly give their lives for the President of the United States (whomever they may be).




Now, for the original question of this thread...

I've got 2 full armies and 1 in the works, that all have a story behind them that tie them together.

My Space Marine army (being my largest force), is a Chapter that seceded from the Imperium a millenia ago. Given the Chapters near annihilation combating an Ork Waagh, and then facing a Chaos invasion on their home world, the Imperium "cut them off" seeing it as being more costly to rescue them then not. The Chapter, and homeworld, where nearly destroyed when Eldar Craftworld Eth-Kariel came to save the day.

The Farseers of the Craftworld saw that saving the humans would lead to a period of much needed peace for the Craftworld. The Space Marines seeing that the "dreaded xeno's" where willing to help them when their own ruling state left them to the slaughter decided to grant the Craftworld uncontested use of their space, and a relatively stable alliance grew between the two.

With the SM's turning their back on the Imperium, they knew that they'd eventually face retribution (cause the Imperium are cocks like that) so they cast off the teachings of the Codex Astartes, and opened their gene-seed banks for full production. Over the next several centuries, they managed to rebuild their power, and expand into a military juggernaught (with the aid of an Eldar Craftworld) capable of defending itself from most threats the galaxy could throw it's way.

Now the IG army that i'm building right now could be considered the PDF/Chapter Serfs. They don't have much of a fleshed out story, but I only have a few tanks, and a squad of guardsmen right now.

I play my dark angels because they have their incredibly rich history and mysterious ways...Also their affinity with the plasma cannon lol. (afforded me many a time of amusement)

I collect IG because I love the mentality of having just men defending the empire against a wave of xenos creatures....I mean gah who'd go mad getting gribbled by nid's or eldar.

I collect necrons because they are so kickass.

I made a couple of quick edits to remove a specific president's name. Please try to avoid negative comments about any particular president or candidate on this forum. If I can do it, so can you.

As for the Space Marines/US military parallel, I personally see the SM as more akin to a cross between generic sci-fi supersoldiers and medieval religious knights. While certain elements of our military (particularly special forces and elite units) have a similar esprit de corps (and at times extreme devotion to duty), the 40k SM are an exaggerated cartoon of this in my eyes, combined with religious fanaticism. IG are the closest thing to any real military IMO. It's neat how the IG list can be used to represent everything from hordes of conscripts to regular joes to elite MFers (Stormtroopers, veterans).

Darrian13 wrote:BTW, Mannahnin, your dad is awesome. I wish my dad had read me Lotr and the Hobbit as bedtime stories. Very cool.

He was pretty cool. I might have been the world's biggest Legolas fan before the movies came out and all the girls jumped on the bandwagon. One of the best moments I ever had at the movies was during Fellowship when they're walking over Caradhras and the camera swoops in and you can see Legolas walking on top of the snow while everyone else is slogging through it. I remembered that incredibly clearly from the books going back to when I was about eight years old. Just awesome.

Space Wolves: Viking Werewolves in space? Excellent
Deathworld Veterans: Sly Marbo amuses me
Eldar: I like the tanks/wraithlord models

I play Grey Knights because they remind me of the Spartans. I have always loved the history of spartan warriors, being rasied from birth to fight just sounds awesome. I have been working to convert all my models to have scarlet cloaks and replaced all my justicars swords with the halleberds (i think thats spelled wrong). Having few stand against many always makes for a fun game. Even if i get my a** handed to me half the time. Ill get better soon....

I personally like to take armies that most say can't win and make them work. I enjoy the challenged. This is probably due to the fact I have been playing for a very long time and have played all the armies except Lost and Damned. I have enjoyed qualifying for Ardboys with my GK's and currently have reconfigured my BA with thier new codex. (Because eveyone knows you can't win with combat squads ect.) I am currently working with a 2 defiler chaos list.(Straight up insanity I know)

well i have two armys the first is IG just like the book says man fighting some wild things . I have great respect of them, some the folks on here can say the same when i was in Iraq and wasn't playing spotter i was ground mounted Infantry and when you get shot at the first time you know what the IG are feeling its not fun a rush maybe but not fun.

My 2nd is 1000 Sons there story is the best trying to warn the emperor and they get branded heretics very sad. and Ahriman the best charter in the game kicks some eldar
thats my two

Delephont wrote:

dornsfist wrote: Also, the space marines most closely resemble the US military IMO.

Really? In what respect? I wouldn't proffess to be a specialist in the US Military, but based on the fluff of the Marines in terms of attitude, physique, etc....I can find very little parallel to any modern force worldwide? I can't imagine any sensible US Soldier of any department willingly giving his life for "INSERT NAME OF PRESIDENT HERE"......or assaulting a gun emplacement with a combat knife screaming..."for the "INSERT NAME" administration"....can you?

I would suggest Cadians or Elysian Drop troopers to be more akin to US / Modern military forces. Space Marines are like a mix between "ye olde English knights", Terminator and Superman.....with a massive emphasis on the "ye olde English knight"......with respect, not many American soldiers purposfully mimick these traits....and lets face it, who'd want to?

I said IMO, just like you are expressing your opinion. But look at the US soldier to find the parallel. Each single member is highly trained, equiped with the best weapons technology known to man, small combat squads can hold their own versus any force, combined units tactics, etc, etc.

As far as your inability to imagine US soldiers assaulting gun emplacements and willingly sacrificing their lives following the orders of the government, pull your head out of arse and refresh your history knowledge. Ever heard of D-day? Or how about Iwo Jima? Sorry if it sounds harsh, but you obviously have never had the privilege of knowing anyone who has served (and died) in our military. You disgust me.

dornsfist wrote:

Delephont wrote:

dornsfist wrote: Also, the space marines most closely resemble the US military IMO.

Really? In what respect? I wouldn't proffess to be a specialist in the US Military, but based on the fluff of the Marines in terms of attitude, physique, etc....I can find very little parallel to any modern force worldwide? I can't imagine any sensible US Soldier of any department willingly giving his life for "INSERT NAME OF PRESIDENT HERE"......or assaulting a gun emplacement with a combat knife screaming..."for the "INSERT NAME" administration"....can you?

I would suggest Cadians or Elysian Drop troopers to be more akin to US / Modern military forces. Space Marines are like a mix between "ye olde English knights", Terminator and Superman.....with a massive emphasis on the "ye olde English knight"......with respect, not many American soldiers purposfully mimick these traits....and lets face it, who'd want to?

I said IMO, just like you are expressing your opinion. But look at the US soldier to find the parallel. Each single member is highly trained, equiped with the best weapons technology known to man, small combat squads can hold their own versus any force, combined units tactics, etc, etc.

As far as your inability to imagine US soldiers assaulting gun emplacements and willingly sacrificing their lives following the orders of the government, pull your head out of arse and refresh your history knowledge. Ever heard of D-day? Or how about Iwo Jima? Sorry if it sounds harsh, but you obviously have never had the privilege of knowing anyone who has served (and died) in our military. You disgust me.

Chill a bit Dornfist. He wasn't trying to offend anyone.

I typed it in a calm manner. I even had the where-withall to put a flame on the end. His words are there for all to see, and I say bull that he wasn't trying to offend anyone with his comments. I stand by what I typed, in fact, I held back. I'm not comparing toy soldiers and fluff to our heroes, I claimed the SM most closely resemble the US military, but delephont stepped out of line with his plolitical viewpoint and ignorance of history. Still calm here.

I learned a long time ago to never presume to know what the men and women in the armed services think or feel. I simply thank them for the service they provide me and the rest of the citizens of this fine country.

Darrian

Well, as a member of the American fighting force, I do appreciate all the kind words, and Im not going to add onto anyones comments. I RUV USA!

There's a difference between loving your country's ideals and fanaticism.

Anyways, I play Guard because I'm a fan of combined arms. It comes from having grown up hearing my grandfather's stories of WWII as a bombardier on a B-26 Marauder and watching the Allied advance through Italy and onwards from above. Not to mention hearing all the other WWII veterans that were in his circle of friends talking about their experiences in the different branches. I think I'm one of the few Guard I know of around me that keep their tanks consistently in cohesion with an infantry escort and refuse to advance the tanks when the infantry can't

Well, I got started out on Space Marines because a combat squad or an eldar jetbike was all I could afford at the time, and the jetbike looked lame.

I went online, looked some things up and I saw the old 2nd ed. Devastator marine with a plasma cannon. Now, it's not a very good model, but something about it, the paintjob, and the description appealed to me. I guess it was the whole "best armed and armoured troops humanity has to offer thing". I could never really get into unhuman armies like Tyranids, Necrons, or Orks mostly because I could never really empathize, so I've generally played human (or near human) armies.

Something about the versatility and quick build/painting time of a marine army got me hooked, and I've never not had one going the whole time I've been playing this game. Right now it's Crimson Fists, I love painting the colours and they're fairly generic good guys, no dark secrets or bloodlust or anything like that.

Course, evil is fun too, so I also have a Chaos marine army. I don't think it's the "bwahaha evil" aspect that appeals to me more than the idea that most Chaos Marines were just regular soldiers at some point following their leaders down a path that lead to someplace bad. They were just trying to do what was right for humanity, and in some way still are, even if it is by pledging wholesale allegiance to Chaos.

I've started on Eldar recently because I've always had an affinity for their models, and the idea of an independent sort of force appeals to me. The Eldar aren't trying to impose their way of life on other people like most armies out there, nor are they fighting for simple destruction. They're just trying to do what's best for them, and they don't care if that happens to be worse for someone else.

dornfist wrote:I said IMO, just like you are expressing your opinion. But look at the US soldier to find the parallel. Each single member is highly trained, equiped with the best weapons technology known to man, small combat squads can hold their own versus any force, combined units tactics, etc, etc.

As far as your inability to imagine US soldiers assaulting gun emplacements and willingly sacrificing their lives following the orders of the government, pull your head out of arse and refresh your history knowledge. Ever heard of D-day? Or how about Iwo Jima? Sorry if it sounds harsh, but you obviously have never had the privilege of knowing anyone who has served (and died) in our military. You disgust me.

I agree with most of your points. Unfortunately, it seems, alot of what I was suggesting has been lost in translation. When I mention attacking gun emplacements (see my post), I mean't suicide runs....Space Marine mentality, fluff wise, is to attack and die, perhaps even when "other" forces woud make a tactical retreat and regroup. I do know US and UK service personnel, and most would be willing to make a "suicide run", but only as a LAST resort, and if no other tactic will bring about survival or achieve the objective.

As for following the orders of the govt', well, we all do that, whether we like it or not, obviously people have varied reasons for joining the military, all of them are IMO valid! Space Marine will willingly die in the name of an individual, namely the Emporer....again, all the service people I know would NOT willingly die for #INSERT NAME OF PRIME MINISTER OR PRESIDENT# because they understand that these people are simply politicians who have their own interests closest to their hearts, and not brave war leaders fighting to preserve their own states or countries. I have followed history, and appreciate the propoganda of most nations that fought in the major wars of "modern" times, and maybe to most I'm being dense, but I can think of only a few occasions where fighting forces have been sent in on a purely humanitarian basis......thats not to say the various soldiers of various countries didn't fight FOR humanitarian reasons, but I question why their govt's sent them there in the first place. Dying for a country, an ideal, to pay your college fees or feed your family is one thing...dying for a politicians "power plan" is another....

I apologise if my comments caused you offence, that wasn't my intention and isn't now.....reading between the lines, I've actually credited the average soldier with more sense than a Space Marine, which, although they are fun Sci Fi characters, they're sense of self preservation and the preservation of others is laughable.

I hope this clears things up.

Well put Delephont...I myself admit that I am a patriot, I love this country (even though somethings dont always make sense to me), but I joined because we were at a difficult time, and it didnt make sense to me why I shouldnt join and do my part. I feel in many ways, citizens of any country, should at least once, serve their country. It doesnt have to be in a war time either, you could join to be an admin, engineer, or whatever, but everyone should do their part, since people in the past fought to make the country, why not do ones part and help preserve that? I know this is way off topic from the threads subject, but it is in line with the discussion currently at hand.

Off topic, but IMO well worth discussing.

Civil service, whether in the military or another area, is a noble thing. My father was Army and both my grandfathers were Air Force pilots in WWII. I decided not to go into the military, but I did work for a nonprofit homeless hotline and social services I&R service for three years. The pay was dirt, but when you get a person with kids off the street and into shelter in the middle of the night, you know you’re contributing to society. Not everyone can afford to work someplace like that, or to dedicate years of their life to the military, but everyone can volunteer, and really should.

Well, I guess its good to know the MODs are on the light side...

There are two reasons why I play Space Wolves:

1: I read both the Ultramarines and Space Wolf Omnibuses and after reading the space wolf one I was instantly addicted, and before I even finished it I went out and bought the other two books that were out. I just loved the way the space wolves were compared to all the other chapters, they were alot more free willed and not and stuffy and starchazzed as the Ultramarines and other chapters seemed to be.
2: One of my ushers, Hasan on this forum actually, gave the the SW codex, Logan Grimnar, Ragnar Blackmane, and a WG in Termi armour. So I figured I would run with the army and havent looked back since.

Space Marines, because I like the minis and really liked the inherent play style when I started 40k. Sure you can have a shooty marine army or a force like templars focused on assaults, but it all boils down to your basic troops being relatively strong units all around. At this point, I'm much more interested in forces with highly specialized units (like Eldar) since I realize now that each unit will have exactly one job each mission. However, I really don't like the Eldar models at all, and definitely don't see myself ever buying another entire army, so I stick with Marines.

I too play a bunch of armies so I'll go down the list

World Eaters - I love the cult feel. I'm a big fan of chaos because to me it is the most interesting fluff. Also, I like to roll lots of dice. And I do. And it is good.

Tyranids - I play big bugs because it is really competitive. Also I really liked the 4th ed carnies (so many options!!!!). I had a blast modeling them.

Space Marines - I actualy started playing space marines after playing Dawn of War and blowing people up with whirlwinds. It was a defining moment in my life when I said to myself "I want indirect fire ordinance". I since have dropped the whirlwinds and play a Salamanders list because I think their fluff is cool.

Orks - There's just something about big shootas that makes me happy (see World Eaters...)

Thousand Sons - My newest army, I liked the way the new book streamlined chaos. I'd always wanted to do a 1kSons army but they were just too low model count before. Now they are a bit less badass individually (no more 10 sorcerer terminator squad) but are a lot more efficient points wise. Also I had some great ideas for conversions I have yet to do. I'm sure I'll throw pictures of thsoe up here as soon as I can =)

~Misc

The models.

Eldar Harlequins, Warwalkers and IG Grey Knights all drew me into the game long ago.

All the rest of the crap I picked up along the way? I'm a consumer whore.

I play Emperor's Children chaos because it's an incredibly rich background including the traitor legions and the god of excess and pleasure, Slaanesh. The list is amazingly flexible, allowing me to design an army that fights the way I want and is led by a commander customized by my own special design, unduplicated by any other.

...oh wait that was the old codex. Now I play "chaos" because there is no more Emperor's Children army, and my reason is that it's the army I've been collecting for years and I can't make myself shelve the whole of it, even if it has been left bland and unoriginal. Oh well.

@Spellbound, I hear you. My Emporers Children army is now in a box in the garage. It is 100+ models and, unless Codex Demons lets me bring demonettes back into my Chaos army, staying in the garage. I loved that army.

My World Eater army in also in the garage right next to the Emporers Children.

Darrian

Ive loads of armys, like said before i like a challange so at the moment i use dark eldar in there paper planes with NO wwp.
I just cant get the feel of nids for some reason i love the big critters as to the rest they look good on paper i get the mods then look and back in the box they go for a year or so then try again, it isnt the mods i dislike its just somthing else.

My first and most frequent love in the game is Space Marines. I play several different variants and that's one of the reasons that I love them so; there are so many different flavors. Given the point cost for the troops they have a lower model count and for that reason I can justify to myself creating a new chapter when I want to use a totally new style of force. Traits and the various different codices allow so many options.

When I looked for my first break from Marines to do something different, I went with Nids. The idea on an endless, ravenous, devouring horde is just so bloody appealing that I couldn't resist. Even though Marines are my true love, Nids are easily my Xenos passion.

While I've been back to Marines a couple of time since dipping into the Nid genepool and even a foray into Chaos, I'm now in the process of starting my next army, IG. I've been an American Civil War buff for a very long time and am now working on an ACW themed IG army.

I'm a closet Ork fan and would love to do an Ork army at some point if GW would ever pull their head out of their a$$ and once an for all ditch the ridiculous concept of funny Orks. The most populous Xenos threat (according to the fluff) should be as horrifying as a Tyranid invasion not comic relief.

My main army is and always has been the Imperial Guard. I love the combined arms feel of the army and think that the old metal and new plastic Cadians are some of the best miniatures that GW has ever produced. I love the tanks and the variability that the army provides. I can go mechanized heavy, or infantry heavy, or a mix of the two. All those lists can be viable, which I love.

I also love my Black Legion army, just because they are the pinnacle of what it means to be a Chaos Space Marine. They are mean and are also a tactically flexible army. Tactical flexibility is key for my enjoyment of an army. I have an old school Nid army and never like to use it, because the games are always the same.

I play Nurgle Eldar and Guard
I guess i like playing the bad guys, especially when i win!
it doesn't make me feel bad when i lose because i figure GW give the good guys the advantage..

Nurgle 4000+pts Nasty spreadin disease and stuff.

Iyandan clone eldar army 4000+pts I have 30wraithguard, walking forward blasting any and all into the warp!

I've started a guard army I bough two of the big pretorian box sets and I'm painting them to look like WW2 germans.
(these guys are on hold while i apoc up my main two armys)

well it looks like I'm the only one so far to use this as a basis..

I started playing 40k because of warhamemr FRP. i played to tabletop pen and paper version for 3 solid years before i even thought about playing 40k. i always assumed and was told playing 40k was soo expensive its not even funny. well it is, but now that im 25 its a lot eaiser to cough up 100$+ a month on gaming expenses. elves were always my favorite race in WFRP, the idea that they really dont die except by boredom always intrigued me. with the advice of a friend who played, i ended up buying about 80$ worth of models on ebay and the codex, i had no idea what anything was, but i havnt looked back since then.

i also am starting to collect nurgle, for the same reasons as i started collecting eldar. my old DM in WFRP had an affinity to nurgle because of his ability to mutate anything. more than a few times i had a dwarf troll slayer spout a second head or a third arm or contracted some horrible disease(sp?) that made all dogs in my area deficate themselves uncontrolably. yea i had a messed up DM. but since i got a start in the 40k universe my likes\dislikes have been based on the past experiences i have had.

also this is funny, but i didnt know they made a WHFB until after i wanted to start playing 40k

When I first saw space marine models waaaaaaaay back in the '80's I thought they looked good.
But, it was the background of the Eldar that caught my attention, and my wallet. Throw in the fact that they are reminiscent of the tales of the Fey of the Celts of my ancestry, and we have a winner.

But it is a trend. I play Klingons in SFB, Narn in B5, Skaven in Mordheim.

In fact, the only time I play 'human' is when there is no other choice like in Battletech, or FOW.

Chaos: When the metal Chaos terminator box set with trophy racks came out for 2nd edition I was hooked.

Orks: When my friends were getting me into the game, they were all space marines, and so I bought Rogue Trader and the the Space Ork Raider box set. Thrugg Bullneck, what a road you've taken me down...

It got a little hairy there when we were digging into the excesses of Rogue trader- Major Heroes on hover boards, trying to go through vortex grenade mine fields (!) that were deployed by scatter missiles.

RZ

Tau 'cuz I love their gundams and their near-future engineering feel. Honestly, aside from that I know and care very little about the background except that I enjoy their utopian society. And that Farsight has a huge, MFing sword.

I played Chaos because of the rich background of the CSM Legions and the important part that they played in the story of Warhammer 40K.

Now that they're relegated to being the "Nawtay" kids at the mall,and the half finished thoughts of certain games designers I don't play Chaos anymore.

well you obviously did not love them enuff to stick with them, were you a person who liked the lists you could make more than the fluff?? Seems that way to me as only the ability to take certain things has been taken away, the fluff remain unchanged.

Blackheart666 wrote:I played Chaos because of the rich background of the CSM Legions and the important part that they played in the story of Warhammer 40K.

Now that they're relegated to being the "Nawtay" kids at the mall,and the half finished thoughts of certain games designers I don't play Chaos anymore.

They changed the background or just the rules?

they changed just the rules, the background remains the same

I play Eldar and Tyranids presently considering starting Tau been borrowing my boyfriends Tau.

Its quite obvious why I like Eldar since I like elves so they are space elves. The models are really neat and psychic powers are cool.

I like Tyranids because bugs/aliens are cool also its fun to beat macho guys and their macho men with little bugs/aliens. They also are competitive and require a bit less thought then eldar for tourneys where I can just march up the monster line and then charge with the gene stealers, less thinking less likely for me to have a headache by game 3 and play terribly.

I like Tau because Tau is like the anime army with their armored suits and I am somewhat of a fangirl. Currently modding a Commander Shadowsun to have her fusion blasters mounted top side like Megatron and green stuffing her hair the one braid looks dumb.

I play ORKS, because they are fun, I love the brainless destruction, and the look of their teknology (even more since the 3rd edition). I hate all that klan fluff and the happy colours, too pre-teenager for me. I paint my boyz as freeboters, and usually on dirty grey. The 'everything goes' konversions you can do is another factor. If your model stands on his feet, then the surgery was a success. But I lose a lot of times againist the Space Marines and their damned heavy bolters and heavy bolters on attack bikes and tanks with heavy bolters.

I am currently painting a few Tech adepts and their retinue, just for the pleasure of painting techno-monks. I'm collecting models from the best looking armies and painting them as skiitari. Maybe I'll finish with a playable warband. The better thing is that you can mix models from Warmachine, CORVUS BELLI and other manufacturers with a feeeew conversions, and they look awesome in metal, grey and red. The Fluff is really sparse, and they are always secondary caracters. Just the geek guys who fix the things when the real soldiers break them. And I am really fascinated with the idea of the Magos Explorator, the searchers of lost knowledgement. I recommend you to google a bit around and look for the 'experimental' codex they wrote some time ago.

Oh, for all you tau players: check CORVUS BELLI and thei range of power armours. ¡And they are spanish like me!

.alberto
.spain

Necrons- Not a lot of different unit choices, not too expensive compared to other armies, strong, robot army...nuff said

Eldar- Lower quantity more specialized units, fast, need a good well thought out list, either win a solid victory or lose terribly in my own experience

Orks!
Orks are the best. They have a great range of highly amusing and (for GW) innovative background material. They have stayed fairly lighthearted and fun throughout the desperately boring skullification of 40K.
Despite their poor model support for the last decade, they have some of my favourite models (the warboss, boys and mega armoured nobs are amazing.)
They were a lot of fun to play at the start of third, and now they are a lot of fun to play again, with tonnes of tactical flexibility. I'm also very happy about the filling out of the model range. Strangely, although I'm a die hard ork player since the very beginning of third edition, I don't particularly like kitbashing and converting. I'll do some minor work here and there, but it always really bugged me to have to make entire swathes of the range myself (especially when other races had multiple redundancy in terms of releases). Still, they remain my favourite GW faction by a long way.
I also have a Nurgle army. I started that because I had a conversion idea for the plastic zombies and plastic chaos marines, and I was tired of playing orks and fighting uphill all the time. I quite enjoy playing them under the new rules, as they work the way I think they should. I also use the generic daemons as plague zombies, which is cool visually.
I'm plotting a nid army, because I've always liked them and I love the plastics.

I play Black Legion because I will bring ruin to the galaxy
And I play Orks because Dey iz the biggezt an'da best!

I play orks because I finished my tau force on the day of the ork release. I was in the store and they had a huge game. I played on ork team. I loved it, so I started orks.

In 40k:
Ultramarines: They were in the starter box for 3ed and artwork. I had previous knowledge of them from various video games. There color scheme was simple and decent looking. My friend who started at the same time as me was doing blood angels so we had some things in common to talk about and some things that were different when we played just against each other to get a feel for the unit types and armies. After that I just felt that the force I had put together was generally well rounded and had a fighting chance against any army and in any scenario that I have played to date. I think the worst situation I have ended up in was a tournament mission against 'Nids that used night fight and land mines everywhere outside of deployment zone that didn't affect monstrous creatures... and I still pulled that one off although really close. So I've stuck to them.

In Fantasy:
Stunties: Just started playing stunties as my first fantasy army, not sure why I never bothered to play WHF before now though. But I really enjoy it now that I have started. Oh and I picked dwarves cause I love 'em. Drinkin, brawlin, creating crazy contraptions, plenty of explosives, strong headed and honour bound(or grudge bound depending on your view), whats not to love! Oh and because I always wanted to play them in 40k but I missed out on that time period I hear.

i play orks cause orks is da best. for me at least, because normally i like to play structured armies with rigid formations and by the book rules with easy to identify units. (i.e. space marines). but the way the orks fearlessly charge into the face of death howling away and shooting their guns into the sky just amuses me to no end. how the orks will never run away as long as they hae their mates beside them. how they build stuff out of nothing and then make it work with inante 'sykik' abilities. how they really are just giant walking talking mushrooms who rip it up in close combat. there is just so much to love.

also my clan of orks is obsessed with spilling as much blood as possible and therefore they get a bunch of brutal background. like shooting nailbombs instead of artillery and painting things with blood instead of just red paint. they are sooooo awesome!

and being super cheap, i get to make my own tanks for next to nothing and convert anything into anything! ork mechanics = win!

I used to play orks for the same reasons, but then I thought about painting all my stuff and I almost lost it. So I decided to stick to space marines for now, cuz I'm not that good of a painter and I love the space marine fluff. But now that the new orks are here and I've got better at painting I might have to start again after my pimp marines are done

Ill play any army that has both personality and room for me to get creative. For those reasons i have mainly done different chaos armies. My largest army by far are my Beasts of Chaos but my Ork army should rival it once finished.

I play chaos space marines because i like the concept of semi-psychotic, genetically enhanced, daemonic armies. It is also the first time i have played the "bad guys" in a game so I get to look at everything from new angles and get to design my force in a different manner.

Oh, since other people are doing more than one system:
Fantasy:
Orcs- Pretty much the same as the reasons for collecting Orks, plus massive amount of plastics.
Beastmen- Brilliant concept well executed. Really like the background and playstyle.
Lizardmen- I love lizards and dinosaurs, and the book did a lot to make them less silly and more epic.
Dwarves- I love tolkiens dwarves, so I bought a sizable army of GW dwarves. Unfortunately, their playstyle and the steampunk bits don't gel with me very well, so they are mostly unpainted and unplayed. Sad.
LOTR:
Moria- love the models, love the swarm aspect.
Various Mordor factions- Love the models
Fellowship- Great for the odd all hero game.
Warmachine:
Cygnar- My only Good Guy army. I decided to ham it up after years of mostly playing good or neutral factions and play something really straightlaced. Stryker seemed to fit the bill, so I picked Cygnar. A nice foil for my opponent's Pirates.
Necromunda:
Enforcers- Too much judge dredd as a child.

I have three 40k armies right now in various states of disrepair.

My largest army is my Eldar who I play because I like the tactical possibilities of Eldar. The combination of exceptional mobility, highly skilled soldiers, and advanced technology is, in my opinion, the best way to conduct warfare.

My next army is Chaos Space Marines, who I liked for their resilience and their evil manner. Only one of my friends plays an out and out evil race (necrons) so I felt like someone needed to play the bad guys. I haven't played them much since my Plaguemarines crushed a friend's Imperial Guard army with no loses.

My final army and the one which I am hoping will become my main army is my Daemonhunters force. Ever since I read the Eisenhorn novels I have been utterly enthralled by the idea of the Imperial Inquisition. I also love the idea behind the army because it is the one army where you can combine so many of the different types of imperial forces. You can have your genetically engineered super-warriors fighting alongside your regular run of the mill guardsmen and I really like that. Plus the models for Grey Knight terminators are just so awesome I don't know how you cannot field such a force.

Of course I am suffering great temptation right now to start Imperial Guard or Tyranids or to revisit my Chaos army. In most respects its harder for me to find an army I don't like that to find one I do, though there are a few armies I really don't like (Necrons and Dark Eldar).

i play Space marine sbecause of the fluff behind them there is SO much of it
and the horus heresy is the most interesting fluff to me because the space marines got
so messed and how there used to be so many space marines and now they cant even put one on every planet of the imperium
but still they fight on and kill everything and hold the own With COURAGE AND HONOUR!

There are more space marines now than there were in the Horus Heresy:
1000 Space Marine Chapters à 1000 Marines each(not counting exceptions) => 1'000'000 Marines
18 Legions with an average of 10'000 Marines each(some up to 50'000 I believe) => around 200'000 but probably more like 500'000

If my math is correct (probably not) then there are at least twice as many marines as there were in the Horus Heresy. But for over a 1'000'000planets that's still not a lot of marines.

I play Orks and did play fantasy Greenskins because I see similarities between my own personality and their mindset as a race.

I enjoy violence, as odd as it sounds, to me fighting is fun, but since IRL I can't do that whenever I like without being arrested or killed, I let my greenskins do it for me.

If it's allowed to do fantasy I'll write that too.

LotR:
I play Moria goblins, because they have a fun buggish swarmness to them, that I really like. And they have quite nice models. The plastic troll is sadly not one of them.
I also play gondor, so that my little sister will play with me. I like Gondor and all, but for LotR I just like the bad guys a little more.
Last but not least, LotR has such nice minis and I find them much easier to paint than Space Marines for some reason. They are also more fun to paint and their are a more Heros so I can paint more carefully without having to feel guilty for taking so long.

ok i should have said they send space marines to war ALOT less now its very rare for people to see marines on the field and then they would send a whole legion to fight
now they send a chapter. so i was more saying that alot less marines can do so much more. a battle compant now is 100 fighting marines in heresy a company was like 1000 fighting marines. and i was more talking about known chapters like common ones yeah there the random one like mortifactors and stuff but ehh there not important.

Don't Playa-hate the DIY. The reason people don't see space marines as much anymore is because that was the great crusade. The legions went from one planet to the next.
Now the Chapters are used for defense and less to conquer worlds.

Indeed, the Imperium has long since stagnated, they don't go conquering new lands because they rely so much on what they know, and are very inflexible.

I initially started with Space marines back in the day. Not being particularly familiar with 40k or its factions it seemed like a good choice at the time but eventually I felt that they lacked character. I pounced on the Tau when they were launched, being a fan of many a manga and loving the models. Slowly grew tired of them because of the perfect lines and clean finish which was almost a necessity for painting them. It not that I couldnt paint them, it just felt like a chore trying to 'keep inside the lines' and took me a long time to paint each model.
I then ended up on the Orks, undeniably the faction with the most character, no clean lines to worry about, and I have plenty of SM and Tau models to use fer kunvershuns! Hur hur!

I started out playing Marines because it was and still is a solid force for beginners to learn with. I came to love these power-armored hands of the Emperor's Will, a vanilla DIY called the Sunhawks.

When I wanted to try something different, I went with Nids as what's not to love about a force of nature that exists to consume and doesn't wrap that truth in any tissue of lies about its purpose.

I went back to marines (BA) around 8 years ago when I fell in love with an idea proposed on the old igcom mailing list about what would happen if a small group of Emperors Children had not gotten the word to turn coat. The concept of these guys fighting an endless battle to regain their honor against nearly everyone really resonated with me and still does. It's my longest running active army.

I wanted to do something different so when they screwed up the BA codex (it's a good list but it no longer has the berserker flavor that made it perfect to describe my view of the LEC being nearly rabid in their need to redeem themselves), I played Necrons for a while because I've always had a warm spot in my heart for the Undead and the Necrons are GWs 40K analog for the walking corpses. They'd screwed this up so I didn't play them for even a full year.

I started on another marine chapter, an all bike/LS traits chapter called the Storm Riders when I stumbled onto an eBay deal that turned out to be too obscenely good to pass up. The result of this deal is that I started playing the real Emperors Children in an all sonic list. The new codex has forced this to change somewhat. (The Storm Riders are still on hold.)

I'm currently painting an Imperial Guard army with an American Civil War theme. I've been fascinated by the ACW for over 30 years and it was bound to happen eventually that I work them into the game I love; I just needed to work out the details. Finding a source of ACW heads in the right scale for the Cadian figures was all it took.

My wife has finally decided to join me in this pursuit so I'm painting up marines for her while painting up my IG. She's joked about Barney marines for years now and unfortunately they're going to actually exist but I'll never call them that; they'll always be the Imperial Claws to me.

BT, cause every time you kill one of us, we run at you even faster. And of course the obvious Monty Python references

I used to play Imperial Guard, I am a major tread head and I thought all the tanks would be cool. I got fed up with painting 50 million troops so they just sit around now...Maybe I'll get a tank platoon together...hmm.

I play Tau because after looking at the codex I thought their tactics might be fun to try. Plus their look seemed cool to me.

I play Sisters, because I bought them for my wife while I started my "Manly Space Marine Army of Manly Manness!"
Then about a week later I really read through the Witch Hunter's Codex and decided they were about the coolest thing ever, with really cool models and cool bits to make them cooler. So I bought a bunch, and then started playing...
Still, the very nature of the army is great fun, even if they get martyred more often than not. Possibly because religious fanatic is a complete 180 from my personality, so I get to vent the "I am right and I will put a flamer in a bad place if you don't agree!" feelings. Besides, nuns with guns in SPACE! Come on!

My other army is the Marines, because they are just cool. I love Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and just the fluff of the "perfect soldier" is great. Medieval Knights in Space is highly appealing.

I am strongly leaning towards either an Ork or an IG army next. I want lots of tanks and Private Ted Johnson fighting Terrorgasm the Destroyer of Worlds, because everyone likes a good underdog story. Even if the underdog gets taken out behind the woodshed at the end.
Orks are just charming as anything, lending themselves to insane conversions and just fun loving psychosis. If you have ever tried to chop down a tree with an AK-47, built your own functioning trebuchet just because "throwing big rocks far is awesome!" or decided a go-kart isn't powerful enough if it has less than a 150cc dirt bike engine attached, you can appreciate what I mean.

I rather like 'nids because they are the only "alien race" that isn't a human with a birth defect. Or a metal human skeleton. I don't know that I will ever make an army of them though.

But of course, the ruinous powers are always there, whispering seductively in one's ears...

Hmm...I made my Tau army because when I was starting they seemed to be the most visually interesting, I really liked skimmer tanks and at the time preferred the hammerhead/devilfish models to the wave serpent/falcon/fire prism. I also had no idea how to paint anything so I wanted an army with more clean lines and less flesh to paint because I thought (wrongly) that that would be easier.

I started a chaos army because I wanted to do something where I could do interesting conversions without being orks, but then kind of shelved the project after the new codex came out.

I really want to start a witchhunters or daemonhunters army, or some hybrid with them as allies, but with the codexes being 100 years old and no idea what is going to happen if/when they come up with a new codex I'm pretty wary.

I play guardsmen becuase their cool dudes and dont take no bull from anyone.

plus who dos't love the vaguely romantic motion of some guy fighting on a planet he probably cant spell with only a torch and some cardboard as body armor

I play Dark Angels (in all 3 varieties) because I love the story, the imagery, and the way a bunch of dark green army men look.

I play Sisters of Battle because I love their story, and the challenge associated with them.

I plan on starting a 13th company army for the fun of modeling and painting them. I also plan on starting an Elysian drop troop army for the opportunity to play something other than a 3+ save army, and I like the idea of paratroopers falling from the sky to bring the Emperor's justice to the traitor, heretic and xenos.

I play IG because its a big universe and they're just the average joe's, they're not heroic SM comitting countless valorous deeds, they're just doing their job.

and I also play LATD(even the average joe's go bad)

i play eldar because the specialty and i play high elves for fantasy

When I first looked at 40k all those years (15 or so) ago I thought to myself; 'if I ever play this, I'm going to play Eldar but they have to be evil.'
About six or seven years later I finally had money of my own and could understand the rules on my own I finally bought the boxset and suddenly there was, right in the box, Evil Eldar.

Thus the Kabal of ... (I have never thought of a good name but I typically just call them The Kabal) was born.
Archon Kirrik is out to gain power not through slaves or warriors, but through powerful, forgotten weapons left behind after the fall.

A few years go by and Kirrik is still on her quest across the galaxy but without anything new happening to the DE I started to become annoyed. I still love the utterly unrepentant badies but with such a stagnant army there simply wasn't enough to keep me interested. (At least till the next codex)
When I bought 3rd edition I was also introduced to the lovely psycho zealots otherwise known as Sisters of Battle.

Cannoness Samantha Jeanne m'Alice (Otherwise just Samantha) and the Order of the Fiery Heart is on a pilgrimage to prove to themselves that they are still worthy of the Emperor. (In part due to an extreme run of bad luck when I first started playing them and didn't have a knack for them just yet. Fluff wise though, is because a Deamonic entity has a vested interest in the girls. (I'm getting ready for a certain new army next month ))

Just like my Dark Eldar, I'm stopping my sisters at 2,000 points till they release either plastic Sisters and/or a new codex.

Meanwhile, back in the busy east side of the galaxy, Shas'o'd'Mont'ko and Shas'el'd'Su'y'he are leading a small army to cement the T'au grasp across a few worlds.
And why I collect the Tau... Two words:

Giant Robots.

I play the Word Bearers just because big ol' guys with evil spikey balls of death (accursed crozius) and drums banging away as they assault the enemy is really appealing to me. Oh and the whole, "we celebrated the emperors return so much that it scared him, and made him tell us to cool it off, and then forbade us of worshiping him. well now we went off and found someone else to worship...yay!"

also I play the IG because seeing 132 guys supported by 5 tanks each game is really rewarding. Also i get to be witness to, and the reason for, the death of untold countless poor guardsmen of my planets PDF. Muahahaha!

1. I loved the IG models. I picked them as my army before I even knew anything about the game.

2. I love the story behind them being that they are like me. Human and that alone allows me to relate to them so well. Also they seem to constantly be like an underdog which is somthing I usually support.

I am a huge fan of the Tau Empire. I like how they emphasize long range and heavy weaponry which is my style as well. In almost any game that lets you choose a roll I will go for the sniper or some other long range or heavy hitting class. So as can be imagined I am a huge fan of Crisis Suits and Hammerheads. I don't really like the Kroot or Vespid though. I am not very fond of CC as it is oh so satisfying to drop an enemy from an insanely long ways away without them even seeing it coming.

IG

because i have always been very intrested in woI and woII, and lines of men in muddy trenches and walls of tanks is super cool...
By the way... i think that orks are the ultimate enemy of the imperium ... chaos vs space marines ... oh... nevermind

I play Space Marines for one simple, simple, criminally simple in fact, reason.
The Chaplains. Mind blowingly insane and religiously fanatical priests, and they don't even feel out of place crushing a few skulls or punting annoying kids out over the balcony
They make me all warm inside.
Go Chaplains!

I picked Space Wolves because they stick out like a man wearing a white suit at a funeral, they annoyed my friend on their uniqueness and special rules, and because they kick arse in combat.