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What made you pick the armies you currently have? Was it their fluff, their rules, or their looks?

I chose IG because I like their concept. Your average Joe Smoe fighting against the horrors of the universe. I also like the more military look of them, and how they aren't over the top scifi like the Space Marines IMHO.

I was getting into it because my brother wanted to so we went to a local store, i looked over what they had and as soon as i saw the SW i knew what i wanted i walked out with some GH, BC and Bjorn, the year was 1996 and i'm still playing them today.

Of course my brother didnt stay with the hobby but hey i still enjoy myself.

I chose GK because i liked the idea of the best of the best, a super elite army. The whole concept of being outnumbered so badly also reminded me of 300

I'm still haven't been able to decide which army I want but fluff is the big decider for me with looks in a close second place.
I'm a fan of the religious, zealous fanatics so Black Templars are one option, along with the Sisters of Battle.

prophet102 wrote:I chose GK because i liked the idea of the best of the best, a super elite army. The whole concept of being outnumbered so badly also reminded me of 300

And this is the reason why I'm considering GK.

I feel like this question has been asked before but I chose my because of model style and customization potential

I also started playing the mini game after playing DoW for the computer, and I loved Tau on there as well

I play Tau

I chose my Blood Angels because I really like the whole Death Company idea.

I really like models though so have quite a few different bits from different armies!

Fluffs a big decider for me.so thats why i had a legion of the damned army... Howevet with the 2004 anual no lobger alowed i went for another cursed founding in the likes of the lamentors...

Now im statying nightlords... I love the idea of a fast moving silent attack force.

That part in the movie where the enemy starts to win. THATS WHY IM DOING NIGHTLORDS.

I always loved the Wolves, from the colors to just the icons of wolves. And I love the cold and snow, so it was an easy pick.

My Valhallans were started because for one, I love the Imperial Guard. I also really wanted a winter theme, and a Guard army built around blobs and Commissars backed up by artillery. I'm also really enjoying it on the tabletop!

Picked IG because the idea of the average joe fighting against some of the most powerful and horrifying creatures in the galaxy, and winning, was really inspiring. The modeling options and customization available was icingaon the cake, and I love being able to make each guardsman look different. Plus, even subtle posing and basing can let them have a lot of emotion in each model, and if done right, I think IG models can be the best in the range. It takes a lot of kitbashing and converting, but it's deffinitely worth it.

Orks on the other hand, came from their fluff and their playstyle. The hilarious options for their models deffinitely helped Plus, nobody plays them at my club, and a club without orks just aint right!

SM just because I liked the look of them. Chose Ultramarines because the armor looks good in blue, and chose fourth company because I like green Then I read the novels and stayed with the fourth because I love the fluff.

Blood Angels helped better to relate to myself in terms of health and mindset. I felt not many of the 40k armies help me better to relate to myself has Blood Angels.

I liked the look of the IG, especially the Elysians, and the cadians, and wanted a more realistic sci-fi army. Mechanized infantry dashing forward with armor support as foot infantry advance to hold the objective after the mechanized forces capture it. The whole time Air Cav forces use they're mobility to pick advantageous battles.

Of course I learn later what GW has as IG fluff. (poorly trained fodder to make the Space Marines look good) and decided to stick with the competent military theme.

Picked IG because I am a soldier, so, I relate to all that is IG. Plus, it is fun to field a load of tanks. My second 40K army was Orks. Why, different than IG in all ways, cheap to get, and, fun to play. Since I have gotten my Orks completed, I have not taken my IG off the shelf. Maybe soon though.

Other game systems:

Malifaux: Guild. Just like the fluff behind alot of the characters and just a wide range of different play styles for each master.

Dystopian Wars: Went with the french. No real reason, just liked the look of floating ships.

When I first got into 40k, my group of friends had pretty much one person per army with only Necrons and Eldar being untouched. I didn't like the idea of having the same army as someone else so I decided to look at the Crons and Eldar. Eldar were a turn off from the start, Harlie's looked mostly silly and Dire Avengers looked stupid as well, I then looked at Crons. AWESOME!!!!!! Sure they weren't the best codex but I loved my Silver Tide and well, I don't have that army anymore (except 6 models), but my new cron army has almost as much love.

I later started a CSM army because of the fluff on Malal/Malice. Sure, Malal was gone and there's no real way to play a through and true Malice army, Buuuuuuttttt.... the idea of Chaos was intriguing especially when looking deeper into the fluff and discovering Slaanesh was truly the Prince(ss) of Excess rather than just Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll which in my opinion is truly a god that man would fall so easily to.

Fervor wrote:I'm still haven't been able to decide which army I want but fluff is the big decider for me with looks in a close second place.
I'm a fan of the religious, zealous fanatics so Black Templars are one option, along with the Sisters of Battle.

prophet102 wrote:I chose GK because i liked the idea of the best of the best, a super elite army. The whole concept of being outnumbered so badly also reminded me of 300

And this is the reason why I'm considering GK.

Yeah and afterall they look cool, have nice fluff, and are religous fanatics

prophet102 wrote:

Fervor wrote:I'm still haven't been able to decide which army I want but fluff is the big decider for me with looks in a close second place.
I'm a fan of the religious, zealous fanatics so Black Templars are one option, along with the Sisters of Battle.

prophet102 wrote:I chose GK because i liked the idea of the best of the best, a super elite army. The whole concept of being outnumbered so badly also reminded me of 300

And this is the reason why I'm considering GK.

Yeah and afterall they look cool, have nice fluff, and are religous fanatics

Very true! I'm picking up The Emperor's Gift soon in hopes it'll help me come to a final decision.

I started with Dark Angels back in 1999. I liked how they were stubborn defenders and I found some old 2nd edition models for cheap that looked awesome. I still have that 2nd ed dark angels captain and dreadnought as well as all the special characters. All my other marines have since been stripped for my carcharodons project.

I also got a legion of the damned army because I got a great deal on them. A gw figure case completely full with old metal legionaire models for 100 bucks. I liked their look and the cursed founding rules were sweet (deep striking vindicators that can fire turn 1? Yes please).

I got my eldar when the old craftworld rules came out. One friend was running biel-tan and the other ulthwe so I decided to go Iyanden. It was fun running wraithlords as troops and having basically 6 heavies in my list.

Lastly, I started tau when they first came out because I wanted an army that wasn't 3+ and since they were brand new my flgs had boatloads of them for sale.

Tyranids have always been my favorite race.

When my brother and I started with Titan Legions in 1991, I got the Adpetus Mechanicus forces, but as soon as Hive War was released, I grabbed that. Then we got into 2nd edition 40k, and I started with the Orks, but grabbed Codex Tyranids as soon as I could. While I also had Chaos as well as Orks and Tyranids, the bugs were always my favorite, and most complete, army in 2nd edition.

Two things made me stop playing them in 3rd edition - money (Space Marines were just quite simply cheaper for a whole army) and the majority of the new Tyranid models being completely terrible. So I played Space Marines though 3rd edition and into 4th edition, then my friend and I basically drifted out of the hobby.

A couple of years ago I talked him into starting again, which was right around when Dark Eldar were being rereleased. He had the same issue in 3rd edition - he loved Dark Eldar, but hated the models. I was planning on just picking my Salamanders back up until by chance I went and had a look at the new Tyranid models...

Yeah, we both got back into the game, with our favorite armies, with brand spanking new lines of awesome models. What a good time to decide to get back into the game.

I started 40k after playing Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. I loved the way the Necrons looked and their 'you can never win because we never stay dead' thing. Then I bought a Necron codex and read up on their fluff.

Cool models, cool rules, cool fluff. I couldn't say no.

Fluff and looks, really. The Sisters of Battle are, to me, an excellent compromise between the human badassery of the Imperial Guard and the eliteness of the Space Marines. Getting the best wargear the Imperium is able to provide and then going to war against horrible xenos and daemons just like the big Space Marines, yet still being "only human" without any genetical enhancements and centuries of experience, thus having a harder and more demanding time doing so. Their high level of fanatism and indoctrination then provides the necessary Grimdark, pretty much balancing the valorous fight against the enemies of Mankind with the Sisters' role as an executioner of the Imperium's dogmatic faith, not hesitating to put entire cities to the torch for daring to oppose the Holy Ministorum's glorious path. Last but not least, the Sisters of Battle are pretty much a hybrid of "Medieval Crusading Orders + Jeanne d'Arc" (which shows in their equipment, their organisation, their iconography and the name of their "homeworld"), which are both topics that have fascinated me in the past.

Nuns with Guns, what's not to like.

I choose Tyranid because I thought they would play like Zerg...they don't, not even close.

I play Ultramarines because I like blue.

I picked my Daemons because I like the randomness of them. They can be unpredictable and it adds a whole new fun element to battles.

My first army was Chaos. My first look into the 40k universe was a copy of the Chaos codex from 2nd Ed.

The story of the heresy and ancient warriors along with daemons and such really caught my attention back then.

All 3 of them.

Flinging lots and lots of ordinance from far really far far away while being protected by an unbreakable wall of grim grey figures is something I really like.

I started with Dark Crusade too. I was a big fan of chaos as it was a completely new concept I had not seen till then and all the mutated stuff just looked awesome. But a friend showed me the tabletop game behind it and argued me away from Chaos as he is a strict mono-army Imperial Fists-Player. He showed me all different kind of models, some from himself, some from the gw-website and I felt in love with the old metal venerable dreadnought. So i bought the Black Reach Box and the codex, looked up some fluff of the chapters inside it and the Exorcists catched my eye and shortly after I finished my first Tac Squad, they replaced the old dreadnought (Luckily this was not as bad as I first thought as I could build a proper replacement with the new plastic version ).

The Word Bearers were the return to my first love: Chaos! Originally my Legion of choice were the Thousand Sons. They looked awesome and I always had a thing for Egypt but after looking up their fluff I reconsidered. No Mutation at all? Ahriman, what have you done?! And also I thought that a undivided Legion would leave more space for me to field just the units I wanted and a made up Warband felt just too pirate. So I choosed the Legion with the probably the best integrity and the most affiliation with all daemonic things.

I got my Tau at the time my Space Marines got to a point where I said "Thats it, new stuff is not needed in the near future." and I really wanted to paint something other than Powerarmor and I really have a thing for Urban Camo. The question was either IG or Tau and as the Firewarriors look so much more awesome than the humble guardsmen (even Steel Legion!) and I always have this Wehrmacht-feeling when I see IG (It's hard to get rid of that =( ), I decided I use my complete Christmas presents for a Battleforce and a Hammerhead.

I chose my first army based on fluff (eldar) and then got thrown around the table every game.

I chose my second army (guard), based on a certain unit that I wanted (basilisk) to have because of problems that I had with my eldar army getting thrown off the table.

I chose my third army (CSM) because I felt like one of their options (khorne) was best suited to my desired play style.

Were I to choose another army, and this would certainly be my advice to you, play an army that you could see yourself fielding every unit in its codex at least once. Rules, preferences and play styles change over time, which means that kinds of units you might not have wanted you might find yourself desiring. Ask yourself if there are whole types of units that you just think are too uncool, or are in some other way bad, and you would feel reluctant fielding if that's what you were required to continue playing the army.

When you start a new 40k army, you're going to be in it for years. You have to have that kind of a broad-based desire for it. If you can't see playing with all of the army, or still playing it in 10 years, then you probably shouldn't bother starting it in the first place.

Space Marines because of Space Crusade.
Eldar because I wanted to be a wizzard in space... So far I am a good Rincewind. My Eldar have yet to win a match and spend a lot of time running away when things start to blow up.
Tau because of 2 things, the Firewarrior game on PS2 and also them Crisis Battlesuits.
Orks because they were in the AOBR box. But I love how they talk too.
**edit** Oops forgot the Tyranids. They too are a space crusade enjoyment, as well as Space Hulk and Kill Team.

I'm lucky because I can share the Space Marine, Orks and Tau costs with another family member and his eldest. Its too costly to go brand new and alone, so at least 75% of all my things are 2nd hand.

I went for imperial guard because of all the vehicles. I really liked the idea of an armoured company with really heavy fire power.