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I'm still working on acquiring my first, but as I get closer I start to think what my next will be. How far into/after your first army did you choose the next? Why did you choose what you did? Was it more of the same as far as play style or painting techniques, or something different? I personally really dig CSM, even though it won't be too much different than SW. Orks are interesting, as are Tyranids though I imagine they're a pain to paint. What about you all?

I have army ADD. I have 4 and none of them are near deployable in a serious game. I am still finding a codex I like. Though one of them, CSM, is just for me to beat up on with my other armies.

I did C:SM at first and just found it dull. Went to GK thinking they were very CC oriented, they are not. Next stop Blood Angels! Ended up with just over 1000pts in SM and GK, but the SM models I have would not work as an army together.

I plan to fill all three (SM, GK, and BA) eventually, but I need my CC fix first. Mostly my GK need long range/anti air support. SM need to be filled in better, since it was my first army I just bought a bunch of random boxes not knowing what I was doing.

I also started collecting Eldar on the side, but stopped in anticipation of the rumored new codex due out within the year.

Increments of 1000 pts

Eh, having 2 Marine Equivalent armies is really not interesting. They just have so many similarities between them there really is no point to playing more than one.

I would recommend branching out from space wolves into Xeno. That way you get a different experience, and if you actually have something different to play rather than just more 4s across the board, and 3+ saves.

That said, I started my second army when I had around 2500 points of my first. Then I branched into Chaos Space Marines, and Bretonnians. And now I have tons of models to paint!

I started with CSM in 3rd edition (Ah the good ol' days of the legendary 3.5 codex!), and had alot of fun with them for a few years. I was only 12 or 13 at the time, so my army grew pretty slowly then, and I think by the time I started my Eldar (late 3rd, or possibly early 4th) I had about 2000 points total, though I had afew different HQ options and stuff, so more like 1500 playable at any one time.

I moved to Eldar partly for a different play style and partly because I've always like the idea of finesse over brute force, and that's something the Eldar do very well, both in fluff and on the table top. My eldar army grew very slowly though. I went on a big haitus from the game all through 4th edition and for most of 5th, where I just didn't do any warhammer, as D&D was taking up most of my weekends instead. In the last couple of years of 5th edition I started to get back into the game and that's when my Eldar army started to grow in earnest.

My advice would be to pick an army that has fluff and a playstyle that appeals to you. Don't worry so much about power level (unless you're all about winning), as armies and the meta change pretty quick. Chaos went from a crazy good codex in 3.5 to a very lacklustre one in 4th (IMO) to a fairly decent book in 6th, while Eldar have been with the same book basically since I've started playing them. Make sure you don't sell your armies! You never know when you'll want to get back in the game, and having those models will help cut down on the daunting cost to start from scratch.

Your experience seems a little similar to mine. Way back when 2nd or 3rd? I started with WHFB. I'm not sure how many points worth, but I had a sizeable Lizardmen army. I've still got all of them, and if they weren't across the country, I wouldn't mind pulling them back out. I can't imagine the condition they're in, all tossed in a couple large tins.

At least they're all metal.

Then I got into Mordheim with a warband of Skaven. Went undefeated but unfortunately I only had the one opponent who quickly got tired of losing. Really loved Mordheim.

Started collecting a few DA, but mostly because I liked them. A few tactical marines, a couple vets, and bikers. Never went anywhere with them. 15-ish years later, here I am with SW.

I started marines after feeling like my Necrons were capable of conquering nearly any challenge I threw them at in my local metas (school/home)

The marines have proven more challenging, but more rewarding to win with. Don't get my wrong, I love my crons, and I am much better with them, but I amassed 4k of them, and felt the time was right, nothing more than that.

I started with the 2nd Ed starter set, so my second army started at the same time as my first...

Sad thing is that I wound up selling that first Ork army, and have regretted it ever since. It wasn't anything particularly special (2nd ed starter and Space Crusade Orks, mostly, with a few extra bits and pieces like the Shokk Attack Gun and a huge horde of snotlings) but it was where I started in the hobby and I wish I still had it.


So if someone out there knows someone in Rockhampton, QLD, who bought an Ork army off me back in 1996, I'd love to buy it back...

About a year after I started my first army and my opponents were tired of playing against it.

First army was late 1987. Second army was 1988.
Third army was around 1990-1991 and stolen in 1995. Fourth army was started in 1991 or so and Fifth army was somewhere between 1994 and 2007 and never progressed - so was disposed of.

Three of these armies now live in the shed of shame, alongside the other orphans of gaming (armies for games that no longer exist) as 6th edition does not inspire me to play it - and I hold out hope that perhaps 7th ed might.

In the meantime, I have army #6 (High Elves) to play with in Fantasy.

If you count my guard army as my first, proper army, then my second army was started once I was able to field enough serious variations of the main style of my first army.

Well, I guess I sort of started it at the same time as I did my first one, because I bought AoBR in my first order (together with a few other things). Mainly for the marines, but also I liked the Orks so I kept them too. I haven't really played much with Orks to date, only one 1vs1 and one 2vs2 game, and their non-AoBR vehicles are still basically unassembled and everything except one model is unpainted, but they're still my second army. Third is Chaos Marines because the DV Chosen were so cool, and more purchases followed just like for the orks. The Chaos Marines are even less assembled than the orks, though.

My first army is the IG and as much as I love seeing Termies being drowned by absurd amount of shots, I've always like the DAs fluff and am slowly building up an army for them.

I started my second when I started the first. Marines and 'Nids grew at the same time.

Then came the Guard when the metal Cadians first came out. Then came Chaos when the 2nd Ed Chaos book came out.

I started my second army when I got tired of painting red.

My first "army" was Blood Angels. I use quotes because when I started we were using RT as more of a RPG. So there wasn't a whole lot of thought in army composition and playability. We painted what we thought was cool. Blood Angels were the default OpForce for the PCs (as those were the minis we had) After around 50 marines I decided to paint some up as Ultramarines, just to have a different faction. And stuck with them through the various editions of the game.

UMMM 10 yeard after my first. Started with Blood Angels in high school came back a decade later with DA.

Lets see. I played IG for 13+ years before picking up 5th Edition Daemons. I originally was only planning on a 1k army, but it grew into 2k+ Khorne/Nurgle. I then started a Pre/Post Heresy Deathguard Army with all FW models as a joke to see if I could actually pull it off. I now have 4k+ Deathguard, including 121 Nurgle Terminators (because why not!)

I started with orks, Had a friend who wanted my old MTG cards made a deal and got my BA secondhand.

I just started playing 40k in June '12. Picked up a second army 6 months later. Probably will pick up a third one this summer. GKs were bought with cash and some store credit, CSM bought almost 100% store credit from trading in most of my MTG cards. I'm eyeing nids or SWs for the summer.

 Goat wrote:
I just started playing 40k in June '12. Picked up a second army 6 months later. Probably will pick up a third one this summer. GKs were bought with cash and some store credit, CSM bought almost 100% store credit from trading in most of my MTG cards. I'm eyeing nids or SWs for the summer.

Man, I wish I had a FLGS like that! I have a big binder full of mint MtG cards that I collected, but never played with. Thought of re-selling them, but don't care to look up the value of each one. Maybe I'll extend my search to find a FLGS that carries GW. Otherwise I do know one that sells WM...

I used to have nearly 3000pts of Tau, but I sold them to a friend who was looking to get back into the hobby and played Tau years ago. I had just started picking up a few DA, and now im nearing 5k points, almost none of which is painted. Luckily its mostly DW and Rw so it can be made table worthy fairly easily.

I am fixed on Tyranids next. May wait for the new codex though.

Started on AoBR. Painted the Marines as Ultramarines and just left em. Collected a ton of Orks. Finally got bored and shopped around for a cool Marine Chapter. I came down to Salamanders or BT. Now Im an overzealous black and white idiot.

More Nids soon!

Started just over 6 months ago, have near on 30k of marines which is a custom chapter but use as BA DA and SM, have pretty much ever possible combo (60bikes, 50 termies, over 100 assault marines, half non JP half JP, libbys galore as I love my psyhics tanks tanks and more tanks). Anyway second army you ask?, started it yesterday just bought enough to do 1850 worth of the new daemons, 50 horrors, LoC two heralds,two chariots and thee DP's.

The daemons are enough different to my marines in terms of play style, modeling and most importantly at the moment painting.

My brother and I started playing 40K seriously in.... 1989 or 1990. He started with SW, I got into Orks, but we swapped back and forth a lot. Then, he started getting into several other armies, notably other Marines and Dark Eldar, while I got into IG and Chaos/Daemons. This would have been.... 1992? 1993? Somewhere around in there.

Then we graduated high school in 94 and played a bit for a couple years til I went off to the Army and him to the Air Force. I maintained a small CSM army while in the service, but never got a chance to do anything with it except as proxy models in standard table-top RPGs.

These days? I collect miniatures from every Army that GW produces, but only in small batches. I just don't have the time in my life anymore to play a 40K game more than a handful of times a year.

I am running Chaos Daemons only, each list to start with will be solo god. I plan on starting at 1000 points (a detailed specific list), and going up to 2000 in 500 increments for the first God. I will do the same for the other 4. If I need little ones & twos of models or units as needed.

After that, if I decided to move to another army, I will do the same thing. It seems to work well as you get exactly what you need to play and test out - and then either try new models or fix gaps in your strategy.

Started with Orks, got them to 2000 points with all the stuff I wanted to include. Moved onto Space Wolves got them to 2000 points and then moved onto IG.

I still add stuff to both my Orks and SW armies and they are getting to some large points now.

i have army ADD as well. Started with tyranids, then traded for dark eldar, then Tau, then traded those for Sisters and Skaven, went to Orcs, traded those for CSM, then started Grey Knights, And Now Wood Elves. so in short played a lot of armies till I found Sisters, CSM, and GK. I love those armies unique play styles. Starting wood elves. A lot of you guys have years of armies, this is all from May 2012,

I have a problem, addicted to plastic crack

I change around to keep it interesting or when I like thenew army that comes out (played for 14 years)

started off with 3rd ed guard, played that for a few editions and loved it,

slowly playing gun line got boring, so I tailored up CC guard lists with lots of rough riders and a whole army of deep striking guardsmen,

got tired of that, and since I loved the grey knights fluff, and the idea of playing a small elite force as opposed to a large guard one, the "new" daemon hunters codex was my 2nd army.

now that I am well along with the GK's and have played them through 2 codexes, I am getting into my orks that I started painting even before the GK (love the figs)

so orks be krumpin time soon, Im really hoping their new codex comes out this year.


more xenos/non-marines the better.

Built up IG for about 8 months and then started getting bored.

Our store had literally 0 ork players at the time, and I was always intrigued by their fluff, so I started reading up on them.

Needless to say Orks are awesome and if I remember right I bought the codex the next day. My orks have been pickup up speed ever since!

My first operational army was DA, now im selling them to a friend of mine who's returning to the hobby. Now I'm starting out a BA DC army.

Started in 2nd ed with eldar, got bored of being stomped, sold them, rebought them (but with a plan) also bought space wolves, then bought tyranids, then sold tyranids, then rebought them years later and sold them again..

At the moment, I have Eldar, Csm with daemon allies and wolves.

I'm going to sell my wolves and buy dark eldar to go with my craftworld eldar - then I'm down to two armies. I feel I can run two armies at once. 3 is too expensive to update them all for 6th ed.