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Like the title says, what was the thing that made you drop the cash and pick up the brush for your army? What book, movie, model, song, rumor, artwork, rule, or terrible decision was the spark that set it off?

For me, the inspiration for my necrons was the book Xenology. The ending of that story made me want to march undying hordes of the exact same model across the field and fill my opponent with fear of tiny plastic green rods.

For my very first army, Chaos, I think the original inspiration was a tattered old Games Workshop product brochure that had been left out on a park bench. All the dragons and tanks and angry little men in bright armor with those goblin green bases, I think I read that thing over and over until it fell apart. Went from spending entirely too much money on magic the gathering to entirely too little money on warhammer.

Back when I was a little kid with my horribly painted Uruk hai army, I would always look at the Necron's green rods in awe. They were (and still are) so pretty.

10 or so years later I saw the Hobbit, hated it, got the urge to play LotR again anyway, figured it was dead by now, started 40k, chose Necrons.

Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett.

I use the Voloponese color scheme of purple with silver trim for my Imperial Guard regiment. It's based on a mentioned regiment in one of the books in the series but I can't remember which book.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Royal_Volpone#.UYDY6bWR9mE

I got the urge to play eldar back in 5th edition because I had played them before and always loved the background for them.

For my Ogre WFB army I wanted an army with few numbers of models and was totally different to the Eldar. Plus an army that was individually tough instead of lots of weak troops.

Hence Ogres were exactly what I was looking for!

I bought 5 fire dragons from a friend in 1993ish for £1 or so.

Now I've got about 12-14k of eldar.

It took 2 seconds looking at Dkok models over at forgeworlds.
I was instantly hooked.

Awesome fluff , cool looking models.
Tons of guns ;-)

I was amazed by my flat mates painted figures, and wanted to try if I could do something similiar. And play the game. So GK, as it was cheapest possible way to go

I just liked the whole concept of the SoB to begin with (pyromaniac religious nutters who can faith so hard they do miracles!), so they felt like the natural choice.

Like a lot of people say, it's best to go with the army that "clicks" with you.

Both money, awesome looking and environment reasons. They cheapest Battle Forces in my FLGS were Necrons, Tau and SM and I like all of them. Now SM, many people have this, so to promote some more "uniqueness" in the store, I dropped this one. It was between Tau and Necrons and then it clicked: "Waitaminute, Necrons are just Undead Terminator Egyptian robots in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE". And I still find this one of the best ideas, ever

My biggest problem is how besides Demons, I love every single army. But let me tell ya, the day plastic SoB are available, it's the day I'm switching main armies

For me, I need to start from the Dawn of War DC game.
So, I have these guys in class, who are my friends, that play warhammer.
Back in the days, 3 years ago, I didn't even know about Warhammer.
Heck, I didn't know it existed.
So they were talking about, and since I had nothing to do, I started making question about the setting in general (ps: now I am the fluffer of the group, how ironic ).
About 7 days later, I brought a tac SM squad (half the price, along 15 euro... VICTORY!) but I never had this strong bond with vanilla Marine.
Then I went to my friend house, where we played.
I used his old Tau and he used Blood Angels (killed 5 termies with 6 FW, lulz ndr.).
After the real game, he made me play DoW: DC and I fell in love with Tau even more, but since the Codex was hard to use for a beginner, he made me chose another army.
Since then Orks, Marine Vanilla, GK, SW, SoB, Witch Hunters, IG. I had the Codices, but never had a single model (though I have a Rune Priest), I played only on Vassal.
Then 6th Edition came, and we all know the new Codex: Tau.
Brought it, looking forward for my commander in Crisis Suit with apposite fluff and a couple of squad of FWs.

Edit: and hell, since I love Japan culture and history and the Tau are the weab... ehm Japanese of the 40k, I had a easy choice.

Tyranids - The movie Aliens.
Then later
Imperial Guard - After a year in Iraq.

Hooyah!

When i started playign all my friends and gamign group were picking up Marine and IG armies - i wanted to be the "bad guys" so ipicked up CSM.

Later I picked up necrons (the old codex). I think what appealed to me about them was that they weren't really "evil". I also liked the thought of an army with very few options to get confused with - nice staright forward army lists.

The appeal now is that i still dont have to faff about with psyker cards or any of that rubbish.

After my first army of white scars was stolen back in 3rd edition, I decided I wanted to try something different but not too different. I decided to try chaos. At first I built a generic chaos undivided force but then I started dabbling in the specific marks of the chaos gods. My favourite was Khorne so my army gradually evolved into a World Eaters force. When 6th edition showed up I bought some daemons as an allied detachment for my World Eaters. Gradually my daemons grew in number until I was using my World Eaters as allies for my daemons. Last week my daemon army grew to 1,850 points and is now an independent army of it's own right and my primary army for playing games.

A long time ago.
Orks because they were awesome and had a load of articles and free-booter lists going through whitedwarf at the time.

A decade ago - crimson fists; because of the original book.

More lately chaos space marines. Because they do not have the univerasl "they shall know no fear rule" which makes the basic loyal marines psycopaths; and I like my marines have human qualities. I run them like a newly renegade chapter rather than a full chaos legion. Bizarely I enjoy painting the renegade marines (both normal and CSM models) much more. I really got bogged down and bored of painting Crimson fists.

Spess Mehreens: I loved the Grey Knights omnibus, but decided to start out with normal Marines instead of Grey Knights. I made my own fluff about them being a smaller Chapter for the Inquisition and being led by Psykers.

Chaos: Started reading the fluff for the Alpha Legion, fell in love. Got the new Chaos codex and felt the warm wet embrace of the Plaguefather. At the same (on the Chaos release) I picked up a Warpsmith because he looked badass, so I also have some Iron Warriors, because they're awesome as well.

Troike wrote:
I just liked the whole concept of the SoB to begin with (pyromaniac religious nutters who can faith so hard they do miracles!), so they felt like the natural choice.

Like a lot of people say, it's best to go with the army that "clicks" with you.

Very true, I wanted to play SOB from the getgo, but couldnt find the codex, (didnt know it was WD) loved the models, fluff ive read. started with tyranids, went to Dark eldar, Orks, Chaos space marines, Skaven. I wanted SOB again after finally finding the WD and traded most of the armies to get a very sizable sisters army. Very happy and love playing that army, It "clicked" before I started playing them lol.

Reading about armies, I learned that Tyranids are effectively the inevitable death of the galaxy.

The way the envelope a world, then leave it a husk is so terrifying. I had to be a part of it.

The Grenadiers model from the DKoK line.



And this picture for the scheme

A battle report in the WD, featuring Imperial Guard vs. Necrons.

This poster.



It's hung in the men's room of my local game store for years and years and years. It's a damn impressive piece of artwork.

I was flipping through articles on TVTropes when I got to a part about Warhammer 40k. Not knowing completely what it was, I decided to delve in on the GW site. I looked through the armies. I saw the Tau and the SM and though the Tau would make a cool army. Then I saw the Leman Russ Battle Tank and then investigated the Imperial Guard army. The rest is history.

Interragator Chaplain Seraphicus its his fault I bought Dark Vengeance Limited Edition. But it was worth it. Every penny.

I was the first of my friends to find out about the game. At the time, GW had a tiny brochure for each army. I grabbed them all and showed them to my friends.

I wanted to play Chaos, but my death metal friend wasn't going to play unless he could play them. Since he didn't like anything else, and I hate playing the same thing as someone else, I let him have them. I looked on jealously as he bought Kharn, a Bloodthirster, and a unit of Berzerkers.

No one was playing Eldar, probably because their self esteem wasn't high enough and they figured anyone playing the girly space elves would get taunted (we were 13). My self esteem has always been sky high, so I looked into them. Then I saw the Eldar Avatar, Karandas and the Striking Scorpions. Close enough to my Chaos friends Khorne list.

However, I still had this urge. I know I'm a terrible person and I should be playing bad guys. A WD came out where this guy had painted his Eldar purple and called them Dark Eldar. What a genius. I did the same.

A few years later, Dark Eldar actually came out for reals. They have been my main army ever since.

So what inspired me? My own evil desires.

While deciding upon an army I had heard to buy an army that you like the look of, and that you enjoy painting. So I began flicking through troops and saw the farseer with warlocks I've been hooked ever since.

Dawn of War inspired me to play Chaos. And Eliphas the Inheritor.

I never really liked the Emperor's Children, but after starting a Daemons army and thinking about a possible true-scale HH army (not doing that any more, just saying) it was suggested by n0t_u to make an Emperor's Children army. At first I thought 'no' but after reading up on Lexicanum about the legions I started to like them. When GW released the Helstriders, I fell in love with the heads and imagined a EC army based around gladiatorial fighting, as the EC held gladiatorial contests. By the time I got the 6th Ed CSM codex, I couldn't wit to start, read the section for Noise Marines and gave up as they sucked.

GW released an FAQ that made them better, and I am now working on a chosen squad, the first squad for the army (for a contest)
Oh, and I'm planning on what to eventually add later...

After being out of the hobby since I was 14 (now 23), I got back into it with some Tau while at uni. Thenstarted collecting DA about 4 months before the new dex hit. Sold my Tau to my friend so he could get back into the hobby as he used to play tau. 4 months later they get a new dex haha!
About 3 weeks ago I started putting together a nid force. Its pretty much complete now, and I have painted more of it in 3 weeks than I did my Tau and DA combined. I think ive found my army. Freaking love playing my nids.

The Roman Legions and specifically the Praetorian Guard. So I painted my IG army red and bronze (I thought about doing gold, but I didn't have any and I just wanted to paint then) and wanted to call them the Praetorian Guard. Then I found out that GW already did that and I cried tears of sorrow. Even worse was when someone at my FLGS asked me if my army was Khorne Guard. The Loyalist within me died a little bit.

I originally started with battle sisters when just because the models were awesome. I still love them and wont sell them away even though I am not using them. The allied rule in that codex made me get the Daemon Hunter dex also to make a combined inquisitorial force.

At some point I started marines along with the inquisitorial forces. Scouts to be presice. Scouts have always interested me ever since I first saw a picture of a squad of sniper scouts when I was... 11 or 12 years old. So my scout army was started.

When the battle sisters and GK both got a new dex I stopped playing both and was left with only marines. At some point I wanted another army and the fluff for Catachans was something I liked. I like the models and the jungle warfare theme a lot. And converting the models is a lot fun.

When they released the current DE codex and model range the Succubus and Wyches caught my eye immediately. I looked into them a bit more and ended up starting a wych army as my third force.

Chaos has interested me for long but I don't like power armor that much and daemons are not my thing. And they went and updated the chaos codex. There were the cultists. After a lot of planning I ended up starting the army last January and am in the process of building an army composed almost entirely of cultists.

When I found some old marines from my teenage years, painted in my own scheme, and stuffed in a box, I started looking online again, and drooling over pictures. I fluffed out the chapter, and started dropping cash. Now I'm not far off having enough models for the entire second company, and a good chunk of 1st company.

I also really liked some of the models from IOB, so have ended up with an elves force which is ever expanding!