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So.. I'm in that spot.. I'm constantly trying new armies, Searching and hunting for the one army, The one where I will love all the three pieces, The models, The fluff, and the gameplay.. With my Tau I love the models and fluff, But they arent super fun to play and my friends hate facing them, With my necrons I enjoy the gameplay, But the fluff and models is.. So so.. Grey Knights and Space Wolves.. Eh.. So currently I'm trying to build up a IG army, Who will be traitor guard and summon daemons (Mostly to allow me to try Imperial Guard and daemons at the same time) And the new Ork release is making me more drawn to orks.. Meh.. I hope I'l find the perfect army for me one day..

How long did it take for you to find that one army? How many armies did you try before finding the army you love so much?

I found my army the first time I set my eyes on them. The fluff, models and gameplay. I was first attracted to the fluff. Then after being told they are most challenging to play (and another friend said they were very dimensionless because of their lack of choices), I still started SoB anyway. And so far, I love the models and even playing them. They are challenging but I had many memorable moments with them.

No regrets at all.

I've always liked orks even though they weren't my first army.

Full of character.
Different play styles.
Great modelling opportunities.

The thing I like most with orks is the fluff. You have this utopian society that is successfull not because they have some gimmick (eg. totalitarian government) but because they are good, honest and fair.

I was first getting interested in 40k around the time that Tau were first released. The only issue of White Dwarf I have ever owned talked a lot about the Tau and had a battle report at the end where they beat down some Salamanders in a cityfight game (it was Salamanders walking on foot to attack a fortified central position with Tau shooting at them all the way across the board, so in retrospect I suppose it wasn't so amazing).

I'm not sure what it was that made them click for me. Amazing firepower was the primary goal. I liked the idea of ranged dominance, and still do. The fact that they were the new army around and GW was hyping them probably helped too. Their fluff I could actually take or leave when I first discovered it, I think, but I've been around Tau fluff for over half my life now (only army I've ever collected) so I honestly think that it's had some effect on developing my personality.

Orks seem very cool and flavorful.. (And that new "You save nothing but look at these cool models!" bundle for all the ork walkers including the stompa realy makes me wanna play them..) but.. I have a friend who has a large ork army (And I dun like playing against him cus he can be a bit annoying..) and another friend at the club also plays orks.. So I kind of feel there is a bit many orks.. Sure, It would be nice to have an army someone else has too but.. So many ork players among so few players..

I started in second edition which had SM and Orks in the, rather cartoonish, boxed set. I immediately fell in love with the boneheaded glee with which Orks charged into battle, the ridiculous cockney "'ere we go, krumpin' 'umies" nonsense, and SPECIFICALLY the Shokk Attack Gun!!! SAG is da bestest dakka!!! I put together a fat, rolling green tide and spent many a weekend at game conventions (Does DexCon still exist in NJ?) screaming Waaaaaaaggghh! at the top of my lungs.

Then I went to college, and I Corinthians 13:11'd...

Fast forward to early this year, as a 40 year old man I came across all my 40K "toys" breaking out old boxes from my Father's house. I decided to get back into my "childish things". I was quite surprised to find out that the current edition was 6th and the Orks had not been updated since 4th edition. I figured that a new codex had to be coming soon, so I put the boyz on the shelf and turned my attention to the other half of that second edition boxed set...Space Marines.

I had no idea which chapter I was interested in....I knew the basics of the Blood Angels/Vampire, Space Wolf/Viking, Ultramarine/douchebag lore, but I knew nothing about the other chapters. In my youth I had picked up a couple vehicles (predator, razorback, whirlwind), a couple dreads and a couple librarians (just because I loved the models) to go with the two tactical squads that came in the boxed set, but I had never done anything with them. I knew I wanted a ranged marine army as the Orks are, to me, the epitome of a CC army, so that took out BT, BA, and, in my mind, Salamanders. I figured that the librarian would make a good HQ, so I scoured the interwebs and came across an OLD wiki site that listed chapter specific psychic powers. I didn't realize at the time that those unique powers no longer existed but they had hooked me. As I looked into the details of the chapter itself, I realized that it had everything I'm looking for. A solid background storyline; a brutal, efficient focus on ranged combat; and effective, beneficial chapter tactics focusing on bolter fire (the most common weapon in a SM army) and vehicle targeting. Had I realized the hell that is painting yellow, I may have picked otherwise, but I am proud to say that I think the IMPERIAL FISTS are the most awesome SM chapter, and doubly so considering my army is fluff-perfectly attuned to the "Sentinels of Terra" supplement.

I like my marines, black templers ish, great to paint as models are nice n big n more forgiving of early mistakes.

Black covers up well.

+ if I make mistakes playing good saves mean I've not messed up badly :-)

Great first army + I love there rebellious aspect. Screw the codex!

My first army was Dark Eldar, however at the time I was only in it as a hobby, not playing. Later when I started playing, my brother went 50/50 on AoBR with a friend (who had played for years before), I began anew with Tyranids (still had the Dark Eldar, but not as an actual force). I finally settled on Eldar, however, even with the nerf, I do still enjoy my Nids.

 illuknisaa wrote:
I've always liked orks even though they weren't my first army.

Full of character.
Different play styles.
Great modelling opportunities.

The thing I like most with orks is the fluff. You have this utopian society that is successfull not because they have some gimmick (eg. totalitarian government) but because they are good, honest and fair.

Hahaha, I agree totally!

Orks are the best and probably the funnest (and likely easiest) to do conversions with.

And the best part? Some other army got a shiny new vehicle you just LOVE the look of?
Well, you're an ork, buy it anyway and LOOT IT!

I guess the literal answer to the OP's question is "in excess of twenty years!"

The reality is somewhat more complex. I used to play BA and Eldar in 2nd. Left the game entirely in early third, gave my models to a friend to sell in my behalf, long story short, never saw them again.

Returned in mid 5th, but the interim had taught me that I favoured "glass cannon" factions in most games I played, and as DE had just been updated, they were the logical choice. It was very much a head decision though, and after 6 months and a few games, I sold them and started a Raven Guard army based off the BA codex. I have still got those guys, but they're very much in mothballs right now, because after a year or so playing them, I was inspired to start daemons (about 6 months prior to the current books release, just before the WD update, so I really did play them "before they were cool!") and I think I've found my home, the range of modelling and painting opportunities and the various styles one can build, coupled with the improvement 7th has handed them (despite the very small chance of me actually capitalising on it to cheese levels, I'm not that sort of player) means I will probably stick with them for a long time.

When I first saw Warhammer 40k, I saw a hive tyrant box. the shop owner showed me what warhammer 40k was and I got hooked, until I realized I could never afford to play it. three years went by and I managed to scrape together money to buy an army, stupidly I flipped a coin because tau looked cool, the tyranids fell into the backseat and I played tau for a few months. I sold the tau for $150, got a free chaos space marine army and bought a dark vengeance set, I sold the dark angels, painted them ultramarines and made my money back. one year later, chaos marines lost in a bad trade. bought a tyranid army off ebay, fell in love and played them with tons of genestealers and carnifexes. bought a ork army because I liked their shooting playstyle. Lost my job, bought a necron army to soothe the pain. 6th edition tyranids dropped. tyranid army got sold, bought imperial guard stuff, and still havent put it together. sold necrons, play orks still, somehow found a deathwing army and play them occasionally.

so...about four years now? and I am no closer to finding my favorite army as I was when I started

Not sure I've found it yet. I got into 40k by buying the AoBR set, and have since then built up my Ork army (my wife took the space marines). And I do enjoy my Orks quite a bit, but I wouldn't mind trying some of the other armies.

So far, I've really liked the look of some of the Space Wolves - though I dislike that you do end up taking vehicles, I'd much rather individual models and more models like the wolf riders. And I like the looks of Sisters of Battle, though their models are currently quite expensive. Demons have also seemed very interesting.

So one day I might try building myself a second army - no idea what it will be yet, though!

Saw the Grenadiers model, nodded sagely, and looked up their fluff, then I went, hey, I like the cut of their jibb and that's about it.

It all went very quickly

I haven't really found it yet.

I liked space wolf background, fluff and models, but I really don't like grey, I've spent the past 18 years coming back to them time and again and not being able to find a colour scheme I like.

I like orks, but I've only ever painted a few of them because I soon found out to paint them how I would like would simply take too long for an entire army.

I like imperial guard, but not the entire range, there's too many things I don't like about various models in the range. A DKOK infantry army would probably do me but the vehicles don't really do it for me and the vehicles are supposed to be the best part.

I like eldar vehicles but don't like this infantry.

Tyranids are probably the closest, I like most of the models, have a scheme that I think looks pretty cool and can paint a swarm relatively quickly, but I dunno, they lack the character I want from an army, they just feel like a 2nd army to me rather than a primary one.

So yeah, still looking. If I could come up with a paint scheme I liked for space wolves, they'd probably be it, but after so many years I just can't get them to look good.

I futzed around with Marines for a long time. I still dig the Salamanders.

I really like the rules for my Blood Angels, the second army I picked up, (technically) but the models and the fluff blow chunks.

I dig the fluff and the rules for Tau, but not the models.

I got into Grey Knights for a single ally gimmick, and while I like the models and the rules, I'm not crazy about the fluff.

But Dark Eldar...Dark Eldar are my jam. Dark Eldar were the only army I ever lost first turn to. (Back in 3rd edition, when I first started playing, although I suspect now that my opponent cheated.) I always avoided them as a 'super cheesy' army. (And since the hype at the time had been that they were super hard to learn how to play, and then super cheesy once you did.) But when I picked them up, I found that I really liked the fluff. (Drow in space meets Hellraiser. How can you go wrong?) The rules are also pretty great, with tons of special characters (which I love!) and nifty rules. And the models are just stupendous. I've never encountered an army with so much available room for customization with just simple arm/weapon/head swaps, to get such dramatically different looks. For someone who loves modeling conversions, they are a real dream come true. And their rules are competitive, and their fluff is pretty dynamite too!

I started playing either late in '03 or early in '04, and I picked up my DE in November of 2013, so it took me right around ten years to find the army I love.

It has been a horribly long process. And I would advise you to stop worrying about it. Hitting yourself in the testicles with a hammer would be far more constructive than searching for the perfect army. I've been stuck in the search for a long time. I've let the perfect be the enemy of the good for so long. And all I have to show for it is a lot of wasted time, money, and energy.

I've played armies where the game play was exactly what I wanted. I've played games with models I loved and fluff I found fantastic, but it never lasts. For me it was the third army I ever played. It just took another 16 years to accept it. I've spent a great deal of time and money trying to make other armies work, but it will always be the Imperial Guard. I find them frustrating and difficult a lot of the time, but they are the one army I always keep and the ones I tell stories about. I remember the time Yarrick held up an entire flank of DAs by himself, or the last plucky guardsman that refused to run, or my genestealer killing exploding sentinels. Or the infamous 'Foxhole" Straken indecent. (I forgot he was fearless. lol)

So my question for you is: Which army do you tell war stories about?

It took me two tries to find DA before I had tried space marines but didn't like fluff so I upgraded

Thinking about it now, I have a feeling I picked chaos space marines because they were the first on the list of armies on the website when I was choosing...

I found my army on the second try, I had never seen imperial guard except cadians. So I went with Tau. One day some guy had vostroyans and sold them to me cheap and I was hooked on guard and their variety. I now only play guard and I like all the other human forces (except marines and knights) but I still only use guard. In saying that, I hate GW guard models. Except the collectors stuff but

However my friends 40k forces have changed so frequently it hurts. It seems so wasteful and pointless to collect an army, sell it and buy another one. So much money that could have been invested in another house or something haha.

So after watching many varieties at the club I have come to the conclusion some people find their army, and some are doomed to just keep trying new armies forever.

I have almost every army GW produces and haven't found mine. I think when they re-do sisters of battle that's when I will finally settle.

I feel quite lucky in choosing MT Scions for my first army. When I was first introduced to 40k, I wanted to use Elysian Drop Troops from Forge World, but my friend said FW models tend to be frowned upon. So I waited a bit and thought that I'd go with Tau (but I didn't want to be "another Tau player"). So I was pretty excited when the MT Scions codex came out. I've heard lots of people complain about the lack of options and whatnot, but to me that just means less chance of buying a model I won't use.

I actually also like how little other people run the Scions as their primary detachment. I like seeing diversity in games, and hope to master my Scions tactics before getting allies (if ever).

Side note: My army has a snow theme going on, so the treads on the Taurox Prime actually make sense!

For myself, I started my GW experience with Orcs and Goblins, from the Fantasy line. My one buddy played Chaos, so when I went to 40k [mid 2nd edition] I wanted to play Chaos, 'cause they were full of bad-assery.

The funny thing, is that I didn't enjoy playing them at all.

So when 3rd came out, my brother and I split on the box set, he took the Marines and I took the Dark Eldar, and I loved them. They were challenging to play, had this nasty background, and they were fragile in a world full of Orks and super-tough Marines, or Carnifexes... and the models were cool to me, at the time. I played tons of games, but by the time the Dark Eldar 2.0 codex rolled out they were played out for me.

I think I dabbled with some Vanilla Marines, because they were plastic and I wanted something that was easier to play, without being easy [DE were pretty much neutered by that point] and I wanted to do something bright, so went with Imperial Fists [Yellow].

BUT THEN!! Cadians came out in plastic. I love to play shooty armies. I love the underdog. I like the "modern" style of the model's armour, not the 70's Vietnam / Rambo Catachans. They turned me off, I remember being sooooo angry that the Catachans were the first plastic IG army. I would have played them sooner, if GW had chosen ANY other regiment. Anyhow, Eye of Terror rolls out, and there are Cadian models, with cool rules, and fluff that I didn't care much about, but I'm a gamer first hobbiest anyhow, so I was happy.

I've dabbled with Orks, Eldar, bought the recent Necron codex but didn't buy any models [already have a shooty army]. I have a group of friends that play most of the rest of the other armies, so have had a chance to see what they're like. Lots of guys love tanks, but I truly hate painting vehicles. Some guys like the idea of a grunt with a Lasgun holding the line in a universe that hates them. I love the idea that those men can hold their ground, when lead by exceptional individuals. Humanity can overcome any adversity, so long as exceptional persons are willing to step up and lead, and that grabs me in the fluff, mechanically in the game, and with some interesting models. I mean, how many HQ models [aside from an Ethereal] can be reasonably modeled without a weapon? A Commander with a swagger stick, that's how many! He doesn't win by being a brutal combat beast, but by wisely / cunningly using the resources at his disposal. It speaks to my inner Nietzsche, I suppose, but it works for me.

So it took me roughly from 95 [?] to 03 [?] to know the army I wanted to play, and have it available in plastic to purchase. I most definitely would have played IG before then, had plastic models been available to my liking. I proxied several Guard lists during my DE / SM years.

That said, I don't like the current codex. *shrug* I've been playing Guard as my "main" army for a good 10 years. They were good times, but I'm not fond of the current playstyle, though 7th might change that. I haven't had a chance to read / play it yet. I've started a decent Blood Angels force, because my favourite colour is Red and they're SUPER easy to paint. I get about 4 times the points production in the same amount of time that I would get from IG minis. It's taken me 10 years to have a mostly painted force of Guardsmen [still hate painting vehicles, but about 150 painted infantry] and I've got 1000 pts of painted Blood Angels in about 6 months, which is HUGE for me. So right now, Blood Angels are doing it for me in terms of game play [Mobile, but generally considered bottom tier. Challenging, to say the least!] and my hobby time is productive which I really enjoy. Love the Death Company models for HQ's, Elite infantry [painted red] and of course for DC [painted black].

So after 10 years of loving the bloody mess out of Guard, they're on my back burner while I re-enter the world of Marines. I like Orks, but wouldn't ever start another horde army. Since I wasn't invested in Necrons prior to this edition, I actually like their fluff. Nigh-immortal lords of crazy-in-different-ways robots? That's fun times, right there.

I love the little conversation bits through the codex. * Here's a Tesseract labyrinth for your collection, Inquisitor! * Curse you for putting me to this inconvenience. * Death comes in many forms, but I would count aerial bombardment as the most satisfyingly efficient. * Our minds are all that is left for us to lose, sooner or later we will all be lost to madness. * If nothing else, I can simply wait for my foes to rot.

If I had found an acrylic, copper coloured spray paint, I'd have played Necrons instead of BA, but then I'd have had two shooty armies, so I guess I'm glad I didn't. Huzzah for Red Pepper paint by Krylon!

So, to make a long story even longer, you might find something you like for a while, and if you do, run with it. You can be in this hobby for as long as you want, and your tastes will change over time, so embrace it as you go!

My bad way. For my Raptors (SM), I came home one night drunk as hell. Went on FW and buy some stuff and one of them was the Rhino doors for the Raptors chapters. I started painting them on a razorback and a month laters, got my first 1000 pts army. I like the story behind that chapter, is a good chapter to support my Raven Guard and since them, I keep going whatever of game play. I just like painting them .

It took me MONTHS to finally pick tau as my army.

Now...I wish I was playing Admech, but that army didn't exist at the time (and I can't fund a new army)

10+ years and still looking.

I like my Dark Eldar models and their gameplay but have lost interest in their fluff.

My Eldar Beil Tan have awesome looking models and paint scheme, gameplay...meh...fluff...meh...

Necrons, I like the models! End of story.

Orkz, awesome all around, but have not played enough games to rate their gameplay.

Tau, models and fluff are pretty cool, but have been unable to win games with the units I like without spamming silly units... and I don't spam silly units...

Nids, Awesome models! Also have not played them enough to rate gameplay and I really don't think nids have much fluff other than travel from planet to planet eating everything.

I love the models and fluff of my vanilla Space Marines but I don't always enjoy the games. If I had to pick one for all three right now, it would be my Marines.

Black Templar and Space Wolves have awesome army specific models and Fluff. The one game of each I played was lots of fun running crusaders in crusaders and Logan Wing. They are in the top 5 of my favorite lists!

Imperial Guard Steel Legion. I have always been a fan of Armageddon Steel Legion, fun fluff awesome models, but I have yet to play them since it has been a slow building army. I have been collecting them since they came out just have never played them.

Inquistion/Grey Knights. Like the models and fluff, have only played a couple games with straight Grey Knight, but I prefer to take them as an Ally and so I don't judge them in gameplay as an army.

I got as far as fluff and models.

Gameplay always lacked for me with any of my armies.

5 years to settle on Iron Warriors fluff wise.

For gameplay, I'm still trying to find an army I really like. I started with Guard, so they're still my got to army, but that's more to do with familiarity than anything.

My first army was Salamanders. I loved the fluff--I have Kyme's Tome of Fire series because of them. As for the models. I don't know if "love" is the word. I have models from the 1980s to the more recent releases. It was the gameplay however that had my eye wandering. As much as I loved them, I didn't like playing with them as much.

A bit more informed about the game and what I wanted, i did some research. I narrowed it down to the IG (I really liked Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain series and seriously considered creating a Valhallan army), the SoB (then I crunched the numbers and was scared off by how much it would cost), and Orks (the sheer randomness really, really appealed to me). A friend of mine started me off by selling me his Orks (he was going to concentrate on Chaos).

I remember the first time I fielded them. I was completely unprepared and had to keep checking my codex, forgot rules from turn to turn, and I lost, but by Mork (or Gork), I had fun. More fun that I ever had playing my Sallies. That was about two years ago. I've been playing Orks since and it's been a fun and insane ride. With the recent rumors/leaks, I'm looking forward to seeing what 7th brings.

It took me 5 years, I tried Tau and blood angels but then grew bored with both of them so I started Necron and loved the army(just got them a transcendent C'Tan, I also picked up dark angels originally to be an all deathwing army but have now expanded to ravenwing and greenwing(and added a warhound titan).

I have gotten rid of my tau, most were sold or traded, a few given to friends. My blood angels have been on the back burner for a while but I still have them(though some have been converted to Dark Angels now) but they still have plenty of models to be playable. My Dark Angels are my largest army. Between the Dark Angels and Necron I have a lot of fun with playing and can really change things up.

2nd try. Ultras in 1997. Before that it was Eldar from RT days. I was the elf DnD player, so everyone's opinion was I should then be Eldar. I liked them. But next group I went Roman and now I own almost 2 companies of Ultras.