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I see the term periodically here, " I finished my X army." What does the mean to people? Gotten a certain number of points? Painted everything you own? Gotten a specific list/build finished? Just decided to stop collecting and move on to another army?

To me collecting an army seems to be somewhat ongoing. I have been collecting Orks for 3 year or so now and still have plenty of things I would like to add, I don't really see and end in sight for quite a long time. I am not sure if I will ever "finish my army". Of course I buy slow and paint slow so maybe I am outside of the norm on that.

I realize it might mean different things to different people, but what do YOU think "I've finished my army." means?

Loborocket wrote:

To me collecting an army seems to be somewhat ongoing. I have been collecting Orks for 3 year or so now and still have plenty of things I would like to add, I don't really see and end in sight for quite a long time.

Kinda in the same boat as you. I begun a year ago collecting Dark Angels and I have as of this moment the full 5th Battle Company (115+ marines) with all the support staff from the Chaplaincy, Librarius and Apothecarion. I also started both the Deathwing/Ravenwing and very little of the 10th Scout Company. I don't see myself finishing them even though I must be at 7-8000++ pts at this moment. I will be finished when both the Ravenwing and Deathwing will be at 50-60 models each and the Armourium full of Rhino/Razorback/Predators/Whirlwind/... and Landraider plus all the named HQ.

So yeah for me a finished army is far more than the basic X pts list or something like that.

For me its getting 1500pts. Then an army is finished.

When I have all the models I'm willing to paint painted then I don't buy anymore. Usually, for a minor army , I do 2000. For my orks I have upwards of 4500

Especially these days I can see an argument for not wanting more than about 2,000 points from one codex. Why have 6,000 points when you can have three armies of 2,000 points each? You can always ally then together for big games.

I have a couple of armies that I don't plan to add any more models to. When I'll have them fully painted is anyone's guess though.

personally i think "finished" is 2k points. most games I play never go higher then 1850, so the extra 150 is to swap things out. I'd rather have two 2k armies then one 4k army, but thats just me

I've been collecting Space Marines since 2002 and I'm still not "finished," haha.

its when I feel finished.

When I don't have to proxy or borrow friends models. I usually play 2k games, so it would have to be more than that.

-Mikey

When I complete my largest written list. If that list is 1850, then that's a complete army. And it doesn't matter if I have 3000pts of a Faction, if that 1850 list isn't done, it's not complete.

2000-2500 points. Painted fully to whatever standard I want them at. For my Tau I want a small FSE painted detachment as well so I'm going to need some of those as well. Maybe 500-1500.

I aim for a points limit (around 2000) but also add extra stuff to swap things out, playing with the same things all the time is dull

I've planned armies specifically for a tournament, and so have ' finished' them by getting then assembled and painted as per that list...

That lasts usually until immediately after that event, at which point I'm thinking about the next thing to add...

Armies are never really finished.

Finished to me means having enough models to field any list I could potentially want to field either for a competitive list or just a "this is a fun concept" list.

I like to collect to the fullest that fluff and lore tells me that is complete. I am almost done with painting my entire Imperial Fists 3rd company. After that I will work on my Dark Angels Ravenwing/Deathwing Army.

Depends, really. It's what you want to get out of each army and what satisfies your itch for starting it in the first place.

For my Dark Angels, I'm finished "collecting" as I have enough to field every unit and every formation in the new codex.... but still have about half to paint.

I made a 2000 point TAC list of Orks That is it for them. Still have to be assembled and painted but no more models....in the forseeable future. Just wanted a good mixture of units to make 'playable' lists for casual games.

I have 1500 Tau that is a VERY fluffy Farsight's 8 list. 8 models customised (plus drones) and that is it!

And finally...... my Tyranids,being my main army, will never be completed, I fear. Still don't have all the models and have far too much than I'll ever use in normal games.

"Finished" is less of a points thing and more of a project thing. If your project is to collect and paint x points of and army of get y list ready, you're done at that point. I've been doing Dark Angels for about a decade (did have a huge setback thanks to a hot water heater explosion a few years back), but that is an undetermined project. It will be done when I look at all I have painted and go "yep, that's about right" and then move on the something else.

Some people never "finish". A number of factors such as time, money, skill at modeling and/or painting, or motivation may just cause the project to be forever ongoing. Then there are some people who are only interested in one army, and will just keep adding to it for as long as they are in the hobby.

To answer your question, "finished", like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

To me an army is "finished" when I can no longer think of something to add to it that I need or would actually even field. For instance I have 2000+ points worth of csm, 2000+ points for tau, 2000+ points for space wolves and all of them are tailored to the way I play. I could easily buy more models and have them painted (not an issue) but would I use them? Would it be fun? Probably not.

An army is never truly finished. At least to me. There are always new models I want to try out, entire reboots to reflect my increased abilities to paint and more to expand. To me, my Marines will be done when they are at chapter level strength and not a Tac Marine before then.

1500 for many people I know. I like to go to 2000 so I can switch out a bit.

Me, I don't think I'll ever finish my army. At 35,000 points it continues to grow.

Enough to play an ordinary Apocalypse for me.

I will hopefully never say "I've finished my Necrons". I've painted about 80% of them, and once I've finished all that I have, I'm going to start thinking with Apoc in mind. As in, I'd love to run 4+ Monoliths and ~10 Flyers, with 100+ infantry on the board. And of course I'll branch out into Forgeworld eventually.

Its finished when I have no more ideas on how to expand it, allies included

I think this is one of those things that is different for every person and, perhaps, something that is very rarely even said aloud. I mean, I've been collecting Orks for aaages but it's only recently that I've started trying to put some order to the madness, and actually paint what I have. At the moment I tell myself that once everything I have is built/painted, then that'll be that for a while, and I'll start trying the playing side of the hobby.

Then again I'm fickle as anything, and if a new kit comes out that I think is ripe for looting, I'll probably get distracted and before I know it I'll have added another 1000 pts to the to-do pile.

For me 'finished' will be when I've caught up on everything I have to do and then can add new projects at my leisure, without the guilt that comes with procrastinating on getting my existing stuff done.

"Finish an army"?
Whats that?

Fully painted for a major tournament.

Getting and painting the models of a certain list I've set myself toward (between 500-2000). It doesn't mean I'm done with that factions, but I'm pretty much done with that 'project' is what it mean for me.

Loborocket wrote:
I see the term periodically here, " I finished my X army." What does the mean to people? Gotten a certain number of points? Painted everything you own? Gotten a specific list/build finished? Just decided to stop collecting and move on to another army?

To me collecting an army seems to be somewhat ongoing. I have been collecting Orks for 3 year or so now and still have plenty of things I would like to add, I don't really see and end in sight for quite a long time. I am not sure if I will ever "finish my army". Of course I buy slow and paint slow so maybe I am outside of the norm on that.

I realize it might mean different things to different people, but what do YOU think "I've finished my army." means?

Means different things to different people. For me it is bought, built and painted=finished. Of course that doesn't mean it can't change. My khorne CSM horde has been growing and changing for 25 years or so. The armies that interest me the most often end up getting more options thrown in through the years even if they were previously 'done'. I do like adding new blood to my armies, so don't know that I'll ever really consider my armies truly finished. Even my smaller project armies that I have no intention of messing with can end up growing. My 1000 point Space wolf force was not going to get any bigger until suddenly it did up to 2500 points.

When I had got a full battle company of Salamanders and BA I thought I was done with Marines, not including GK. I have now just started another Marine army in the style of an all bike Sons of Anarchy theme. Though I only planned 750pts of that I can already see it growing.

There will always be bits and pieces I will want to add, the idea of a first company really appeals to me.

You can finish an army generally what you play.

Its MUUUCH harder to finish a collection