Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I am brand new to the hobby, building and painting my very first SC box for AdMech. And even though I’ve yet to even play a full game I can’t help but look at other armies and think of eventually building and playing one. Don’t get me wrong, I love the choice I made and if I went back in time would choose AdMech again. Models look great, lore is cool, seems to be a moderately powerful faction when used right. I just can’t help but see other armies and think that they are also cool and might one day down the line start building a new army.

So my question to the group is: how many armies do you have?

Dark Angels
Chaos Space Marines
Space Marines

What I want in addition to these is most of the other armies.

None of the above are complete, most barely/partially painted.

It's an addiction...

Welcome to the club!

What you have is called “Shiny Model Syndrome” and is very common.

I have one main army (Ultramarines), a long suffering secondary army (Eldar) and recently-ish started a tertiary army (Deathwatch).

I’ve got a few AoS ones as well, but lets not talk about them.

I frequently hear the sirens call to other armies, but I stay the corse. Not enough money or time to branch out too far afield.

Armies are never finished, but at some point you plateau. You don’t “need” anything else, even if there is more stuff you could use. It’s OK to move on to other projects then (that’s why I started Deathwatch). It’s also good to have a secondary army to prevent burnout. I paint a lot of blue power armor and boxy tanks. It’s nice to paint something sleek and red to help break up the monotony. Keeps things fresh and interesting. Secondary armies help fill that role on the tabletop as well. Give you a chance to play a different style army.

Ot, in this world of soup lists, branching out will give you more diversity on the paintbench and more power on the table. Win/win.

Eldar, Necrons, Grey Knights, Marines (Blood Angels).

Rebuild Dark Eldar.

Blood Angels, aiming to get into Eldar.

Had 2 Necrons & Adeptus Astartes then sold Necrons. Now looking at picking up AM.

7. (Although the last two are very small)

Eldar
Dark Eldar
Harlequins
Salamanders
Imperial Guard
Night Lords
Chaos Daemons

Aha yeah this is common.

I have Death Guard, Orks, Space Wolves and genestealer cults. And that's only 40k stuff.

Just make sure you finish one before starting another. You'll end up with mountains of unused plastic.

Also, kill team is your friend. You can sample all armies that way.

Death Guard, Nurgle Daemons and Nurgle CSM/ Renegades.
In 3rd edition it was one army, now it's 3 .

Hey Chessonator, welcome ro Charlotte, you should swing by Games Workshop sometime, I’ll be there this afternoon playing my Deathguard against some Blood Angels.

To answer your question, I have about 1500 points of Dark Angels and 1500 points of Death Guard painted up. I personally only play with painted models, but have no problem playing against unpainted models

If I build a 3rd army, it will probably be Age of Sigmar

9 in various forms of building/repair/painting however I have enough Ultramarines that it should count as more than 1 when looking at it.

The ideal number of armies is typically one more than you already have.

Kill Team offers a good alternative to full armies.

I have about ten armies/forces pained.

four thousand points or more worth of:

Dark Eldar
Craftworld
Space Wolves (before they were ruined by flander model bloat)
Dark Angels (see above)
Ultramarines
Guard (Shadowsword and Baneblade)
Tryanids
Necrons
Tau
Sisters of Battle
Orks ( 3 Stompas)

Loads and bits and pieces or smaller forces for other armies like Ad Mech including 5 Knights, Rigue Traders, inqusitors, Black Templars, Harlequins, Chaos,

Does not count unpainted / unmade for which you can add a few thousand more models of various sizes and afiliations.
Or Age of Sigmar - (similar) or other ranges.....

Orks, imperium, necron start

@Freeflow: probably won’t be able to make it around today, also the hobbyist in me wants to have my dudes all painted up and pretty before I take them for a spin. However I think that’ll change soon when I want to get a game or 10 under my belt.

I like the term “Shiny Model Syndrome,” and I think it’s fitting. Once bit by the hobby-wargaming bug it’s hard to look at any army and not want to play a game with them to see what it’s like.

Deathguard, Nurgle CSM, Nurgle Daemons as either 3 armies or one glorious whole..

Guard and Genestealer Cults ditto

Five. Corsairs, Space Marines, Inquisition (small fragments of Deathwatch, GK, and Guard), AdMech (mostly a 30k army), and Custodes.

Dark Angel
Imperial Knight
Alpha Legion (2000 point unpainted and unassembled ready for a raining day)

I play since around '99, but I am admittedly a very conservative buyer. During 22 years of Warhammer Fantasy, I only collected Skaven... So I am probably below the average

I have Salamanders and Biel-Tan as my 'main' armies, and a small force of Deathwatch that aren't quite a full army on their own but soup nicely with the Salamanders.

I also have a couple of Imperial Knights, all the Primaris and Death Guard from Dark Imperium and the Primaris half of Wake the Dead, all unbuilt. So those will be extra armies as and when I actually build and paint them (I don't like mixing oldmarines and Primaris together, so my Salamanders will remain oldmarines only, and I'll pick a different chapter for the Primaris).

I also have High Elves, Lizardmen and Orcs & Goblins for WHFB (never done any Sigmar), and a Plague Fleet for BFG.

Us old timers with mountains of unbuilt and/or unpainted plastic will always say that you shouldn't buy things faster than you can build and paint them otherwise you end up with a huge pile of shame - and we say that from experience. It's a lot easier to say that than it is to do though. Buying new models is much faster than painting them and it's very easy to give in when you see something shiny that you like.

I have one army: Witchhunters.
Though geedubs would have you believe i have 3- Adepta Sosoritas/Ministorum, Inquisition abd Assassins.

Also a single solitary Knight Errant, but that isnt an army.

Orks, drukhari and space wolves.

I only paint orks though.

I have 1.5 40k armies (Black Legion and Fallen Dark Angels). Most my collection can be seen in the links in my signature blocks. I say 1.5 because the Fallen are more reinforcement options than an actual army. I do have a lot of Kill Teams though. In addition to the ones in my signature block, I have Tau, Genestealer Cult and Thousand Sons.

I agree Moriarty about Kill Team and that is what I have done. Almost every faction has a kill team that can be bought for $60 US or less. Two troop boxes, most of the time, gives you more than enough models for Kill Team's 100 standard point limit usually with plenty of options to swap out depending on your opponent.

In order of size [and age]:
Imperial Guard
Sisters of Battle
Space Wolves
Custodes

Plus random floating stuff from other Imperial factions, plus a Deathwatch Kill Team.


Also, some tanks [like 2-dozen], and starter sets for DZC that I use as a normal board game.

I currently have two armies, Adeptus Custodes and pure Primaris Space Marines.

My Custodes are at roughly 2000pts and the marines at around 1,200pts

Technically? Two.
Imperium, and a small Genestealer-focused Tyranid brood.

Breaking down "Imperium", there's:
Ultramarines 2nd Company
Ultramarines 1st Company
Ultramarines 5th Company
Dawn Blades (custom chapter) 3rd Company
Dawn Blades 10th Company
Deathwatch (Kill Team)
Grey Knights
Skitarii Maniple
An Adamantine Lance from Knight House Smith
Cadian Infantry Company
Cadian Artillery Company
Gallican Tank Company
Militarum Tempestus Drop Force
Tanith 1st (Kill Team)
Looking to add a small Custodes detachment (around 40 PL worth)

In no particular order.

11 armies 2-10k each. 6 fully painted. I am immortal.

Sisters, Space Marines, Guard, Eldar, Tyranids, Chaos, Inquistion,

Full armies, listed in order of size:

- Black Legion
- World Eaters
- Death Guard
- Chaos Daemons
- Grey Knights
- Imperial Guard
- Dark Angels
- Orks

Currently working on:

- Deathwatch
- Emperor's Children

About 2200 points of Slaanesh Daemons and 500pts of Renegades and Heretics.

So, one and one-quarter, or just one, depending on how you look at things.

Oh, a few....
All forces - save the Orks, Ad-Mech, & knights - are built & painted to at least 2k pts.
Bear in mind that I've been building armies since '92. And my Imperial Guard (IG) have not gotten the memo that they've been re-named Astra Militarum....

1) SM: Ultra-Marines (9th co. to be exact, all models RT era vintage)
2) SM: Mentor Legion
3) SM: Doom Eagles (sometimes played using BA rules, sometimes not)
4) SM: Dreadnoughts
5) SM 1st Co./Deathwing - all termies & land raiders
6) Dark Angels
7) Space Wolves - my original 40k army
8) Sisters of Battle
9) Adeptus Arbites - yes, I know, not a current army. But they had a Citadel Journal list when I built them in early 3e.
10) Super Heavy #1: Titans (loyal) - home to several Armorcast Warhounds, Reavers, & 1 FW Warhound
11) Super Heavy #2: IG tanks - home to multiple Baneblades/Shadowswords/etc
12) IG: Armored Column - I actually have enough that I could split this further - all Russ/assorted tanks & all artillery (basilisks/griffons/etc) - & still be at 2k.
13) IG: Arcadians (RT era - I took the name from the banner pictured on their plastics box)
14) IG: Cadians (2e metal)
15) IG: Tallarn
16) IG: Vallhallen
17) IG: Catachan (2e metal)
18) IG: Mordian
19) IG: Praetorian
20) IG: Steel Legion
21) IG: Penal Legion/ab-human - the home of Necromunda gangs, ogryns, beastmen, etc
22) IG: Cadians (the plastic version)
23) IG: Vostryan
24) Imperial Navy/flyers - Home to my Thunderbolts & Lightnings
25) Squats
26) Tau
27) Necrons
28) Eldar (mostly Iyanden based)
29) Orks - a very slow project. I can only get about 1k pts onto the table
30) CSM: General - the catchall for chaos stuff that doesn't fit another chaos force
31) CSM: Iron warriors
32) Chaos: Death Guard
33) Chaos: Khorne demons
34) Genestealer Cult - originally built way back in 2e alongside my Arbites, but soon to get a major upgrade!
35) Tyranids: 100% genestealers
36) Tyranids: Vintage - my RT & 2e stuff
37) Tyranids: not-as-vintage - my 3e-5e stuff
38) Tyranids: All flyers
39) Tyranids: All monsters creatures - carnifex+
40) Tyranids: All Forge World models

41*) Ad-Mech
42*) Super Heavy #3: Imperial Knights
* These are in the process of being built. It started as me finally seeing an Ad-Mech force on the table back in Dec. & saying "Those are cool, I'll build those guys in 2019." So a bit of scouring EBay for deals, a great deal on a box of Forgebane at the local shop, + combining my random Knight Paladin I built just as a model back in 6/7e when I wasn't playing.... Then I thought "well, if I add another knight, + a box of Hellverins...." And some more sifting for the cheapest deals.... And know I have 2k of stand alone Ad-Mech + a stand alone Knight detachment.

So 42 armies at present. 43 if I split the IG armored column into tanks & artillery. Maybe 44 if I were to scrounge up all the misc marines left over/acquired over the years & projects?

Eventualy, someday, I'll add Elysians/Krieg/the 30k Solar Militarum (or whatever they're called) & whatever the Dark elder are called now.

So 47 projected with a few slots to go until I can do an army a week.



*As this was obviously a 40K question, I did not include WHFB/AoS, Flames of War, Bolt Action, BattleTech, Blood & Plunder, or X-Wing.