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I chose my very first army and also my current army after coming back from a break the same way: I went with the models that appealed to me the most.

I like the Xeno races of 40K, and initially it was between Orks & Tyranids. I chose Orks becuase they looked so much fun, and they are. I especially liked the ramshackle Ork tech. And the fact they are pretty cheap thanks to Assault on Black Reach, that made the deal.

Chaos: Because bad guys are awesome.

General Seric wrote:I chose IG because I liked the older look of the vehicles, the ability to make a mechanized force, and the fact that they were an army of normal men fighting against aliens and super soldiers.

Same here, I'm also a college ROTC cadet so it seemed a natural fit.

I've literally played every other army except Night Lords.

I've just started them as I'm currently reading Soul Hunter and I love the background of the legion. They seem to be the most rebellious of legions, but they look after their own.

Also, converting First Claw seems like it will be fun.

I started with Imperial Guard. Mostly because I served in the army and I could relate to the Guardsmen. I fell in love with fielding crazy amounts of guardsmen in my Infantry regiment because most of the power gamers at my store would cry when their anti-meq list failed utterly as wave after wave of guardsmen flooded over them.

Opponent: "Ha! I just killed an entire squad!"
Me: "Oh no, whatever will I do? Oh yeah, I will swarm you with the other two hundred in my list."

I picked up Space Wolves about three months ago. I liked their theme and models. Plus I set out to make a funny Space Wolf list no one expects... one that assaults. *Gasp* I know, crazy huh? I use Swiftclaws, Bloodclaws, Skyclaws, and even Wolfguard on bikes. Pretty awesome when my opponent expects it to turn into a shooting war and he is getting run down by Orks in power armor.

Opponent: "Wait, you only have one long fang unit, where are the other two?"
Me: "Long fangs? Who needs them? I have bikes!" *Evil Grin*

I love the idea of defending humanity, and of course it was only made more convenient by the Marines in AoBR.

I didn't want to play Smurfs though, and I always had an allure for bike models and Mongol hordes, so White Scars was a logical step (although I don't do any riding myself, just MTB )

I also like the range of customizability of the Marines, and the fact that you can play so many differently-styled armies. They are by far the most versatile codex.

I decided one day to pick up 40k after playing Dawn of War alot, and being urged to play by some friends after expressing interest.

I picked up Chaos space marines because they were my favorite race in Dawn Of War, and after much research into fluff i decided CSM were my favorite.

I picked up DE because my friend was selling his 3rd ed DE army for really cheap. Initially i planned on a Traitor IG force, but after my friend was saying he was selling his DE, i decided to get those instead to have a playable army straight away.

I was given the AoBR set as present; i took it as joke as I was not that much in war gaming at all. Moreover not that much of nerdy type either, so i was laughing my guts of, however i did bet with my GF to go into some local tourney and win it.

I wanted to make raven guard as i liked them most from, DoW (played that), however as they didn’t have any regular assault marines, i had to buy DC ones... Now i have around 3k worth of BA stuff I am getting bit nerdier now

I chose Tyranids in 4th edition because the models looked sweet.

chaos. because i read about Adeptus Titanicus years ago and decided to go for this Horus bloke who was rebelling against the (i may have just seen Return of the Jedi so..)evil Emperor.

I got into World Eaters first because Skulls are for the Blood God! Their fluff is awesome. Then I got a good sized Nurgle Death Guard army to add to it.

Im really unsure why I got into Tau. i think it was because they played different then my Chaos of being up close and personal.

My Orks I got because of their fluff and I wanted to do conversions. I tryed to make my orks look really goofy as they are portrayed in their codex lol

I can't remember why I started Eldar. They didn't exactly have very nice models when I first began collecting them (that was when the codex was still for 3th edition).
My CSM was started since I liked the theme of the Iron Warriors, and my Dark Eldar was because the Scourges are some of Gw.s best models ever. And so is the Razorwing Jetfighter.

I went for Chaos because all my friends had "good guy" armies (marines, Tau and Eldar at the time).

I then chose Iron Warriors after reding some of the fluff as i liked the idea of a more ranged fire based army with CC elements. But i also didn't like the though of committing to one particular god or type of unit and having to rely on psykers.
So i have an IW army with no sorcerers, no daemons, and one token unit of 'zerkers.

My criteria is, in order of importance :

1. Models & fluff
2. Gameplay style
3. Convinience(Do I already have models I can convert to them? Are they an army that takes too long to paint?)
4. Cost
5. Power

I made Chaos first, cause they were variied in gameplay(as a SM army), I loved their models, and they were easy to convert from a AoBR set.

I got orks because I got a AoBR set, so it made to expand them, plus they played completely different than marines, since I went for green tide. Plus, they are really cheap, since you can get AoBR orks from ebay incredibly cheaply, as well as Killa Kans. I grew to love the fluff, but it was mostly convinence

Same with the daemons, they were convient to get since I had a LOT of daemon units from my CSM, and they were different gameplay enough to warrant making them a full army. They are fun, but I still dont love them fluffwise.

I got Grey Knight cause it was simply too cheap not to. I already had a lot of AoBR termies and a dread I did not use, so all I had to do was buy a box of termies and Driego, and convert em all into paladins. I got a Dreadknight just for the hell of it.

So you see, after your first choice on an army, the rest kinda follow organically, especially if you go for an AoBR one. The first one you MUST really like tho. Also, do NOT go for an army you dont like because its powerful, you'll get bored. I still havent painted the daemons simply cause I dont like their fluf that much, even though I keep winning with them.

I generally decide on an army if it has some cool looking models or a unique play style.

For space marines I started them years ago, misinformed that they were robots. I thought the idea of an army of robots would be cool and wasn't even told necrons existed at the time.

For the Eldar I liked the idea of their mobility as it opened up a bunch of tactics that I couldn't really use with marines which were just too static for me. Some of the models I liked, though never got around to using most of them as they were either the wraithguard or swooping hawks...

For SoB I wanted a more static force but didn't want to return to marines because I found them very boring, I also liked the faith system. That and I like the background of the Inquisition so the plan was to make a combined force but ended up being pure SoB instead.

My first model was Aun'shi, the Tau Ethereal, so it just happened to be the Tau.

Then, I got AOBR. That's when I started collecting Orks and Space Marines.

years ago i wanted to start playing it was back when tau just came out so comic shops had a bunch of them on hand before the GW great purge.

lots of mobile tanks and GIANT robots won me over

I chose steel legion IG because they looked awesome!

Steel IG is pretty awesome!

ajax22 wrote:I chose steel legion IG because they looked awesome!

One of the reasons I choose them too. Plus the Armageddan campaign was going on when I got most of mine.

I picked my black templars because no one at my FLGS plays them. I didn't want to be one of the large groups of blood angels or space wolves players. Plus I like the idea of running toward whatever shoots you. It is a major advantage with the new lazerback spam list. You kill a 10 pt model and i move d6 closer to you, ill take that any day over an extremly broken codex. I only need 5 things in my army, Emperors Champion, Guys with chainswords and bolt pistols, guys with powerfist, guys with meltaguns, and scouts with 2 ccw weapons.

Yeah, I chose DA because not as many people play them

I'm just starting out, and getting started in raising an IG army.

Why IG? As I've told a few people, "lots o' troops and lots o' tanks".

@sgrunt: so true...

When I started 40K, back in the dark days of 2nd Edition (it was dark because of all of the Blind Grendae templates that were everywhere) I was working a part time job at McFoodplace and still in high school, so cost was my primary concern. Space Marines were the least expensive as you needed fewer models to play a game, and they had the most plastics at the time. I rebelled at the idea of using an established chapter, after trying to paint up some test models for Crimson Fists and Blood Angels and Space Wolves and realizing my paint skills were not up to snuff. I created a Chapter with a black paint job, so as not to overtax myself. Lazy Skill Level +1!

As I got more money, I started looking at Imperial Guard, because if I used them as allies for my Marines, I could field them in a game, without having to buy a full army first. Same reason I started to get into Squats: they could ally with my IG, and I wouldn't need a whole army. I never did finish the Squat army... I went with Cadians for my IG because I didn't like the looks of the others. Mordians seemed silly (they can be defeated with MUD!) the Tallarns seemed too Lawrence of Arabia for the 41st Millenium, and while I love Predator as much as the next guy, the Catachans looked a little too informal to me. They looked like retired soldiers, not active duty ones. You know; the guys who still wear their fatigues when they work on their cars in the summer...

My Dad, basically.

I picked up a few Chaos models to paint for fun, and then fell in love with Beastmen (who were a part of 40K at that time). I think it was T4 and W2 that did it to me. So I started in on a Chaos force. When the 2nd Edition Chaos codex came out, I went full-on, hardcore Thousand Sons, because... well... feth, they sounded so cool. And looked it. I committed sixteen felonies across twenty states to gather up enough classic metal Thousand Sons models to field an entire army... or maybe I just painted up models for a friend who worked in the mold room at Glen Burnie who was even more of a weaksauce painter than I was. Go with whichever story you think is coolest.

My 3 core armies (SM, IG, CSM) have undergone several paint jobs, and an infusion of new models as the years have gone by. I'm in the process of my latest upgrade/update at them moment.

I'm also running what I call "side projects"... armies that were borne of a creative impulse first, and a desire to play second. Like my Slaanesh Traitor Guard army. Comprised entirely of models that I had lying around my house (because I couldn't afford new ones while I was unemployed) I've squeezed out a rough 1000k points of Guard (mostly infantry) using Necromunda gangers, Praetorian, Mordian, Valhallan, and Catachan IG, some Sisters o' Battle, some Daemonettes (the gorgeous ones) with Commissar caps and laspistols, and two actual honest-to-Emperor Chaos Cultist figures. Also, the command Chimera doubles as a strip club.

Theres a teeny-tiny Emperor's Children army forming around a female Dark Eldar Archon model and a Chaos Predator, which can ally with those Traitor Guard I mentioned...

And lastly, I've started a second IG army, using Tallarn Desert Raiders, because I've recently learned (after seeing another player's Turkish Tallarns) that you can make them look genuinely Middle Eastern, instead of all Lawrence of Arabian-y, simply by painting their skin a color other than "Pasty English White Dude". This one isn't even a full squad yet, but I have high hopes!

I'm a competitive player.

However, I picked my armies because:
Tau: loved the models, especially Piranha. Also really liked their playstyle.
Sisters: loved the theme and how ornate the models are, originally started them as more of a painting project. Also like the idea of rushing forward so they can stick a flamethrower down the enemy throat.
Grey Knights (recent addition): Really like the models, and wanted to start an all infantry army, with no vehicles. GK are really one of the only non-horde armies that can do that and still show up at tournaments. And Interceptors are cool.

I like Vikings so I got Space Wolves.

The how and why is simple--My buddy and I went halvsies on a AoBR set, and he painted Templar. Left it at the store, and I picked it up. He wanted it back, but never came to get it. Then we deployed to opposite ends of the country and so it began.

Started when the starter set was half marine half DE. My buddy took the marines to make his templar as he paid a little more than half (me being even more poor at the time), and I got stuck with the DE. Lost alot since that box wasn't exactly balanced.