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Imperial Guard (Catachans) are my primary. Mainly vets in chimeras, a few different tanks, vendetta.....

Orks are the second army. Picked up cheap over a few years. I maybe spent 300 USD on a 2,500 point army. Mainly AoBR models, but hey, 15 deffkoptas is alot of fun. Anyway, they are an easy and fun army to play. You just run to something, shoot at it, and then assault. Not a ton of thinking. Mainly it has gathered dust for a couple of years. I have had alot of fun with the IG.

Orks are my only army... Have been pondering over the years of starting a second army but really would have to find a great deal to start one. Have to read a few more codex's and see what floats my boat before pulling the trigger on a new army..

First real army was chaos. I loved them and played them almost exclusively. Second army was Sisters of Battle when they first came out. I loved the relegious zeal of the SOB and felt that that encapsulated what I loved about WH40k. But with the new Chaos Codex it doesn't feel like chaos anymore and I've shelved them completely. I was then left with SOB, so I picked up a space marine army, Imperial fists with a heavy tech marine/dreadnaught theme. Very different to paint and I enjoy going back and forth with painting and playing them. Now I just need to get my conversion beamer Master of the Forge on a bike and I'll be set.

Aheh. Well at the moment I've only got my SoB, but my planned "second army" is actually... an small additonal SoB army, so I'll feel the same, I guess.

Though for an actual second army, for the distant future I'm planning on starting something Chaos, for a change. Choas Marines look interesting, think I'll go with them. Primarily, I'd value them for their interesting aesthetic and differing playstyle.

Tyranids are my primary, Dark Eldar are my secondary. I basically have one set-up for my dark Eldar- I knew what I wanted to field, and just bought it. I have some sligt variation, but for the most part it's finished. Every now and again I'll add to it, but most of my 40k purchases are for terrain or nids.

My first army was Tau, which i hated dispite how much I ended up with. Then I got nids, which I still love, but now that love is somewhat fallen by my enjoyment of my khorne berserkers. All in all I like most of the armies in 40k, its just the playstyle of khorne csm and tyranids fits bets with me.

I started with Space Wolves, who remain my favorite force.
I added Tyranids to my collection, since I had a bunch of Space Hulk models. I wish I could dust them off more often lately, and look forward to their (rumored) new book.
Third came Sisters of Battle. Random impulse.
Fourth was Guard, because Witch Hunters eventually let me induct them. What small collection I had became a force of its own when the new 'Dex took away inducted Troops.
During the 13th Black Crusade event I picked up a bunch of Space Marines in a lot I bought on eBay; I was after the Space Wolves in the collection. After seeing a Salamander write up in a White Dwarf, Salamanders it was!
When Assault on Black Reach came out, I kept the orks and gave the SM to a friend. A few Dakka Swap Shop purchases later, and I'm happily Dakkaaing some 'umans.

Basically I have 6 armies, and I've enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, playing all of them.

The first army I ever had was a very small collection of Dark Eldar. I then walked away from 40K for a while and came back midway through 5th where I started anew with Tyranids. After a couple of months of that I then started playing Eldar. Now I switch between the two armies depending on how I feel.

hubbsey wrote:
I run Tyranids almost exclusively. Every dollar I've put into my hobby has been either Tyranids or terrain. I picked up a SW battleforce from my brother after he got bored with it, and no matter how I play, model, or proxy that codex, I cannot get into it. I've tried exploring some other codices to see if they excite me similarly, but I can't get excited about another army even half as much as I love my nids. Am I an outlier in the hobby?

Hive Fleet Managarmr is my home, but I want a vacation house sometimes. How do other people go about collecting or playing new armies?

You just have to jump in. If you play the same thing or something simlar often it will be tough to completely shift gears into a different format. I had serious issues going from my usual CSMs to Eldar. I have since adapted and enjoy play my DE. Never got used to Eldar and sold them off, but did eventually learn my lessons. That is your biggest issue on the concept. Once you get used to the shift you'll be fine with your new army. I have plenty of armies, but still enjoy playing forces of chaos more often than not. CSMs, cultists, renegades, daemons and so on.

Of course if you find no other force that excites you as much as then no law says you have to have one. Instead come up with different formulas for your nids: Massive horde of gribblies, godzilla force, mix, what have you. You can find variety on the table top in one army. A godzilla focused force will not play anywhere near the same as a massive horde of gaunts will.

Skriker

While BT are and will remain my primary force and "first love", I really want to get some games in with my Orks as well, and even the Chaos Marines. Actually I expect many non-BT games having a mixed CSM/Ork list.

My primary army has been Tau since their first codex, but I eventually grabbed a CSM back in 4th (thousand sons using 3.5 dex). The CSM army was shelved for the longest time until I just sold it all piece by piece. Just recently I started building it back up by this time around I aimed for deathguard.

My armies have always been more of a modelling project first and then trying to add competitiveness second. It really helps that both armies are well supported with forgeworld conversions to spice them up/add some uniqueness

The goal is to have 3-4 40k armies of around 1500-2000 pts. I'm not interested in apocalypse so I probably wouldn't go very far over the 2000 pt cap.

If your like me than eldar and daemons might appeal to you. I used to only have nids but these 2 with all their MCs and psychic powers are great too.

Thanks for all the great replies! I love reading about other people's experiences in the hobby and this has granted me enlightenment on my difficulties.

From what I think would be fun, Daemons and DE feel the closest to my heart. I suppose I should put some money into one or the other after the new nids codex drops.