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I started with the old metal Thousand Sons. I loved the look of them (still do). Back then, I decided to paint them red because I didn't like the blue look. Little did I know that that was their original color.

I learned more and started collecting all sorts of Chaos Marines, focusing more on Slaanesh in the end. I got 15,000 points of CSM and another 2,000 points of Slaanesh Daemons. I went through phases of Tau, Imperial Guard, Eldar and Dark Eldar, Admech, and finally Space Marines. In the end, I had to sell a lot of it and held onto my Space Marines because, in my thinking, they'd always get the most support from GW at the very least.

Now, I'm patiently waiting for Sisters of Battle, which would have been my very first army if some beardies hadn't talked me out of it and pushed me towards Chaos instead during that original purchase over 11 years ago.

I got started into 40k because my high school friends were getting into it. I looked at each of the factions to see what I liked. There were two that caught my eye: Tau and Space Marines. When I started college, I got about 20 1st edition Terminators from a professor who was selling a collection he found, and I learned about the Space Wolves. I liked that they were Space Vikings and, at least in 40k, we're good guys, so I started collecting a tournament level army for them. I eventually sold most of that army, keeping only the Terminators, as the army got too big for me to focus on painting and I was winning without even trying.

I decided to get back in after college was done. I still wanted Space Marines, but didn't want to deal with all of the wolfy bits. I looked through the Space Marine Legions and was torn between the Thousand Sons and the Imperial Fists. I decided on Thousand Sons as they had the easier paint scheme. Learning more about the Mongols and Genghis Khan, if I were to choose again, it would be choosing between the Thousand Sons and White Scars.

Once I can get a place with more storage space, I might start Imperial Guard. At the moment however, I'm looking to make some space so I can get the Sisters of Battle when they come out in plastic.

When I first got into the lore and models, Witch Hunters was my first choice. I loved the lore and the individuality of the Inquisitors. Plus Sisters of Battle looked awesome in a hoaky sorta way. But damn were they expensive! I ended up going with Space Wolves because of pricing. Also, drunk werewolf vikings from 38 thousand years in the future are hilariously awesome.

Played dawn of war UA mod and loved necrons and their lore but they made by PC crash so I went for the next tankiest guys the SM.

Watched some Harlequin Casts of Dawn of War 2: Retribution and really liked the Orks. Played some of Ret and to experience the awesomeness of Orks through the campaign and the units in general. Jump ahead a year or two and I was looking to get out of MtG so me and a friend sold our cards (honestly got a decent trade in for them) and used that to start up armies (i got Orks, he got Space Wolves). Killa Kanz really caught my interest so I wanted to make a Kan Wall army (started in 6th so the Kan Wall strategy worked out about as well as you might expect). The trade in what when I first saw Tau and less than 3 months later I started a Tau army as well to go against my Orks when playing at home (6th edition Orks vs Tau also went as well as you might expect).

I got in to 40k thru my friend in 6th grade after playing d&d and getting bored with the fantasy setting. he got the starters set and I bought a bunch of squats. I had played dwarves in d&d and loving the tough and craftsmen style I thought squats fit the bill. played them for a year then bought a squad of marines. quit when they squatted my Squats and sold them but kept 1 squad of marines. 8th dragged me back with primaris, Primarchs and waaay more vehicles than RT but same feel (at least how I feel, ymmv)

Started with blood angels from space crusade, because of the colour red (out of options of red, blue and yellow). Had a brilliant idea to make my own chapter called the dark angels, who would have black armour. Then got a hold of the old rt rulebook, and discovered they were already a thing. Said screw it and stuck with blood angels, who also happened to feature in 2nd edition when it came out. But yeah, basically a choice between red, blue and yellow.

My first army was Dark Angels mainly because I liked the look of their green armor. When I looked into them more and saw the robes on some of the guys, I liked them even more, so I picked up a few models (my first ones were the old paint set that came with 5 bolter Marines and some paints). I then picked up Dark Vengeance, and my collection only snowballed from there.

was a huge wow (for the horde!!!!) player so of course I had to go Orks when I was looking over all the armies to choose my first

I enjoy the horde idea, the barbarism of orks, the slight comedy factor they bring to the universe, and the clanking, oil-chugging nature of their tech. Plus I find humans boring, and I hate elves, so that really limited my options at the time.

First Army: 650 points of Necrons.

It was late 3rd/early 4th edition and my best friend growing up introduced me to the game. he explained the factions and when he got to Necrons he said "Robot Zombies" and I was sold. I bought a lord and a box of Warriors and painted them with super thick layers of applebarrel paints.


First complete 2000 point army: Tau
Towards the end of 4th, my friend, who had been playing Tau since he introduced me to the game, was selling his Tau list to make a Salamanders army because of the Codex Rumors. I bought them from him and ran that Tau army well into 6th edition, right after the Tau book dropped. Then I got burnt out because me and that friend never played or saw each other, We had just drifted apart since Middle school way back in 2004. I ended up selling it and the codex to try and fund a CSM army, but never got past 500 points because none of my friends played and I didn't really feel close with the Local 40k community.

My first model was an Incubi because I liked how edgy and spiky it looked.

My first army was Space Wolves because I liked Space Vikings in Space. This was before the current lore turned them all into hypocritical furry jackasses.

My first intro into 40k was 2nd ed. I was visiting some friends and they had between them Eldar and marines. I liked the marines more than the eldar. I purchased the old starter with SM and orcs with the paper ork killer can. After a little research I decided to go with Tyranids as my first "real" army after the starter and I quickly sold/traded away the marines and orcs. In my many years of playing I have dabbled in nearly every non chaos faction with only a slight toe dip into Tzeenech .... disliked and sold soon after though. I always came back to my bugs. Eventually just as 5th was begining I got out completely. I came back in at the beginning of 6th with Gray knights and Tau because I wanted to start completely fresh and I had never done ether army justice. Within a year I quit both and started Tyranids again. I currently have Tyranids as my main army with GSC/Guard as my allies and a small(2500pts so far) of Primaris Marines (which I am thinking of unloading). In the end my first love Tyranids is still and I guess always will be my favorite. The way I see it they are the least "Evil" army of 40k. They have some of the coolest models and best painting/modeling opportunities.

I Picked guard back in 4th edition because when I was 11, they fit the Theme of my favorite movies at the time, and I always kept saying "Nuke em Reco!"


Edit: grammer

Started when I was under 10, and tyranids were just too damn cool. It had to be them, and I dont regret a second of it (and they werent very good when I started playing with them)

Back in fourth I had a few guys from the FLG invite me to their game night which mostly consisted of 40K. Got instantly hooked on the look of it and ability to customize my own force far beyond what RTS games on the PC allowed.

They advised to start with marines and so after looking at some of the chapters I just kind of liked the heraldic and color scheme of the wolves. Read space wolves the first omnibus and painted up a rhino, Landspeeder and Greyhunter Squad. Then fifth ed. hit and I got the marine part of two black reach sets which was when I really had an army!

 BaconCatBug wrote:
My first model was an Incubi because I liked how edgy and spiky it looked.

My first army was Space Wolves because I liked Space Vikings in Space. This was before the current lore turned them all into hypocritical furry jackasses.

I feel the same way, really enjoyed the whole viking theme more than werewolves in space; although the fenrisian wolves are pretty neat for some fantasy settings/conversions. Kind of waiting for the codex to see if I can dust them off, turn the rest into Templars or just drop marines all together. Any way to currently run them without wulfen or as Thunderlords babysitting an IG gunline?

My introduction to the Warhammer 40k universe was the Space Hulk 1st Edition. I still prefer Space Hulk games over Warhammer 40k, but I love 40k gaming and lore because of Space Hulk.

I picked Astra Militarum because it had a great 'David vs. Golaith' feel and I loved modifying parts to make some 'city catachan' by blending SM Scount, Cadian and Catachan parts. Unfortunately even getting close to winning a match won my a lecture from somebody about how 'broken' my codex was. After the third time I had to repurchase models to align to another wave of point cost changes (Sigh - my poor Salamander Command Tank) and the upteenth lecture, I gave up and sold them all. I kept Marbo though. He runs with my inquisitors now.

 Overread wrote:

Spoletta wrote:
Hormagaunts! Why would i need any other reason?

I hope you mean the original ones


I remember getting 3 of those in metal - gosh they were tricky to assemble and never ever ever ever stood up without falling over.

I got started at age 12, these guys and the original genestealers and termagants (not hunter slayers) are what did it for me. I had already seen some of the models in random magazines, and when I found out two of my friends played I got started right away (at the end of 2nd(/start of 3rd). It was the looks and the fluff for me, the short stories in the 2nd ed nid codex are awesome. It helped that I was a huge fan of the alien movies ofc.

In Second edition everyone was assembling Space Wolf Termi’s with Cyclones and Assault cannon, and loading them up under the Lion Helm circle protection, and sporting a tech marine with a graviton gun and a jump pack.

So I thought.. I be ultramarines would be a challenge… And they are. And crazy they turned out to be O.P.

Not counting the starter SM and token IG, my first real army that I bought from the ground up was Tau. When they first came out, they really sounded like good guys, and with how screwed up socially and politically the other factions were, that greatly appealed to me.

Only later on would I start to realize the darker implications of the Tau’s “Greater Good” philosophy equating to fanatical mass self-sacrifice under authoritarian Ethereal mind control.

My dad bought me the paint set that came with 5 marines and a box of “warriors of the imperium”, the manager at the local GW tried to persuade him to get the strike force box but it didn’t work.

Then I started saving pocket money, when painting them I just copied the box art and the included how to guide was for ultramarines and that was followed religiously until I could get my hands on mike mcvey’s 40k paint bible

I started Gray Knights because Crowe is awesome and paladins look cool. Then the custodes came out and now I have my golden one man army of bananas

I was introduced to GW with HeroQuest.
Wasn't until 1997 I was first saw Space Marines and Eldar in a comic store. A friend in high school introduced me to the game via his collection of codecs and white dwarf issues.
I bought the 3rd Edition starter set the day it came out.

I played Chaos Marines but used loyalist models because Chaos models were (and kind of still are) garbage.
I fell in love with Obliterators, specifically the illustration next to their unit entry in the 3.0 codex.

I wanted an army that "could grab a carnifex by the balls" and didn't want Xenos. Shop owner suggested Space Wolves, so I looked into them and fell in love with the norse theme and their lean towards being punchy.

when TWC came out, I was really excited, and when wulfen were released it was just the best.

Outside of the generic starter ultramarines....

Tau

because anime

back in 4th when i was a kid. pretty standard stuff.

I started with Eldar in early second edition. GW sold a box of 2000 points for a little over 100 quid which I got for Christmas. Came with min squads of every unit, 2 Wraithlords, War Walker, Eldrad and every Phoenix Lord. At the time it was great value.

Everyone else I played with were the various SM chapters so it was different. Still got all the models, unpainted as I stripped them a year ago with the intentions of redoing the lot but ultimately other things always came first.

I loved Dwarves in dungeons and dragons back in the 1980's, and still do. I was sad when Squats were discontinued.

It was late 1987. I needed a skirmish game to handle larger actions in our Traveller RPG, and Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader had just arrived at my game store along with the RTB01 Space Marine plastic set. I bought both. My friends enjoyed the skirmishing enough that they all bought Space Marines.

Because Space Marines were all that was available, back in late 1987 San Diego.

I'd fooled around with random minis since 3rd Ed, but the first army I bought into was Space Wolves because I liked the 13th Company aesthetic and fluff (although they were poo on the table so I played them as Codex: SW). I still have my old kitbashed Grey Hunters with "scavenged" CSM plates, plus a handful of original Wulven. My Leman Russ Exterminator is now gone, unfortunately.