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.

Astra Miliatrum, the vehicles look great and there's something fun about pushing hordes of infantry forward to their doom.

Alas, winning with Astra Militarum is like winning with Eldar - all it does is get you accused of being WAAC. I eventually dropped them in favor of space marines.

Orks are my first 40k army and still my favorite faction. Got into 40k because of Dawn of War 2 and playing the campaign for Kaptain Bluddflagg cemented my love of all things Orky. A year or two after playing DoW and I had the opportunity to sell my MtG decks for some really good store credit and used that to start my Waaagh! (Ork battleforce, box of boyz, 2 boxes of lootas, 2 boxes of kanz). Orks are still my largest army and despite my interest in my Tau and IoM army, I'm always looking for fun projects and lists for my Orks. Only thing I don't like about my Orks is that GW continues to write garbage rules for them which makes it difficult to field them (7th was bad but 8th so far has been far worse).

Black Legion was my first and favourite army.

I still love them, and want to redo the army eventually, but GW has let the Chaos line slowly decline over the last couple decades so I’m sort of waiting to see what undivided chaos brings

What was your very first 40k army? Blood Angels
When / why / how did you buy it? All from the old Games Workshop store that used to be on the local high street
Do you still have it? Yep, it's a battered mess, but still with me.
Is the love still strong? Nope, I only came back just before 8th and Primaris dropped so my old mini marines and metal terminators on 25mm bases have left in a box.

1st Army: Squats c1990
when: was at local hobby shop(I miss D&J) saw these badass dwarves(played dwarf in d&d) on motorcycles and just went nuts w it. mowed a ton of lawns to make the scratch.
Still have: nope, when they unceremoniously squatted them, 13yo me said funk that noise(what a time), sold it off and didn't GW for 25yrs.

My love is still strong but if I wanted to replicate it today, $1500 is around the least I'd be forced to spend, so until the long divined unsquatting, I'll be tryin to pinch pennies.

Way back in second ed - Genestealer Covens

I liked the mix of units you could take - limousine with gatling guns, yep (although that was more RT era).

Nope, they are long gone.

Any love? They disappeared for some time but are now back with a new range, cool. Will wait to see what the codex is like but I am firmly for the Dark Gods these days and have been for a long time.

Dark Angels. I was fourteen and had two paper rounds. Saturday was payday so a buddy and I would pile onto a bus and go to GW and spend all of our money (about £20 a week) there.

I don't remember why I chose Dark Angels but I do remember that I picked Spehss Mahreens because my buddy wanted to play as Black Legion. The current Abaddon model was released around this time, IIRC. I was a big goth so maybe the whole 'Fallen' arc and the romance that's in it did it for me. I spent a fortune on that army and then flogged it for £15 to a mate after I discovered that women exist.

Early Necrons. Before all these new units came along. Beginning of 5th.

I recently gave them away but when I saw you could have a giant Lord of death model and monoliths I was in love.

I still love the army but just can't get in to them currently. Maybe one day again.

Crimson Fists Space Marines.

I was given the Rogue Trader book with about a dozen Marines from the boxed set in high school, and the iconography of the chapter in that book sold me.

Didn't set out to get a full force until the start of 3rd as 2nd did some stuff lorewise with the Fists I didn't like.

I still have the models from the 3rd Ed. ruleset in my army, and only a few models are newer, mostly Termies and vehicles.


Is the love still there? When I deployed to Iraq in 2007, I agreed to get a tattoo as a body identifier in case the worst happened. It's the winged Crimson Fists symbol from the Index Astartes article some years before that.

My first army was Space Wolves. Way back then, I considered the modern/victorian interpretation of Vikings with their endless drinking, partying, fighting, bravado, beards and disregard for authority to be the epitome of coolness.

If you were to ask me now, I'd consider this sort of behaviour immature, childish, stupid and not at all representative of what the Danes and other Scandinavian folks were back then.
Needless to say, I do not play SW anymore. While I can still appreciate their 30k story arc, they simply lost appeal for me. I began to value order and rules (among other things) far more, which brought me into direct conflict with SW.

Now I play IG, Custodes and Knights. That's good enough for me

-grey knights
-early 2000, cant remember exactly when. bought becouse they looked 10x cooler then regular space marines, plus lore.
-yup, pic in my gallery.
-for that little army, yes. for GK in these modern times, not a chanse in hell. bring inqusition back to the codex.

My first army was SM Black Templars. I heard a friend from our D&D group speaking about W40K and when I came home I switched on my Modem and searched on the internet about 40k.
When I saw the Black Templars I decided in the moment. I was a huge reader about the Crusades and the Templairs Orders and it was a fantastic option for me. I really don't renember exactly when it was, 16 years ago probably.
It was also the first time I buyed something online. I was very scared about this, had no idea how it wors. Some day I heard the door and when I oppened I saw a currier guy with a very big box. My mother was very angry because I was buying "children toys" ajajaja, and very expensive ones.
I renember it likes yesterday, I run upstairs likes a kid with a new toy, I closed the door and puted the box on my study table, it was the moment. First I looked the brushes, then the paints, the black spray, the rulebook and then the minis. I really don't renember exactly which minis I bought, think it was a tactical squad and a Dreadnought.
Two years later I begun my studies out from home. there I bought one box every month, continuing my hobby. After this I stopped studying and begun to work, moving from here to there and I stopped the hobby. I continued reading and buying codex and warhammer fantasy army books just for the lore.
Some day (I think 9 years ago) I sold very cheap my entire Black Templars and Tomb Kings army to a friend, I was tired from picking all my boxes and minis every time I changed house.
The funny is, now my firend is in the same situation likes I was before. Now he is going to change not only tow, he his moving to another country and two weeks ago he gived me my Land Raider Crusader, in the box without open. I am speaking every day with him for buying back my army (20 tacticals, 6 scouts, two rhino, 5 terminators, 10 assault marines, 10 veterans, chapplain on terminator armour, Dreadnought, bikes, atack bikes and a Marshal.

Started Death Guard in 2008 I think. Still love them and they're still my main army, even though 7th edition was pretty rough for them. And in 8th I had to split a lot of them to a Renegade chapter (Bikers, raptors, Rapiers, Obliterators, Vindicator).
Nurgle is still my main army, DG is the core with Nurgle Daemons and Renegades as support. Finished my last "Old" Plague Marine last week, only to now have 20 new ones to compliment the 40 old ones

 Ratius wrote:
What was your very first 40k army?

Itarted playing Tau in 2002 after one of my college friends sold me and another friend on the game. We ended up being roommates for the next two years. One played Harlequins/Dark Eldar, the other played Inquisition/Witch Hunters. I wasn't very good, though it probably didn't help that three of us were usually playing in a free for all. I nicknamed my broadsides Boris and Tibor, the latter being a weirdly specific Simpsons reference that had little bearing on my model. Those two could not hit, well, the broad side of a barn. The best performers were always my stealth suits. I usually lost, but I had a lot of fun, and kept slowly buying up models until I ran out of safe space to store them in my dorm room. Your standard fire warrior squads, crisis suits, my lone, precious hammerhead, and, of course, plenty of glorious kroot.

 Ratius wrote:

Do you still have it?

It's long gone. I think one of them ended up with it after we had a falling out.

 Ratius wrote:

Is the love still strong?

I only came back about 6 weeks ago after 12ish years away, and I'm not playing Tau, so it's hard to say. They seem like a somewhat different army now, though, which is in part, of course, because the game also changed. I mean, first of all, they're much stronger, which is still bizarre to me. And good gravy do they have a whole boatload of new suits that they didn't have before. Even the broadsides are huge now! Boris and Tibor, wherever they are, would do well to hit the gym. It bugs me that no one seems to take Kroot, though. I mean, yes, they're only supposed to be screening units or chaff, but I always loved my kroot, and thought that they were a lot of fun to play. I might be biased because they were the sole thing standing between me and close combat with the terrifying space pirates/space clowns/terminators/dreadnoughts that my roommates had access to and were so good at stomping me. The Tau player base also seems different now. I mean, honestly, the very existence of a player base is different. Still, I might give them a try again someday soon. But you had better believe I'm running Kroot, competitive or no.

I was first introduced to 40k in college, and was first drawn to Elysians from Forge World, but my friend told me that Forge World armies were frowned upon and may not be tournament legal, so I never got them. I liked how Genestealers looked and their fluff, but not much else Tyranid related, so I didn't dive into 'nids.


Then the Militarum Tempestus Scions codex came out, and they seemed a lot like Elysians to me, so I picked them as my first army. I didn't care how small their codex was; in fact, I prefered it since that meant all the models in their small codex would be playable. Had a lot of fun with them, but made the mistake of trading them off to try out Skitarii. I tried liking the Skitarii, but they just weren't as fun to me.


Eventually the Genestealer Cult codex came out, and my love for genestealers reignited. Got rid of Skitarii and picked up Genestealer Cult. I guess it turned out for the best since Scions don't have their own codex anymore. Part of me misses Sicons having their own codex, but I'm really enjoying Genestealer Cult.

You can play the Scion codex using the Guard one.

Nids.

Long ago in a galaxy very close. I like gribbly monsters and scary things. With money earned through mowing and working around the neighborhood.

Yes. My swarm is composed of models from their very beginning, all the way through their different resculpts and editions into the modern day.

The love is still strong.

My first army was Ultramarines.

I bought a starter box of Space Marines at a local GW store and it was off to the races. Back then, drybrushing was this new, advanced technique, and my freehand skills were amazing (ly bad.) I picked them because I liked the Land Raider article that appeared in White Dwarf and wanted to build up to it.

I gave that army away to someone when I left for college. That person eventually won some tournament using my models. Like most things hobby-related, it did better after I stopped using it.

I don't love them anymore. Not by any stretch. After my first Ultramarine army was done, I moved to Chaos and Genestealer Cults. Which were both insanely good by comparison.

wow! Good question. My first Warhammer 40k Army would be my Deathguard painted in my own dark angels green/snot green/purple paint scheme. Since I started at 2nd edition it is made up of mostly RT with my very own custom (all G.W. parts thou) Nurgle War Altar created in the Citadel Journal using a leman russ battle tank. It's more comical than serious but still a great center piece. The altar is Arkhan the black's winged chariot with the oop chaos sorcerer with the abbaddon top knot at the helm. It made my heart glad it now has a tank of it's own plus other vehicles! And yes I still have it as selling it would not be worth it as the painting is good at best, not great and I really sucked at bases so.....

My first models were a box of assault marines but my first army was tyranids.
Bought the assault marines from a local hobby shop that sold models and fishing gear and the nids off ebay.
Still have all of them with most of the 'nids still unassembled.
The love for 'nids died quickly when I found out how synapse worked and when I realised I'd need to basically roll hundreds of dice per squad if they ever got into combat. I had some zoanthropes, a few warriors and a carnifex but the majority of the army was a bunch of gaunts. The zoanthropes were a PITA to deal with and I recently found 2 of my metal zoanthropes still in their blisters, not sure where the third is but it's most likely lost pieces over the years because they just wouldn't stay on and I was a child who'd never heard of pinning.
I do still like the look of nids and might've stayed with them if I'd planned out my army better and wasn't stuck with a group of people obsessed with playing pretty much exclusively 3000pt+ games.

Harlequins, circa 1992-3ish?
Bought the new vehicles and bikes a couple years ago.
8th edition and Ynarri idiocy killed all enthusiasm.
Aledari?
Eldar. geez. Wtf gw?
or is it Agwi now?

What was your very first 40k army? Dark Angels

When / why / how did you buy it? Dark Vengeance Starter Box in 2015 abut a week before their 7th Edition Codex dropped

Do you still have it? Absolutely, though some of them are in pieces right now. This is not because of mishandling them or a dog chewing them up, but because I wanted to strip them and repaint them. To be able to get to all the small pieces like I wanted to and try to strip them of paint, I ended up breaking a lot of the models apart as they were all originally put together with plastic glue. I have a feeling that if I spent a fair amount of time on them, I could put them all back together and paint them well. They may look battle damaged, but they'd be table worthy.

Is the love still strong? I have a bad habit of jumping around from project to project, army to army, game to game (between 40K and AoS), so it definitely isn't as strong as when I first got them. That said, I'm working on putting together and painting one 30K army, one 40K Imperium army, one 40K Chaos army, one 40K Xenos army (and doing the same for AoS). I have already decided that my 40K Imperium army will be my Dark Angels. So, they are staying around for sure!

SG

What was your very first 40k army?

Blood Angels.

When / why / how did you buy it?

It was a birthday present about 18 years ago, I just loved the red armour and "Blood Angels" sounded so badass. Kids, right?

Do you still have it?

No - I traded the models a few years later (the group I was playing with were more focused on Warhammer Fantasy) for The Empire army book and some Knights, Greatswords and a pile of Halberdiers/Swordsmen. I traded that away later that year for the beginnings of my Imperial Guard army as I just liked the 40k setting so much more.

Is the love still strong?

Absolutely, in mid-7th I picked back up into Blood Angels and by now have about 4k of the lovely red lads.

As Rogue trader ended, and 2nd edition started, everyone bandwagoned on Spacewolves as they had some hilariously OP stuff, like Termi’s with Cyclone and Assault Cannon.

And then Codex Marines Dropped, and people cried as it cleared up a few holes, but I saw something that has lasted true for the next 7 editions..

Ultramarines are OP. And now they have been for 7 editions. Crazy.

Started collecting Space Wolves in the early 90s. But my first army love is orks. The ability to customize them and just do what you want is incredible. The fluff is great. They have a wonderful attitude about themselves. I still have both armies.

Fantasy High Elves starting in 1997. Sold them last year.

Imperial Guard Steel Legion. Sold two years ago.

My most enduring love has been for my Orcs and Goblins, a collection which started in 2003. I'll pay someone to paint it all when I make it big (kek).

My grey knights. Started with them and they are still my main army. Love what they are, an army of battle mages that are designed to go toe to toe with demons. I've always been drawn to paladin/battle mage type game play in all rpgs, MMOs, etc, so this was a natural fit.

What I've grown to love about them is their beautiful models and highly adaptive play style. They play in every phase of the game.
The have good movement, shooting, psyker, and assault but aren't the best in any category. They are also tons of fun to paint and assemble.
I may never finish them since I paint each one to a character standard.

I like their fluff and their relationship with the imperium and Inquisition. I know lots of people don't like them for their 'mary sue-ness' but I like their character and fluff.

Even though they are on the struggle bus right now competitively, I still enjoy playing them, and always love shocking people when I cast 10+ powers a turn.

What was your very first 40k army?
When / why / how did you buy it?
Do you still have it?
Is the love still strong?

My first army was Eldar, way back in 3rd edition. I was in high school, and on a fantasy and elves kick. A couple of friends had just come back from their first GenCon trip and had picked up some stuff. This was back around 1998. If you look at my bin-o-guardians, you can see my progression of both painting skill, and craftworld affiliation. Biel Tan, Alitoc, but around the early 2000's Switched to Iyanden and never went back.

I still have it. Moved to Japan for a contract job, and once I was settled in, my aunt mailed me my core eldar and my sisters (yay for flat rate postage!)

The love is still strong. During 7th, she saw less table time, out of embarrassment for her codex, but still got used. However, my eldar is less of a priority for painting and modeling.

My first army was Dark Angels. I love the green armor, and the fact that some of them wear monk robes over it, which is AWESOME! I also love the lore, how they have this deep dark secret that they don't allow anyone else to know.

And on the color scheme thing, it's actually 3 schemes in 1, which is even cooler! I just wish Deathwing didn't suck balls on the tabletop.

 Ratius wrote:
What was your very first 40k army?
When / why / how did you buy it?
Do you still have it?
Is the love still strong?

I started with Space Wolves in 1st edition, just as they got their own army list and models. Used them all through 2nd edition and into 3rd, but more recently I've been concentrating on my Imperial Guard, Elysians and Astral Claws Space Marines. Now, I think, it's time to go back to them, though. I got rid of a lot of the models, but I've still got the metal Wolf Guard, Long Fangs, some Grey Hunters and the characters, as well as a mighty host of Terminators that I acquired to use in Space Hulk, and the Stormclaw set still on sprues somewhere.