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I voted yes because that's what I do. I started however with "OK. I'll have the other half..." when my son and I bought the Space marine / Dark Eldar starter set, and he wanted the marines.... still happy 24 years on with our choices...

When I first started, I got models that sounded cool. Specifically, Necrons. I knew almost nothing about them, save that they could get back up when killed, which sounded awesome to me.

Did that work out? No.

What I actually found was that at low points my army consisted of 1 HQ and 20 useless, overpriced troop models. My shooting was awful and my melee was even worse and so I lost many, many games and felt that there was simply nothing I could do (I couldn't even change my list beyond 40pts of wargear). Even after scaling up to, say, 750pts, a lone Daemon Prince could easily absorb my still-mediocre shooting and shew through my entire army with ease.

Playing them in 5th was more fun (even if I lost there were just more ways to build and use them) but that was two entire editions after I started.


Later, I'd buy into Dark Eldar for a mix of aesthetic and gameplay reasons. I enjoyed them but then got to experience the joy of their codex deteriorating in every subsequent edition.

More recently, I've been buying models for purely aesthetic reasons, including from AoS, just to convert into characters and such for a themed DE army. However, whilst I like the result, the dull-as-dishwater codex has killed any desire I might have had to actually put them on the table.

Take from my experience what you will.

94 i walked into a games store and saw space wolves on the shelf, picked up metal grey hunters and blood claws along with a discounted bjorn.

Never looked back.

Yes, but also no. But mostly yes.

A unit can be super duper fighty and appeal to me, but I can be out off by rubbish or awkward kits.

An overall army can have an excellent aesthetic (Nids), but I might find myself in the position unable to create army to fit my own head canon (also Nids).

I’ve also started “spite” armies, such as 3rd Ed Saim Hann, because “everyone knows they’re rubbish and can’t ever win ever”, and being an intransigent sod, I like to prove people wrong. The staff discount at the time didn’t hurt either!

I was like that with tie defenders in x-wing 1.0, everyone swore they were the worst ship but I mastered that star fighter.

In 6th I ran melee necrons to nerf myself, I used lots of Triarch Praetorians even though they weren't the strongest.

hobojebus wrote:
I was like that with tie defenders in x-wing 1.0, everyone swore they were the worst ship but I mastered that star fighter.

In 6th I ran melee necrons to nerf myself, I used lots of Triarch Praetorians even though they weren't the strongest.

Haha, this was my 7th ed eldar list. 3x storm guardians, 1x avatar (at the time a Guardian Stormhost formation) a big ol footy warlock conclave and then always exactly 1 unit of each aspect warrior squad.

Now those handicaps make the list a bit silly, still seems more effective than my actually coherently designed GSC list which just speaks to how utterly miserable gsc are, but amazingly it does occasionally see some play and it often surprises people.

stroller wrote:
I voted yes because that's what I do. I started however with "OK. I'll have the other half..." when my son and I bought the Space marine / Dark Eldar starter set, and he wanted the marines.... still happy 24 years on with our choices...

Exalted man… wish I had a kid, I would have loved those dark eldars… the few I kept got turned into either guardians by way of hobby knife, or terrain, also by way of hobby knife… with the spiky bits getting plastered on lots of stuff, from wraithlords to avatars to jet bikes. Good stuff.

I fell in love with all things Ork as a wee juve and haven't looked back. Almost everything that gets released for them looks great in my opinion so everything gets bought

As far as my armies go, I like to take reasonably competitive lists with a fluffy twist. Any models I don't like I convert them to my tastes, like my rukkatrukks which are mobile mortar batteries rather than squig catapults.

When I got started with the hobby the first time, in 2007 I wanted to play Squats, but they did not exist. They were the answer to everyone's question "What looks cool to you?"

For many, many reasons at that time I didn't follow through with the hobby. It wasn't until almost a decade later, when I had more money and time that I started modeling and playing. At that time I was told by everyone I met all the meta armies, best units, etc. I did not buy what looked cool to me, but what seemed like it would win.

Yes, indeed.
For me it was the starter box of DE vs. BT.

No, I was steered towards space marines, then had a friend tell me that Dark Angels were the best because they had a section of all terminators.

However, had I picked what would feel the best, I would have picked imperial guard, as drowning people in the bodies of my dead is my idea of a good time.


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hobojebus wrote:
I was like that with tie defenders in x-wing 1.0, everyone swore they were the worst ship but I mastered that star fighter.

In 6th I ran melee necrons to nerf myself, I used lots of Triarch Praetorians even though they weren't the strongest.

I feel you, I was like that with Lambda Shuttles in X wing 1.0. In 6th I made a scions list for guard, and they were pretty bad at the time, only for them to eventually become broke in early 8th how the worm turns.

I'm also quite pissed off they finally decided to give the Lambda shuttle a rear fire arc finally in X wing 2.0 when I asked for it from the start. My rage for it not being in 1.0 is legendary.

For me its probably models I won't buy - regardless of stats.

I will not own Centurions, Dreadknight, Stormsurge (in fact most Tau battlesuits) - I will proxy if allowed or just not bother.

and I donlt like halfings so I don't buy them.

Still do.

Many cool minis later I lament the pile of shame that grows yearly. Mainly with cool looking plastic that will never be painted or even see time on the table.

My current 40k army (SW) relies on what I consider the cooler looking models from 30 years of collecting. Their poor effectiveness is not a counter to how I think they look on a table.

I usually use what seems cool as a way to decide what order I should get stuff in then get everything in order from coolest to least cool.

No. My friend group had every army except Imperial guard and space wolves. Whilst I really liked the look of space wolves I was discouraged from them since so many people had space marines. I started guard.

I do have nostalgia for the guard but I really should've picked something else. Gorkamorka showed me the error of my ways and I've been an ork at heart ever since.

hobojebus wrote:
94 i walked into a games store and saw space wolves on the shelf, picked up metal grey hunters and blood claws along with a discounted bjorn.

Never looked back.

You clearly are person of great taste.

 Jaxter wrote:
I've only been in this hobby for a few months now, but everyone i've asked says "get what looks cool to you", and I wonder how many people actually do/did this?
I've been following this mentality and i'm going to get some imperial knights for my birthday in a week.

Varies from person to person.

My first army are the NL from 2nd and I still don't have hellturkeys, dinobots and mutilators for a very good reason.

 Jaxter wrote:
I've only been in this hobby for a few months now, but everyone i've asked says "get what looks cool to you", and I wonder how many people actually do/did this?
I've been following this mentality and i'm going to get some imperial knights for my birthday in a week.

For me 100% yes and always for the last 20 years.

For you, that really depends on what are looking for from the hobby. I think there are roughly three ways to go about it.

1) Casual: You plan to play with friends doing casual games or narrative campaigns; or literally don't care about winning or loosing. In this case, get whatever you want and have fun with it.

2) Casually Competitive: If you think you'll be playing a lot of games against randoms at store events and want to give as good as you get. Get a bunch of stuff that you like, play with it until you figure out the kind of playstyle that suits you and get new models to complement that with what you've already got. (This is closeish to what I do and what I'd recommend.)

3) Very Competitive: If you plan on grinding tournaments and the like... well I don't do this so I can't say for sure, but I assume it's buy one of the meta lists until it's not meta anymore, then get a new one?

In the beginning yep, started with the beaky box and the ork box for christmas when Rogue Trader came out and anything 'cool' for either of those factions ate a good portion of my paperboy money

I think having a plan and doing some thinking about purchases didn't really happen till the 2nd Eldar book (93/94ish) although the odd cool model like Bahharoth the Eternally Average slipped the net

I do not buy models I do not like. I don't care how good or effective or efficient they are on the tabletop.