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I have been browsing the forum for quite a while now but thought I would sign up today! So, hello!

I have been playing 40k for a while now and have just over 3000 points of orks, no where near being painted though! Although I really enjoy playing them, Im getting to the stage where I am thinking of starting up a new army: one that doesnt have the 'beginner' stereotype, better stats and has a higher point value per model (especially compared to the boyz!)

So...I am wondering how you chose your armies? Particularly from those of you who have a second army?

Many thanks for reading

I chose my Templars because I had 2 friends who started as Orks, and as such I had access to cheap marines. That, combined with my (false) assumption that black and white couldn't be too hard to paint gave me the Templars.

I love the alpha legion.

I also love that I can run my CSM as any one of 7 different armies (CSM, SM, SW, DA, BA, BT, DH/GK). To justify the DH I just invoke Malal, chaos god of anti chaos The rest I just say the the legion changed its' tactics to suit its' current needs gotta love the extreme flexibility.

Marines cam in the starter set. 4th edition. And I liked the pretty pictures of the armor. BA have fast tanks and the cool redemption theme going. Everything else fell into place.

Irony.

I picked Witch Hunters.

My surname is Witchell.

I chose the tau, after much debating on what I wanted my first army to be.

Essentially I liked how they look, but knew little about them.

I chose the Dark Eldar a week ago. I really liked how they looked, after picking up a codex and glancing over it I fell in love with their fluff, and the over all style they deliver on the battle field. Thus, I purchased my starter army.

I had a buddy who started 40K with 2 AoBR set and said "Hey man if you want to play too then take these orks, I don't want them."

Me - "Okay, fine. I'll play your silly little game." I stare at the big Wall 'o' 40k.
Me - "What should I play?"

Friend - "Well, I play Eldar. You don't want to play Space Marines. Everyone plays them. It's lame and I'll make fun of you."

Me - "Oh, okay, well, tell me about some of them."

Friend - "Well, there's IG. They're just normal guys. They kind of remind me of the WWII Russians. They send lots guys out poorly armed and mostly rely on strength of numbers. They have Commissars who actually shoot their own guys if they're not doing well... hey, where are you going with that battleforce?"

I chose my army (SM) after being inspired by the 'Sons of Fenris'.

I've had gakloads of armies over the last ~18 years. My two most coherent armies were my Salamanders, which I picked because I liked their fluff, and my new Tyranids, which I've liked since 2nd edition but never had the money to start.

I have every single army and a nonspecific homebrew chapter that conforms to all of the different marine codexes.

After bouncing around from army to army for a while - started with Tau (go go Greater Good!), moved to Sisters (Saw Celestine's picture and fell in love), moved to Guard (liked a line in the fluff - "...the Guardsman must battle the hordes of terrifying aliens with fire in their bellies and courage in their hearts."), liked Tyranids because of the Zerg like mentality, and now settled on Eldar because I have read the entire codex and I fell in love with their fluff.

Plus, all this time I had always been interested in an Eldar Army, but never found a build I was happy with. I have now, having finally examined the codex in closer detail.

I picked all three of my armies (necrons, CSM, and DE) based on fluff, aesthetics, and theme.

After I pick something based on its coolness then I adjust to it's gameplay style after the fact.

This applies to things outside of WH40k as well, like maining a character or faction in a video-game.

I started guard because I love the idea of human triumphing over aliens and super humans. And I'm a military history buff.

I chose BA because of Sanguinary Guard.

Started with renegade guard to have fun tanks AND be against the carrion-man. Also, my speed freeks are the fruition of my love for conversions and kit-bashes/builds. I really enjoy how flexible Orks are when it comes to modeling.

Picked tyranids because I was told to by the hive mind.

Now I am playing "Space Wolf" Salamanders. I call them Space Drakes to justify

Started off many moons ago like most of us did with SM and that was back in the days of 2nd edition. Then one day at the local GW store I forgot to bring my minies so I got given the stores IG to use and that was it beging of a 15 year love hate relasionship with the mighty Guard.

I went with IG because I'm not that smart so attrition-style warfare suits me, plus I like the big impressive tank models.

Now I find out Mech IG (well, mech anything) is the staple of 40K, so I feel quite cheap. Close assault army will be next.

After buying the 40k starter box many years ago I started space wolves (The orks in the box looked crappy unfortunately). I then found out a few months later (darn you crappy white dwarf!!) that there where more armies to choose from. Found Eldar, never looked back.

I love how every aspect is like taking up a form of martial arts for the Eldar. Also they had big hair back then which was awesome. These days, not so much big hair.. sigh.

It was between orks and nids. I really don't like painting vehicles. Choose orks because there were more nids in the area at the time. Started quite a few armies: eldar, vanilla SM, deathwing, Chaos, but never got any of them pass 500 points. Started a 2nd ork army though.

I like tanks. A lot. So I picked IG.

Then I realized that IG is a powerhouse codex.

I want an elite army now.... (Looks at rumor of Grey Knights)

I picked my Wolves because I loved the models, really - I liked the Marine codex, but didn't like that the bolter marines only came in one pose: holding the bolter across the chest. Meanwhile I've got 40 Grey Hunters plus several other Space Wolves models, and almost every one of them is unique. I had to pick some snap fit marines, since the Dev squads only come with enough for five models, but for the most part they're an absolute blast to model.

I mainly play Orks as I am an infantry lover, love close combat, and love having huge swarms of dudes. Their sense of humor is also whacky. Perfect match.

My 2nd army is SM, but who doesn't have SM? I mainly picked Ultramarines 4th Company since I'm a huge fan of the novels by Graham McNeill; Uriel Ventris is a badass. I won't play these very often since I'm maintaining them as a "public army" (meaning that friends can play them if they don't want to spend a lot of $$ on the hobby). Thankfully I don't have to buy a lot of models to complete SMs, as down the road I want to start building CSMs. Black Legion specifically. Black Legion are iconic CSMs in my eyes, and them being the descendants of Horus is just more badass. All of the crazy things that the troops get just for being Chaos is even more mind blowing.

I've liked the fluff on most of the armies I've played, and that holds true for the primary armies I play in both 40K and WFB. What put both over the edge though were the look of the models. I love how Tau Crisis Suits look, which is a distinctly minority opinion on this here interweb thingy. And in WFB, I believe the Ushabti are basically the best metal models GW have ever put out, so I play Tomb Kings (or I will once I've digested how 8th Edition changes things up for them)

As to my secondary armies (that I no longer actively collect), that was a fluff thing also. I liked that the Salamanders were the nice guys of the Space Marines, and I've always loved Thunder Hammers & flame weapons as a theme. And in WFB, I like Bretonnia because I'm a fan of Arthurian myth.

I just loved the fluff of the Imperial Guard - The common man being sent out to defend humanity, armed with only a cheap lasgun, and his wits. Grabbed me straight away...

Started orks because they have been prevalent since 2nd edition when i started them. i have since lost in moves, or sold a bunch of the outdated stuff.

Various marine chapters like BA and SW I started in various stages of completion because they were much more flavourful than ultras.. but now I don't like them as much seeing as how fielding either army makes people cry like babies. So I stick to the generally unhated orks

Started my Chaos Space Marines because I liked marines, but was told not to play Space Marines because every man and his dog does, so I went for the spikey version.

I'm new to the game (in the last month). I spent a couple weeks reading the rulebook and various codices and doing research online about the various armies. I didn't want to make the wrong choice, and didn't pick the first thing that stuck out to me.

I wanted a well-rounded army that's competitive and fun for newcomers, decent at both shooting and assaulting (so I can experience the whole game), that GW supports well, plus I'm a sucker for power armor.

I'm playing Space Marines. I know it's typical. So sue me.

(I love the fiction for CSM, but I'm not in love with their horny-spiky look).

At first I chose space marines because they appealed to me. Had no idea they appealed to everyone else.

I chose second my Imperial Guard because I like the notion of mortals fighting insurmountable odds and triumphing, But I also like to possess enough firepower for my enemy to be scared to come out in the open towards me.

It is my belief that you should never enter an assault with out the ability to win outright, So playing a Grey Knight army is fine for me, because they will generally kick ass at range and melee, but I have always believed in range over close combat, So space marines and imperial guard suited me.

In the end its just personal preference

I started Ultramarines because GW bigged SM up and always have done, and when I got Battle for Macragge, I just thought they were cool. I started my Tau recently purely because they look awesome, and I like their play style.