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So, I was a Space Wolf player for a while (along with 75% of the other players at my FLGS the other 24% were either Blood Angels or "the Army of the Week") and I got sick of seeing the same list on the table game after game so I decided to start a new army!

I picked Eldar just to see some more flavor coming to the table and it has been doing surprisingly well, I think because no one remembers how to fight them anymore!

So my question is: Does anyone else pick an army based on how popular it is in your area even if it is considered a dated army?

Cool another Eldar player!

I usually pick an army on the looks and fluff though.

Yes! It was one of several contributing factors to me picking up both SoB and WH Inquisition.

I chose Eldar simply because of the looks. I have other armies in the works, CSM and BA but thats simply because i BA were my first army and CSM were my third and i recently just picked up all my marine stuff from my old house.

If i were to start another army that i hadn't collected before it'd most likely be orks, simply for the conversion oppertunities, or DE because of the looks again...

I can't lie, the Eldar looks are what sold me on them when picking a lesser played army.

I play 3 arnies in warhammer 40k, and I dabble in one in fantasy. Non where chosen because I liked the power level:

SW: I really needed something to use my marines from 12 years back. I also really love the way you buy the list with GH and WG. That gives a lott of flexabilaty. I also love the concept of thunder wolves (so yeah I have some of those). I do not spam razor backs, I find it a bit lame.

Tyranids: Whats not to love? They rock. Models are cool. Genstealers steal your genes. One bad thing: I have a hard time playing them because I really do not like the codex.

Dark Eldar: Jawsy! So good models. And I can deploy out of transports that have moved 12! So far those transports have died a lott but the thought is good.

Tomb Kings: I really wanted to play undead. And everybody else is tier of meeting counts, so they are a good choise. To bad they are VERY bad. (Should have gone for ninja skaven!)

Yep... I like to play something different than the other players.

-Myst

locally noone plays Dark Angels, so that did help with my decision, but my end choice would have to be Fluff/ the Look of Deathwing

EDIT: purchased before I was aware of FAQ

I definitely prefer more unique armies and those with a distinct aesthetic flair, but I also take into account how an army plays. My Deathwing is ultra-elite and really tough, but at a low model count. My Tau were supposed to be the SAFH, and I hope they will be again after a codex update. My Eldar are a combination of fast moving and ultra-specialized to rip the enemy to shreds with superior tactics (or they will be when I get some more Wave Serpents). Other a combination of fluff, models, competitiveness, and play style determined my army selections (though not necessarily in that order).

I've been thinking about the same thing. I play BA but i've gotten bored of playing and seeing so many other generic SM armies. What factors for me is the look of the models and the price. Price is the reason I havn't started a Sisters army. I went back to my orks, but not the generic Kan wall/BW rush with a big mek, instead a speed freak clan.

The friends I play with play DE, Eldar, and nids, so thats off my list. I was looking for a non-SM army (no grey knights or chaos, Power armour ges boring to paint!). While orks are a popular army, the models and price of them really drew me back. Plus, is there isn't any other armies!!

I picked Eldar just to see some more flavor coming to the table and it has been doing surprisingly well, I think because no one remembers how to fight them anymore!

Lol. This could make the difference.
The Eldar codex is not up to date but still better than the other forgotten Xenos races Tau and Necrons.

Tau still work fine, its just most people don't realise how to play with them properly. I would probably rate them on par with Eldar (assuming both a fully tuned competitive lists of course, you can still make some incredibly bad armies with both lol).

Honestly I can't imagine playing an army just because its cool and everyone else is playing it. But then again I'm not 13 and desperately trying to be cool either. Pick an army if you enjoy the fluff/playstyle/models or combination thereof but never simply because other people are playing it. Having said that because new armies tend to arrive with a bunch of cool models and introduce or revitalise an existing playstyle its almost inevitable that a bunch of players are going to start them at once (as amazingly enough people can have similar interests).

I do however feel for guys who are long time players of an army which has ended up as 'flavour of the month' though. Like everyone else who is using them they often take some flak for playing them when in fact its always been there army of choice (people who played SW's through 3rd and 4th with the old codex, old BA players etc).

I ran into a deathwing army last night. It was cool se the terminator marines lumbering across the field.

Good initiative! I actually started my IG under 4ed simply because everyone else was playing space marines (be it BA, DA, GK, Ultramarines.. to me it's all space marines). After the 5ed there was an increase in IG armies so now I started an ork army together with a friend for some more variation.

I think it makes it more fun and when playing against armies with an outdated codex (such as necrons, tau) I try to take less strong lists to make it more interesting.

Powerguy wrote:Tau still work fine, its just most people don't realise how to play with them properly. I would probably rate them on par with Eldar (assuming both a fully tuned competitive lists of course, you can still make some incredibly bad armies with both lol).

Honestly I can't imagine playing an army just because its cool and everyone else is playing it. But then again I'm not 13 and desperately trying to be cool either. Pick an army if you enjoy the fluff/playstyle/models or combination thereof but never simply because other people are playing it. Having said that because new armies tend to arrive with a bunch of cool models and introduce or revitalise an existing playstyle its almost inevitable that a bunch of players are going to start them at once (as amazingly enough people can have similar interests).

I do however feel for guys who are long time players of an army which has ended up as 'flavour of the month' though. Like everyone else who is using them they often take some flak for playing them when in fact its always been there army of choice (people who played SW's through 3rd and 4th with the old codex, old BA players etc).

I know what you mean. I started my space wolves back in 2ed edition. Played them through 3rd edition. I started orks in 3rd ed after I got a copy of gorkamorka. Did not play 4th ed at all. When 5th ed came out I got back into 40k. Much to my suprise my old 3rd ed wolves book was still the current one. When the new dex came out I was very happy with the results. True there was a lot of band wagon people. But now those guys are jumping on other wagons like BA and dark eldar. I am going to stick with my wolves and orks.

i pick armies based on what list i want to play. i started with necrons, because i thought wraiths were the bees knees. my second army was orks, where i wanted to run kan wall. third, i picked up space wolves for loganwing, and last i jumped on the BA wagon to run an army with 8 dreadnoughts.

Long time Dark Angels player but when the new C: SM codex came out I tabled them.

SW - Logan w Wolf Guard - termie list.

CSM - Emp Children list - not maxed but does well with it.

Bugs - Haven't gotten the gumption to build to the new codex - but want to do the carpet.

Eldar - Currently my biggest army but a friend of mine did a similar Eldar and didn't want to run it with him running one.

Dark Eldar - Kalabite warrior raider/reaver list. Current army of choice. it is fun and shatters like glass. Very intimidating to opponents with the amount of death DE can deal out. If they just learn to weather the initial storm, they will find that they melt away like a blizzard hitting a bon fire.

Orcs - Army in the works.

Okay so I have gotten into a real lack of focus but I have tried to stay away from the flavor of the day and build interesting lists not the killer lists. The CSM is slaanesh themed. So Emporer's Children with some lash princes. Good but not min-maxing the codex. Logan + termi wolf guard - characterful but by no means OP. Patiently waiting the new Dark Angel codex and then will build one around tacticals. The eldar - always liked the foot slogging eldar or the Saim Hann bike list but I can field about everything.

Now I will say I have stayed away from the IG just because I know how to build the OP list but the purpose is to have fun not rub my opponent's nose in it and then stuff him into a trash compactor. I want to have an army that is a challenge for me to play with, fun to look at and not a gimmie for my opponent. So I will concede, I have no desire to build Tau or Necrons at this point because while they meet 1st and 2nd criteria they fail at the 3rd.

I play IG, Ultramarines and, more recently, a mono-Khorne Daemon army. I think that Daemons are one of the rarest armies around, I've yet to see one IRL.

L. Wrex

Eldar are rare now?

Comparatively. I only usually see 1 or 2 (if that) at a local tournament, or a few of them at a big event. I think there were only 3-4 of them at The Conflict GT last month. They look great but the codex is really showing its age.

Huh. Seems like it's been Wolves today, Leaf Blower yesterday, and Mech Eldar the day before that. But, come to think of it, "day before that" was early 2009 . . .

I picked my Tau before I even had the slightest idea of the rules, I liked the fluff and the guns. Can't afford a new army so I'm running with them for the foreseeable future.

Thats why I picked IG before I knew they were getting a new codex.

Thats why I picked GK about 8 years ago

Thats why I just traded for a Tau Army

. . . I picked up Nurgle because someone I knew was selling them cheap . . .

The quoting system isn't working so to Manchu:

The store I play at and the tournies I play in are very very very Flavor of the Month. For instance, the last tournament I went to was a 2's team tourny and there were 16 teams that showed up. Of that there were 6 SW/SW teams, 4 SW/BA teams, and 1 SW/SM team. Unfortunately, a little weighted on the SW's!!!

The xenos represented were 2 Tau teams, 1 Daemons team, a Chaos/SM, and... can't remember the last.

ANYWAY!

It seems like you get a couple of vet players who are successful with an army and all the newer players follow suit lol! We are seeing it with DE now.

I picked daemons because I thought they looked the coolest...but one of the contributing factors was that no one else played them.

I picked my armies by fluff, play style, and if other people are using them.

I don't realy bother with what other people are using. I play the army I want to play. Only once did I ever catch flack for my army choice. I calmly explained to the lad that I had been painting and playing space marines longer than he had been alive. That seamed to do the trick, we played a lovely game and left with a new long term opponent.

This was part of the reason i started up GKs. i wanted something no one else played and an army with alot of character.


I am not upset that they are now likely becoming more mainstream. i now look forward to kicking some serious booty.

Eldar were my second army ever, back in '99 I think, chosen because of the look of the Ulthwe army. I keep coming back around to them every few years--and a lot of my non-Eldar armies I find I'm trying to play them as if they were Eldar.

But usually I start a new army because my imagination is captured by a particular *list* or list concept rather than a particular army book. Usually it's something that's somehow different from what people around me are mostly playing.

Look and play style. I also play with a close group of friends and we didn't double up on armies.

Other reasons would be that I started with Nids in 2nd ed and over time i came to want an army with better survivability, so I started 4th ed Nurgle CSM. Then I wanted to play something that had more variety and speed so I'm currently running bikes and mech Eldar.