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So I was just thinking, do you guys build a list and buy strictly based on that or do you just get sort of a general theme and buy what looks pretty?

I look at what I like in the army fluff and looks wise, make it into a list, and then buy the stuff in the army list. Hence why my Chaos force has no Lash Princes, no oblits, a Chaos Lord (Dark Apsotle) and bikers.

I do some research and then keep my eyes open for deals that would make it cheaper to jump start an army.

My primary goal is to fill up the FoC with units. Every army I make has a different playstyle and composition.

Examples: My tau are all shooting, of course.
My orks are hordes of boys and walkers, with some kommandos and nobs. Basically horde play.
Chaos on the other hand is all troops. I own a single rhino and landraider, then three dreads. Everything else is troops.
Then my iron hands are all bikes and landspeeders/vehicles. I have some troops but they aren't the focus.

So something of make a list and buy and buy what looks pretty. In this hobby, you don't want to be wasting cash on worthless stuff (Chaos spawn I'm looking at you!)

I used to buy a combination of whatever looked shiny and new, and things that sounded like they'd be good on the battlefield but that was when a unit of Tac Marines were £10 (not £23)

Unfortunately that means I can easily field over 6000 points of Blood Angels if I wanted. I like to create different armies each time I battle instead of sticking to one list.

My Tau army are much smaller and I plan to carefully add units when the new Codex is released. This hobby is more expensive than it used to be.

I don't get to play much these days, so I just focus on what I want to paint next, trying to slowly get at least one of everything in the codex.

TheAngrySquig wrote:So I was just thinking, do you guys build a list and buy strictly based on that or do you just get sort of a general theme and buy what looks pretty?

Knowing what I know now, I would go with what is competitive ... given where I play.

Years ago, my first three armies were "Oh, that looks cool." And "I bet I can wreck face with that!" And I'd buy whatever units I thought were cool. Those armies are the ones I have the most points of unused units. Like Boggy said:

Boggy79 wrote:Unfortunately that means I can easily field over 6000 points of Blood Angels if I wanted. I like to create different armies each time I battle instead of sticking to one list.

Vespid. *sigh*

My last three armies, DE, Eldar, & CSM, were built strictly for competition, for what worked**, given where I play. We have monthly RTTs & league play. Competitive doesn't mean unfriendly. The guys I play against are a cool crew to play against. But, if you'd like to win once in a while, bring something near top-notch.

If it were just a few friends for home games, then I guess it'd be whatever the most competitive guy ups for.

**I'll temper that with buying 3 loads of wyches. I really wanted to run assault girls, and bought them before anyone figured out how great venom spam was gonna be.

I bought my CSM according to the fluff and models I liked, with a vague, general sort of list in mind. However I'm buying my Guard in strict accordance with a specific list, otherwise I would eventually drown in a sea of badass tanks and awesome characters...

Thats the problem I'm having with my dark eldar. I made a list that could do reasonably well, but I don't like a lot of the models in in *cough* Raiders/Ravagers *cough cough* There are also things that look great but aren't quite amazing on the TT. Mandrakes