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4th changed to 5th. New codices arrived. Models were purchased, assembled and sometimes painted.

Did your play style change over time? Did you chase the current trends? Did you drop an army, start a new one, or maybe resurrect one from the basement?

How did your game change as 5th evolved.

I started 5th with a hand me down Necron Army. Hated 40k at the time but played because my buddy wanted to try his new IG army.

I collected Space Marines and started playing them. Sold the Necrons and decided to pick up Eldar because no one played them in my group. I had more fun painting the Eldar and eventually preferred playing them rather than being just another SM player.

When 5th came in I was really just learning the game. With my Eldar I tried many versions of a balanced force, but could never make it work.

I even wrote a fandex and tried to get my buddies to play. They said no. They liked beating me just fine with the current dex.

Then I learned how to play like an Eldar, specifically like a cheatin' Mechdar player. I learned many dirty tricks. Once I learned to pop the transports, then gun down the occupants, while staying inside my Falcons and Serpents, I did well.

My Mechdar became my tournament army. I did quite well with it. Love playing Grey Knights as I never lost to them. Placed 2nd and 3rd several times and won once.

3 DAVU Falcons with EML's. 3 Fire Dragon squads in Wave Serpents. Vypers with Shuriken Cannons until I hit the point limit. Sometimes Eldrad, sometimes twin Autarchs. The occasional Jetlock Seer Counsel.

I found that I liked Mechdar for tournaments, but not friendly games. They were just too slippery and I didn't want people getting practice against them.

So I restarted Necrons. The guy had never paid me for my army so I got it back. Didn't matter I bought all new stuff, and now the old metal is on ebay.

So Necrons are my friendly army and Mechdar is still kicking tail at tournaments.

We shall see what 6th edition brings....

What is your story?

It got bigger

I restarted DE witht he new release, having sold off my old DE ages back.

My Orks reached new heights of cramped room-claiming, and keep staring at me and yelling 'oi why ain't i painted proppa! '...

Started with sponsons on Leman russes and having a basilisk with some basic troops as support and a sentinel running around for fun. Also a single chimera for my HQ and several support squads. Oh and a single storm trooper squad I originally had for fun.

Sudden infantry explosion after 5 edition guard codex came out. Commissars coming in as well as two more chimeras for my command squads. Piece meal increases in heavy weapons, 3 valkyries/ vendettas.

After a few years more infantry and then tanks started arriving. Now I have way too much crap. Sentinels, troops, tanks, still only at 3 valks though. Chimeras increased, but only because I got 3 of them for a steal. Oh and a baneblade as a treat for myself.

So I guess it grew?

My army became centered around orders and tarpit blobs that were supported by more killy units. I also took advantage of outflanking like crazy. I played around with Harker, valkyries, and Alrahem's platoon A LOT. Pretty much a combined arms army. Minimal melta though. Up util very recently I only had 4 melta guns to run and even then I mostly used them in Harker's squad. Most of my anti-tank came in the form of lascannons.

I definitely became more competitive, but that happens when you have an entire edition of getting shat on by Orks and Tyranids. Plus the same player that was using those armies never properly taught me the rules for 4th edition. He learned the hard way that revenge sucks during 5th edition. I made sure to teach myself this time around.

Now I'm that dick who hears you are doing something from across the room and calls you out on it because you are obviously trying to cheat a less experienced player.

I picked back my 2nd/3rd ed. orks only to find out my army was barely usable under the new rules. De-orkified some of my vehicles (was playing Blood Axes then), repainted them as loyalists and sold them. Kept one to be used as a Looted Wagon. Buggies, wartrakks and other 'native' ork wheels were too damaged to be of any use, so I scrapped them for the bitz box.

My infantry and elites were mostly made of old 2nd ed. plastic and lead models that didn't sit well with today's standards. In the end, I only took 30 "modern" shoota boyz and five 2nd ed. warbikes from my old army. The remaining carefully mothballed (I thought of selling them, but I found I was just too attached to those 1990s lead minis). Ghaz, who had accompanied me through my college years as a good luck amulet, stood with me.

Next was deciding what kind of army I wanted. I had just got a AOBR and a Deffdread as a Christmas present, so I opted for a walker-heavy list. Got two boxes of Kans, two of lootas, a battleforce and a box of Nobs. Modified two nobs using deffdread and trukk bitz to become KFF Big Meks, finished converting my looted wagon and soon got the thing going.

Some months later, the boomgun wagon dropped from my list, having killed, on average, a Marine per game, and three additional kans joined the fray. Lost some games, won some others, and experimented with warbikers, kommandos and deffkoptas.

At this point I found out that my army still struggled against certain builds. Not as numerous as a horde but still with a large footstep, lacking ranged firepower, slow and perhaps too dependant on hide-the-mek antics. Besides, running it had became a "cross your fingers and push forwards" nobrainer. The walkers had so far served me well, but something inside me dreamed of a list full of fast vehicles, bikes and buggies, like the one I had tried to build back on 2nd/3rd. With the new ork minis, it was possible.

I began to lurk Dakka for ideas. Found the Battlewagon spam list, but soon discarded it. Yes, so much AV14 would have given me an undeniable advantage over the local "boys before toys" meta, but I still wanted my opponents to talk to me after the battle was over. Finally, I thought of running just 3 BWs, with a Warboss and some nobs riding a trukk to battle, hiding behind the metal behemoths. Got two BWs and finally got to assemble my trukk.

Aesthetically, the BWs were some sort of a disappointment. The (mandatory) defrolla spoiled their cool "Herkimer Battle Jitney" looks and made them long like a stretch limo. However, I fell in love with the trukk. Thing is, I had always hated the old trukk kit, but this one grew on me. Also, I found it was quite easy to convert into a warbuggy by lowering the hull and cutting it in half. Still larger than the (ugh) old buggy, but with nice rat-rod looks. And as long as my friends let me get away with it...

So I stocked up on trukks. Now I run 6/7 of them, 1/2 battlewagons and a school of buggies and/or bikers for annoyance and cover. The list's a bit more fragile. Meltavets, Crisis Suits and drop pods can still ruin my day, even more than before. But it's also fast and requires a bit of thought to get good results with, just as I like. I still run the kanwall from time to time, but this has become my primary list.

Lately I've been fiddling with the idea of getting either DE or Necrons. Finally, as rumors on 6th ed and a new Chaos codex began to break, I opted not to.

In the gap between when I stopped playing in 4th and started playing in 5th (about a year and a half), I converted my guard army over to being an infantry army. Like everyone else, I got really excited about meltaguns (especially since now they could run!), and my favorite guard unit (the eviscerator priest), now seemed awesome enough for me to field three of, what with the ability to put them in infantry squads (that could run!).

I threw down again not long after the new guard codex came out. I wasn't the first person to think about power blobs, but I was certainly on the front side of that curve. Originally, I just tried out a single one, but, like most people who have played blobs, quickly converted my other infantry platoons to be blobs-bearing.

Slowly over time, as my opponents started to tailor against my ultra-aggressive foot horde, things that were too easy to pick out or avoid (like meltagun SWSs and PCSs) gradually faded, and as the mech meta became more entrenched, I switched over to HWSs and russes.

Plus, there were a few ways that my army evolved that had nothing to do with the meta, like the inclusion and very eventual expulsion of Al'Rahem, and a friendly, if somewhat brief fling with ogryn.

With all the building I've done over the past few years, I'm actually getting to the point where I'm basically done with my guard army. There are still a couple of units I want to put together (some rough riders and some more russes), but once that's done, I'll have basically everything I'll want for a guard army, and anything that I don't have will be pretty easy to make (for example, I'd just need to buy 4 chimeras and I could convert my army over to mechvets).

Oh, I also started collecting a khorne CSM army, but I've yet to play it. Probably won't until after 6th ed and their new codex comes out.

My army more than tripled in size. At the beginning of 5th I was still working on expanding my army as I just got into it about 6 months before 4th came out and was still a student for most of 4th.

Once the new SM codex came out, My all comers list was adjusted to adapt. I utilize more transports, and more armour over all, as well as more anti armour. My DA lists didn't change a whole lot, except I was able to(and still am) increase my DW and RW numbers.

My lists were pretty consistent with the occasional test play of this unit or that and then some of them making it into my regular lists.

Near the end of 5th, my lists are in constant flux while I fight an uphill battle to compete with the new marine codices that all seem to do what I can do only better and/or cheaper. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to complain or qq about them being op, just saying it had a large impact on my lists and meta with the increase of MEQ opponents. Sure I faced other MEQ lists, but nowhere near as many as in the last year or so, plus adjusting to each of their new dexes.

There were of course other adjustments to deal with new non marine codices, most notably for me were DE and necrons.

All that said, I enjoyed the changes in meta and list building cause by all the new codices. I look forward to the changes in the game brought on by 6th, seeing new lists and fielding new lists of my own. Also can't wait for the a DA codex!

I also started a Tau army in the midst of my Eldar worship. It is 4000 points strong and it sits in the case.

Very well painted as well. I get lots for questions about why I don't play them more, but oh well, I only have so many hours to play and I prefer my Eldar or Necrons.

I eagerly await the Tau Codex.

Sold my Ultramarines... (should really change my signature).

Got a friend to go halves on 3 AoBRs.

Bought some burnas and lootas.

And some Nobs and some gretchin and some trukks and some battlewagonz and some... you get the idea.

Was given some grey knights.

Sold them at long last...(should update that post... and my signature...).

Trying to get rid of the Stompa, deffdread and kanz (See DCM swap shop).

MUST GET DAKKAJETZ! WAAAAGH!!!!

Oh and I've played like maybe 8 games for all of 5th. Using my friends Blood Angels... That I painted for him.

(And believe it or not he left an entire SPACE HULK TERMINATOR sprue at his old apartment when he moved a few months ago!!! Glad he paid for them first lol)

played in a tourney at end of 4th, tourney army gets stolen, give up, start back up 2 months ago

Dust off the tyranids, find out i literally have 1 of everything

hmmm, not too much changing going on for me, gotta wait till 6th

Towards th eend of 4th, I was playing an all deep striking IG army. My only vehicles were a piar of Sentinels. The army was crazy! Sure I'd typically either lose big or else table my opponent, but it was a really fun army and just the look on opponents' faces as roughly 100 odd guardsmen suddenly fall from the sky, guns blazing!

Then 5th came.

Kill Points outright killed my army. So I shelved the guard until a new codex might address that issue.
New codex finally came, it buried my army as to actually play 'drop guard', I'd be forced to buy an insane number of valkyries. Those poor guardsmen haven't seen a table in a loooooong time.


So for a bit i jumped over to Fantasy and started a VC army!
Got that army painted upto just over 1500pts in time for 8th edition to hit and I was super excited... Played a test game along with the rest of my fellow staffers about a month before the book went up for sale, and pounded my manager's DE army! Was getting really, really excited by this point.

So 8th is finally released, the tournament guys flood the store, next week, all we're seeing are lists abusing the crap out of the OTT magic system and my VC's instead got utterly boned by basic changes that the tourny crowd went out of their way to exploit... (poor, poor skellies)


So, I came back to 40k and decided to start a Daemon army, despite evry single tournament player telling me off about how much the army sucked.
I went with a heavy Tzeentch theme, but of corse, geing a good little GW monkey, I also picked up 3 boxes of 'Crushers, a full unit of Fiends, and various kits to convert some chariots to give me added options.
So, I ended up getting a 1500pts army built & converted up, started playing a few games and even beat the snot out of a few of the more obnoxious & jerky tournament knuckleheads!

So, just as my sheer giddiness was reaching it's peak and I started to expand my army a bit more and apply the first layers of paint, 'Codex: all Daemons' drops. (I really, really should have seen this coming, considering how my last 2 main armies ended!)
So at first I tried giving things a shot as every local player it seemed was jumping all over the GK bandwagon and new armies of Draigowing, mech Purifyerwing, Henchmen spam and just basic lists of all varieties started cropping up.

My first game was against was against an army that included 20 Strikes, some wound-allocated pallies, Draigo, a libby and a pair of Dreadknights. It ended on turn 2 after he warp quaked half the board, and then hit my piecemeal units who could get down with shunting dreadknights to pin them in place while his pallies then went to town carving my other few units up.
He actually appologised afterwards as neither of us really expected the game to be THAT one-sided because of two psychic powers! Afterwards, we re-played and he didn't cast warp quake at all and the game was decently close.

My next game was against a pure meched up Purifyer list. Suffice it to say, while he complained bitterly about me having things like a 'jetbike with a statline akin to a MC' that could shoot multiple targets and having the ability to spam S8/ap1 shots and horrendous amounts of rending, he tabled me within 3 turns with his min/maxed 5x psyback purifyer squads and 4x psyflemen.
Just too much armour for my list to deal with.
What really got me though were those broken as all feth psychotrokes! He had 2 techmarines and he got both into choice targets thanks to his mobility advantage. (I just couldn't roll higher than a shaken/stunned result for the life of me!) Suffice it to say, I was not impressed watching my Fiends hitting themselves, nor my large Bloodletter w/Herald squad stand about and do absolutely nothing while 6 guys tore them to shreads.
My opponent spent the whole time either whining about how 'Daemons are OP because of things like army-wide invulnerable saves', or else laughing at how my army was folding to his 'real mans army'...

My final game against 'Derp-Knights' was against a guy who quake-shunted the entire board on turn 1... With only 1x10 SS and a pair of 10 man Interceptors.

I won't play against GK's, they're beyond broken vs Daemons and almost every single local player who plays the army is a complete tool!


Now, I've recently started a Chaos Marine army to have ready for 6th, but thinking back on how GW, (or rather, one specific games dev), has utterly broken my last 3 armies, I think I'm going to just sit back, wait for the new rules AND the new Chaos book before I add my Hakanor's Reavers to my collection of 'GW broke me' armies.

My wolves evolved into thunder wolf cavelry.

My Rhino's grew some las cannons.

And my longfangs went through mytosis and became 3 packs.

And i realised the sad truth that bloodclaws just dont work like they should.

Converted every flamer/heavy flamer I had into melta/multi-melta and every non-walker vehicle that could a MM got one

My Space Wolves were rightly feared in 4th ed, but once 5th ed rolled around and my local meta started evolving, they were getting outpaced and outgunned. The 5th ed Space Wolves codex killed my ridiculous Terminator deathstar units (2 assault cannons, an IC with a BS5 assault cannon, and rerollable armor saves for everyone!) and I didn't want to give up the feel of my army (10 man GH packs with WG) to put them into Rhinos. It also put my Blood Claws out by pricing them the same as the ludicrously good Grey Hunters. I like the codex, but I just can't be bothered to reorganize my army. Also, I have trouble playing with armies that aren't painted/based to my current standard!

My Crimson Fists started in the Summer 5th ed came out, and just grew from there. They grew from a typical Marine army to a Sternguard-heavy list around Pedro and lots and lots of Rhinos. I've got a full company of them now, and love the army.

My IG started as a light vehicle/Catachan force but grew into a mix of Catachan, Cadian, and Steel Legion troops with lots of heavy armor. I've started a 2nd IG army around powerblobs in the hopes that infantry hordes are good in 6th.

My Ork and Chaos armies were built towards a specific goal already so there's not much to be said about them on this topic.