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(first post) but here goes, I just recently got my Dad into the hobby, and he is assembling an Eldar army as I type this...And I have three armies currently my Tau (which I favor the most) Death korps, and Orks, My Father and I got in an argument that having multiple armies is "slowed" and "blasphemous in the fictional universe", I told him plenty of people have multiple armies, and soon enough you will get tired of the Eldar culture and start another army. He laughed at that... and I would like to know what the Wargaming community thinks of this, who is being ridiculous here? I may also like to add, he goes against his codex and gives his war walkers 3 weapons (which prove me if I am wrong, he may only have two) and, he calls me gay whenever I say "fluff" and says anybody who uses that term is a slow... So please, help me prove to my Dad that he is being ridiculous and allow me to show him the error of his ways. The heretic...

I am sitting at 3k of BA and 2k of IG. Honestly, he might have a point. I have difficulty getting behind non-imperial armies in 40k. Nothing wrong with that. Just point your dad to the allies chart in the 6th edition book and let him enjoy his toy soldiers how ever he wants.

Any time you can get your father to get into the hobby, that is a win win situation. As far as the 3 weapons on a war walker? as long as he allowed to fire only 2 of them for that game, I can not see the harm done.

I'm sitting on way way way too many orks, DE and Daemons (those DE vehicles hurt the posterior ) ...

I have a hard time getting into IOM armies, as they are all so..well...IOM.

As long as he's happy with his Eldar, let him be. Be sure to show him any new release model photos that look utterly awesome though..

I play Eldar, SoB and Slaanesh Daemons. Not only are they different armies, they're ones that'd really want to kill each other.

Though there are some people that pick one faction and stick with them. There's no problem either way.

After some rereading, your dad might be in for a rude awakening then. Fluff is shorthand for backstory, so I don't see what is "gay" about it. And, last time I check, 40k isn't a religion, so I am not sure what the problem with having multiple armies is from.

I only play one army \/ \/ ...at a time (though, that won't be true anymore either

Well sitting on 1.5k Dark Angels, and 1k IG, I see no issue with multiple armies, and quite frankly once I have around 2-3k of each I will start on necrons, something about fanatical 'we kill anything that gets in our way' just makes me smile on the inside


p.s. welcome to dakka, I promise we dont generally bite, except nOt_u, he likes to nibble on fingers

I'm sitting on 10k points of space marines, and the only other army I'm contemplating collecting is Guard.

When it's your first steps into the realm of 40k, trying to start more than one army isn't really a good idea. Your first army will also likely be who you work up to 2000 or so points so that you can play full scale games with other players who also have their own armies. After you reach 2000 or so, I would imagine you reach a real choice. You can continue to purchase things for your first army, so that you can flesh out a larger roster of units and participate in even larger games, or begin a new army that uses some form of differing tactics and provides a different kind of entertainment. Most obvious being a CC army if your primary is a shooty, or vice versa.

Each army in 40k was almost a hobby into itself. You might play basketball, baseball, and soccer, but you can't possibly play them all at the same time. The same goes with IG, Chaos daemons, and Nids. Thus splitting your focus across them is potentially a waste of resources, since you could focus on a single army and be much "better" or at least more well equipped than having 3 other armies.

If you've ever purchased two or more new single player video games at one time, you might give them all a try for a few hours but eventually one is going to win out and get played and beaten first. The same can happen with 40k armies. Because reaching the point where you own all of your desired units and "completed" your intended army list is a strong driving point.

But of course, too much of a good thing isn't good. People have multiple hobbys, and interests despite it being obviously inefficient. Why? because it's fun. Maybe you enjoy the painting aspect more and exactly what armies they belong too don't matter. Maybe you prefer smaller games. Maybe you like having a little variety and prefer not using the same basic strategy of stand still and shoot them with your IG and want to try out a run forward and smash them with the Orks.

Fortunately, the later idea just got a lot better. With the addition of the Allies rules, you can now quite easily start two simultaneous armies (provided they aren't too angry at each other) and field them both at the same time. True in lower points of games you'll have an abundance of troops and HQs that you might not have wanted if you stuck with a single army. But you can buy, paint, and play with a lot more of your models at the same time. Instead of buying even more Lemun Russ variant tanks for an IG army so you can swap them out for dealing with Horde or Vehicles, you can bring a different set of allies from another army.

There is an argument to be made on either subject, the difference is really how focused one person may be on their hobbys.

As for insulting you about the Fluff, yet stating that having more than one army is against the fluff? It sounds like your dad it seeing warhammer as more of a sport than a game, he's chosen his team and even in an unrelated match he can't be excited. I certainly can't get my mom to pay attention to football unless it relates to the Packers. But that's how he chooses to play. If you really want to get under his skin, point out that A. the eldar spawned a chaos god by being WAY to decadent and B. by their own fluff the eldar are a dying race and will eventually be wiped out of existence in the galaxy. (thanks to tyranids or otherwise)

otakutaylor wrote:When it's your first steps into the realm of 40k, trying to start more than one army isn't really a good idea. Your first army will also likely be who you work up to 2000 or so points so that you can play full scale games with other players who also have their own armies. After you reach 2000 or so, I would imagine you reach a real choice. You can continue to purchase things for your first army, so that you can flesh out a larger roster of units and participate in even larger games, or begin a new army that uses some form of differing tactics and provides a different kind of entertainment. Most obvious being a CC army if your primary is a shooty, or vice versa.

Each army in 40k was almost a hobby into itself. You might play basketball, baseball, and soccer, but you can't possibly play them all at the same time. The same goes with IG, Chaos daemons, and Nids. Thus splitting your focus across them is potentially a waste of resources, since you could focus on a single army and be much "better" or at least more well equipped than having 3 other armies.

If you've ever purchased two or more new single player video games at one time, you might give them all a try for a few hours but eventually one is going to win out and get played and beaten first. The same can happen with 40k armies. Because reaching the point where you own all of your desired units and "completed" your intended army list is a strong driving point.

But of course, too much of a good thing isn't good. People have multiple hobbys, and interests despite it being obviously inefficient. Why? because it's fun. Maybe you enjoy the painting aspect more and exactly what armies they belong too don't matter. Maybe you prefer smaller games. Maybe you like having a little variety and prefer not using the same basic strategy of stand still and shoot them with your IG and want to try out a run forward and smash them with the Orks.

Fortunately, the later idea just got a lot better. With the addition of the Allies rules, you can now quite easily start two simultaneous armies (provided they aren't too angry at each other) and field them both at the same time. True in lower points of games you'll have an abundance of troops and HQs that you might not have wanted if you stuck with a single army. But you can buy, paint, and play with a lot more of your models at the same time. Instead of buying even more Lemun Russ variant tanks for an IG army so you can swap them out for dealing with Horde or Vehicles, you can bring a different set of allies from another army.

There is an argument to be made on either subject, the difference is really how focused one person may be on their hobbys.

As for insulting you about the Fluff, yet stating that having more than one army is against the fluff? It sounds like your dad it seeing warhammer as more of a sport than a game, he's chosen his team and even in an unrelated match he can't be excited. I certainly can't get my mom to pay attention to football unless it relates to the Packers. But that's how he chooses to play. If you really want to get under his skin, point out that A. the eldar spawned a chaos god by being WAY to decadent and B. by their own fluff the eldar are a dying race and will eventually be wiped out of existence in the galaxy. (thanks to tyranids or otherwise)

Much qft, I started two armies almost simultaneously, and more by accident than on purpose my Dark Angels will end up filled up first, and on the fluff end considering what hes saying...hes just being a trolldad. But let him choose if he wants to create a massive 10k point eldar collection let him, it is after all his money (or if he is married his wifes money ), now more importantly dont pressure him on that end, when starting a hobby if you start applying alot of pressure he may very well go "F this I am going to go do something else"

There is nothing wrong with having multiple armies.
However some people like the fluff (I used the word!) of certian armies better than others and only collect one.

I don't think either of you are being ridiculous. Some people fall in love with their armies and thus grow a strong sense of loyalty to them and the fluff, and therefore can't imagine collecting another army.

Though I obviously have no insight to the tone or context of him calling you gay when you use the word "fluff", it seems to me like he's just trying to get you riled up (and he seems to have succeeded on that front).

And 3 different weapons on war-walkers? Sorry pops, that's just straight up cheating. If it's for modelling purposes only, go for it, but in terms of playing an actual game I would just look at him like he'd just grown another head. This could also be him being a troll dad though.

As for if the general community is against having multiples armies, I would have to say no way. Every war hammer player I know has at least 2 armies, except one, who just got a Tyrannid battle force a month ago.

I have an Imp tattoo on my shoulder, so I cant say much. I started with BFG, and only got a Chaos fleet, when we needed a bad guy to fight. 5K for both fleets and 100 for Eldar) I got into Chaos with 40K (I started with Guard, and had the marines that came in the starter) because I got one fig, (Abbadon) and then it grew. Now I have Sisters, Guard, Templars, and Chaos. If I would have stuck to one army, I would have a huge force. Now I have about 2K - 2.5K of Guard, Chaos and Templar each (and I have the peices to turn it into a Codex Marines) and about 1500 in Sisters. Now if I would have stuck to just one force, I would have 10K or so and more painted minis and it would not have taken so long to fill out an army.

I kinda agree and disagree with both of you guys. Im at the point where i dont need many more models, i can build a winning list w/ what i got(i have yet to though) All i really want are two more.
But i have been collecting the ones i have for 5 years to build up the collection.
But two armies can spread ya thin too aswell, that my biggest fear of starting both another army and another game system, I dont want to abandon my marines for something else i love.

You both are, having multiple armies isn't bad, but having a single army can be great. I solely collect guard (will eventually start collecting allied marines or sisters of battle maybe), and I never get bored, I simply expand my armies in other directions. Started with mech guard, eventually I added in some artillery, after that I created some drop troops, followed by light infantry, and am currently working on a horde army. Sure other armies interest me, Chaos Daemons in particular look fun, a single massive rush of bloodletters, supported by daemon princes and greater daemons, I considered Tau when I was starting, the reason I stuck with monoguard is because I simply like the fluff, the idea that I can make each unit part of a different regiment lets me make lots of different unique uniforms and paint schemes.

Iron Snake XV88 wrote:( he calls me gay whenever I say "fluff" and says anybody who uses that term is a slow...

Wow, that's... enlightened. He should probably know that term is as old as the gaming community and should ease up on his language.

Building more than one army at once isn't something I like to do. I like focusing on one army at a time, just to be in the right painting mindset for it. Having multiple armies is great, but I wouldn't for example start two at the same time. I'd start one, get it up to a decent playable level, then start up the second one after I'd made some real headway. Each of the armies I have started some time after the previous army was around 1000-2000 points, and even then I pingpong back and forth between army projects. Right now I'm building up my Valhallans, but once they're up there I'll start up on my Crimson Fists again, or, if the 6th ed starter set is out at the time, my Iron Warriors.

I've had multiple armies since I started...always going to haev 2 and I'd like 3 I've read so much fluff I could choke on it at this point and I definitely don't feel it's "gay" to like the word fluff. Also, tell him space elves in spandex seems really cool -.-

There's never a right or wrong with collecting hobbies, just personal preference.

What are your dads thoughts on allies?

I thought the ultimate goal was to own ALL the armies? I have two mostly completed armies and have something planned for a third. Then when I start getting stuff as allies, I'll slowly expand those into their own armies.

I get bored of an army really quickly, so I only really ever have multiple forces whilst waiting to sell an old one off.

I think it's a mix of shiny model syndrome, short attention span and a desire to learn in my case, but it never speaks poorly of someone that they buy multiple things with their money.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with sticking with a single army, but berrating someone for having multiple forces is very silly...

I mean, I have around 12-15000 points of Dark Eldar at this point, and it'll probably be up to 20k by the end of the year.
Also have 2-3000pts of Tau, a few thousand points of skaven, looking at starting an Eldar, Daemons and Space Wolves Drop Pod army, as well as looking at starting Warmachine (Cryx) and Hordes (Everblight), as well as considering Infinity and Firestorm Armada.

Mutliple armies, even multiple systems is all part of the fun, especailly if the building / converting or painting is a prefered part of the hobby for you.

Your dad is being ridiculous. Its normal for people to have multiple armies. I don't see why its such a big deal to him. Also I'm pretty sure War Walkers can only have 2 Weapons depending on the loadout. If he's doing it because he thinks it looks cool then fine so long as in game he uses it as the two weapons he paid the points for.

Except for the bit where usage of the term "fluff" is apparently "gay" (Emperor, why...?), I think both of you have a point. For some people, one army is not enough, as they like to explore multiple ideas. Others develop a greater sense of loyalty to a single faction and focus on them. Neither is wrong, and both can be fun. So I think you shouldn't force the issue and just give it time - perhaps he will change his opinion after a year or two, and if not, why should that be a problem?

Congrats on getting your dad to join in on your hobby, anyhow. That alone deserves a

Lynata wrote:Except for the bit where usage of the term "fluff" is apparently "gay"

I shudder to think of what he calls fluffernutter sandwiches!

I have

Tri-marines (they can be played as UM, DA, or BA)
Space wolves
Necrons (my first and favorite)
Demons
Orks (my second favorite)
I am currently building an air guard army.

In the fantasy realm I run my demons and have a growing beastmen army.

Long story short, variety is the spice of life. I would have quit long ago if you couldn't own multiple armies.

When I was newer to the game I was very stubborn about starting new armies, and I believe at one point in like 2007 I said I'd never own a non-power armored army. I'm glad I broadened my horizons a bit since then, as I have had so much fun with Orks and the Imperial Guard. No reason to miss out on good games and more options!

Heh... funny that, I said I'd never start an imperial army... but drop pods are cool.

Having multiple armies is definitely slowed. When I think of much money has disappeared into little plastic toy soldiers, I can't help but think there's something wrong with me.

Actually a large percentage of my little toy soldiers are metal. Not sure if that's better or worse, though I guess they have slightly better raw material value after the apocalypse