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Hello, despite being in the hobby for a pretty long time, I've never really made 40k my main priority. I was just wondering if some people with more experience than me would be interested in talking a little about how/when they decide to buy a different army. Is there some point when you look at the force you have and think "this is enough, I should start something else", or is it more tied to the cool new codex that just came out?

I'm asking because I just ordered in the new Tau codex and I'm really excited to see how they perform with the new rules, but at the same time I'm accepting that the only really viable strategy I'll have is buying markerlights then shooting a lot with various degrees of mobility. That doesn't bother me, the main reason I play Tau (they're my only army at this point, played them ever since the first Codex: Tau) is because I think their idea of how to fight a war is the one that makes most sense, staying far away and killing anything that gets within a mile of you. But I also think I might enjoy a different play style.

I think I might want to try something more aggressive and in-your-face, maybe even some kind of psychic power stuff (really disappointed Tau didn't get some kind of increased ability to cancel out psychic powers, their minds can't even perceive the warp...). My regular gaming opponent already plays nids, is Dark Eldar any fun?

I cant speak about Dark Eldar, but Grey Knights are fairly agressive and have a large amount of powerful psychic powers. You may want to look into them. And as for starting a new army, It's more when you just get bored of painting the same thing and playing the same style. At least thats how it is for me.

DE has no psychic powers, so if it's psychic power you want, and marines aren't of your taste, you may as well wait another week for Eldars.

DE is a glass cannon/hammer army, every game is kill or be killed. The army can be played shooty, mixed or assaulty, with shooty probably being the most "competitive"(venomspam). I can't say they'll feel that great if you're planning to move from shooty Tau to shooty DE, because you wouldn't find them very cannon-y(Tau outshoots everyone!), but if you intend to go mixed or assaulty, then DE may just be different enough to be fun for you? Also they're fun against nids, poisoned weapons, agonisers, etc don't care about their MC...

I actually try not to start new armies.

See, I suffer from Shiny Model syndrome. A lot. I can never plan out an army, I just start it, and buy units as they catch my eye. The problem when I have multiple armies for a game is I'm constantly buying cool models and never actually getting anywhere.

This forced me to take a drastic approach. I will only ever start a new army if I'm also starting a new game. So, when I got back into the hobby, I started Tyranids. When I wanted to branch out, I branched out into Warhammer Fantasy with Vampire Counts. When I wanted to try something new after that, I branched out into Infinity.

This does two things. One, it limits how often I start a new army because I need new rulebooks and army books, new terrain, new templates, sometimes new dice (before Infinity I'd never had D20's). It's a bigger Investment, which curbs my Shiny Model syndrome.

Granted, sometimes it gets the better of me. I went halves with my friend on Dark Vengeance for the Chaos in it, because the models were gorgeous. Fortunately the codex release was very tepid, and I'm considering selling them off. I also grabbed a few Shasvastii models for Infinity, but it never got further than that. So overall, it's be fairly effective. I've still got my Salamanders sitting there from long ago, but they're at a dead end now.

So yeah, I do get to that point of 'I want to try something new'. But for the sake of my wallet, I make sure it's something REALLY new, with a new game.

Currently I have 8 armies with at least 2000 points each and 4 with 500 points or less. I started buying when 5th first came out.

I don't jump from one to the next based on codex release. For example, my necron army was started way before the latest dex was published and although I do own the current dex and picked up a bunch of the new models I really haven't played them too much since that was released. However, I did buy the Tau codex when it became available on the iPad and picked up an HQ, a couple boxes of fire warriors and a piranha to play around with. Although I don't see myself buying too many more Tau as the battlesuits just look very dated the models I have with end up as allies with something else.

Basically, I'm kind of an all around type. I like building and painting the models. I enjoy making lists and playing games; also I generally have just as much fun winning as I do losing as long as the game is interesting. I do have a few rock solid Necron and CSM lists (triple drake and 'scythes) for those times when I just need to win. However, I absolutely love playing my DE even though losing is usually in the cards.

I guess starting a new army for me has boiled down to liking the models and generally getting a "good" deal. I have a decent sized DA force simply because I liked the models in Dark Vengeance and I found a limited DV set for 40% under retail (shop was going out of business). I have a White Scars biker army because I was able to pick up 3 DA battleforces (previous one) for $45 each last year.

Given all that I know; I'd probably caution you against buying a DE army right now. Unless you are going to ally an Eldar force; in which case I'd definitely say wait until the Eldar codex is released in a couple weeks.

DE is a very very tough army to handle. As has been stated, you either completely dominate or you are wiped off the table. There really isn't an in between. Last week I went 0-3 in 750 pt games. The first was lost because I screwed up objective placement. The second because I didn't use my wyches correctly (had them sitting on an objective when they should have been tank hunting - the first part of the game went so well I got cocky). The third was lost as soon as we rolled for mission: Kill points vs mech IG on a table with very very little cover. The IG had 3 tanks putting out pie plates. That said, playing DE is probably the single most enmeshed experience you'll ever have with a table top game. Their entire fluff is geared towards getting off on pain. Well, watching your army be beaten to a pulp on a regular basis is certainly painful; to the point you probably need to be a masochist to continue using them.