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A few weeks ago, I was going through a Dark Angels phase. Before that, I was going through a Dark Angels phase. Currently I'm back into yet another Chaos Space Marine phase.

Which is the centre of my dilemma. I don't tend to just go out and spend £30 quid here and there buying new models every month. Instead, I tend to splurge out a good few hundred quid once or twice a year instead. Right now, I'm faced with the following options:

*Get my Imperial Guard Army up to speed by replacing the tanks I lost during the move to Folkestone earlier this year, (which would cost me £80-£150 quid depending on whether or not I decide it's worth bothering with Chimera's anymore.

*Buy all the models I need to put together a 1500pt Dark Eldar tournament list (having never played with DE before and only having played against them twice)

*Spend the £200 I need to expand my Space Marine/Dark Angels force to the point where it's competitive enough to have a chance at winning even a fun game or two at my local club, let alone a tournament game.

*(What I REALLY want to do) Expand my already existing (and very competitive) CSM Force by adding a Nurgle and Plague Zombie contingent to the Khorne, Tzeentch and Unaligned contingents I already have.

Thing is, is it more efficient for me to concentrate on strengthening an already strong army, or build a weaker one to a playable level? For me, each themed list I can put together for my CSM's is like adding a whole new army, albeit one that utilised models from an existing army. So it has a very strong attraction for me since it ticks the expanding an existing army and buying a new army boxes at the same time. The Plague Zombie theme especially would be like a whole new way of playing. Moreover, by expanding my CSM collection I would better be able to counter my opponents in the arms-race list, by giving myself more options.

As it is, whenever I pull out the Space Marine or the IG, my regular opponents pretty much know exactly what I'll be bringing and can easily construct their own lists to counter it. Expanding either army won't change that situation must, as I won't be increasing the number of viable options I can field so much as upgrading the army from a single poor list to a single good one. Decisions decisions. Thing is, with the order turnaround times from the likes of Total Wargamer, I need to make the decision sooner rather than later, if they're going to arrive in time for me to get the miniatures painted up in time for next years tournament season.

So what do you guys do? Do you have a single list for each codex you play? Or do you like to build up several thousand points worth of miniatures for each codex, so you can have plenty of options and never feel tied down to one list?

I build my armies up toa minimum of 2500 - 3000 points as a minimum before i even consider buying/ addig more to the army. For some armies like my SW this takes much shorter time than for my Nids, whom by now have been getting more Terumgaunts reinforcemnts than I care to think of, even while I run several big beasties in the army. I have been painting mentioned troops for far too long now, but for my Grey Knigths it only took a few days of painting to make them meet my requierment. This again due to their higher pointcost and such, I find it very usefull to set specefic goals for each army. And then work towards them, knowing that when one is done with said goal you have a fully painted and ready army.
As of now I have three 40k armies that are all at the 3k or beyound limit. So I will probaly add more to them but first I will finish my historical armies and such.

I vote for you to start a new army!! New shinies of a completely new flavor to build, paint and stare at! Loyalty to a new specie, so much fluff you will be willing to learn and read now, so much to absorb!!

@Trondheim: Getting armies to a decent size before starting a new one has pretty much been my guiding principle all along. Not that I'm any good at sticking to it mind you. There's always another shiny shiny to draw my mag-pie like attention. I always end falling short of my target and saying "Ach, that'll do for now."

When I think of all the armies I've sold/given away over the years instead of keeping, it makes me want to RAGE!!! Especially when I find myself staring my fourth Guard army in fifteen years. Or my sixth marines one!


@ Prehistoric UFO When you put it that way, it sounds very attractive...