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Hey guys! So I was wondering what faction/army most peaked your interest when you initially were starting the 40k hobby. What really looked cool and stood out to you? And if your specific army isn't represented, please let me know or put it under a broader designation, such as the Thousand Sons going under Chaos Space Marines. I only have the current list from GW on there, so let me know if there's something significant I missed. Just a cool thing, and I'm actually doing a statistics project on this for class. Thanks for your responses!

http://strawpoll.me/7014891

Grey Knights got me started. First played the Dawn of War games and saw them. I liked how they were tough to kill and they could use pyschic powers (in DoW). Then years later my friend told me he had some Tyranids models and wanted to know if I wanted to watch him play a game. At the store I saw them. The GK Strike Squad box. I fell in love with them. At first I only bought a box just to have and show off, never thought I would be here with 10K of Grey Knights.

 FinkleLord wrote:
Grey Knights got me started. First played the Dawn of War games and saw them. I liked how they were tough to kill and they could use pyschic powers (in DoW). Then years later my friend told me he had some Tyranids models and wanted to know if I wanted to watch him play a game. At the store I saw them. The GK Strike Squad box. I fell in love with them. At first I only bought a box just to have and show off, never thought I would be here with 10K of Grey Knights.

This exact same experience, but with Eldar - I loved the teleporting bonesingers, the idea of manipulating current events with future knowledge...and the sweet, sweet voices of their Warp Spiders. The quotes in that game - for every army - were just fantastic.

Orks. The customisation and looting made me a very happy bunny.

I got into 40K during 3rd edition, and the Black Templars caught my eye.

Dark Angels. I like the dark green color of their armor, and I also like the whole monastic look of everything (no bathrobe jokes please!). Plus their background and fluff are really cool, too!

Tau, after playing them in Dawn of War.

Tau after seeing them in a copy of White Dwarf I'd randomly received as a birthday gift from my aunt. It was not long after their initial release and detailed the naming systems for suit configurations. Everything seemed cool and customisable, but it was the kroot that looked most awesome. Shame those models haven't really aged well I'm the last 15 years, and their rules suck :(

First got inspired by 2nd edition Tyranids, I remember picking up my first booster pack of 3 and painting them with my then baby sitter.

Space Wolves. Because they are vikings in space with epic beards, and that appealed to little me.

Daemons, I already had the army for fantasy and figured I might as well try 40k. Play much more 40k now.

Tyranids, models are so cools...

As a kid, Dark Angels. 18 years later when I actually decided to play the game and build armies, it was Chaos Space Marines. I'll never touch loyalists or xenos again!

Chaos Marines 3rd Ed.

They were like marines but cooler because they were super ornate with an emphasis on close combat.

Wolves all the way. Read the books and as instantly hooked.

Originally it was imperial guard that got me started. But now I've gone with a Thousand sons army with a necromancer coven theme to it.

Legion of the Damned...which isn't an option in your poll.

Orks. Love the look, love the playstyle, love how they don't take themselves so seriously.

Chaos Space Marines by MiniWar Gamer Dave got me into wh40k.

My background on 40k is somewhat weird. My first encounter with 40k was back when 40k was in the tail end of the RT era, when everyone knew 2E was coming out and there were previews of it but it hadn't actually been released yet. I was a wee lad in like 2nd grade or something, and actually *playing* a game was totally beyond me, but the visual range of everything just blew me away. Eldar, Squats, Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, etc, I was enthralled with all of it.

Fast forward a number of years and I've finally got some cash to spend and a way to get myself places, and I decide to finally get into 40k. Now it's changed from what I remembered as a little kid, but the core was still the same. I finally decided to hop in with Imperial Guard, but Chaos Space Marines were actually the first army I actually managed to build a full sized like 2000pt force worth of, and it took a few more months to get my IG playable. Space Marines & Eldar were other armies I considered when initially hopping in, but other people played those and I just liked the IG and SM models more in most cases, plus the customizability of the 3.5E IG and CSM books was simply astounding and you could go hog wild making a very unique force.

Codex Daemon Hunters. I loved the Grey Knights in DoW, and then when I looked through their army book and saw all the cool things you could do with them, like have Stormtroopers and Inquisitors with Henchmen. I knew I needed that army.

Then I discovered all the options with in, running a Radical Inquisitor, or borrowing my friends Dark Angels to use as inducted troops. I miss that army, and I wish they were still around in that form.

2nd edition metal Night Lords in the GW catalogue. I couldn't afford them though. Started in 3rd with the Dark Eldar from the starter. Oddly never played Night Lords.

Technically, it was the Blood Ravens for me, in particular the voice actor for Captain Gabriel Angelos in Dawn of War, and his delivery of the fluff of 40K to my mind was an awesome experience. Playing those games got me interested enough to do a Google search, and the rest is history.

I had some friends in college who played 40K, and they helped me to get started, in addition to some really cool YouTube content at the time (this was around September 2010). I had browsed all of the armies available, and had it narrowed down to three choices:

- Imperial Guard, for the tanks
- Tau Empire, for the battlesuits
- Daemon Hunters, for the daemon hunting (they weren't Grey Knights yet!)

I ended up going with Imperial Guard after reading the fluff on Commissar Yarrick, and seeing that the Imperial Guard was made up of normal humans with basic weaponry and raw courage appealed to me. That, and the plastic Baneblade kit was a thing

Tau started me on my grand tour of 40k. Since I started with them in third, I've played Space Marines, Necrons, Eldar, CSM, GK, Inquisition, IG, Nids, and BA before ultimately coming back to Tau for the third time.

I was always interested in the female models of GW. Strong, Independent women are appealing to me. So Sisters of Sigmar, the Ice Queen from Kislev and so on.
Then someone in my FLGS sold his SoB because "the can't win". I bought them and won my first 40k game.

It was DE at the beginning of the third edition. They got a little overhaul and they were fantastic to play.

Harlequin Casts on Youtube with his DoW2:Ret replay casts is what got me into playing that game which got me into the 40k universe. Within the game Orks became my favorite faction and playing the Ork campaign just sealed the deal. Fast forward a few years and my interest in MtG was beginning to falter and I started looking at the 40k section at the FLGS. Then it hit me like a snotling fired from a Shokk Attack Gun that I needed little plastic killa kanz in my life so me and a friend set it up with the FLGS to trade in our cards (honestly got a good trade in rate on them) and got bunch of 40k kits to start off with. The downward spiral into the depts. of depravity fueled by super glue, plastic crack, and dice had begun.

Orks 1st edition metal/plastic models.
The look, the background, the fun, what was not to love... :-)

Today i have got most armies, but Orks are, creatively speaking, still my favourite.

3rd edition Demonhunters. The idea of super elite soldiers (GK) being led around by golden armour clad lords won me over. Got regularly curb stomped by my friends eldar (extreme TFG tactics), left a bad taste in my mouth.

Came back this edition, necrons (who I fancied back in the day but they weren't as developed) had been filled out a lot more, and their fluff and aesthetic has meant I'm now a filthy xenos!

Dark Angels from Dark Vengeance