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I often am surprised by comments I read on the forum about how people pick their armies, so I thought I'd ask this question to find out more.
Pick the option that applies most often.

Oops, I hit submit by accident.

For me, it's looking cool or exciting fluff. I only ever think about tactics after losing all my games and thinking 'hmm... perhaps those ugly obliterators might be worth getting after all.'
Actually, that's pushing things a bit far. I'll include oblits if I can do a cool conversion, but otherwise they're not going in. I don't care how good it is, if it looks like crap, it's not going in the army!

I tend to go for the better units in my codex (better being a relative word) but originally I went for whatever seemed coolest.

I go for whatever I think will make for a better list first and then I buy "fluff" stuff to round out my collection. Ex. For my Space Marine Army I'm going to buy Grav-cents and Librarians (Some mounted on bikes) to run a Gladius Strike Force in a competitive manner. Then later on I'll get some Assault Marines and an actual codex Command Squad to make a real battle company.

All of the above?

For the most part, I don’t buy units I think are ugly or unfluffy. Although some things grow on me over time. Especially if they do well mechanically. I was a little “meh” on the stormtalon when it came out. After a while, I was OK on how it looked, and needed some air cover. So I picked one up. Things like the Raven, I didn’t like the stock look, but a little modification made it acceptable.

I still don’t own any Cents. I’ve seen some built that look less goofy, so one of the roadblocks is down for them. Still don’t like their fluff. If I played more/competitively, I might grab a box.

I’m not going to buy a unit purely on looking cool. But looking good will help ease something to the top of the to-buy list.

I don’t like buying stuff just to play if I already have it, but it still happens. Part of the nature of the game. I hate building/painting drop pods. But they are really good on the table. I bought one, got the second as a gift. Eventually I broke down and picked up a third. They work better in odd numbers. The fact that it was part of a bundle deal softened the blow. But I should pick up another LSS and a few more rhinos/razors. Not that interesting, not that fun. But they help make the army work.

 Nevelon wrote:

They work better in odd numbers.

Someone else said that and I thought it was a joke. Why do they work better in odd numbers?

mostly its because it looks cool and fun to paint.

 corpuschain wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

They work better in odd numbers.

Someone else said that and I thought it was a joke. Why do they work better in odd numbers?

The majority come in T1 so you have less stuck in reserves.

 daddyorchips wrote:
mostly its because it looks cool and fun to paint.

Correct answer

I tend to pick units that work well with the rest of the army that I am taking. This usually means that I end up taking units that fit the fluff of my army (kult of speed) as well.

Sometimes I do take units just because they look awesome or because I think they fit the fluff even if they don't actually have an effective role. (I love you blitza bommer, you're so red and explodey)

 corpuschain wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

They work better in odd numbers.

Someone else said that and I thought it was a joke. Why do they work better in odd numbers?

Half of the drop pods rounded up automatically arrive from reserves on the first turn while the rest roll normally. Having an odd number allows you to deploy an extra drop pod on turn one.

I see, makes sense now.

 corpuschain wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

They work better in odd numbers.

Someone else said that and I thought it was a joke. Why do they work better in odd numbers?

You get to put half of your pods down first turn, rounding up. The rest come in as normal.

1 pod: 1 first turn, 0 later
2 pods: 1 first turn, 1 later
3 pods: 2 first turn, 1 later
4 pods: 2 first turn, 2 later
5 pods: 3 first turn, 2 later.
etc.

In a pod list, you want to hit hard, and kill everything nearby. Dropping multiple squads next to each other will help clear the LZ. Because everything you don’t kill is either going to charge you or unload everything they have left at point blank range. And while “half” your pods come in, you get to choose them. So if you have 3 pods, two of them with 10 man sternguard squads, and one with a 5 man tac squad, you can guess who’s dropping first. You can have the weak pods drop late to grab objectives.

It’s all about maximizing the alpha strike. Even numbers of pods don’t help with that. They just linger in reserves.

Edit: Ninja’s abound.

On topic, that’s one of the reasons I’m not getting more pods. Because the gamer in me would insist on picking up two more, and the modeler/painter in me would rather eat glass then paint even one more. So even though there is a lot of army synergy that could be had (null deploy pod lists can be mean) there are still hobby issues that need to be considered.

I try to find a balance between looks cool and plays well.

I quit using units I like a long time ago. How many grav bikers can I squeeze in? BA shouldn't be bike heavy, but it's 7th ed.