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Hello everyone, with both my Skitarii and Elysian Drop Troops collections nearing 2500 points each I am currently debating to potentially get a 3rd army or expanding my two existing armies to 5k each. I am however trouble deciding between the two and I'm curious about other peoples thoughts on the subject. My biggest concern is having an army that I would never play with hence why I'm somewhat leaning towards adding more points to my two existing armies. What have you guys found to be the best number of armies to own, what size are those armies and why?

Minis are like Dakks. You can never have enuff.

It's your hobby man, do what you like. Collect as much as you like of whatever you like. That includes non GW stuff if it's what you like.

It's just fine to make an army you would never play. Since you've got your "playing" armies already done, now pick out something you just like. Maybe just pick up a couple of random kits that look cool, or an AoS army, or an SC box for a faction you like. I've got my main army (my Dark Angels and Flesh Eater Courts) and an Imperial Knight army (5 Knights, including a FW Castigator). In addition to these guys, I've got a smattering of 500-1000 point sets of other forces (Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Necrons, Deathwatch is my current project). Don't be afraid to buy a kit you'll never play, because if you're into painting and modeling, you'll have plenty of fun with it.

Just don't waste the money on a codex for an army you're not actually gonna play. If proper loadouts are important, Battlescribe can help you take care of that.

Once I have Tau, Deathwatch, Dark Eldar, and possibly Necrons done in terms of armies then I'll move on to just modeling what I want when I want.

I also want to do Orruk's and Beastclaw Raiders.

 TheCustomLime wrote:
Minis are like Dakks. You can never have enuff.

Quoted for Truth !

I've got 4: Eldar, Harlequins, Dark Eldar and Tyranids. However this is where I plan to stop, I'm not passionate about making any of the others, so I will just develop these armies further. It's only too much when you don't have any desire to make a new army (or your budget runs out!!)

Depends on your income, your storage capacity, and ability to dedicate yourself to assembly and painting.

How often do you play?
Are your current armies painted?
Can you reasonably afford and store another army?
Will you resent yourself if you drop another (insert dollar amount) if you do buy another army and still haven't finished/completed your current ones?

I ask myself these questions before buying any new models, let alone entire armies. That being said, I do think three armies is probably the perfect number.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
How often do you play?
Are your current armies painted?
Can you reasonably afford and store another army?
Will you resent yourself if you drop another (insert dollar amount) if you do buy another army and still haven't finished/completed your current ones?

I ask myself these questions before buying any new models, let alone entire armies. That being said, I do think three armies is probably the perfect number.

I have heard that three armies is the perfect number in regards to collecting from multiple people. Really what it's coming from is that I have two Imperial Armies and am wondering if it would be worth it to invest in a Xenos faction to mix things up.

And that's a good list of questions because at this moment neither of them are painted and I'm still in the process of collecting one of the forces, I just like to plan ahead.

It depends. An army can become very large even if you buy moderately. Say, you want to have each of the Cerastus Knight variants, but you'd be having only 1-3 at your 1850 points games. But having all 4 brings your total points worth by nearly 2000. So I'd say as long as it's not 20 Tauros or 100+ Skitarii Rangers - you're fine.

The idea of "too many armies" is the same as "enuf Dakka"

If you've been here a decent amount of time, you will know why that concept is HERESY.

I have 2 viable armies, the rest are mostly just models I can make into little ones for small games.

It depends a lot on your personality IMO. Besides practical reasons like money and space, some people are drawn to certain factions and just stick with em, like me, as I'm effectively an Orky purist at least game wise, I stick with my greenies and that's it. Luckily for me, as Orks I have one of the more unique conveniences of being able to loot any particular shiny stuff the other factions have and Orkify it if I'm interested.

When you either run out of storage space or money is when you have too much.

Personally, I'm at a bit of a crossroads. Got a good BT investment, but I'll never use half of it. I have a large IG army that I *may* get to use in the future, but GW is unlikely to make IG playable again. I have a small Eldar army with nowhere to store it and an even smaller Deathwatch army that I very quickly fell in love with.

Gonna have to make some cuts and buy some bawkses.

Once you can field a full chapter with all supporting vesicles and air support, and everything is up to fluff, ONLY THEN, can you look at your collection and go.....Meh, its a good start i guess.

I like infinite expansion, only discarding an army if I play them and dislike them. Currently I have SM, DE, CWE, Corsairs, Harlies, Inq, and Guard, with Daemons on order. The only armies I've stopped and sold were GK and Tau.

They may not all be assembled but I have Space Marines, Blood Angels, Tau, Orks, Eldar, Astra Militarum, Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, Tyranids, Genestealer Cult, Imperial Knights, Dark Angels, Harlequins, Deathwatch, and more Necrons than anyone should have.

I sold off a huge Adepta Sororitas army because I didn't want to work with that many metal models, but I'm looking at starting them again, and I'm seriously considering Adeptus Mechanicus.

I think it may be too many when you run out of armies that you don't have.

Between fantasy and 40k, I've got 8 armies that are all quite sizeable. Granted, it's taken me a good 15 years to do so, but I never want for something different if I grow tired of painting the same army after a while. Also makes for great change-ups from a player perspective; I get bored too easily and usually don't play the same army two games in a row.

I would say a model collection is like dakka.

There is no such thing as "enough."

 Pouncey wrote:
I would say a model collection is like dakka.

There is no such thing as "enough."

DAKKADAKKADAKKDAKKA

MODELMODELMODELMODEL!

Enough models is only limited to what you can justify.
To have unassembled models that could keep me busy for 3 years straight is getting close... never mind paint.

I intend to have as complete a Tau army as possible. I eventually want one if not more of everything. Someday I'll have that Manta AX-10-8 (get working on it FW). I also intend to save money for the next Tau titan in the line. At some point I'll be done my Tau army completely and move on to the next. Or I might take a break on the Tau and move to DW or Dark Eldar. I'm putting off my DE one because I don't want to get into them heavily if new models come out for them next year or even recasts. Every faction is going to take part in the lead up to the 13th Black Crusade event (allegedly next year) so I have hopes all armies will get some cool new toys.

I'd chime in with the old money and space issues. If you have the money and space for more, and you want more, you are fine. If one of those things is lacking, might not be wise.

Nothing wrong with have armies you don't intend to game with, I only actually play with about 20% of my overall collection.

When it came to 40k, 4 became too many - and storage became an issue.

But then editions changed and I fell out of like with the game and downsized most of them - basically stripped out most of the duplicates. Not even enough left to play 2nd ed 40k with now.

That said, I still have armies and models for games that nobody plays much anymore, too (orphaned games mostly). Those models were the reason I got into those games, and not playing doesn't mean I no longer like the models.

I did something very dumb so I know how you recognize "too many".

Lay every single model you have assembled out in one field of view.
Can you or your family stand the sight of it?

We had received a bunch of shelves to put in our basement.
For fun, I decided to place every model I had put together (nevermind painted) in them just to see it all.
When I filled all the shelves and had more models to go... I quickly put them all away before my wife saw the majesty / horror of it all.
No, I will not hazard a guess at the qty of models.
When I have about a "chapter" of CSM.
Another "chapter" of Black Templar.
Then about a company worth of Grey Knights, Inquisition.
Imperial Guard... ummm... not sure... <whisper> they are everywhere.

 Talizvar wrote:
I did something very dumb so I know how you recognize "too many".

Lay every single model you have assembled out in one field of view.
Can you or your family stand the sight of it?

We had received a bunch of shelves to put in our basement.
For fun, I decided to place every model I had put together (nevermind painted) in them just to see it all.
When I filled all the shelves and had more models to go... I quickly put them all away before my wife saw the majesty / horror of it all.
No, I will not hazard a guess at the qty of models.
When I have about a "chapter" of CSM.
Another "chapter" of Black Templar.
Then about a company worth of Grey Knights, Inquisition.
Imperial Guard... ummm... not sure... <whisper> they are everywhere.

I'm actually on my way to doing that... Got some space to display my better painted examples of minis. The 6mm stuff is half painted, but looks alright from a distance. Touch-ups needed. My Eldar are only really half-assembled, but the completed stuff looks cool. My BT are hiding in a bawks until I figure out how to sort out that mess, and my DW are not going on display until I am done with them, but it's a promising start.

The IG... are sitting in a big ass tray on top of my wardrobe out of sight, because the paintjobs are orky at best and "wtf did you do" at any point where I tried to be adventurous. Also eight Russ hulls and a Hellhammer primarily painted black are not exactly the kind of thing my folks wanna see. Especially when the prices are easily researched...

You're only allowed 4 armies.

After that, you become the crazy mini guy, which is a distant cousin to the Crazy Cat Lady.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The idea of "too many armies" is the same as "enuf Dakka"

If you've been here a decent amount of time, you will know why that concept is HERESY.

I'm with MechaEmperor7000 lol take a look at my signature...I don't regret any of those armies. Granted, that's collected over a four year period since I was introduced to the hobby and wargaming in general, but still. I like the concept of "I don't want to find an awesome miniature or conversion idea and not have at least some type of force for it to go with, even just aesthetically".

Now, I collected my armies while I was single/unhappy and had not a care in the world for storage or what other people thought. Collecting, building, and occasionally painting made me happy and I was going to do it regardless, and frankly, I would give you the same advice. Do what makes you happy. If having an entire Chapter's worth of Space Marines gives you something to look forward to while you're at work, make one. If having the entirety of Hive Fleet Insert-Religious-Name-Here gives you something to do in your free time that you would just spend in front of a television and you enjoy it, go for it.

Granted, now I have a family and the collecting has ground to close to a halt, but what I get to do still makes me happy, and that's all that matters. It's a hobby, a source of entertainment and enjoyment. Go enjoy and be entertained.