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Dakka!

I am in need of your excellent insight! I am trying to narrow down my focus to 2 armys. I dont have a prefered play style, I can be agressive or passive, cc ranged. Maybe tell me about your favorite army and why its your favorite(maybe ill come up with some good questions to ask my self).

Maybe top 5:

Orc, Tyranids, Craftworld or Harlequin

Imperial Soup(never done this seems cool) or Chaos Soup


I would like to really just focus so I can spend more time refining my army/strat etc... I am to all over the place and I am very indecisive let me know if you need me to answer any questions and I will edit this post to include all extra information. You will see why I'm having a tough time because I really enjoy all the different things about each individual army. Thank you very much for any help you can offer!


INFORMATION:
Lore: I love Chaos/Xenos, imperial has always tugged at the back of my mind
Painting: I have an airbrush and use brush (I enjoy painting everything). I paint slow but I'm learning and getting a little faster..
Motivation: I like the brute (especially the joy the orcs get from simply fighting each other), but I also enjoy lore(chaos/craft/etc...) so Idk how I would feel about playing something 2d likenids.
Play style: aggressive (if I have to choose), CC (If I have to choose), open to combo
1st 40k piece: Librarian (Vanilla )
Name/Avatar: Just a fan of Alpha dont think I want it to be my main yet

For myself, part of the process is a willingness to paint the models.

I love Orks. I want to play Orks. I bought a box of Boyz to play Kill Team as, and had fun building and converting them.

They are a pain in the ass to paint. If I wanted to play a 1500 point army it would take me For-E-Ver to pain them. It is so time inefficient I can hardly stand it. So an Ork Army is pretty much out of the question for me.

But Nids? I've never been interested in their lore, but my son wanted to play them for KT and they are a dream to paint. Very simple, large swaths of the same colour, paint schemes can be SUPER time efficient. I have fun playing with them and would consider expanding them to a full army, despite disliking their lore.

I never dug Space Elves, though I play Retribution (Elves) in Warmachine.

Imperial and Chaos soups are financially easy. Lots of used stuff on the web. I've played Guard since 4th edition (Eye of Terror Campaign) and could never bring myself to part with them. I always get bored of Loyalist Marines, but I keep coming back to them (3 times now?). I'd sell them in a heartbeat to pick up something new but then I'd just buy them again...

Chaos has awesome opportunities for conversions and the like. All armies do, but Chaos and Orks really let you go to town with wild stuff. The Terminator with Reaper Autocannon is the model that got me to start 40k back in 2nd ed. I still love it and daydream about running a terminator-heavy Chaos force just so I could use them again.

If painting is a concern for you, most factions have a 3-5 man trial box to build some basic grunts. If you've got the means, I'd buy one of each "serious consideration" faction boxes and try painting a few. You might find (Like Orks) that even though you love everything else about them, you'd never paint an army of them.

You want Tyranid.

-Orks have been my long time favourite but they lost a Lot of their charme with the current Rules. Plus they are a pain to Paint properly. I also grew sick of having to convert every single vehicle because 2 ork vehicles should never look alike.

-Tyranids are awesome and a Joy to paint. A fully painted swarm looks marvellous. Only downside to them is that most of the big bugs are webstore exclusives and thus very pricey and take ages to ship.

-I dont like cwe

-Harlies look fun nur i'd stay away from them If you're not a very very good painter. They are the hardest Army to paint by a large margin.

Tyranids are (personally) my favorite army, though I play the gak out of my Chaos.

Chaos allows for a lot of freedom with modeling, especially with four uniquely different gods

So with a few votes for Nids so far... do you have models you like the look of best? Power levels change with the wind, you can’t predict what will be powerful next year, so models you like are important for long-term enjoyment.

Thank you for all of these excellent replies! The politeness, detail, and help you all have given so far is already making this decision so much easier.
I will build my orcs slow so lets not worry about them for now.

After listening to everyone I'm leaning towards:

Nids(first), Soup(imperial or chaos)(Second), Harlies(Im worried that their isnt enough diversity here for me, the reason why craftworld was my backup)(third)

1)im going to play alot but im not competative (so not to worried about the whole fluctuating points thing, I like that challenge!)
2)im going to play competitions once in awhile for fun
3) I like diversity in play style and in model design
4)I love the disgusting nurgle, I like the sleakness of craft/slaanesh/druk, i like csm/imperial because its my favorite part of the lore, Harlies look cool(solitare sounds awesome in battle), I like interesting skill sets or spells, etc...
5)favorite models have always been spell carries/psychics.

Thanks again gents!

Happy to help.

Do you have to travel much for your gaming? I’m fortunate to have basement / garage space between myself and my friends, but some people need to bike / bus to their games, and if so having compact armies could be another issue.

If you’re already doing Orks, I’d suggest avoiding Nids as I find they have very similar play styles. That way you can play something non-hordey with a focus on krumpin’ stuff. It’s the reason I don’t play IG and Tau, even though I really like Tau models.

From a modelling standpoint, I think Chaos soup would be the next best fit. Still aggressive and choppy, but more elite with more potential for psykers. Sorcerers, Daemons and Renegades can all have psykers. You still have access to Renegade Knights. I find the Chaos Marines have stronger visual identities than Loyalist Marines, which I find cool.

There is a TON of model diversity under the Chaos umbrella. The four gods have four unique marines, at least four unique daemons, plus conversions for human/mutant renegades, and the Daemon Engines like the Hell Drake, Defiler, Soul Grinder, Fiends...

Damnit. I’m starting a Chaos Marine army.

Still a lot of thinking to do if you go CSM. I love how you can take alpha, khorne, world eaters, and sure you give up overall bonus of pure army but each individual feat makes them so much more impressive. I really like imperial soup like assasinorium and inquisition (but just how they look). I'm glad you mentioned that there isnt alot of individuality when it comes to the space marines.

Im going to sleep on the information I have and ask you all a couple more questions tomorrow. I really appreciate you guys helping me out, this is a difficult task to accomplish now that there are 27 choices.

Well its just getting harder, so maybe i will end up not being able to just focus on two I enjoy. Maybe I am too ADHD and need to force myself too.... oooo a box of Gretchin.

I appreciate everyones input and I am very greatful for everyones time, I think its just the plastic curse. Its just going to be a slow and dynamic year getting back into the hobby .

Thanks again everyone!