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Hello!

First of all, if this is not the right place for this thread I apologise, mods please move to most relevant. Thank you.

So, I will state right out that I am a fully fledged member of the filthy casual narrative player group and as such model aesthetics and cool background are the two most important things to me when it comes to what I buy.

Now, you may be thinking that I have a vast collection of bits and bobs that I like rather than any form of structure to my collection, but this is not true! See I have this thing where all my armies are based on my favorite parts of the lore (for example, my Kraken Tyranids because the whole Iyanden thing is absolutely my number 1 spot on the list of "best bits of fluff in 40k" and is why I collected Night Goblins, Dwarfs and Skaven for Warhammer...bonus internet points for those who can guess why ) and I find myself drawn to collecting forces involved in specific parts of the background.

Case in point.. I decided to collect Orks, however as I already had a Dark Angels army led by Belial, there was no way it was not going to be a Ghaz led Goff/Bad Moon coalition even though Goffs are not really all that great ruleswise right now as my first ever tournament experience was the 2nd ed 1997 Grand tournament at Leicester University which just happened to coincide with the release of the Piscina campaign box..I still have the cardboard powerplant and also the sad news of a car crash in a tunnel in paris :( )

I am getting the necron half of Indomitus with a view to eventually pitting the Silent King against my nids.

So, the first of my questions (and yes, I am aware that this is a forum mostly made up of tournament players) is

"Have you ever found yourself drawn to collecting any particular army because it fits thematically/background-wise with one you already own?"

Also, My most regular opponent has armies that seem to almost directly mirror mine...

I have Dark Angels, He has Space Wolves.
I have Orks, He has Crimson Fists.
I have Kraken Tyranids, He has an Iyanden Wraith-host (and yes, he DOES actually use the Iyanden trait for them)

This has never been planned in any way but just seemed to happen.

Is this just me? Do you have "opposite" armies with a regular opponent? Have you ever specifically collected two armies between friends because of the match-up? If not, how important is army "fluff" to you when choosing to collect something new?

My primary army is Ultramarines.

My secondary army is Eldar. I chose them because they painted and played the opposite of the marines. Fast moving, hard hitting, rather then slow, steady, and tough.

I recently started a Nid’s army, and they make a great foil to my Ultras from a fluff POV. And unlike my fist two armies, is more hordes/monsters, rather then elite MSU.

I’ve never really built an army just to be opposite a friend. We all just chose what we liked.

My main army is Marines (classics), painted white.

My initial secondary army is Chaos, with Black Legion forming the core. The black paint job contrasts nicely with the white of my loyalist paint scheme. Loyalist Marines vs. Chaos Marines is at the heart of the 40K lore, and the imagery is part of the reason why I have both armies.

My other "foe" army is Tyranids. Tyranids are the classic Starship Troopers-esque sci-fi foe, and power armored human forces up against biological alien horrors goes well beyond 40K.

 Insectum7 wrote:
My main army is Marines (classics), painted white.

My initial secondary army is Chaos, with Black Legion forming the core. The black paint job contrasts nicely with the white of my loyalist paint scheme. Loyalist Marines vs. Chaos Marines is at the heart of the 40K lore, and the imagery is part of the reason why I have both armies.

My other "foe" army is Tyranids. Tyranids are the classic Starship Troopers-esque sci-fi foe, and power armored human forces up against biological alien horrors goes well beyond 40K.

I hadn't thought of asking about contrasting colour schemes as we all know its nice to have a break now and then from the umpteenth x-colour model!! (ex-skaven player who can't stand to paint brown anymore)

Tyranids and Guard are great opposites, and really the only reason I haven not started the good ole humies is that they are more than likely going to end up in my genestealer cult ( with possible deathwatch antagonists....) and I am someone who firmly beleives in quantity over quality when it comes to anything not Deathwing related and i doubt I can afford yet another horde-ish type army (hopefully necrons will be a nice middle-ground).

I started a Tyranid army because mechanically it was the complete opposite of my chaos space marine army. Swarms vs elite units, hive mind vs. relative individualism, tech heresy and demons (completely unnatural pheno,Enron) vs biological weapons.... And the fight makes sense.

Sorta - I had a Tyranid Behemoth army and had recently started a Mars Admech army when Genestealer cults came out. So, I decided I would get a GSC army of Bladed Cog, with the hopes I could use the Tyranids as allies and the Admech as either foes or "dominated" allies. Since I also had some old Necromunda models, I painted the Orlocks as brood brothers and threw in a catachan squad my brother had given me as more brood brothers.

My two armies are Scions and Death Korps. While they're in the same faction, their playstyle is quite different, with one favoring ''in your face'' drop troops and mobile gunships, while the other is a gunline with a slightly better melee capacity to slow down what tries to reach the big guns.

I picked Slannesh Daemons because they're about as far on the other end of the spectrum as you can get from my Marines. It's coincidentally a much more interesting match into my buddy's Dark Eldar too.

I bought the Infernal Enrapturess because she'll look great as part of the Slaaneshi Daemon allies to my Noise Marines.

Once my Genestealer Cult grows big enough to attract the Hive Fleet, I will have to collect the Hive Fleet.

My Inquisitors make me collect small detachments of Grey Knights to support the Ordo Malleus and Deathwatch to support the Ordo Xenos. Ordo Hereticus are covered- Sisters are my Primary.

Basically everything I buy is part of a giant story; I don't need the models until the faction enters the storyline.

I've absolutely done stuff like this. Part of the reason I started Iron Warriors very soon after my IG was to have an appropriate nemesis force of two siege armies . I do this kind of a lot, it's how I ended up with multiple faction stuff for Firestorm Armada, Dropzone Commander, Flames of War, Heavy Gear, etc

My first army way back in third ed. was Ulthwé Eldar, which some time later was followed up by my second army being Chaos Space Marines (focus on Thousand Sons).
Part of the reason I picked CSM as my second army was because they played so differently from Eldar, and partly because it fit from a narrative PoV to own both of these opposing armies.

My Salamanders began life back in 5th ed. as a small allied detachment for my Imperial Guard, basically for thematic reasons ("Space Marines drop pod/deepstrike in to help the guardsmen save the day"), but it very soon grew into a fully fledged army in it's own right, and is currently my main army.

I have a bunch of different armies for both 40k & WHFB/AoS, so I guess you could see some of them as opposites. Either within my own collection or when paired against friends Though that's never done with intent.

Now "background/theme"? Oh yes.
As this is the 40k board, I'll give a 40k example.
Tyranids - I have a huge collection of nids built up over the decades, currently in storage. 8 distinct armies worth, with no model swapping between cases. The theme? If played in order it shows an escalation of a tyranid assault.
It begins...
1) GSC
[b]Things escalate...[/b]
2) Genestealers! 100%
In Coming!....
3) Flying things, spore mines, & spore pods (whatever they're called now) - everything flys/has wings or is a spore.
The attack begins in earnest....
4) "Vintage" nids - stuff from waaay back in the 2e days
5) "New" nids - wich nowadays is probably vintage as well..... Mostly from 3rd/4th, some 5e. Things have evolved! Has bigger/newer things than the previous list.
OMG, look at the size of those things!....
6) 'Zilla! - Other than a few warriors to make it legal when I originally built it, there ain't nothing small in this list....
7)100% Forge World. Most of them big.
Mopping Up....
8) Swarms & other things on the clean up crew. Some misc units to mop up resistance.

When playing my 'nids in this order I play one "army" until it's won x games. Then I switch to the next one in line.

Thoughts;
Typing this? I think I've decided upon my Crusade force.
Last played 'nids in 6th. So I'm not sure some of these forces work here in 9th (more as in how to make them legal than stats/pts/wether somethings "good" or not).
Need current Codex books.
My GSC would really benefit from a revamp using modern list & model range. It was running on the 3rd ed Citadel Journal list, & a bunch of scratch build made with my skills of 20 years ago...
I wonder if FW has anything new? (6th ed +)

A new thought has occurred!
I might add a 9th army to this list. You know in Alien when Ripley & Co. find the alien ship, the face huggers, & all the fun that ensues? What If....
Army Zero: "Ooh, what's that??"
An opening force of Zoats/something neutral (Ambulls? that BSF robot maybe?), sentry defense guns (tarantulas & servitors etc)? Spore mines & maybe a lone broodlord/warrior/tyrant coming on from reserve (once someones died to a spore mine).
The advance condition up to GSC is kill one model via spores & LOSE the game.

Don’t build forces as a foil to others, but have a Ciaphas Cain Guard army of refugees and remnants to face my Orks?

Yes, I have black templars, orks and some steel legion. I really like the armageddon war fluff.