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In my case, I fell in love with the Space Wolves - they are simultanesouly vicious warriors but extremely just at heart. I had played several games with my friends' armies and read the codices, soaking in all the grimdark of the 40K universe. When I read the story about the space wolves openly defying the inquisition and killing greyknights, I loved them. They have the good spirit of the tau without all the naive pseudo-communist nonsense.

Did anyone else gravitate towards a faction because of their personality?

Huh.

Well, I preferred the Orks because in all the over the top misery of the 40k universe, they're the only ones who seem like they're having fun. The orks can do wild and silly things, and blow themselves up, etc, and still be canon (Or get fired out of a cannon). And I guess I just prefer things with a sense of humor to serious and grim things.

I love the Dark Angels. The idea of a faction being betrayed by their own and leading a hunt to redeem their fallen past is just to awesome too pass up.

 jreilly89 wrote:
I love the Dark Angels. The idea of a faction being betrayed by their own and leading a hunt to redeem their fallen past is just to awesome too pass up.

What are you talking about, there's no such thing as fallen dark angels. Nothing happened on caliban.

For me it's Eldar. I play them since the 3rd ed came out.
I learned Quenya a bit.

For me it the same for Space wolves, thye worrie about the people and not only to kill and kill; like the pack of grey hunters that choose to remain when all the imperium forces give up a planet to an tyranid invacion, only a handful return but they give time to the civilian to scape
The same as the salamanders, they even revisit their sentlements from where they were recruit, even whey they are deployed on a warzone they build shelters for the civilian population

 toasteroven wrote:
Huh.

Well, I preferred the Orks because in all the over the top misery of the 40k universe, they're the only ones who seem like they're having fun. The orks can do wild and silly things, and blow themselves up, etc, and still be canon (Or get fired out of a cannon). And I guess I just prefer things with a sense of humor to serious and grim things.

QFT. Orks are just looking for a good time.

Any faction speaks to me personally?
Well, I must confess I have been hearing voices in my head for some time now, and they sound suspicously Orky.

Short answer - no.

Honestly, the 40k fluff in general just doesn't speak to me. I don't know what it is exactly, but I struggle to get invested the 40k background - especially in the modern books. I at least enjoyed reading the fluff in my 3rd and 4th edition books, even if the setting wasn't really to my taste. But since 5th none of the fluff in the books has captured my interest.

With regard to the armies I play:

Dark Eldar - whilst it's fun to play the 'baddies', Dark Eldar really don't speak to me beyond the somewhat enjoyable 'mad science' aspect of the Haemonculi.

Tyranids - I liked their fluff in the 4th edition book, before the Swarmlord was created and ret-conned into being behind every victory ever. But, again, they just don't speak to me in any way.

Necrons - Whilst I thought their old fluff was an interesting read, it certainly didn't speak to me. And, the new fluff lost my interest completely.

IG - Want to know something ironic? There's a story in the 4th edition Tyranid codex that makes me sympathise with the IG more than anything in the actual IG book. I think it goes back to the saying 'A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic', because the IG book just bangs on about entire regiments and millions of guardsmen dying, but doesn't actually introduce you to any of them. I appreciate that it's trying to tell of an uncaring Imperium where the life of a soldier has negligible value, but I just can't empathise with people I've never seen, met or even heard of. In contrast, the Tyranid book actually introduced several guardsmen and made you empathise with them as they made their last stand against impossible odds.

A few do. I have several armies and I chose all of them with the fluff in mind. Space wolves, blood Angels, Dark Angels, and now more recently dark eldar. its the whole reason I stick with 40k, I'm completely invested in these armies: fluff, models, painting, etc. when you find that connection with faction(s) it makes it all the better

I like aspects of the Space Marines, especially the Dark Angels. I disagree with the way they're presented at times though. Marines aren't supposed to be too friendly and nice.

They're chosen, enhanced, indoctrinated and equipped to be the ultimate soldiers of the Imperium. Their whole reason for existence is to destroy the enemy, who is basically anyone who falls outside a very narrow definition of Imperial orthodoxy. Non-human, chaotic, whatever, their solution is to make it dead.

They should be scarey, very very scarey, even if you're on their side.

IG, so many possibilities, and I am a soldier IRL, so it speaks to me.

Eldar, I like the rise from the ashes mentality you get from Craftworlds like Biel-Tan.

Oddnerd, if you love SWs that much, do yourself a huge favor: don't read "A Thousand Sons". I don't think you'd like to see their true colors shown in that book.

Eh, that book takes place pre-Heresy when Leman Russ was still kicking around, and that guy was basically the hugest jackass in the galaxy. Once he disappeared, the Space Wolves turned off the 'killer dogs of the Imperium' schtick for the most part.

Tzeentch whispers to me every night sibilantly at the back of my mind. pretty sure slaanesh is back there as well to be honest.

Thousand sons are great, the great betrayed, their unquenchable thirst for knowledge that led them to the darker arts, and double crossed by the chaos gods

for me it has always been the Space Wolves first and foremost, even though i'm a big fan of the Sallies and Blood Angels, too...

there was something about the grey armor and red wolf head, in the drawing on the side of the first box of plastic Beakies, that made me like those guys...
then the first Codex came out with Bill King's stories, and Mark Gibbins' drawings, and i was hooked...

i still like them just as much now...
i enjoyed their portrayal in A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns, and hope they get another HH novel...
Chris Wraight did a good job of fleshing them out in Battle of the Fang...
I enjoyed the Ragnar novels...
their appearances in The Fist of Demetrius, Fear to Tread, and The Emperor's Gift were good reads, too...

having only painted the last version of Logan Grimnar, i really need to paint some more Wolves...
for some reason i get hired to paint other Chapters instead:(...
thankfully, it looks like i have a commission coming up in a few months to make a new version of Ragnar and Ulrick...
that should be fun...

cheers
jah

The Necrons spoke to me. Not because I liked their backstory or whatever but because I'm an emotionless husk of my former self.

The Tyranids really speak to me. I 'get' them.

Entropy.

Hunger.

Mostly hunger, actually. I could eat a few galaxies as well at times!

Nom nom nom.

 Taserdus Marg wrote:
The Necrons spoke to me. Not because I liked their backstory or whatever but because I'm an emotionless husk of my former self.

Pretty much this.

I guess Tyranids speak to my willingness to try all different foods. I enjoy eating food from different countries and cultures, just like Tyranids like eating different varieties of planets?

 -Loki- wrote:
I guess Tyranids speak to my willingness to try all different foods. I enjoy eating food from different countries and cultures, just like Tyranids like eating different varieties of planets?

Now I want to see a Tyranid cookbook.

"To prepare a Hive World, first tenderize in order to break down the tough outer shell, and then salt liberally with spores..."

40k lore isnt somewhere where you can relate to a whole lot of factions aside from IG, some SM chapters, Orks or the Tau.
For me playing CSM came from trying something more gritty and different than what I played in WFB, which was High Elves.

SBG wrote:
Tyranids

Nom nom nom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zvCq5Sxwnw

When i see Tyranids and nom nom nom together that's the first thing that comes to mind.

Though armies that resonate with me...none really its more or less the asthetics and the "looks cool factor". The order I picked up armies is...

Tyranids (a swarm with all various sizes painted up just looks really nice on a table)
Tau ( when they first released I like the ranged combat aspect, no longer collecting them any more but would like to get 1 or 2 of the really cool looking new models to paint up.)
Deamonhunters (now grey knights the basic SM with a SB and a...force/power weapon made me get the book and army, I really should have went with the Witch Hunters though)
Space Wolves ( I like the way they looked from when my younger brother got the codex and his army in the 3ed edition, and they are now my latest army as a DIY chapter with grey armor and orange shoulder trim)

I'm also slowly putting together SoB very slowly only picking up models that I like the look of and doing special conversions for them.

Orks!

They're great. All of their fluff is insane, their models look great and best of all, if you like a vehicle or MC from another faction, you can just loot it, ork it up and use it as your own.

I think the reason I like them so much is because of their attitude. If one day I woke up in the 40K universe, I wouldn't want to be a guardsman, or space marine, fighting for some long-dead emperor on some faraway planet. I'd want to be an ork, who knows exactly how fethed up the universe is but doesn't care much and enjoys it all!

 Robisagg wrote:

 jreilly89 wrote:
I love the Dark Angels. The idea of a faction being betrayed by their own and leading a hunt to redeem their fallen past is just to awesome too pass up.

What are you talking about, there's no such thing as fallen dark angels. Nothing happened on caliban.

what is caliban. there is only the Rok..... here, come have some tea....

 Mumblez wrote:
Orks!

They're great. All of their fluff is insane, their models look great and best of all, if you like a vehicle or MC from another faction, you can just loot it, ork it up and use it as your own.

I think the reason I like them so much is because of their attitude. If one day I woke up in the 40K universe, I wouldn't want to be a guardsman, or space marine, fighting for some long-dead emperor on some faraway planet. I'd want to be an ork, who knows exactly how fethed up the universe is but doesn't care much and enjoys it all!

Fungus Beer. Gimme.

The short answer is all of them. Each to a different facet of my personality. I could elaborate but I would be writing out an essay.

I'll stick to the army I'm currently collecting: Tyranids.

I like to think of them like Geth from the Mass Effect universe.

The Hive Mind is a gestalt, collective consciousness that was created by the psychic background noise of a huge number of semi-intelligent organisms. Their radio-chatter blocks out the warp. Each individual is barely capable of thinking one step ahead. (i.e. after I eat, I will hide. after I hide, I will eat. etc. etc) but "talking" amongst themselves and to this... collective voice, each contributes processing power to the greater whole until the Hive Mind can channel through a creature like the Swarmlord to create and implement complex strategies, tactics, divided labor and task forces and battle plans that far outstrip the mental faculties of any single organism from any other species. By achieving consensus, they achieve far more than any society of individuals ever could

Daemons are... outside the realm of reality, so in being outsiders do not obey its laws and even lesser daemons could feasibly "out-think" the Hive Mind. That being said, most daemons are simply emotions made real and I don't suppose they do much thinking.

As far as biological species go, Tyranids are basically one giant brain (which is why the links in their chain of command are called synapse creatures or synapse nodes, named after synapses found between neurons where "thought" occurs) making them the pinnacle of evolution. In my opinion.

If only humans could be this awesome.

Grey Knights...

I have always like the concept of paladins/holy warriors, standing against the immeasurable darkness, outnumbered and usually alone. I really liked how the latest codex really got back to just Grey Knights, and I have a 4 dreadknight Knightzilla army that is lots of fun. The last book, Emperors Gift was just really really good!

Ultramarines.

I'm Italian, and my family is Roman specifically. A lot of the heraldry, symbolism and even some of the names were things I actually grew up with in my own home, relative's, etc. As soon as I saw them I knew where their design was drawn from, and they were a no-brainer for me. I felt an immediate bond with them.

My other armies were all chosen due to aesthetics, or really cool lore I liked.