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Tau - They had the best aesthetics and the newest models in the game at the time that I started (shortly after they were added to the game in late 3rd/early 4th), just about everything else looked really silly and stupidly disproportionately designed.

Necrons(Sold) - They were the only other faction, aside from Tau, I found aesthetically appealing at the time. Plus the fluff (at the time) was amazing.

Tyranids(Sold) - They were the most powerful faction in 4th, and I wanted an army of cc bugs for the (at the time) brand new Cities of Death format.

Eldar - I got bored of the Necrons and fell in love with the concept of squads of highly specialized aspect warriors. Also the phoenix lords were really the only cool larger than life characters that weren't space marines or guardsmen.

Daemons - I got a large collection of daemons for dirt cheap from a friend who was quittin his CSM army, conveniently right around the time that Chaos Daemons became their own codex.

Militarum Tempestus - It was a conveninent excuse to start a small infantry based guard army using non GW infantry minis, as well as a reason to use my 3 Avenger Strike Fighters.

I like the DKoK aesthetics, they're human and pretty cool. I love me some ranged fire power and fixed artillery, too.

Scions are elite humans, makes them instantly cool, they play completely different from the Death Korps, while still being shooty. There's also the fact that every single Scion model made by GW is a freaking amazing model, be it the first plastic stormtroopers or the metal Kasrkins.

Orks because of Dawn of War 2. Its what really introduced me to 40K and I loved how crazy and awesome the Orks are. Rolling buckets of dice, freedom to kitbash or scratch build basically anything, and their strength in numbers are all highly appealing. Ork fluff is the by far the most fun with their love of fighting, looting, and fighting while looting (or looting while fighting if your some sort of heathen). In the grimdark future of the 41st millennium their is only war and happy Orks.

Tau because I liked their playstyle of ranged shooting, surgical deep strikes, and their gameplay focus on working together (markerlights, ethereal aura, supporting fire, etc). Their infantry look cool and I really liked the design of the crisis suits and hammerhead tanks. The Tau being the race that favors cooperation over needless conflict may seem counter intuitive to the setting but I like to think that the Tau actually ally or conquer other races and then quietly eliminate the majority of the conquered/allied races while quickly colonizing their newly acquired planets with true Tau.

Grey Knights and Inq was because I wanted a low numbers army with a strong psychic phase. I liked Imperial Guard but I didn't want to spend a ton of money and a ton of time painting up infantry platoons worth of guardsmen plus numerous vehicles. Inquisition filled that IG itch while the Grey Knights handled the psychic aspect as well as being an elite melee army in comparison to the more horde style of the Orks. My friend plays Space Wolves so that option was eliminated and I never liked the Blood Angel fluff. If I was playing something Space Marine like then I didn't want it to be a bunch of wet noodles that got rolled in close combat.

I recently started collecting models and I'm starting with Skitarii. I've always liked the mechanicus in the fluff and the models for both army's are just beautiful.

I chose Dark Eldar because I loved the newer Hellions and Kabalites. I still have a few but I've not played with them for years because I simply couldn't seem to win with them. I think aesthetics and at least the potential for some victories now and then or it can just get frustrating.
Thanks
Blofeld

I started at the tail end of 4th (didn't actually get any games until 5th), then stopped playing 40k with the release of 6th...


In that time, I started SMs. Originally, I fell in love with the fluff of both the Salamanders and Raven Guard. As I started painting, I realized that at that point, Painting that much black was boring, and I couldn't get green to look as good as I wanted it to.

So I switched up, and after reading "Brothers of the Snake" I now play Iron Snakes

Then, I tried Nids for a bit (I still have the "army" but I hated my first paint scheme, tried to change it, but was loathe to try and repaint all that crap)... but that's fallen through.

Next, is my Guard army. Now, I can't use this army in my LGW, but before I quit playing, I was usually playing in an FLGS, not GWs, so using all my 3rd party infantry was A-OK. They were modeled after the unit I first deployed with IRL. Eventually, I will begin buying a squad here and there to convert this army into a "legal" standing with GW so I can use in the store.... Really, the idea that I loved with Guard was that I could take SO MANY TANKS!!!! and I could fill the table with large blobs of semi crap infantry that can pew a ton of things to death

The final army I did before my hiatus, was my Nurgle CSM list. In 5th, it is a 1750 list that doesn't work any other way. From nearly day one of the fluff, I've pretty much liked the Nurgle part of Chaos, the whole disease and decay thing; Death Guard "not repairing" their equipment until it absolutely needed it to function, etc. So this army is led by Typhus, with 3 squads of plaguemarines, a GUO, some termies, a unit of bikes and a couple defilers. This was a rather expensive army, because I bought the FW plague marine upgrade kit for the bikers, as well as the upgraded termie armor... Plus, I'm using the FW Plague Hulk models as Defilers, and the FW GUO (because it's a million times better than the standard GW one)





Now, my LGW is in a Sigmar campaign, but we're going to be doing a 40k campaign after this one is concluded, so I just bought the Space Marine book, since it will require the least amount of purchases to be up to date throughout this campaign.

Dark Vengeance starter box... plus, I love the Dark Angels background story.

And, what's not to love about hyper agressive bugs from another galaxy?

SG

I've played some based on looks, some on how they play and then I found orks.

Orks are the most fun army I have played. I was attracted by the randomness of them and then once I got in I was addicted. I can kustomize whatever I want, anything can be turned orky. Playing them I can lose tons of bodies and still have fun and win even.

Space wolves - whats not to like about warrior vikings battling in space before partying in Valhalla

Blood angels - whats not to like about masses of troops with jump packs, DC with jump packs, bikes and predators? Seems GW didn't like a JP theme ard changed the codex, moving JP troops to fast attack dooh

SM: A friend of mine got out of the game and dumped a small army on me.

GK: A different friend of mine got out of the game and, knowing I played SM s, dumped a small army on me.

Yep, that's really how it started.

Grey Knights because I love their models. I love how they can stand up to an army three times their size. I love it all.

Inquisition because them as allies makes for amazing narrative.

Dark eldar because I love the models.I love the heavy hitting fragile effect they have. It's amazing.

Militarun tempestus because they are as epic as space marines but fragile.

Imperial Knights because well.... Why not

Honestly I picked my CSM because when all of my gaming group was picking armies. I glanced at some used CSM terminators in a display case for sale that the FLGS. I noticed they had chainsaws on their guns. That's was all it took for me pick CSM.

I thought, 'Hey, here's some fun loving guys that want to kill people so bad that they don't even want to have pull out a melee weapon to smash someone teeth in. I can get onboard with that logic."

Chaos Space Marines: I purchased a painted army back in 2nd edition with a Lord of Change, some pink horrors, a Bloodthirster, 5 Bloodletters, some Fleshhounds, Havocs, a bunch of marines and almost every special character for super cheap. Best decision I've ever made.

Dark Eldar: I bought the box set when they first introduced Dark Eldar. I really like their fluff and playstyle. They were a nice change from my marines.

Tyranids: I traded a few D&D books for a Hive Tyrant, Zoanthrope, some genestealers, gargoyles, hormagaunts and termagaunts back at the beginning of 3rd edition. I am a big fan of Starship Troopers, the book, and thought these would be fun to play.

Chaos Daemons: My collection for my marine army is now large enough to field on its own.

For me I have no interest in starting a new army, my devotion to Chaos is that of a Wifeu, and I must never look at another army in that way!

the DoW RTS first piqued my interest. When I got out of college, got more time and money, I started looking into the tabletop game that it was based on.

Eventually, I settled on a black reach set, and figured that everyone played space marines, so I went for the orks.

One of my first games, someone offered me 3x ork sets of the black reach set for $60, and 3 years later I have ~20,000 point of orks.

I love them for their looks, their fluff, and kitbashing my own ork stuff is really enjoyable and looked half-assed on the tabletop.

I honestly can't think of any other faction I really want to play, but I'm quickly getting to the point where I don't have much more ork stuff to kollekt!

In the famous words of pokemon



Or a truely skilled general should try win with his favorites

I love winning with the army I think has the coolest models or most in depth story. It makes the win that much more satisfying

I like reading these it's neat to know what drew people to their armies I'd like to see why more people chose daemons or skitari/mech

Tau: When I first got into the game the Riptide had just been released and I had no idea about what it did what or how strong or powerful the model would be. When I was looking at armies it was this aesthetic and the idea behind the Tau way of fighting that became the deciding factor between Tau and Tyranids (Since I really liked how scary they seemed to be) I played gun-line for a while until I realized how boring it must be for other players and luckily FSE came out and gave me the answer I was looking for. Crisis Troops

Tyranids: About a year or so after learning Tau and playing with them I picked up the Tyranid Swarm Box as well as the old Battle-force. This army played completely differently than my Old Gun-Line Style and it was fun to finally be playing the board and moving around more. (My friends began to dislike playing Tau...imagine that) I got the Tyranids to play the bad guy in our games and whether it was monster spam or swarms I think we all really enjoyed this.

GK: I wanted GK because I like their overall look, the fact that they are psykers and they are good in CC. I wanted to play a more elite army that was "against the odds" I started out with this army as "Psychic Defense" for my Tau but reading up on the fluff it didn't feel right so I decided to make them stand-alone (until I flavored with Inquisition)

 vorrax-ghul wrote:
In the famous words of pokemon



Or a truely skilled general should try win with his favorites

I love winning with the army I think has the coolest models or most in depth story. It makes the win that much more satisfying

I have a perfect IV/EV/Nature Mewtwo trained to level 100. Do you know the odds of getting a legendary with perfect stats? Insanely hard for most people. For some people and pokemon their favorites are the strong. I only use my mewtwo when my friends think they're better than me at Pokemon.




My cousin used a cheesy Blaiziken against my casual team and called me a scrub. Then he got a mega Blaizken crushed me down and called me terrible. He even trolled me with a greninja that lowers accuracy and raises his dodge chance. He claimed to be the superior trainer. Then I obliterated him with one pokemon. Let alone the rest of my team. Even his legendaries got smacked down. Now that was satisfying. I lost to him for years and he would always ask me for a rematch, I win once and completely destroy and crush his spirit and he never wants to fight me again.

Chaos space marines I loved the idea of these marines that are litrally living in hell and just don't give a damn. Also the Word Bearers have always appealed to me due to my obsession with the occult.

Chaos daemons I have a obsession with occult lore and horror movies to do with Daemonic entities what's not to love

I started playing when there was literally nothing but beaky marines and a smattering of xenos and bizarre fringe stuff like ambulls.

I went for Eldar because they were the first major xenos race to get models iirc. When I came back into 40k I stuck with them but they were weak then (4th ed dex). Now I tend to not add much to them because I fear they are regarded as cheese.

Nids got me back into 40k specifically the trygon and carnifex models. They are gorgeous. I like the alienness of the nids. I have collected virtually every unit.

CSM I always loved nurgle and slaanesh right back to Slaves to Darkness and the Lost and the Damned. I also subscribe to the idea that certain chaos gods are incompatible. That's why my CSM and CD contain nothing but Nurgle and Slaanesh, plus the two make an appropriately absurd contrast between the rotten and foul and the flamboyant and frankly OTT.

Grey Knights I got because I came into a chunk of money and thought I'd get an ultra-elite force low on numbers. I got them when the 5th ed dex dropped. Now have more than a full battle brotherhood of the guys.

Dark Eldar are a little side army because I love the models.

I chose IG because I love the idea of a WW2 style army made up of ordinary men sent to fight the horrors of the universe and love the general look of the army. Also a big fan of movies like Aliens and Starship Troopers.

Space Wolves because whats not to like about space vikings made to chew face in CC?

Inquisition was mainly to support IG, but as it turns out I love the fluff and general religious fanatical craziness that the inquisition brings to the table.

 KillMaimBurn96 wrote:


Hey there.
So I was wondering, what made you want to choose the army that you have?

I started with Chaos and Genestealer/Chaos cult armies from way back in the day. Loved both because they were neat concepts and weren't the good guys, nor goofy like the orks. My chaos collection has only grown through the years. I did keep my genestealer cult alive for a long time, but finally retired it as 5th edition came to an end because it was just too far outclassed anymore. Sold off all the parts to collectors and made a tidy profit. Still miss it, but know the army would be all but useless now without any armor of any kind and the only vehicles being 'armored limos'. Through the years I have added more and more armies, many primarily as modeling projects and then sold them off once they were totally built. I kept expanding with chaos now. My chaos renegades army full of figures with forge world conversion parts was an extension of my previous Lost and the Damned army from the Eye of Terror codex. I added Dark Angels and Space Wolves after multiple incarnations of space marine armies built and sold, because I like their back stories and their concepts. Both are different in the approach to things, so both offer different modeling interests. Add Dark Eldar because they are a good adjunct to chaos forces and I like the current incarnation of their appearance and feel. Tried to make a DE army back when they were originally released in the 3rd edition box, but the line was just not as interesting back then as it is now. So it was built with the current line. Since they released wraithguard models way back when I always wanted to do a ghost warriors force for Eldar from a story and modeling perspective. The current plastic wraithguard/blades are decent kits and the rules in the previous Eldar codex finally made them viable by not requiring them to have a psyker babysitting them constantly. The release of the ghost warriors boxed set from GW meant it was time and I bought it and some additional units. I did not buy the new Eldar codex because I like my army the way it is and it is not fully usable with the current elder codex, nor did I want it to become D weapon spam over night either.

I used to have a Daemonhunters/gray knights army which I loved because of the story behind it and the variety in modeling and painting all of the various inquisitorial henchmen, daemonhosts and the like. It was not a power house army, but interesting and in my group's meta did slightly better than it should have because I always seemed to roll exactly what I needed on the power table each turn for my daemonhosts. Also had witchhunters/sisters, but got bored with 90% of the sisters minis looking exactly the same as every other sisters mini. I have since stopped buy much of any new GW minis, though have been adding Forge World kits to my collection because I just love the detail on the models. I am also in the process of actually rebuilding my Inquisitorial stuff buying used oop minis off of ebay and will see them in action again before long.

Generally the full answers for me are: story and modeling enjoyment. With just story, but boring models it doesn't happen, and without story I'll give in to my modeling project interests, but won't keep the army when I am done.

I picked Tau when I came back to the hobby. Partially because I really like Commander Shadowsun, even though I don't play her, and mostly because I like how a uniformed army looks. I used to play Chaos way back when, but even then I'd use a mix of Chaos and Space Marine bits, as I hated how all over the place the Chaos models looked. I think variety should come in the painting, not the models themselves exactly.

Oh, it also didn't hurt that I absolutely loved the Riptide model, even if I hate the Crisis Suits for a long time, and still don't like them all that much. Not to mention I like the concept of "The Greater Good", though I don't like Communism, and don't really think the Tau are Communist in nature.

I wanted a faction that handed a battle in the year 40,000 properly:
It had to be high-technology oriented, work as a coherent army instead of small groups that happen to be pained the same colour and above all... have the common sense not to bring a knife to a plasma fight.
Add the strange desire to find the 'good guys' and play them for the change and this left only one faction still standing even if I make a mockery of their 'greater good' mentality.

If I ever get back into the hobby though, I will evaluate the choice once more given how Tau is becoming nothing more then 'titan 2.0' and quickly losing the 'coherent army' feel.

I started with Eldar in 3rd. My introduction to 40k came while on deployment to Okinawa when some guys in the barracks were playing. This was 1999/2000. I saw IG, Chaos, Eldar and Dark Eldar being used. Eldar seemed coolest of the bunch to me so picked them when I started a couple years later.

Then in 4th I wanted a second army. Fast, powerful but fragile was appealing and I started Dark Eldar. Hate their fluff so I just made my own as them being a scout force for my Eldar.

Got rid of everything 2008/2009. Started collecting again last year on ebay. Got lots of orks in big purchase same with Marines. Also picked up some Eldar and Nids when I liked the deals. Have gotten some IG now too.

Eldar and Dark Eldar are still the most interesting to me followed by Orks and Nids, then Guard, then Marines. IOM just doesn't do it for me that much.

- My first 40k army way back in 3rd was Ravenwing. I went with the Dark Angels mainly due to the background mixture of Arthurian legend + Knights Templar secrecy and the whole Fallen story. The bike army was because it was super unique at the time, and with only a few models in the army, I could make each one unique in his own right, fitting in the with idea that these guys were like mounted knights in the year 40,000.
I sold the army after only a year or so, as the play style just got boring, and I seemed to either occasionally win by a mile, or else get tabled quickly by masses of ap2/3 shooting.


- I then built up about a 1000pts of Ultramarines, (to my eternal shame), simply because it seemed like everyone at some point or other fell into the Smurf trap.


- When Codex: Armageddon released, I jumped both feet into Salamanders after hearing non-stop for almost a month that they were the most underpowered, useless Space Marine army in the history of the game! So on the advice of my local GW manager, I began collecting them in part because;
a) I suck with dice and especially armour saves, so losing with Sallies would actually be fully expected...
b) I loved the whole dragon'esque look and feel to them, alongside the custom honour markings of flames, hammers & anvils.
c) Everyone had written them off as useless, so losing would be expected...

I managed to get 1700pts of them done in time for the 2003 Toronto GT, which is where I ended up meeting, and playing no less, against Phil Kelly and his Ulthwe Eldar. It was a bloody, bloody game, but thanks to my dakka pred, a large rock, a clumsy Captain and his thunder hammer, and the ability to play an additional turn, I managed to snag the objective marker and win!
The next day my dice returned to their normal state and I managed to expertly lose 2 of 3 games, but that army has been the one and only force I've ever built & played with that managed to build a winning record at a tournament! (I went 3-2-1 for the weekend)

I've still got that army, as I can't bring myself to part with them since they proved that if I'm given an army of what were essentially Dwarfs in power armour, I can eek out more than a Murphy's Luck nomination.


- After the Armageddon codex was no more, (and thus, my Sallies went back to being 'normal' Marines and sucking at armour saves), I went for Guard based on the theory that as they don't actually typically get an armour save for me to fail, I might be able to find some success!
With the doctrines of the 4th ed codex, I went for an 100% pure Drop Troops army that consisted of nothing but infantry and Sentinels.

Overall it turned out similar to my old Ravenwing, in that it either won by a landslide (if my dice didn't betray me and my meltaguns managed to for once hit from 1" away from their target!), or else it lost big if/when my Deep Strikes bounced.
It was however a great deal more fun that the Ravenwing army I'd had, and my Heavy flamer Sentinel never once failed to cause massive havoc by exploding spectacularly every single game!
I'd also added a Radical Inquisitor and his retinue as allies, alongside a Culexus assassin as I loved his background.


- When Daemons got their own codex, I decided it was time to fall to Chaos once and for all. Tzeentch called most strongly to me, mostly because of my unhealthy love of wizards from playing Fantasy, and because he's the guy pulling all the strings and making everyone else dance to his tune.
I've got some Khorne and Slaanesh bits as well, but I always take predominately Tzeentch, especially Flamers! (except when they became god-tier, at which point I left most of the them at home...)

As 5th moved on, I didn't get to play my Daemons as much, in part because they simply couldn't deal with the Tankhammer meta, and especially after the Ward Knights dropped and everyone and their mother jumped ship to that obnoxious gakpile. The worst was the fact that almost every single GK list I ever faced would have at least 1 Warp Quake squad. And the odd time they didn't, it was because the GK player was playing max Purifyers.


I still play Daemons as my main army, however I've been dabbling in adding some CSM allies, to rather predictable levels of never passing an armour. (Except on Sorcerers, because apparently I'm amazing with wizards for some reason?!)
I just wish that Chaos Marines could have some of the toys that Loyalists have gotten back over the past 5-6 years or so... I'd kill for a Heavy flamer and a couple new & unique weapon options honestly. Still, I've had a lot of fun using allied Warptalons for a nasty close combat unit.

Currently though I've been toying with the idea of giving my Tzeentch a break and going back to my original Khornate roots with a Daemonkin army... my theory being, that the army actively rewards you for getting your own stuff killed, and thus, failing 70% of my armour saves would suddenly become a mostly good thing!

@Experiment 626: You played against Phil Kelly? Holy crap. I'm not sure I believe that but I dunno if I'd call you a liar. There are some vices you have I'm sure but dunno if lying is much of one.

------

So my armies have mostly been imperial guard as I loved them in 'dawn of war: winter assault'. They just seemed to work well with me. Something about tanks, explosions and the indomitable human spirit despite overwhelming odds. Cadians are a bit bland and feel a bit generic these days and if I did it again I'd go vostroyans all the way (if mechanicus didn't fill a similar aesthetic for me). One of the things that killed it for me with imperial guard was the fact they lost so much in the lore. Even in big battles where they do really, really well they inevitably lose most of the time. It's just really frustrating when you're looking for fluff battles to go 'F Yeah, Guard All the Way!' and all you see are space marines taking most of the glory if not all of it.

For fantasy I played skaven as I loved the 'pinky and the brain' feel to them. Everything about skaven was awesome as they had steampunk, betrayed each other and the mad scientist vibe just makes me want to raise a pinky to my lip like Dr. Evil as we attach sharks with laser beams on their heads except instead it's more like giant rats with warpstone powered beams because skaven are totally original like that ;D. We even did ok in End Times before the warhammer world was destroyed and as far as I'm concerned fantasy stopped existing. I'd actually probably have been happier if fantasy did die with what's going on in AoS these days. That said if I can make some human skaven cultists with skaven skulls covering their faces much like the forsworn from Skyrim I will be a happy man (considering they're trying to make 'the horned rat' the new 4th god of chaos replacing slaanesh and GW becoming even more child friendly than ever).

I also wanted to try vampires in fantasy and acquired some from friends before AoS happened. The models were pretty, the vampires were cool and everything just looked awesome.

I also dabbled in grey knights a small bit but quickly lost interest as this was back in 5th edition when they still had the really terrible daemonhunters codex and were easily worse in every way to normal space marines other than the most basic troops. Back then I liked the grey knights because they were pure and more elite than space marines as a way of flipping off Marine players. Even the radical inquisitors sounded fun but they seemed crappy without the use of grey knights and only daemonhosts to go on. I think I still have some of those old daemonhosts somewhere.

Finally I would like to get dark eldar now and have been working really hard to get the money to acquire them. In some ways I prefer the old style bladevanes of the reaver jetbikes and the super archon from the 5th edition book but the new book boosted several things about dark eldar that helped. All this said from somebody that has yet to play with dark eldar but I'm really excited to try it. The thing I enjoyed about dark eldar is their evil genius approach like the skaven with their own lair in the webway in a sense. I also enjoy their aesthetic as GW has always done elves well. Previously I preferred normal dark eldar but I may give the haemonculus forces some love since that is the new main focus.

I thought I was sold on necrons because I loved the wraiths and immortals and easy build and paint plus I had dabbled a little before and new I wanted guys with high BS and durability, then I saw Skitarii and was sold on the vangaurd lo
l, also looked at eldar too cause I loved the wraiths. Long story short I now have 3 armies necrons Skitarii/ Cult and Dark Eldar/ Eldar lmao

I started with Dark Angels waaaay back in 2nd Edition because I bought the Space Hulk game and I liked the Deathwing paint scheme.

In 3rd Edition I started Eldar as my first real army because, although I didn't know it at the time, I'm an elf fancier. I choose the elfs in every game I play and if there aren't any elfs I choose the army closest to the French.

My current project is Crimson Fists because I wanted to build a proper Space Marine army after all these years. Because my brother plays Black Templars I wanted to do another Rogal Dorn-descended chapter, and I really like the Fists' color scheme (mostly because it's easy for my colorblind eyes to see).

I had several armies since 2010, CSM, DA, SM, Necrons, Tau, andf right now I'm playing the KDK. At first, I chose CSM because of the fluff, but they weren't as competitive (5th ed) as I would have hoped for. I switced to DA and SM during 6th edition, but wanted to try something more exotic than MEQ, so I played both Necrons and then Tau. Now, with the KDK, I have both the fluff, the competitive level, and the sense of exotic (rule wise) that I craved.