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What was your very first 40k army?
When / why / how did you buy it?
Do you still have it?
Is the love still strong?

I was all about tanks and more tanks and huge walking battle castles! Still got them, but now trying to sell them on. That said whatever I sell is going right back in to buying into AT and the new fantastic models (and the dream that continued support means one day getting a brand new, bigger, better Imperator!

My first 40K army was and still is Tyranids! Though I've not done much with them in a long while and kind of want to update most of them to new bodies with mould lines cleaned up and generally done better! The love is still there, the desire to spend hours working on them isn't at present

Dark Angels.... And unfortunately I am on my 3rd version of it after selling my other 2 incarnations when getting out of the game. Just a big fan of the lore, the Deathwing and Ravenwing aspects of the force, and the colours.

Space Wolves.

My friend wanted to go halfsies on an Assault on Black Reach set when I was in 7th grade, and my dad dug out a small space wolves army he had from about 5 years prior, because "that game is ridiculously expensive and I don't want you wasting all your money on it."

I had Bjorn Fell Handed, Ragnar Blackmane, about 40 space marines, 5 terminators, 5 long fangs, and the spare dreadnought from the AOBR set. My first few games against my friend's orks I fell in love, we had a fantastic time chopping each other's armies to bits in hilariously unfocused battles.

I fell out of love with the army once I got into the proper swing of fifth and started playing people with halfway competent armies, particularly my friend's imperial guard who would just pie plate my marines and remove huge chunks of my army. It was very obvious that A, to win I would need to buy space marine transports, which I've always felt were the most boring thing in the entire universe, and B, marines are both incredibly common and not very interesting.

So then I picked up some Necrons (old 3rd ed era army I found a battleforce of at a garage sale for 10 bucks, so I got a cheap start there) and played those and the wolves until college, and from college on til now (approx a decade) I got into my rhythm of building about 2000-2500 points of a project, then moving on to another project, with my universal rule of "no starting new thing until old thing is totally painted."

To build most of my armies, I sell/swap older armies, and do commission painting. At this point I've owned Orks, Thousand Sons, Genestealer Cult, Vostroyan Guard, Harlequins, Drukhari, Admech and Eldar. The necrons and the Wolves are mostly swapped away, though I've kept a few sentimental figures like my first painted miniature and a couple favorites from each.

I have always loved the story of the Traitor Legions, when I started back in 2nd edition I quickly picked up Chaos Space Marines (I started with Ultramarines like most people). But since Chaos is not good when you want to actually use Marines, I haven't touched the army in a long time and no longer have anything for it. I have considered doing them again but I would not want to do mostly cultists, and the fact that Undivided is penalized since marks are so good and free just sours me on doing an undivided traitor legion.

DE at the beginning of the 3rd ed.
My main opponent was Nids at that time.
Some of our battles were epic.

Tyranids. The love was passionate, furious, and maybe a little weird at times (but she always got me). However, times change, and now Chaos is my mistress. Tyranids and I still hang out sometimes, but she's just not into spawning babies, which is kind of the weird thing I loved most about her. Still, once she made herself over with some new psychic goodness, and burrowing mechanics that actually work, I have sneaked out her entertainment a bit more frequently now than in past years.

 Ratius wrote:
What was your very first 40k army?

Blood Angels.

 Ratius wrote:
When / why / how did you buy it?

When: 22yrs ago (though started 24yrs ago playing random).
Why: because it was red.
How: Pocket money. Was easy when tactical squads were £10 plastic kits. And better than wasting it on junk.

 Ratius wrote:

Do you still have it?

Nope.

 Ratius wrote:

Is the love still strong?

First GW product army - Titans from Adeptus Titanicus
Followed by 40k wise Beaky space marines and Orks. Still have the marines, though am going to sell my old Rogue trader Ork stuff as it hasn't be used for over 2 decades...

Space Wolves. The first thing I had as an intro to 40k was the space marine game. Which was cool so I googled the lore to get some of the references the game made I didn't get. Of everything I read the Space Wolves and Leman Russ were my favourite.

A bit after that my friend took me to a GW and we started playing 40k and I picked Space Wolves. This was in early 6th and I greatly enjoyed the playstyle and art of the codex.

While I still have it all the love has sadly faded a fair amount. With Primaris, dancing Wulfen, container flyers and the weird chariot the dumb just outweighs the cool. I love my Wolves but I just can't like most of the newer stuff.

Chaos Space Marines! Still have them! Still love them! Even still have my very first Chaos Lord model from back when I started: the metal one with the Power Axe.

 Ratius wrote:
What was your very first 40k army?
When / why / how did you buy it?
Do you still have it?
Is the love still strong?

SM - 1990.
All bought from my FLGS or GW.
I gave up at the end of RT and my parents gave all my WH40K and Space Hulk stuff away (with my permission) while I was at uni
I came back to WH40K in 8th edition and I'm playing SM again

Necrons in 1999. PIcked them up from random game stores around town and ebay.

Robot Terminator dudes that get back up and kill everything? Rad.

I still got them. I've even converted tons of new things to the old metal army aesthetic.

Newcron fluff kinda killed some of my passion for the army, but I still bust them out occasionally.

The Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Tyranids, and Dark Eldar are races I will always have a lot of love for.


New Nids models pls.

Out of these though. Space Marines and IG were what got me into the hobby last year.

Started space wolves and have redone them several times. I've also done raven guard and catachans, but always a son of fenris! So ofcourse I'm doing them again!

Tau.
I cant blame 12 year old me for liking the ascetics
I still have a tub full of them
love the models, dont care for the game. probably going to make a nice set for kill teams or something.

The dankest of all angels, I’ve always loved my big stompy robots and when I was five my brother showed me space marines, he has painted them up in green and the rest is history... I later found out that there were people in the big robot suits

Ultramarines.
Because I bought the 2nd Ed boxed set back in 1994, and didn't know any better.
Alas, I no longer have it - I moved from the UK to the US 10 years ago and couldn't bring it with me, partly the size, and partly it was about 50lbs of lead and that would be my entire luggage allowance!
No, I moved on to Guard rather quickly, and while I lost all of them too, I'm starting again with Guard, as I still like their aesthetic; I may add some sisters when they come out next year.

I did have a whole company of marines, several platoons of IG, a whole bunch of sisters, assassins, inquisitors and a plethora of vehicles (approx. 15K points in 2nd ed); most in lead/pewter. I regret letting them all go now, but what's done is done.

Daemon Hunters, Codex 3.5. I got it mostly because I was playing Dark Crusade at the time and I really liked the Grey Knights. But I also liked the IG and Space Marines and at the time the Inquisition Codexes were the only way to run allies.

Plus I mean Inquisitors were awesome and I had started reading Eisenhorn.

TBF I originally wanted Space Wolves, who also had the 3.5 book, because my friend that got me started in the game had Dark Angels and we wanted to be The Lion and The Wolf among our friends that played. Unfortunately GW was sold out of the Codex in Store and Online, so Daemon Hunters it was.

I stopped playing them in late 4th to try my had at Vanilla Marines, which turned out ok because I really didnt like the 5e Grey Knight lore changes and the baby carrier.

 Ratius wrote:
What was your very first 40k army?

Necrons.

 Ratius wrote:
When / why / how did you buy it?

One of my friends introduced me to 40k, letting me play against his Necrons. Truthfully, I didn't remember most of the rules, but the one thing that stuck with me was his models resurrecting themselves when killed. This was back in 3rd, and since some of my other friends also played the game, I got the started Necron box and a couple of other things.

 Ratius wrote:
Do you still have it?

Yes.

 Ratius wrote:
Is the love still strong?

Not in the slightest.

To be honest, my love for Necrons died away pretty quickly when I started playing them and found how little wargear/options they had and they they evaporated to anything in melee. Phase Out was particularly depressing as it meant I could never have anything resembling a last-stand. I heard that a monolith was good and proxied one, but it died on the first turn in literally every game I used it. It'll probably come as no surprise that I never bought one.

I liked them a little more in 5th, though I really wasn't a fan of the vehicles. What I did like was using small blobs of Necrons, each with a member of the Royal Court in them. It wasn't a particularly strong army, but it was quite fun to play. The only thing that makes me sad is that I didn't have my Destroyer Lord conversion back then (and thus didn't use the Destroyer Lord). I mention this because 5th was probably the last time the Destroyer Lord was actually worth a damn, and I barely ever used one.

I did have a conversion by the time 7th edition rolled around, only to find that Necrons had become the most boring army in history. They were certainly effective (I don't think my Decurion lost a single game), but I had no interest in using them because they just played like a big, barely-mobile brick. The only slight consolation was that Destroyers were actually good again (though the Lord was useless except to enable their Formation). However, that barely mattered as, even with them, the army was just so dull to play and to play against.

In 8th, the army isn't quite as boring but I just can't muster any enthusiasm for it. It probably doesn't help that, aside from Destroyers, most of the key units now are ones that I don't own and have no interest in using - stuff like the the Doomsday Ark, Obelisk and C'tans. I'm sure a lot of people enjoy using these, but it just isn't the army I bought into.

Hence, my Necrons have been shelved for the foreseeable future and I'm currently using my DE instead.

Chaos Space marines, started because I have been a long time WH Fantasy Chaos player.
I Started with the first 3rd edition codex, enjoyed it until the 4th dropped.
I played them occasionally later, but for a long time I lost my interest. I think they got neutered too much for most of their existence.
Last 7th codex was too little, too late. 8th edition looked interesting, I focused on DG.
The old army has been given to a childhood friend.

Circa-1996. High School Eldar army.



Circa-2018. Eldar Army.



None of the original models remain, that stuff disappeared mid-college or shortly after (and I have no idea where to). However the current army is a realization of the high school dream, of course. And yes, Eldar are still my main love in 40K and I wouldn't be playing it without them.

My Krieg army, started in 2011, I love the models, bought it slowly over the years from FW and different party, I still have it, but the love has waned a bit, and I really should get the 8th edition IA book.

Saim Hann Eldar. Loved the Vyper jetbike, the Falcon Grav-Tank, and the possibility of running a horde of jetbikes around the battlefield.

I remember the first two models I bought in 1999 was a squad of guardians which included both lasguns and shuriken catapults, as well as a Vyper. Still have them in my collection although the Vyper is probably the only model I finished painting. Haven't finished the Guardians as their aesthetic is a bit weird in a modern army.

The first models I ever bought, outside of getting the Blood Angels with Space Hulk, was a squad of Blood Angel Death Company marines. I bought them in the early 90s and I still have them.

 Ratius wrote:
What was your very first 40k army?
When / why / how did you buy it?
Do you still have it?
Is the love still strong?

World Eaters was my first army. I've tried other arimes on the side, but that didn't last long. I still have most of my original army. I love it just as much if not more and it's been ~13 years. I just really like the play style of that army. So visceral and savage.

World Eaters was my first Army and my first love. I was given a dozen Berzerkers for free and then I grabbed an old battle box and a Deamon Prince and away I went. Then I committed reverse heresy and shaved my spikes off and sent loyalist. Then I sold all my junk and moved on. Now I'm back and painting things red. Really enjoying my new WE army. Especially now that Rhinos aren't a handicap for assault armies!

What was your very first 40k army?

Dark Eldar 20+ years ago.

When / why / how did you buy it?
Split the starter box with my son. He had - and still has Ultramarines.

Do you still have it?
Yes.

Is the love still strong?
Yes

2nd answer:
What was your very first 40k army?
Tyranids

When / why / how did you buy it?
Bought multiple cheap Italian Space Hulks

Do you still have it?
Yes

Is the love still strong?
Oh yes!

 Ratius wrote:
What was your very first 40k army?
When / why / how did you buy it?
Do you still have it?
Is the love still strong?

Sisters of Battle.
About 12 or so years ago. I plated Soulstorm and that convinced me to get into 40k. I loved the idea of all female army and the organ tank was instant love. Bought it through the gw store when you could still buy them off the shelf.
Ohh yeahhh
Inappropriately so

Eldar since early 1995, right after I saw them in BRB and learned about existence of then fresh codex. This is an on-off relationship during all those years but I do still have every model I ever purchased for them and they were my sole 40K love up until very recently when I finally started a little AdMech side force (first imperial faction that I have any interest in).