Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I don't mean for tabletop, I moreover mean general amount in collection. I've hit a point where I (roughly) have 7k points of CSM and 3k points of Daemons, equalling out to about 10k of 'Chaos'. Is this the usual amount that people stop at before either saying they're done, or going after other armies?

I have about 10k of Chaos soup (mostly Khorne WE/Daemons and big monsters/vehicles), I'd say a good size for an army, before you move on to your next one, is one where you can comfortably field enough for a massive apocalypse game; as a farewell to that army before it goes on display for who knows how long.

I'd guess around 4k-5k, with a lot more of your favorite force.

I imagine this is governed by the amount of units required to have sufficient flexibility in what one brings to the tabletop, so small factions would probably have "large" at a lower point value, since at some point, there's not a lot to be gained by adding the X+1th squad of Meltagun Dominions when I can already provision my army with all the Meltagun Dominions I could ever require.

There is no standard, it really depends on you.


You might consider that you've enough when you can build armie of a varied nature to deploy on the tabletop - which in turn might well vary depend on the how big the games are you play. If you're often playing larger games then you'll need more units than if you always play smaller games.

You might love the faction and keep building and building the army up until you've got legions of models
Same as if you enjoy painting them up.

If your skills have varied over time significantly you might well find you continue to grow the army as you add and/or replace earlier models with superior built/painted/converted ones.

You might pause and start a new army if you want a new direction or even a new game. Might be when your finance vary or your free time etc...



In the end its purely personal. Some people just keep collecting and collecting and have huge armies; others only ever build one efficient force that they use in competitive games. Some will build up a collection of random units as they like etc.. It's totally your choice.

I usually want at least "one of everything" (including multiple of certain troops) which means that the amount of points can vary heavily depending on army.

Looking at what I currently own (see signature) it seems to be at least 5000 pts per army.

Well, I think if you have 5k points of an army, it will be fine.
For instance, I have 5k points of Necrons. Its the low limit.
I guess that when the codex comes out, I need more troops and whatnot.

Well I have about 4k or so Sons of Horus. I can easily figure like double that in points without even fullfilling all I could imagine.

But as said above it really depends on how much variation army has. HH legions have like bazillion different infantry units, vehicles, super heavy vehicles and whatnot that it's really easy to never run out of models to buy! Helps that the legions in HH aren't as hard coded into different playstyles as 40k. Rites of War gives tons of flexibility and bonuses for fielding different army types. Sons of Horus panzer group? No problem. Let's go heavy for jetbikes! Fine.

And then of course we come into ally depantment. Knights? Easily thousands of points to be added there(albeit that works as independent army then as well). Maybe smallish ally legion. Some world eaters for some heavy hand to hand force? Oh yeah!

currently I have a little over 3k of Salamanders and it's gonna keep growing. My goal is to basically set it up as a full blown brigade with support detachments ending up around 6k. once that's done I'm on to my next army, a heavy armoured column of guard supported by a warhound titan so that'll probably be another 6kish.

I was messing around in Battlescribe and came up with a list of approx 16kpts for what I would classify as what I want as a grand crusade sized force. A gigantic bowl of the Emperor's finest soup.

Depends on the Faction.

So most games are 2k or less. Even Apoc games are normally 3 to 5k max.

So if you have 4 to 5k you have a big force.

However if you have 5k of Marines or Eldar or perhaps some other army with many unit types...you may find yourself still short to fill out a 2k army with the type of force you want to field.
I would say that to have the ability to flesh out most options for Marines or Eldar you need 10k minimum.

Harlequins have almost no need for over 3k.

So each faction will have a different answer.

I have 30k points of models......

Difficult question as it is always a bit of a personal opinion.

For a regular army I'd say 3000 as it is a core force with some options. 5000 would be an Apoc size. If you're a huge fan of the army then 10.000 points is always a fun limit.

I would consider an army being complete if:

1) I was satisfied with the models in it; and

2) It adds up to 2K points.

IMHO you have a good sized army when you can build different lists at 2000 points, using your collection without proxying. Generally speaking at least 3000 points.

However there's no limit in collecting an army. If you like painting or maybe just only collect models you can have all the miniatures you want. Like 10 SW dreads even if you'll never bring more than 3-4 in a game.

Army size can also be deceptive for what you can actually field.

I agree that a good sized army should let you field a variety of lists with no/minimal proxies. But a lot of points get sunk into things like alternate HQs. For example, I’ve got about 2,800 points of Eldar. But ~800 points of that is assorted HQs, most of which can't be on the table at the same time (without writing unbalanced bizarre lists just to do it). So when putting together 1,850 or 2k lists, I catually have very little wiggle room about what I can put on the table. It’s mostly my whole collection, with maybe one unit left on the shelf, and then HQ to taste. So while I can change it up a little, overall it still plays mostly the same, as the core of the force remains constant. I did recently pick up a start collecting box, a bonesinger, and another wave serpent which should give me a bit more flex, but also boost my collection size to around 3,500. And I’m still missing a ton of options.

On the flip side, there is my primary Ultramarine army. Over 13k points at last count. I’ve got all the ways to field HQs (not all the gear options mind you, just jump/foot/bike/TDA) and at least one of almost every unit. And there is still more stuff I need. While 8th is not as bad as 7th for encouraging spam, I’d kinda like to have more then one pred/vindi to take advantage of the stratagem. My Ultras also have a lot of dead weight. You don’t play marines as long as I have without acquiring more tactical squads then you need. Part of that is my fault; I wanted a full battle company. But then I wanted to retire the old 2nd ed pushfits, and things like the BaC box added those nice Mk. IV guys. Next thing I know I’ve got 9 full tac squads, and parts to make more. If I consolidated all the heavy weapons on the swap shelf I could probably field a large chunk of the 9th company. The fact that I have more captains then there are companies in the chapter is not lost on me either.

But it’s telling that when The Boy and I sit down to make lists to play out of my collection, we still need to find ways to divide it up. Not that the points aren’t there, but a lot of options are limited. By a pure numbers standpoint I can make 6x2,000 lists from what I have, with a little wiggle room. But looking at what’s left after we pull a pair of 2k lists off the shelf, I’d not want to be the guy playing a 3rd list from there.

Older collections also run into legacy issues. Not necessarily units that can no longer be fielded (which are rare) but ones that aren’t nearly as good as they used to be. GW is notorious for swapping around what’s hot, and what’s not. People who bought in heavily to drop pods last edition are probably regretting that now. Or centurions (now that they can’t ride in said pods). So they will still add to the size of the collection, but not it’s effectiveness. By the time your army gets to a larger size, it’s probably weathered a few edition changes, so has a lot of dead weight on the back shelf collecting dust.

To wrap up this wall of text with a number, I’d say 6-10k is probably a decent size, depending a lot on the army. If I trimmed a lot of the chaff from my marines and got a few more units, it would probably end up at the upper amount. Adding what’s on my wish list to my Eldar would probably bring it to the lower. YMMV.