The art of collecting an army.

[Deadlift]

I start with an HQ and 2 troop choices, then treat myself to a fun model. Always aim for 1 troop choice for every 500 pts, I tend to go for elite armies. I'm always drawn to armies like Deathwing and my current Iyanden armie. I like specialised lists. Not to power game, they just seem more fun.

I try to paint what I have before I buy more, doesn't usually work out. But my "shiny syndrome" is not as bad as it was.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

i can say that your break down sounds abou right. when i firest got into the hobby i bought units beause they were cool and because i wanted to use them never had much of a plan and just went with what i liked. now when i build a force i am more critical. i will look at units and will by them because they will help me not get slaughtered or i wont buy them because they are ugly and it would be to muh of a conversion projet to make them not look silly.

What i have also been doing is when i start a force i will work towards 1k at first this will be my core. it's mainly troops and command and some armour and then from here i will add to the force as things change. i will say none of my armies will ever be done per say as tastes change or the meta does i will try a new unit here and there which means new purchases and new conversion.

like right now workign on a converted vanquisher for my tank ompany because i want to try using it in the meta that i am in and see how it works or doesn't work for me.

[Master of Asgard]

I like to field nearly completely kitbashed armies, so I'll often plan out what units I want to take, and then what models I need to combine to make them, and then what I can make with the leftover bits. I try to buy as much as possible at once to have the maximum amount of conversion fodder.

[Chris22]

I always write a 1500 pt list with a few optional units for bigger games and then buy the army one unit at a time usually starting with the troop choices and finishing with the HQ. Just buying random units would drive me nuts so I always have a list and stick to it. I also have a tight budget so buying a bunch of units that I can't actually field doesn't make any sense. My armies are all fluff and theme driven. I make them competitive as I can, but I'd rather have an army that looks cool and stays true to fluff. Needless to say I will probably never win any tournaments, but I'm not a huge tourney gamer anyway.

[Khain Mor]

Well I haven't really changed my primary philosophy when it comes to collecting an army:
Buy at least 1 of each unit, no matter how bad the unit it, just for the pure fun of having it.

Apoc did change my view on things, as I purposely transformed some of my armies into apoc armies, while intentionally buying units to form the apoc datasheets.

I base my love for an army mostly on looks and fluff, gaming is seconday, I'm mostly in this hobby for the painting and the fluff, gaming is a third optional bonus, since I do have the models, why not play the game with them, otherwise I wouldn't really do it and it's not a priority for sure.

Now I started when I was 13, any money I got for my birthday or whatever reason usually went into 40k. Later on growing up you always get some small jobs, do this do that for the neighbour, small jobs that give you some quick cash, most of this also went into 40k
A little later in life I started working parttime next to school, made quite some cash, not all of it went into 40k, truth was I earned too much and I already had pretty much everything I wanted. Back then I only had about 2-3 armies, forgeworld wasn't as develloped as today.

When I was at university I had the best job ever, pretty much blew away my cash on whatever crazy amount of 40k I wanted. I was older, meaning my cash did go into other hobbies, going on holidays with friends etc...

Last couple of years I havent bought many more models because of the fact that I already have so much to paint and seeing how last few months I haven't found a new job I can't afford new models either.

My orgininal style of buy 1 of each unit doesn't apply to forgeworld as these are extremely expensive models, though when I have a stable job again I'll start buying all forgeworlds I'm missing as well as 40k I've been thinking of buying.

I'm not as greedy as I used to be (I used to buy whatever I wanted, like when tau first came out, I wanted a ton of suits, I ended up buying a ton of suits) but in the end I do buy a lot of 40k.

Right now I arrived at the point where I'm seriously considering where will I put my 40k if I continue to buy more: I've got like 1500 models probably, + gundam models, if I start buying big forgeworlds I have no clue where I'll put them. I guess I'll have to transform another room into a hobby room. Seeing the sheer mass of unpainted models, it's not the best idea to get more, but I just know I need and want to buy more. I buy less, that's the only way to calm my thirst for models/model addiction.

Now I do admit that over the years I've started getting my units painted and I've got quite nice bunch of models too, but eventually I just know it's an endless dream, I'll just keep buying and painting stuff, till I die or my eyes start failing me.

Forgeworld also confronts me with 2 extra problems: some of these model require a lot of extra assembling work Second problem: when I get a FW model I want to paint it immediately, leaving all my other projects unfinished, basically just adding chaos to my hobby.

Having several ,maybe too many armies is a problem, take my nids, they're all painted, I could start adding more, add forgeworlds, but that would mean I'd have to stop working on my other armies.
I'm currently working on my dark eldar army, a huge army, still a lot to do. I will add some more forgeworlds, while I'm painting the army, I'll just finish it all in one big piece. Afterwards I'll start working on my eldar army, I'll buy all the FW models too, finish the army, then I'll finish my Tau and then only will I go back to adding stuff to my nids.
It's best to focus on one army to make progress, otherwise it's too chaotic.

I also do have a cute necron force that's fully painted, no rush to increase in size, but this army and models are painted very fast, eventually some day I'll get back to this army, otherwise it's purely a couple of cool models I own, but don't really touch, I don't even play games with that army.

[Matt Byron]

I'm definitely a large bulk purchase buyer for my core army. And then I slowly develop my theme and start purchasing new units to place into it to fit that theme over time. I love painting so the hulk purchase gives me theme practice and my specific units end up looking prettier cuz I have my paint style down for the army!

[simiusmagnus]

I decided to start the game after a buddy of mine had been playing for a while and I saw his models and looked through the rulebook a little. Then I looked at all the armies on GW's website (Though they seem to have gotten rid of all those "Getting started with_____" articles. Too bad.) I settled on Orks. They seemed like they'd be fun to play, and the overall aesthetic appealed to me. I started off buying a box of Boyz and when I had fun painting them, I decided to get into it and bought Assault on Black Reach. Bit by bit I added more, mostly based on what looked awesome, as well as adding ever larger numbers of Boyz. That's still pretty much what guides my decisions. "What would be fun?" I kind of want to add another Deff Dread. I'm not even entirely certain I'd use it much, I just want one that's packing all CC weapons. And when in doubt, add more Boyz. That said, my army is just about the way I want it (at least until the new codex/models come out), but I have been toying with the idea of allies as an excuse to try something new.