Why do you play your army?

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

I play two main armies, an IH successor and a Necron dynasty.

 

Marines In general, I like them because of the supersoliders standing against the dark. I also like them beause of the brother-from-another-mother ideal they have with their fellow marines. 

Iron Hands specifically I love them because of their bionic robotness and their sheer durability on the field (in-game and in-lore). 

 

The Necrons I like because of their Dynastic style, and the story (a tragic one, really), of a desperate people getting screwed over by omnipotent beings, in an attempt to kill other omnipotent beings, who also screwed the Necrontyr over, killing the second group, then turning on the first group in revenge. It's a very sad story, and their ridiculously high levels of tech are also a factor in why I like them. 

 

Considering IG, for reasons others have stated, and the opportunity to write the story of a human officer in such a large universe. For it is a large galaxy, and above all else, they will not be missed....

[Stofficus]

Alright, so Guard player here, and let me give you a slightly different answer than most;

 

The Imperial Guard are about overcoming impossible odds in spite of lackluster equipment, hopelessly inefficient bureaucracy behind them and while maintaining a constant vigil for betrayal, incompetence or mental collapse of their fellows. 

 

Amusingly, this is my actual day job as an army officer, and I have a poor grasp of work/life balance. 

[Lord_Caerolion]

I have a whole bunch of armies that I love, but only a few that I actually collect.

 

I love the Dark Eldar because of the sheer arrogance of them. To us, they are utterly evil beings, fallen from grace, hiding in a twilight realm and feeding on pain to avoid destruction at the hands of a Goddess that they gave birth to, destroying their race in the process. To them, though? They do what they do because they are Eldar, and will not be beholden to a lesser being. A lord does not live amongst the cattle. They are the preeminent race of the galaxy, and they will do what they wish when they wish to. Their Craftworld cousins run in fear from Slaanesh, the Exodites have given up everything that made them great, the Harlequins preach that they should feel shame, but the Commorrites know the truth. The galaxy is theirs to do with as they wish, no Mon-Keigh can persuade them otherwise. Forced to feed on pain? They were doing that long before the  Who Thirsts was birthed, they do this because they enjoy it, and as the rightful inheritors of the galaxy, the lesser races are theirs to do with as they wish.

 

I love the Adeptus Mechanicus for having the perfect blend of both sci-fi and techno-barbarism. They hold the keys to the most advanced technology the galaxy has ever seen, but look to the past to avoid making the same mistakes that laid the galaxy low.

 

And my main army, the Lamenters. They looked out at the galaxy, and like their Primarch, chose not to simply fight to preserve what they had, but to rage against the dying of the light, no matter the cost. I've always admired that sort of mindset, and there's a quote that was put on their d4Chan page that perfectly sums up their awesomeness:

 

 

How unlucky I am that this should happen to me. But not at all. Perhaps, say how lucky I am that I am not broken by what has happened, and I am not afraid of what is about to happen. For the same blow might have stricken anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation and complaint.

[Brother Sefiel]

Greetings

I play forces that are mine; not someone else's idea of future space nutters, mine and mine alone. Although it's a shared universe, I created my craftworlds/kabals/masques and imperial formations to fit in my an view of the universe. Rules are very much a secondary consideration.

Don't like them? Fine by me. Play what you want and enjoy it.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Brother Sefiel

[Dagoth Ur]

I play Alpha Legion because -REDACTED-

[Ficinus]

My first army was Lizardmen because, well, because I was 10 and they were Dinosaurs, an army of dinosaurs.  I loved dinosaurs and I loved armies.  Eventually I grew to love the Skink cloud when 6th ed came out, and I grew to love the blocks of killer combat skinks when the Sotek army came out.  But the initial impulse was 100% dinosaur army.

 

From there, I moved to 40k where I started with Eldar, moving to Biel-Tan when the Craftworld book came out.  I can't say why exactly I started 40k with Eldar, but I think it was the aesthetic.  I loved the way the various old metal aspect warriors looked and how the Falcon looked (Wave Serpent didn't have a kit yet).  A small part of it was probably also that I saw everyone playing Marines, and I thought that I didn't want to just play what everyone else was playing.  Also, I mean, space elves is kind of cool, yeah?

 

Eventually High Elves came because big blocks of spearmen and big blocks of Silver Helms seemed cool; also they were elves and elves are pretty cool.

 

Then I started an army of Praetorian Guardsmen.  The three motivations behind the Praetorians were: 1) that Guard are sort of cool because they're just average humans facing off against the horrors of the galaxy, yet they're still willing to go and fight, die, and win; 2) I loved the idea of a massive horde of 100-150 models, an all infantry force to swarm my opponent and drown them with lasguns; 3) Praetorians and their 19th century aesthetic were just so absurd, it really amped up the hopelessness of pre-post-humans facing things they had no hope of standing up against (and it's a bit silly).  I was really into building that, making sure all of my squads were ranked up with the first rank kneeling and aiming, second rank aiming.  I was using Bronzino's Galloper Guns for missile launchers and Empire mortars for mortars to really play up the old timey feel.  However, that army went on hiatus when I went to college and then died when I came back that summer (or the next) and found that Bitz were no longer a thing.  I could still mail order squads of them, but I wouldn't get my perfectly ranked up army, a line of 60 men followed by another line of sixty across the table, so I dropped it and drifted away from the hobby.  I might now rebuild it thanks to Victoria Miniatures, but we'll see.

 

When I came back, I picked up Sisters.  I had always loved their aesthetic, both the gothic armor and exorcist and the religious fanaticism.  So, when I came back, I decided to start playing Sisters before they were squated: I figured they were already on long borrowed time so it was now or never.  The religious angle is the largest part for me: I find medieval Christianity very interesting, theologically, historically, culturally, and so the Sisters fed into that.  They're also just cool models even though they're super old.  And, with the exception of having to build it, the Exorcist might be my favorite model in 40k: it captures the absurdity of the setting better than any model except perhaps some of the BFG ships.

 

And, with 30k being a game now, I have to admit that tempted me into playing Marines, something I had once sworn to never do.  I still can't imagine ever playing non-Horus Heresy Marines, but that game dragged me into the post-human world.  I had a hard time picking a legion.  Blood Angels probably would have been my first pick, but jump pack marines are so expensive and hard to get that it pushed me away from them.  So I ended up with Dark Angels (and am happy with my choice) for a number of reasons: they are a classic legion with one of the cooler 40k aesthetics; their knightly and monastic aesthetic appeals to me, and I like to play that up in the models; I can play them as traitor or loyalist pretty easily (I plan on primarily playing them as traitors); I find the Dornian Heresy version of the Dark Angels to be pretty cool.  At this point, I'm totally behind my DAngels for now and forever.

[Aqui]

My first love was and still is Space Wolves when they looked like this. No special rules, no pelts or baby blue armour, only what is seen in that picture and a picture of a Space Wolf with fangs. The picture of how Leman Russ originally looked, before his model (Which I have and whom guards my freezer against the Wolf Time) became available. I've been sorely tempted to come back and make a Space Wolf army but the way I'd like them to look, but lack of money and a job right now prevents that :(

 

Rainbow Warriors. A Frater here once mocked them and said that no one in their right mind would have an army of them. Because of that, I went ahead and used forty or so RTB01 models and some modern ones to nearly create an entire company (fourth/green). One day, I'll finish my Space Hulk models for them, I swear :lol:

 

DIY's. My love of them resulted me in recreating my very first DIY Chapter, the Steel Wings from over 25 years ago. They were one of the original Lost Legions, although I forget whether they were II or XI. Again in the era of Rogue Trader, they had a Primarch model "Aquilanus" who was a mixture of a Space Wolf and a Blood Angel in look. They had blue armour with black trim on the shoulder guards. Now in their fifth or sixth incarnation, they're Grandsons of Ferrus and come from a steampunk-cum renaissance era world formerly belonging to the Ad Mech who abandoned it. The natives had to rely on rickety aeroplanes to trade and defend their hive remnants that poke through centuries of cloying filth and pollution below. Rumours abound of a place where the land and air is clean and natives are desperate to find it. Pity it doesn't exist... My Chapter maintain control from an abandoned Ad Mech Ship/fortress in orbit.

 

Sisters. Again, a DIY Order. Furiou Miko once described Sisters in such a passionate way that I was intrigued enough to buy a Canoness and Celestine 1.0 model. It escalated from there. I'm not religious, so an army that literally embodies religious fervour some how appealed to me. That and the fact that at the time, no one in my area had a Sister army. I've not played much in the last year, but I think a few more have appeared.

 

Flesh Tearers. Another Rogue Trader Era army I always wanted. Originally in black armour with yellow helm stripe, they looked suitably menacing, but as a friend in our group had started Dark Angels (who also used to be in black armour), I went with Space Wolves instead.

 

There are other armies, mostly DIY (a pattern? :lol: ), but none are developed enough or have enough models to mention.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Forgot to mention, speaking of DIY, I also have the Host of the Golden Icon, a Slaaneshi warband of ex-Iron Warriors that I came up with after the 4th ed Chaos Codex came out, and people started bemoaning the lack of Legion rules, and a discussion I'd had about Lucius the Eternal, with the theory that he's most likely completely desperate to feel absolutely anything new, given that even death would have become boring for him now.

 

So, the Host of the Golden Icon, a warband founded on a Garrison World held by the Iron Warriors, that was completely forgotten about during the Heresy, due to being in the middle of nowhere. The Legionnaires grew disillusioned, and started acting like gods to the native population of abhumans, remaking their armour with gold melted down from the tributes they demanded, trimmed with bone from those that couldn't pay. Their leader, the Gilded Lord, was once just a random member of the garrison, and is now an incredibly powerful Telepath who rips the memories of his victims from their heads and consumes them, desperate to see a new experience he hasn't witnessed in the 10,000 years he's been alive.

 

 

I'm also toying with the idea of a Dark Angels successor, that officially were lost to the Warp shortly after their Founding, the few stragglers killed by an Ork fleet. In reality, they now exist as the "censorship branch" of the Unforgiven, using their lack of official status to raid Imperial worlds to destroy archives that contain word of the Fallen and the Hunt, after taking all useful information from it. For the name, I'm calling them the Angels of Silence, with the Sin Eaters being their version of the Deathwing/Inner Circle, as the bulk of the Chapter will have no idea what the true mission is, thinking they're carrying out assaults on recidivists and heretics, the Sin Eaters being the ones who know the shameful truth of what they're doing in order to prevent the Inquisition from possibly putting together various pieces of the puzzle and finding out about the Fallen.

[Subtle Discord]

Oh, that's simple. It's sooo good to be bad. Someone's gotta' be the villain. They get to have so much more fun!

[battle captain corpus]

Couple cents in the jar....

 

I played my own chapter, Justicars of Dorn, because 4/5th edition had some rad rules for using chapter tactics etc. When they removed these I finished with the army.

 

My M35 Genesis Chapter I collect as frankly they're a niche within a niche! An historical army based on the first Chapter ever created?! Yes please!

 

Black Legion....because they're the quintessential bad guys for me.

 

BCC

[Warhead01]

I play Orks and I like them a lot. 

Ever Ork is an individual within a mob or a tribe or a clan. My own WAAAGH (WAAAAGH GorGak!) Is well over 23,000 points by old points. I've been playing Orks for a very long time and over the years have found my hobby is more Okrs than 40K in general.  I guess Orks have become some kind of addiction. But once you get locked into a serious Ork collection the tendency is to push it as far as you possibly can. 

My first army was dark angels back in 1996-ish. so for 30K I am still trying to build a first Legion army. It the only other army I have ever gotten rid of(Dark Angels) and then found myself going back to. This has been several times over several edition. 

 

In 8th edition Orks have been fantastic and just a joy to put on the table again, I can't really say the same for 5th,6th or 7th edition.  

Orks have given me so many good games over the years. I remember a space marine player silly enough to drive his units toward my army dismount and attempt to gun my Orks down only to discover choppas krump Marines easy. 
I once had a Dark Eldar lord try to fight of 30 grots.  Grots tore it apart fairly easily.

Just last year Corax was beaten in a savage mugging buy a few mobs of Slugga boys delivering over 100 attacks. 

Orks are really cool even if there not very heroic on their own.

Everything counts in ridiculously large amounts!

[Legionnaire of the VIIth]

Dark Eldar because I like playing a race of twisted, self centered, vampire space pirates who are enslaved to their own whims not the whims of some "god". I play a DIY Kabal.

 

Harlequins, killer clowns from outerspace and made sense as an ally for my Dark Eldar.

 

Corsairs, the closest I was willing to get to the Craftworld Eldar. They are supposed to be the closest in demeanor to the Eldar before they went completely insane and gave birth to Slaanesh.

 

Solar Auxilia because they are an elite force without being Space Marines, they are the best of the normal soldiers of the Imperium during the life of the Emperor, and of course I love their steam punk look.

 

VIIth Legion, I liked Dorns approach to warfare and wanted an army based around sieges. Also rules for the Thousand Sons had not been released yet.

 

XVth Legion, I always liked the concept of warrior wizards and they fit that very well. I found their lore interesting and am a fan of Ahriman, a man who desperately wanted to save his brothers and found himself dragged into Magnus' stupidities (I know several characters fell prey to the stupidities of their own Primarchs and he isn't alone in this).

 

One of these days I'll get around to making an Ork army themed around the Deathskulls because the have the best lootas, mekboyz and equipment . I don't know why others keep claiming that their equipment originally belonged to others...

Edited December 22, 2017 by Legionaire of the VIIth

[hushrong]

My passion is for Chaos Space Marines.

 

The reason being is I always enjoy seeing the "evil reflection" of something good. I remember one of the those nights as a kiddo where I was watching Star Trek with my father. The episode was Mirror, Mirror and I was captivated by the alternate universe that Captain Kirk and his crew found themselves in. We know the Federation of Planets, the ins and outs on the Enterprise, and their five year mission. Yet nothing got me so excited than learning about the Terran Empire, their brutal policy to conquer and plunder, and how the heroes we loved were more akin to monsters in this mirror universe.

 

Since then I always enjoy seeing "what could have been" if the good guys and gals we knew were set on a path of evil.

 

Space marines are what got me into 40k. Yet their dark reflection in the mirror, the CSM, are what have kept me hooked.

[Trevak Dal]

I've written more than a few times how I got brought into the hobby.

 

A friend trying to get me in, I'm a big Halo and Star Trek fan, I liked the idea of space marines, but I hated the design (:cussing Primaris would have been "Shut Up and Take my money" if they had been released back in 5th)

 

Lizardmen when they got the 7th edition update on the white dwarf magazine, James brought it in and was reading it at work, I said "holy :cuss, what the :cuss are those!?" I love dinosaurs. I wanted to be a palentologist back in the day, "I'd totally make an army of those guys,"

 

We started a plan to create a custom army, James would do the rules, I'd write the lore, using the Lizardmen codex/thing as a basis, mixing in Sanghelli (elites from Halo) culture and lore to make something my own.

 

We were using the firewarrior kit for a basis on the more "high tech but ancient like the necrons and eldar but even older-the Lizardmen were as Astartes to the Old Ones, there was a rebellion against the Slaan, a tie in with The Cabal from the Horus Heresy and a rogue sect of Saurus in particular who saw the Human Emperor as a facet of one of their gods-the slaan are used as pilot/navigators of their pyramid ships, and they launch their Warriors into combat by charging in a hanger/teleporter that sends them to battle at near point-blank range"

 

We ran into production issues with the weapons, couldn't get the molds to work right or get the numbers we were looking for, so we "put it on the shelf" and I was like "well I can start off a Tau army just to play".

 

My first actual army (created during this time to practice painting and assembly and get the fundamentals down) was a Movie Space marine army. That army, delivered on Power Fantasy of Space Marines in non Horus heresy setting. Marcus beat an Avatar of Khaine in single combat, just Chainsaw Bayonetted that :cusser in half.

 

James was less enthused, and insisted I make progress with my Tau.

 

So I did. Never really liked how the crisis suits are, :cussty blocky robots but their infantry and vehicles are smooth and sleek.

 

"Strength 5! 30 inch range!" Ballistic skill 4, and rapid fire in 5th was capped to 12", and you couldn't move and shoot at full range back then. I got a Lot pissed off.

 

That was about the time I discovered the internet following of 40k, and I was REAL pissed, because I had a lot of firewarriors, which were :cuss, not many suits-which though I didn't like the look of were the killers and I took to the mentality that the fellas were beating on the noob to earn his stripes. Add to that how narratively constraining it was to try and come up with Tau fluff. It was insufferable, and coming off my super creative Lizardmen thing, i chafed at the blandness, I should have just walked away at this point. But I'm vindictive, "and I spent this money already"

 

They were gonna :cussing pay.

 

I came at it all wrong. I figured they were coming at me with tournament type lists, but I was doing dumb stuff like buying shasui upgrades and superfluous upgrades like markerlights on the shasuis trying to make points, when space marines (especially in 5th) punched above their pointcost.

 

I kept getting eye rolls and chastised for every narrative idea I had to use my Tau as say, count as for a surviving Interex conclave, or advanced humans, because Tau are backwater :cusswits without proper ftl tech (back then).

 

Made me angry and obstinate. My army lists got sharper, tournament style. Jeske would have approved, and I began, Perterabo like, to scowl whenever a unit didn't get a satisfactory Kill/Death ratio.

 

It was this...spiteful, angry style of play that had my friend suggest chaos to me.

 

I hated how space marines looked. I hated chaos even more. Spikes and horns and :cuss on their armor, great for handholds. And the bunny ears on khorne berserker would have them getting clotheslined running through a enemy ship built for humans that isn't Gothic churches in space with super vaulted ceilings and all that :cuss.

 

A friend was selling the old old chaos battle force with codex (the one that came with a defiler, zerkers, Csms, spawn and possessed plus the gav dex everybody hates) plus other stuff, real cheap and on sprues, so I got it.

 

I really have little business playing or collecting this game. I'm super critical of it's foundational lore material, lol.

 

I was dead set to have world eaters. Like Wade Pryce's army, after one turn with the Berserkers in combat. My Tau were bad in combat, and with how easily they just punked my friends Bloodclaws, I knew I wanted more.

 

Then I got online again and learned how I was heading the route of Badkidsville again, and while I didn't swallow the pill of "Nurgle/Deathguard for life"/lash prince with oblits, probably because I don't like the idea of giving into despair/depression/being a fat ass, I pretty much ended up making "this army could be played better, and more easily as Space Wolves"

 

They were nightlords at one point, black legion, then world eaters, then red Corsairs, and now black legion again (couldn't come up with a way to do the terminators in that red corsair theme that I liked/looked good).

 

They became my Nightblades, named after my favorite default class in TES Oblivion, but with the elements I liked from the Nightlords, Alpha Legion and Iron Warriors.

 

Narratively, they are thieves, and prefer heist style smash and grab operations. Functionally, they are 3 chaos tactical squads, in rhinos 2 raptor squads, 2 havoc squads, 2 Terminator squads, an immortal slacker who just wants to be left alone to work a farm without the Unforgiven coming for him (Tyrael Adrastus), his best friend who is a possessed sorcerer (Giselburtus), and their long-suffering Lord Alphonse Kell who rarely sees battle as it's my take on Huron Blackheart (with a headswap for a helmet mostly).

 

 

I think I like coming up with background and story ideas more than actually playing. My friends won't play 8th, and I work nights, and I'm very lazy, and it's a lot easier to come home and fire up a videogame.

[Trevak Dal]

Alright, so Guard player here, and let me give you a slightly different answer than most;

 

The Imperial Guard are about overcoming impossible odds in spite of lackluster equipment, hopelessly inefficient bureaucracy behind them and while maintaining a constant vigil for betrayal, incompetence or mental collapse of their fellows.

 

Amusingly, this is my actual day job as an army officer, and I have a poor grasp of work/life balance.

Its a little like that working grocery nightstock, but I've come to compare Kroger to the "process" of being a Chaos Marine. All current employees are Aspiring Champions (team leaders)/chaos marines (the full timers), cultists (baggers), Daemon Princes (management having bound their souls with the Dark Power of the Kroger Warmachine), and Spawn, those who have retired and come back to work.

 

I really considered making a Kroger themed Imperial Guard army, with a former manager as a Commissar Lord because she would fire people at the drop of a hat.

 

I miss her, the Ineptus Adeptus is :cussing stroooong during the holidays, and we got a slow guy I've told them about and all I get is "uh well, *murmuring* could be worse maybe"

[Doghouse]

I've pretty much played all races over the years through various editions. I think marines are my favourite, the idea of each Astarte being a champion in their own right with their own history really appeals to me. Apart from them being probably the easiest to paint and build I like how they serve the Imperial creed but there is an element of autonomy to them, they're almost like mini feudal systems in their own right with their own hierarchy and customs. 

I'm not a fan of Primaris but their introduction has sparked some interest into one of my first loves, the Dark Angels. The idea of conflict and suspicion within their ranks in regards to their new brothers appeals to me, the guarded nature of the chapter suddenly receiving a large influx of new recruits who are effectively outsiders interests me a great deal.

I think in my mind the nature of the Dark Angels and the Black Templars encapsulate the gothic nature of the Imperium, super soldiers in high tech armour surrounded by superstition and ritual, or dark secrets in the case of the  Dark Angels, really captures the more backward thinking of such the long lived and degenerating nature of the empire of man. I'm a big fan of the idea of rather than just pressing a button litanies of faith and rituals being used so as not to anger a machine's spirit as I feel this is what sets 40k apart from a lot of other sci fi settings.

[Khornestar]

The tragedy of chaos space marines, their design aesthetic, the endless potential for modeling and conversions...

 

And then, we have Khorne and the World Eaters. In all gaming I prefer the melee over ranged combat, red and brass is an awesome color scheme (none of this white and blue nonsense :P). In a galaxy where there is only war, why even waste time on trying to survive? Close the gap and reap skull upon glorious skull while spilling the blood of every fool who thinks they stand for something - ESPECIALLY those who believe in the divinity of their rotting corpse god. Drown the galaxy in blood, earn the Bloodfather's favor, and transcend humanity to continue the slaughter for all eternity. If you die trying, then :cuss it, you were too weak and will be another skull on the throne.

[Raven1]

I came back into the hobby right when the new Thousand Sons were coming out. I played Chaos Space Marines before so i got into Thousand Sons since they were new models.

[Kristoff]

I spent some time collecting codices before I ever started an army.  At first, the Sisters of the Witchhunters were to be my first army, but when 5 Sisters cost twice as much as 10 Marines, I changed my mind.

 

Eventually I started with Tau, as I wanted an army that could jump and shoot effectively.  I never settled on a Sept, as I never painted any of the models.

 

During my Tau collection, someone brought up a challenge on explaining why a Chaos warband would ally with the Tau.  I then thought up a warband who was 'allergic' to Warp presences, and found relative comfort with the Tau.  As I worked out the idea, they became a Warband dedicated to changing the Warp by altering the 'frequency' of the humans in the galaxy to be poisonous to its normal denizens, and the Legion of the Setting Eye was born.

 

As 6th Edition was starting, I felt the urge to move on, and complete the Chapter which had fallen to darkness.  They started as Cursed Founding descendants of Dorn through the Executioners Chapter, for backstory, but when they were split, they took on the fighting and organizational style of the Black Templars (as I was not confident in painting black, but I still wanted Templars), and they were using their 4th Edition codex at the time.

 

After some time, I decided I wanted a simpler army, so I converted to Necrons.  That was progressing until some of the 7th ed FAQs came out which were contradictory and senseless, and I dropped the whole game and sold everything off.

 

I keep up with things here and there, because the universe is interesting, and to see if something comes up to convince me to return.  I might consider it, but I lost my job in the meanwhile, and lack the funds to start a 40K army.

[Shockmaster]

I have been discussing former armies with friends and I came to the realisation that I always seem attracted to armies that are related to things I dislike in real life, so in my teenage years when I was in my argumentative annoying militant atheist phase I played Black Templars & then Sisters of Battle.

 

Then in my late teens/early 20s when I was going through a True Metal phase and really did not get on with Goths/Emos I switched to playing Dark Eldar.

 

Now I am playing Death Guard & Nurgle Daemons despite in real life being very easily grossed out by anything disease or decay related.

 

Love what you hate I guess. 

[Knight of the Raven]

Love what you hate I guess. 

It's not hate, but I've been a weird mix of atheist and apatheist from the day I developped coherent thought, and I love Sisters of Battle and Word Bearers.

 

It's... a good thing I wasn't born a few centuries earlier.

[Shockmaster]

 

Love what you hate I guess. 

It's not hate, but I've been a weird mix of atheist and apatheist from the day I developped coherent thought, and I love Sisters of Battle and Word Bearers.

 

It's... a good thing I wasn't born a few centuries earlier.

 

 

Mine was not really hate either, just my dumb teenage years finding something to "fight" against, I just never really realised until now how counter my armies of choice were to my real world grumblings.

[Montford]

The reasons I still play them may not be the reasons that I started with (that was a long time ago!).

 

I play the Sisters of Battle because playing an army of intolerant, homicidal female pyromaniacs is fun!

 

I play my Red Templar Space Marines because I still have a fondness for them, and I really like the tanks, but they don't get much table time anymore.

 

I recently started a Craftworld Army because I have always liked the look, the Eldar esthetic, of those miniatures.

[Firepower]

From a practical stand point, I play Templars because I've made a lot of them, like the look of them, and don't have the time or money to start all over with a new army.  Busting out a small force of my Broken Arrows like 4 years ago taught me that.  If I could paint more than a couple of squads a year, I'd return to my roots from 2nd Edition with Blood Angels.  Respect to the OG Orange Marines :lol:

 

However, I chose Templars because I love the fluff (the true fluff, not the heresy of today's false teachings), the aesthetic, and the Black Tide they once were on the table top.  But most of all I felt (and still feel) they are an idealized Chapter of the Grimdark Anti-Hero, representative of all the irony of the setting and hypocrisy of the Imperium.  In a crude nut shell, the greatest heroes of Mankind are ruthlessly unquestioning of draconian doctrines, so uncompromising and zealous and utterly without pity or remorse that they are just as likely to kill you as save you (often regarding the two as one and the same). 

 

There is none of the super grandiose paragon of heroism nonsense that 40k has been leaning towards with Space Marines over recent years, casting them as virtuous by our modern standards rather than the enforcers of a brutal and uncaring regime that they are.

[The Doctor Of War]

I chose my Rainbow Warriors originally just because i wanted a Chapter that i would be very unlikely to come across. Then as i worked on them, i delved into the little fluff that exists for the Chapter and was inspired to essentially create an entire alternate version of 40k for myself, where the 13th Primarch's capsule didn't land on Macragge, but on Prism, and things have progressed from there.

My Chaos cultists army is largely because of the sheer freedom for conversions and creativity. It's also a bit different to play a Chaos Space Marine army that only contains a handful at most of Chaos Space Marines.