When an Army is Popular..

[Slave to Darkness]

I'm a bit wary of the same thing this year... for a long time I've been the only sisters player in the club (which ever club I've been to!) for the last 10+ years... but with the sisters being released in plastic later this year there will be a number of people who jump on the band wagon!

 

So although I have over 2K of sisters I just know there'll be people going 'oh you should play this way.. you need to add x'.... just like they do with my Craftworlders

Been playing chaos since 1991, 'Retired' when 8th dropped cuz of :cussty rules and bad lore. Recently come out of retirement at the worse time really, now everyones jumped on the chaos bandwagon and Im getting the 'oh you need units x y and z and you need to play your army this way if you want to win' (I cant stand those net list 'I know everything' tourny types).

 

 

Back to OP... Basically no matter what there will be someone with the same army as yours, just make sure yours are painted better, converted better, kill xenos better and everybody else, dont let others poopoo on YOUR hobby. YOU know your a Dark Angel at heart and not some band wagon jumper trynna find the new KOOL. IMHO though go Consecrators, they look badass.

[Dosjetka]

Let's stick to the topic here and not delve into people-bashing (or any other off-topic subject). Thank you. :tu:

[Dragonlover]

Play what you like, paint it how you like. Life's too short to let others dictate how you hobby.

 

Also play long enough and you might achieve uniqueness by accident. I'm pretty sure I own the only painted army in the colours of The Harvest on the planet.

 

Dragonlover

[Slave to Darkness]

@mod. Sorry, was not my intention to 'people bash' I posted with good intentions for once. 

 

As Dragonlover said, uniqueness will come, I know lots of people who play Slaanesh armies but most of them are running generic Noise Marine/Emperors Children forces, I decided to get rid of a lot of the normal looking stuff and ran with the whole Hellraiser/Body Horror vibe to make my stuff different, the fluff hints at the perversity of Slaaneshii forces but I dont see much of that on the tabletop (dont even get me started on the bland as :cuss Daemons we are getting) so I am trying to bring that out in my army. Problem is there isnt really a lot of scope to make one Dark Angels army different from the next. Originally they were Knights/come from Knight society on Calibain if memory serves, you could do a Successor chapter or Dark Angels post heresy but before the change from Black to Green and really push the knight vibe, mix Templar bits in with Mk3 armour, Dark Angels bits and some Bretonnian bits and jobs a godun. 

[MegaVolt87]

Since you have a large model pool (10k points?!), what about stripping some of it down (strip + re-paint) for a separate 2,000 point army from an unforgiven successor chapter if it is bothering you everyone is mainline Dark Angels. Or what about one of the new unforgiven primaris founding chapters if you want to buy more stuff?  

[MARK0SIAN]

At least there’s a positive with it being Dark Angels instead of say Eldar for example. At least you know no one is going to be thinking “He’s jumped on the easy win bandwagon.” I’d just try tsomething enjoy doing DA as well as you can, try and make yours the best. There’s some fantastic DA terminator conversions out there for inspiration :)

[Panzer]

At least there’s a positive with it being Dark Angels instead of say Eldar for example. At least you know no one is going to be thinking “He’s jumped on the easy win bandwagon.” I’d just try tsomething enjoy doing DA as well as you can, try and make yours the best. There’s some fantastic DA terminator conversions out there for inspiration

^ this

You won't believe how much :cuss I get for playing T'au even though they weren't even a top tier army late 7th anymore and I'm not using any of the super cheesy units (like for example I don't own even a single Riptide). 

[Exilyth]

Space marines are always very popular.

Dark Angels have some very iconic chapter specific units.

They also represent the 'grimdark gothic monk warrior theme' very well.

 

So, everyone (in your local meta) plays Dark Angels.

 

 

BUT they do not play your guys.

 

Your guys have your painscheme and bear your choice of heraldry.

Your guys have your awesome converions.

Your guys bring your choice of units.

Your guys conform to your lore.

 

 

If you're concerned about playing the same army as everyone else, you can always go with a successor chapter or roll your own custom chapter.

Or shelve (don't sell) the DA specific units and run your army as Codex Marines or one of the other chapters (BA/SW/DW) for a while.

 

 

There must be one or more reasons beside "no one else plays this army" that made you start collecting Dark Angels back in the day.

If you can remember what made you choose Dark Angels over all the other factions,

that vision which made you pick this particular faction and none other,

then you will be able to determine what direction to take your army

and make it truly your guys.

 

 

 

Disclaimer: The interests of people tend to change with time. It's perfectly fine to pick up another faction instead. The most important point is to listen to your hearts desire and to not let army popularity influence your opinion.

 

 

* SoB players and others substitute your guys with your gals and replace factions as applicable. Chaos players substitute your guys with your unspeakable horrors oh my god what is that thing take it away and replace factions as applicable.

[Slasher956]

 

* SoB players and others substitute your guys with your gals and replace factions as applicable. Chaos players substitute your guys with your unspeakable horrors oh my god what is that thing take it away and replace factions as applicable.

 

 

  i liked that.... and I do call my Sisters army my girls already!  (as in yeah I'll bring my girls down next week)

[Guest]

 

 

Your guys have your painscheme

 

 

I thought that painscheme's were IF....

[Exilyth]

 

 

 

Your guys have your painscheme

 

 

I thought that painscheme's were IF....

 

 

That the state of an army is "grey tide" does not mean that they have no planned paint scheme.

[PeteySödes]

I think for me it comes down to not necessarily how many are playing my army but why. Im from the midwest where i think we have a higher population of armchair vikings so more space wolves per capita than a lot of areas. I think this in itself is great for reasons other have pointed out. More brothers to bounce ideas off, friendly rivalry to push each other, and teammates are all great things.

 

The part i get salty about it when an update comes out and all of a sudden an army is top tier. Then other players give you that bandwagoner look and grief when you play an army you've had in feast or famine. Thats the bit that bugs me. Granted it only happened when i played a bit of tau pre formations and riptides going into that but it still was frustrating.

[Guest]

 

 

 

 

Your guys have your painscheme

 

 

I thought that painscheme's were IF....

 

 

That the state of an army is "grey tide" does not mean that they have no planned paint scheme.

 

 

I think you missed your type of "Pain Scheme" instead of "Paint Scheme", reference IF and their love of the pain glove. :)

[TheDreadfulSagittary]

It might be the "special snowflake" in me, that speaks now, but I like to play something unique, and to give my playmates an unique gaming experience. And the latter is as important to me, as the former (maybe even more). 

 

Back then when I joined the local gaming group I had an Imperial Guard army. It was my first army, nearly 3000 points, many options and mostly painted (the whole infantry, but the tanks where only primed). I really loved the feeling of the army, and didn't cared if in the end I lost the battle. I tried first with big footslogging blobs of infantry, and when that didn't worked out for me, I changed to a mechanized force with lots of Chimeras and Leman Russes. I really liked the whole regular army feel over the post-humanity of the Astartes. 

But then, as our group grew and some new guys joined the ranks suddenly two new Guard army grew up from nowhere. At first I was honored to give some advices, and welcomed the new blood, but as they started to build something just like my army, I suddenly felt that I have to move on. I thought that there is no room for that many armies of the same flavour in a small environment.

I wanted to change to Grey Knights, but an other guy started to buy stuff for his force, so I went with Space Wolves. You know, there where 5 or 6 SM and CSM armies back then in the group, but nobody had the same list. 

 

Since then many things changed in my (hobby)life, even left the Wolves (sadly...), but I still like to have something, that is unique to me. 

 

Well, I'm now interested in Adeptus Titanicus, and there are only limited resources, and you could easily face a force that is the mirror of yours, and I accept that. But I try to be as unique as possible with the help of the colour schemes and the background of my army. It is a more "historical" gaming environment, and I would want to recreate some of the battles of my favorite timeline.

 

In conclusion, it is great, that you want to be different from the others. We all have the desire to create something, that represents our view and thinking of this game, something that is unique, and recognisable. Either way you go my route, and look for some alternative, or create an alternative from what you have (even "only" with the paintjob). 

[Panzer]

 

 

 

 

 

Your guys have your painscheme

 

 

I thought that painscheme's were IF....

 

 

That the state of an army is "grey tide" does not mean that they have no planned paint scheme.

 

 

I think you missed your type of "Pain Scheme" instead of "Paint Scheme", reference IF and their love of the pain glove.

 

 

I'd rather thought of how Emperor's Children are described with their clashing colours ... now that's a painscheme for the eyes! :D

[Exilyth]

 

I think you missed your type of "Pain Scheme" instead of "Paint Scheme", reference IF and their love of the pain glove.

 

Ouch.  

 

That was incidential, but since it fits the topic, I'll just leave the typo in.

[SickSix]

BrotherEndcat I absolutely know how you feel. Thats why I really took my time and picked a successor chapter of the UM that I had never seen represented online but had just enough lore snippets (since Rogue Trader) to make them interesting and mysterious.

 

I have always loved the DA robed veterans. With the DA I have a bigger attraction to the aesthetic than the lore. So I created my own successor of theirs to have a reason to build and paint some robed dudes and use lots of plasma. And I have a little freedom with their lore.

 

If DA are still your true love then consider a cannon successor or even a DIY successor and maybe throw in a small DA detachment to satisfy your itch.

[Elzender]

May I offer an alternative to keep the Dark Angels without changing to another Unforgiven successor? If you want to focus on classic marines, you could set your army in a previous millennium, so that you would have the freedom to create miniatures for your Supreme Grand Master, Deathwing and Ravenwing captains, Chief Librarian etc., giving them their oen names and history, and using them as either counts-as for the current leaders, or try to make their own from a generic captain + relics and warlord traits. It would also allow you to include some variations in the paint scheme or even mix some Heresy-era equipment (although being a First Founding chapter, and specially the I legion, they surely still have plenty of such equipment as of M42). Then again, I think it is the Consecrators that have inherited most of the I legion relics, and still keep the original paint scheme, so they are also a good option to change a bit (plus you might be able to eventually use it for 30K games :D).

[Ahzek451]

I felt that way about Thousand Sons. I started with the army, and as far as I knew I was the only local player for years. There was a sense of pride to it. But when the new models came out, naturally more players popped up. There was a moment of weakness and I admit to feeling a bit territorial about the army. But it was fleeting and foolish to feel that way. Every army is for everyone to enjoy. 

 

However, I still take pride in the army I built, converted and painted and with the knowledge that there will never be a Thousand Sons army exactly like mine...then that is enough. 

[Chaeron]

Just imagine how I feel as a Death Guard player of almost 20 years.

 

That's the best part though, being able to bring out all your original metals and plastics from the early 90s when you first started using them - and to keep playing with them!

[PeteySödes]

 

Just imagine how I feel as a Death Guard player of almost 20 years.

 

That's the best part though, being able to bring out all your original metals and plastics from the early 90s when you first started using them - and to keep playing with them!

 

 

Yea i love when people ask what wolf skull i used on my dread, or when old schoolers recognize it as the pewter Logan basing skull.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

I run a Blood Angels successor and a Death Guard warband. Blood Angels are kind of popular in my area, relatively speaking (I play at a small local games store and there's actually someone else who runs Blood Angels) and the same to Death Guard. So I run them special, using custom lore and (opponent willing) the occasional bits of custom rules.

[Khornestar]

I don’t particularly care, unless there is competition from other CSM players for splitting a boxed game with a loyalist player (e.g. Shadowspear).

 

I have long been attempting to abandon the notion that anything about my existence is special or unique. With mixed success, but the older I get, the easier it gets. As a youngster, I certainly would avoid popular things because I had this notion that I wouldn’t be as special or interesting for liking them. Harry Potter, for instance. The books came out when I was a teenager (I think, some time around then) and I didn’t end up reading them until my early 20’s at the insistence of my girlfriend (now my wife). I loved them. There’s a reason many people like the series. This can be discussed and debated, but I digress...

 

Just another dude among a sea of dudes, so to speak. Of course there is only one of me in this timeline (that I know of), but I mean to say that I don’t own the things I like, so if other people also like those things... cool! It means I have other people that share my interests and preferences, and clearly we must be better than people who(m?) are interested in and prefer other things! It also increases the likelihood that other people spend money on the products I want to exist, so in a selfish sense it’s in my interest.

[DuskRaider]

 

 

Just imagine how I feel as a Death Guard player of almost 20 years.

That's the best part though, being able to bring out all your original metals and plastics from the early 90s when you first started using them - and to keep playing with them!

I replaced all of the models in my army. I hate inconsistency... I do still have most of my old models packed away somewhere. My favorite are the old Plague Marines with Plaguebearer heads from Rogue Trader, I believe.

[BrotherEndcat]

 

 

Call me a hobby hipster snob if you wish but how do you get over that feeling? Do you just pull the trigger anyway? Do you focus on another army? Looking purely for advice to see if I am not alone in this feeling.

 

 

You're not a hobby hipster snob. Hobby hipster snobs would never play an official subfaction.

 

OR they would play Dark Angels purely because of 'emo-marines' memes from the late 90s.

 

 

Thats very true! 

 

I've been playing my orks primarily since DV dropped because of similar reasons, and mine are even DA successors with a wildly different scheme. It comes from being a primarily narrative player and coming across so many mirror matches that I couldn't head cannon around it any more. It's one of the joys of orks, even if I'm up against another deathskull army I don't really even need to come up with a reason for the battle. The other army has stuff.

 

Orks are just wonderful for that because you really can make them so unique compared to so many armies, especially when it comes to converting vehicles and characters. Would love to do a snakebite army or something with Boars replacing warbikes and the like haha! 

 

I know the feeling. Started playing and collecting Imperial Knights. Developed background, names and how they should look like. I collected all FW knights although most of them haven't seen any action.

 

2 months ago a player in our group decided to also start a knights army. He has the loyal 32, a Castellan etc.

The thing what vexes me the most is that he asked me what the rules and points of the Acheron before I knew that he was starting knights. Well, he has an Acheron now too.

This is a guy that played Tau with 3 Riptides, Eldar with those transports that could shoot you from the table, Tau & Eldar, Blood Angels. My hope is that he will change when the Sister Codex drops.

 

I will differenciate myself by not using 32 loyal guardsmen or a Castellan and I'm converting my knights (at least those I haven't build). I'm in it for the story and the beautiful models.

 

Imperial Knights is an interesting one, since the whole loyal 32 and Castellan list has come about I think everyone has jumped on the bangwagon in every FLGS. 

 

Do you have any posts with your converted knights? would love to see some :D

 

I feel quite the opposite, actually. More people playing my same army means more people with which exchange tactics and conversion idea, possibly develop a joint background, and organize campaigns playing as a single faction.The only thing I don't like is when too many players have the same army, it doesn't matter which one it is: the more the general diversity, the better, in my opinion.

 

That is a plus having some people to be your sounding board for ideas and to help each other out, discuss lore etc. Like you say at the end there its just the issue of lack of diversity when lots of people are on the same army train. I think we'll see this especially when sisters actually get released.