How do you decide between armies?

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Hoping to get my first game of 10th in Friday, but I’m not particularly inspired to take either my guard or my blood angels over the other.

 

I feel a simple coin flip could do it, but I want to be psyched for which ever army I take the day of, and a coin flip doesn’t help with that

[Brother Navaer Solaq]

I would go with a guard army as if they all perish there will be more to replace them. 

[sonsoftaurus]

If I didn’t already have a particular one I wanted to use, if a pre-arranged game I’ll toss it to my opponent - ‘hey do you want to play against x or y?’

[gideon stargreave]

I would choose a mission and then see which army is more thematic. Super aggressive mission - blood angels, meat grinder style - guard

[Lord_Ikka]

24 minutes ago, sonsoftaurus said:

If I didn’t already have a particular one I wanted to use, if a pre-arranged game I’ll toss it to my opponent - ‘hey do you want to play against x or y?’

This- unless I'm doing tournament prep I give my opponent the option to choose what they want to face. Sometimes they will be tailoring their lists to fight a certain army or style of army and I can help them out by playing something like that. Other times we'll just throw up whatever we think will be most fun/funny and see how it goes.

[Xenith]

When collecting them, either specific models or plot/rule hooks.

 

When choosing an army for a game, usually the one with the most recent codex release (to get my money's worth from the codex), one I've finished a new unit for, or one that I'm 'feeling' right now. 

[LameBeard]

I would normally go with whatever makes the best story - so probably choosing a good match-up against the opponent. But yours are both Imperial armies so that’s limited help…

[Karhedron]

I usually go Marines for the first game of a new edition. Good selection of units allows me to try stuff out and get a feel for what works and what doesn't. Also they tend to be more compact. Moving a lot of models and rolling buckets of dice for Guard can be a bit stressful if you are also trying to get to grips with a bunch of new rules at the same time.

[OpossumStrong]

7 minutes ago, LameBeard said:

I would normally go with whatever makes the best story - so probably choosing a good match-up against the opponent. But yours are both Imperial armies so that’s limited help…

Pretty much the same, I'm not a competitive player, often i can play with inferior units/lists just to have fun or try and make it more lore accurate, for now i got 7 armies so luckily i have a lot to choose from.

[Bouargh]

For a first game, I would take the one with less special rules to monitor and less unit interactions to be masterized. It makes easier to follow and avoid forgetting stuff that may be key. So Marines looks slightly less rule intensive than Guard to me. Similarly, to optimize the learning curve, I would favour armies withles model counts. So less units to follow and less chances to forget moving one, shooting with one,... Agian Marines may be better in that sense.

 

Overwise, if everything else fails, I apply the rule of cool (as it is very personal and obviously biased I would not state which army I think is cooler in your case, depend of your collection too)- which army of yours do you feel cooler for getting a good experience worth being remembered for this first game. Quite close to the stroytelling approach, but eventually "more paint and hobbying completion level" oriented... 

[LameBeard]

Oh yeah. Painted units go to front of the queue!

[sarabando]

depends on the mood im in (painted army obviously priority) and who im facing. 

[KenaiPhoneix]

I pick whatever I feel like it. Some times I pick whatever is available when Im sharing my lending my armies to friends, I lend them choose the one they like more.

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

There is an easy way to choose your army.

 

Step 1: Is the army Imperial Fists?

 

If yes then no further questions. If the answer is no you have picked the wrong one. 

[Helias_Tancred]

#1, I like how they are presented in the lore, and Black Library products.

#2, Their model sculpts.

#3, How they play.

 

I have limited experience playing a variety of armies since I've been in the hobby, now almost 10 years. I've played Blood Angels, Crimson Fists, and Dark Angels. I may be biased? ;)

 

 

 

[MithrilForge]

For Fun you should get Each H.Q. unit - Blood angels commander Vs. the Guard H.Q. unit (or equivalent points) and fight to see who wins...

Winner gets to plonk their army on the table 

 

M. 

[Xenith]

3 hours ago, Mumeishi said:

For Fun you should get Each H.Q. unit - Blood angels commander Vs. the Guard H.Q. unit (or equivalent points) and fight to see who wins...

Winner gets to plonk their army on the table 

 

M. 

 

You could do one BA HQ vs an equal number of points of guard HQ's - the 40k equivalent of a fight between a horse sized duck and 100 duck sized horses.