Indecision

[INKS]

I have this problem and I think it's a fairly common one. I don't expect an answer per se, but I thought I would lay out how I feel about each option and in doing so, maybe some light can be gleaned from it to help myself. I am certainly the type of player who looks at lists over and over and over again. I like to have a list, to have direction to know what to buy, which direction to head and so on. Now, saying this I know that whatever I choose, this is likely to not be the final list because by the time I buy and paint it all, the meta and rules will have changed, and that is ok. I have noticed that sometimes lists shift dramatically, but a lot of the time they shift just slightly. So any list I come up with to follow is going to be off at least a little.

 

In no particular order:

Sisters of Battle: Until recently these weren't even really on my list. However I would kinda of love to do a Musketeer colors sisters battle force. I think they would look really smart. On top of this I live in Quebec, which has some times of course to France and the fleur-de-lys. I don't know. I see it all the time of course and it just sort of resonates. On top of this I really like Morvenn Vahl and Saint Celestine. Thankfully these are both good and used a lot. While not Primarch level I think they are close and the type of iconic characters I am looking for.

 

Imperial Knights / Chaos Knights:

I lean more towards Imperial because I like the larger knights. Chaos tends to use many many small ones and Imperial uses some larger ones. What is there to day. Minimal models - this is attractive to me. LARGE MODELS, this is attractive to me. And it's like min titans, Robots fighting. what is not to love right? Down side, kinda of expensive off the jump. Instead of picking up one character or one box for 50-70 dollars. I need to spend 110+ . While to total army isn't that expensive, each purchase is significant. How to paint them? I have no idea beyond Canis Rex.

 

Daemons: I had a deamon army in the past. I liked it. However, their future is uncertain. the models are kinda old. Bel'a'kor is a huge plus, but he's not always used, I would probably use him. Just because. I tend to like bright colors, these guys can be fairly bright. 

 

Death Guard:

I don't know what it is. I guess it's cause I am a fat guy? I like fat marines. somethings about the death guard keep calling me too them but I've never pulled the trigger and bought an army of them. I like their colors, although I would probably brighten them up. I like Typhus, I like Mortarian. I like that they have a playable Primarch. Even if an evil one. I like PBC and  their look. I like their Terminators, I really just like terminators, but I do like their terminators. And the general troops are also used and cool. so there is a lot to like here

 

World Eaters:

Angron, they have a Primarch, +1 points. They have a limited list, with limited choices, this is attractive to me. I think I could paint them well. I like the berserkers and even kinda like eightbound.

overall not a terrible pick.

 

Guard:

Tanks, what can I say. I like tanks and I like a lot of them. Armored company all they way. However there is a part of me, that just wants to field 100+ troops. yeah, I can be that kind of crazy. lol

Neither of which do I think make the best list, but both are fun. Problems? Well I dunno, catachan needs an update. do I go Krieg? Do I go Cadians? I don't know honestly. I wish there were more regiments to choose from. 

 

 Custodes:

Minimal models - check, easy painting - check , limited range - check (don't love how much forge world you kinda need but you can live without it or minimal). There is a lot to like about the Custodes and I love their terminators. I don't love the sisters of silence but I kinda need them, so there is that. I could paint them less gold, and maybe I would. No Primarch. Or type character yet.

 

Emperor's Children: Well we are waiting aren't we? Not much to say. I might love them. I am very interested in noise marines if they are done right or to my liking. So could be an option.

 

GSC: More recently have I considered them., the basic troops are ok. I like the minning or mars like suits. Arborants, love them. I wish I could just have an army of them. No Primarch type character really. Abbrants are cool but they aren't terminators. 

 

Grey Knights: I wish I could but I just can't until they get new models. And I've been waiting forever. I love their terminators. I love the dread knights even if they are baby carriers and they are. I like Crowe. I like the general asthetics of them., but they need new models. they are out of scale and it bothers me too much to invest in them

 

Votaan: I kinda like them and I want to love squats, I love the necromunda squats but the 40k ones miss the mark a little. but they have huge potential, I like their tanks, they kinda have mini terminators. there is potential here. I dunno

 

Necrons: Once upon a time I loved them. Especially the metal immortals. but they've changed too much over the years. just don't love them like I used to

 

Codex marines: Once upon a time, this is what I played. I have been temped to do Silver Skullz. just for this sort of less played chapter that has a nice call back. Temping. I also think I could reimagine rainbow warriors - I like bright colors after all.

 

Iron Warrios: Yeah I love them. I like Perterabo, I hope we returns and if he did I could see me really wanting to run them. Vashtorr kinda works right now but isn't overly good. And in the end I am not sure how to run them, there is a list or two that kinda works. I think I could put together a nice force of them but it would take a lot of work for me to make them how I would like them,

 

I think that about wraps it up. I like Nids for big bugs, I like Ad mech for Breachers, but neither are good enough reasons to consider them for me. 

there might be some other armies I am not thinking of right now but I think that pretty well lays out my thinking on the subject. Appreciate anyone who spends their time reading. thank you.

[ZeroWolf]

I've been in your shoes many a time and it never gets easier 

 

I'm more limited in space than anything else so any army I plan to buy into has that as a factor. For example, being a huge mecha fan, knights seem like the perfect choice, except I just don't have room for models that size.

 

Last year I did try and do some future planning, thinking that in 10th I'd like to collect two armies (one big, the other a little bit) those were Tyranids (played them in 3rd/4th) and Space Wolves (always had a soft spot for them, plus I want to get all the plastic primarch models as they come out, Leman is going to need someone to hang out with). The Space Wolf list I looked at was a little smattering of units, a far cry from my sprawling Ultramarines.

 

Then I started looking at GSC to tie them into my nid army...and you can see where I'm going with this!

 

Hope whatever you chose you have fun with it!

[Emperor Ming]

If you wanted to make life easier, custodes and knights are a good option, just for low model count

 

I wouldn't recommend sisters, unless your fine with the suits and vhal being a really heavy crutch. 

[Valkyrion]

You could buy a box of each basic infantry, build it up, paint it up, and see how you like it. 

 

It's not cost effective in the short term, but may end up being so long term if it helps you decide on a full project. I abandoned a Sisters project because I didn't like building them or painting them enough to carry on. It cost me £60 or so to build a squad and a tank, but that's better than double or treble by buying 500 or 1000 points all at once and then realising after a squad. 

 

[DemonGSides]

2 hours ago, Emperor Ming said:

If you wanted to make life easier, custodes and knights are a good option, just for low model count

 

I wouldn't recommend sisters, unless your fine with the suits and vhal being a really heavy crutch. 

 

I think this was more true prior to the codex.

Seems to be a pretty equal split between Triumph and Morvenn, with Triumph actually being in more lists than morvenn from what I'm seeing lately, at least currently.
 

[Arikel]

Good day Frater! Fellow Quebecer here so I feel you on the sisters, I have a few to paint up myself. While I haven’t had much time to paint and build lately, I have slowly started focusing on moving towards a combined forces Imperial army from my original space marine army. I have been figuring out lore in my head as to how and why the different groups work together, and what color schemes each branch have and so on, whether they may share certain  iconography and so on. Focusing on imperials as a whole can allow you to get a variety of different things going on and is keeping my interest up.
 

 

One thing with imperial guard also is to consider options outside the mainstream. There are lots of 3rd party models and necromunda kits that can be used to spice up a guard army’s basic look, and as many guard regiments are made from combining remnants of previous regiments together into one new combined force, you could easily have multiple units in the same army stand out visually from each other.

 

Anyways that’s how I’m coming back to the hobby since space marines were overhauled. I still have worked on my original boys, even adding a few primaris to them, but I have also started to model and paint sisters, IG and imperial agents to display and fight alongside them for the past few years.

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

The best choice you could make is Space Marines, specifically the IMPERIAL FISTS.

 

Advantages include:

 

- Space Marines get really strong support model wise

- They have a very wide ranging model line and array of playstyles/tactics

- Painter friendly

- You could include some Sisters of Battle, or Imperial Knights, or Astra Militarum as Allies in the future

- Lots of characters

- Yellow is best (and much easier to paint than people say)

- Imperial Fists are the best of the best of the best

 

[Dr. Clock]

A few notes on the ones I collect / play:

 

20 hours ago, INKS said:

World Eaters:

Just amazing fun. You literally can't go far wrong. My advice is to have at least a bare minimum of shooting (pair of forgefiends or similar). I play NonGron horde style and it's great smoothbrain kill maim burn.

 

20 hours ago, INKS said:

Guard:

Also very fun, but probably more expensive than is healthy unless you can find a deal. It's been a slow burn force for me based on an initial score of 3 chimeras for 25 bucks each years and a random job lot.

 

20 hours ago, INKS said:

GSC:

Even more expensive than Guard, and harder to build and pilot. Big swingy list, and I haven't got it to swing in my favor yet. Epic models tho! : P

 

20 hours ago, INKS said:

Votaan:

Pretty slick. The models have universally been better in person than I expected from photos. Haven't played them much, but soon!

 

20 hours ago, INKS said:

Codex marines:

Very easy, almost obligatory to collect lol. I love that marines feel kinda chonky finally. A perfect blank slate for a cool personalized scheme, or an old classic.

 

20 hours ago, INKS said:

Iron Warriors:

Well - CSM anyway: My World Eaters came out of CSM, and I played the list recently for Soulforged Warpack. 6+ daemon engines is pure delight, and it's a great 'build between' army and converter's project... which could also include some Daemons in future ; )

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

 

[WAR]

@INKS I may not be biased.... I maybe actually, I vote Sisters, beautiful sculpts, lots of variant heads and gothic vehicles.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I suppose it's cheating to suggest playing Combat Patrol, where the lists are fixed (and allegedly balanced), so you don't need to worry about "list meta drift"? Alternatively, what about doing small armies? That way you could do 2 if you couldn't decide (what? that's cheating? *sigh* ) Or a mixed/allied army where it thematically makes sense, e.g. Sisters of Battle attached to Imperial Guard?

 

I generally say go with the minis you like and think will be fun to paint - rules change too frequently, and at least you end up with some cool models that you can use in alternate systems in the worst case.

 

No idea if that's any help or not  

Edited July 24 by Firedrake Cordova
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[INKS]

I think that I continue to look at Knights and Custodes the most. While still flirting with the idea of white scars or raven guard or waiting on Emperor's Children. But right now those are the two front runners.

[DemonGSides]

3 hours ago, INKS said:

I think that I continue to look at Knights and Custodes the most. While still flirting with the idea of white scars or raven guard or waiting on Emperor's Children. But right now those are the two front runners.

 

Custodes are pretty easy to pick up as second/third/fourth/xth army due to needing relatively few models, and being extremely easy to paint if you want to go about it quickly.

[TheArtilleryman]

Looking at your options, I would go for Sisters allied with Knights. It would be cool to carry over the whole Fleur-de-Lys theme onto the knights as well. Like the knights are fighting for the ladies’ favour :) I think they would complement each other well; the knights would compensate for the armour and firepower that the sisters lack, while the sisters would provide the objective control and tactical flexibility. I’m not keen on the penitent engines/sisters repentia etc but the armoured sisters are cool.

 

However, this may be coming from the point of view that I already have several marine armies, grey knights and guard so that idea feels like something new and shiny …

Edited July 25 by TheArtilleryman

[Ahzek451]

In a way, you already answered the question yourself. You say no particular order, but based on how you have written each choice, you speak most passionately about the top ones. The way you talk about sisters, imperial knights, and death guard. My geuss is these are your top 3.
Hope that was at least somewhat helpful!

[INKS]

3 minutes ago, Ahzek451 said:

In a way, you already answered the question yourself. You say no particular order, but based on how you have written each choice, you speak most passionately about the top ones. The way you talk about sisters, imperial knights, and death guard. My geuss is these are your top 3.
Hope that was at least somewhat helpful!

haha yeah it was a long post and I guess I had more to say about them. Sisters was fresh on my mind that day as I just had an idea on how I might paint them and so I spoke about that first in order to keep that idea fresh.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

In the interest of making your decision easier/harder, here is a link to my own Quebec themed sisters army.    

 

More seriously, I strongly second what Valkyrion had to say about trying out building a painting a test unit from an army before jumping all in - I wish I had done that with tyranids way back when I tried collecting them and found I just didn't enjoy painting them even when I was happy with the end result.

 

 

[INKS]

@Dr_Ruminahuithanks for sharing they look really great and it seriously temps me even more. lol

[INKS]

This continues on. Some days I feel like Custodes, sometimes I want the new kill team because I can play alone, and I like vespids. some days I want Deamons and so on and so on. Indecision is terrible. lol

 

My GF bought me the intro set. which has some marines and some nids. just a couple. no idea.

[phandaal]

Why not start small with a single box of something? Whatever seems fun off the top of your head. If you build it and paint it and you are still excited for the next unit, then you keep going! Eventually you will end up with an army and the process to get there will be a lot of fun!

 

If you don't enjoy it, just move on to the next thing.

 

Biggest thing for me is just to start things. Time is limited, so there is always a sense of FOMO because any time spent on one army is time not spent on another army, but if you never start then you will certainly never finish. That is why I just keep going until the urge gets me to start working on something else. For me it works great, and I have fully painted armies to use across multiple game systems... problem now is where to store them all! 

[INKS]

 

Why not start small with a single box of something? Whatever seems fun off the top of your head. If you build it and paint it and you are still excited for the next unit, then you keep going! Eventually you will end up with an army and the process to get there will be a lot of fun!

 

If you don't enjoy it, just move on to the next thing.

 

Biggest thing for me is just to start things. Time is limited, so there is always a sense of FOMO because any time spent on one army is time not spent on another army, but if you never start then you will certainly never finish. That is why I just keep going until the urge gets me to start working on something else. For me it works great, and I have fully painted armies to use across multiple game systems... problem now is where to store them all! 

Certainly a good idea.

I don't know why I am like this but let say I buy a box of custodes and then decided. I don't want this. I would have to sell them. I just don't keep loose models around if that makes sense. I don't know why, but I don't

[Magos Takatus]

 

Certainly a good idea.

I don't know why I am like this but let say I buy a box of custodes and then decided. I don't want this. I would have to sell them. I just don't keep loose models around if that makes sense. I don't know why, but I don't

I think I am the exact opposite of this. I can't remember selling any models bar giving away models to friends that need them for projects more than I do. I have so many abandoned projects and one-off models it's tragic. 

[INKS]

 

I think I am the exact opposite of this. I can't remember selling any models bar giving away models to friends that need them for projects more than I do. I have so many abandoned projects and one-off models it's tragic. 

Yeah I get that, I think a lot of people are like that. just can't do it. bothers me on some level. no idea why.

[Xenith]

 

Some days I feel like Custodes, sometimes I want the new kill team because I can play alone, and I like vespids. some days I want Deamons and so on and so on. Indecision is terrible. lol

 

Sounds like you've made some small decisions! I also have analysis paralysis, from what you say, I'd get a small set of custodes, paint them up, then do the same with daemons, etc. People enjoy the hobby in different ways, and not everyone takes joy in 2000pt competitive armies all painted the same. 

[calgar101]

I was in a similar pace to you; lots of Imperial armies/projects that needed completing, hobby mojo flunked. I started with a box of Custodes and went from there. The small model count for an army, plus how good the kits (in my opinion) look, helped me find the hobby spark again. Then you could add in other Imperial units and build an ad-hoc crusade force. My suggestion is more hobby based than gaming mind. Good luck.

[Xenith]

 

Biggest thing for me is just to start things. Time is limited, so there is always a sense of FOMO because any time spent on one army is time not spent on another army, but if you never start then you will certainly never finish.

 

Meant to quote this also in my above post. The what, month now, or longer you've been deciding what to paint could have been used to paint models :) I know what it's like to be so undecided on what to build/paint, you get nothing done. It's almost like blank page syndrome. Have you considered getting cheap second hand models online so at least they're alredy made, and the 'activation energy' required to get painting is lower?