Torn between Armies - Part 2

Continued from part 1

So, following from previous story, as my chapter grew... so did a constant nagging problem: the boredom to one constant colour scheme and the lost of focus.

Strike force leaving without us again... why oh why? art source

You see space marines armies in a way is like M&Ms, they come with a wide variety of colours and flavours; ask any respectable Ork war boss who collects space marine helmets and you will know better, constantly doing one chapter over and over again is like buying a pack of M&Ms only to see one color in the whole bag. While it is true my chapter can summon a lot of options to their disposal, one can't seems to shake the feeling I am not having the wholesome fun out of it. It doesn't help either when personally I like to do a lot of experiment / theme army either.

This issue continues to nag until I discover a new way of collecting a 40k army: instead of collecting a single chapter, one can instead collect... an army list. The idea of collecting an army list, in case the name itself is not implicating enough, is instead of building up a huge collection of elements of a single big chapter, one can instead collect / paint and build 40k armies based on theme / fluff and army list that works with usually very limited options.

For example I have a huge collection of tactical marines and rhinos for my main chapter, the Purgation Lords, in fact three full 10 men squads of them with different load up and respective rides. But realistically speaking 2 full size tactical squads is about the maximum one can field in a standard 1750pts (a standard in my place) before reaching the red level of combat effective noobness. So in reality one squad will always to be left out... IF I play tactical marines at all.

I also have at my disposal a number of scouts squads with same issue, one can never field that many troop choice without some repercussions -- unless you are spacewolves, but that is a complete different story.

Anyway what it implies is that I can instead separate my collection into different chapters and theme which can spice up my painting and building experience. For example I can come up with an Raven guard effective list and allocate most of my scouts and assault marines to the list/army, land speeders and bikers to a Whitescar theme list/army so on and so forth, in fact you can even used different chapters elements in the same army list if you look to the fluff reference like the Hunt of Voldorius.

Of course the main draw back of such approach is that -- it is usually only viable for veterans of the hobby itself, for only seasoned gamers can really see, experimented, and played enough to know what works in army list to deserve a permanent place that warrants the massive efforts of purchasing, assembling and painting.

To sum it up:-

Single Chapter collection
Pros:
-Huge options
-Unify looking
-Great for Apoc games - a whole company in!

Cons:
-Boring for painting
-Lost of focus in long run
-Lot of elements not utilized in long term


Army list collection:
Pros:
-More fun for painting / trying new scheme and colors
-Varieties of theme, which can be adjusted to fluff
-Focused approach

Cons:
-Limited tactical options
-Vulnerable to Codex update / Edition change
-Bad for Apoc games - You have only scout force?


As for me? Well as a hoarder of a huge single chapter elements I am giving the army list collection route a try, that leads to my new project -- The honour of Ultramar.