Through the editions.. How did you start?

[Hive Bahamut]

So I started 40k during the midst/end of 4th edition. I initially bought Shadowsun to paint before I really knew much about 40k. Then I was introduced to the game but did my best to just go on aesthetics alone when choosing my army. I had 3 prerequisites:

1. No Hordes. I am a shaky, lazy hobbyist who would rather bleach my eyes than paint 100 models. (Haha suck on this past me! Finally getting close to painted.. 12 years later.)

2. Had to be a perfect enemy and something truly of nightmares.

3. No humans or Daemons. I am a human, with my own daemons. A rule of thumb for me is be what you aren't or else just go do it IRL and quit wasting time.

So with my ideas I went hunting. The LGS at the time was something akin to the wizard den in "Your Highness" including the weird old literature and possibly marijuana growing in the back. This is still one of the few stores I've been in (closed now) that made me feel "odd."

With that I started my journey. I didn't bother with proper homework, unit comp or anything. Just was going with the one that felt right. Onto the HQ pile.. Wait a second. What the hell is that thing? I picked up the 4lb block of Tyrant. This. DEFINITELY THIS. You mean I can play as monsters running amuck with this as my leader?! Holy Hell.

So then I went to pick up our golden age codex and started reading a bit. Genestealer. Wait a second.. Gene Stealer. There was a light that went on and I connected the dots. That precious Geneseed was mine! Then I hit the jackpot. Genestealers kiss. That is my hook. That is my Tyranid. A single Xenos that can subjugate an entire planet with but patience and cunning?! Sold!

So I left with a Hive Tyrant, 8 Genestealers and my Codex. Only years later would I realize that Tyranids were just a gateway drug and that GSC was my real heroin. The irony being that 1/2 human actually added to aesthetics rather than taking away.

Finally, the single most important thing that I came to enjoy is the mechanic of the Cult itself. EVERY SINGLE OTHER choice has some truths to it. (That's a lot to say considering 1 chaos god is a manipulator.)

Daemon cult: "I, The Almighty Khorne bestow this gift of spikes to your armour for killing that Champion in melee conflict."

Ad mech: "Congratulations unit AF-134 you have reached the Crux. May the Omnissiah bless you!"

A little GSC narrative:

Magus: "Thank you for coming everyone, please be sure to grab a drink before you take a seat. Now I know you're all here to escape the fascist boot of the self proclaimed God of Mankind, and be welcomed into the loving embrace of the Quad-God. First things First, have a drink... Ok? Good. Let that settle in for a sec before I delve into our adventure and salvation.

Today you take your first steps into becoming more than an individual. Today you will find redemption for all that torment and pain you have unjustly been handed by the so called "Progeny" of mankind. Today, you shall have your salvation and just revenge.." *crack*

*One member falls dead face first into the ferrocrete floor*

"Ahh speaking of which, look who shows up. The liquid you drank is a controlled poison that kills those who still serve that False Deity, by rooting out your Faith in your DNA. Every session we find at least 1 spy. Their infection knows no end.."

A few members shuffle uncomfortably but most seem to take it as a reassurance of the truth before them.

"You will become everything you want and more, there is no greed, or corruption, there is no pain, or deception, and most importantly you will live forever.. Do I still have your attention? Any questions?"

Human: "How do we achieve this ascension? How do we become what you speak of Magus?"

"Come everyone quickly to the back room. Hurry as we only have a short window of opportunity before the next transit. Now I know what you're thinking, *it's just a pool of water,* the truth is, that is leftover deception clinging on like a parasite. It could be no further from the truth. Now everyone join hands around the pool while I channel the spell. Once I start you have 5 seconds to jump in or I will have to restart the incantation.."

"Ereht si on dog. Uoy era lla stoidi! Teg ni eht loop!" *Splash*

[LordPathos]

I started 40k JUST after 4th hit. The Nid codex still had rules for being outnumbered but the rulebook didnt. I was also starting with my, at the time, GF and another buddy (who became the Eldar buddy I badmouth a lot in other threads). We were debating between Fantasy and 40k. Both my friends like Eldar/Elves and I liked Necrons/Nids/and some Chaos faction. Bunch of black knights and stuff, no daemons. Since my buddy didnt care, we let my GF decide, who chose 40k because she like the elegance to Eldar. I went Nids because the things that looked like Zerg won out over what looked like Egyptian Terminators, plus I saw the Carnifex model and fell in love with the army.

[bansh]

I got 2nd edition after seeing the eldar warwalker model....at the time it was pretty awesome, then the chaos space marines with heavy weapons came out, the heavy bolter and autocannon were probably the best models out at the time, at one point i had azreal as my chaos lord, but i hacked through his metal sword arm with one of my mums good steak knives....took every afternoon for about 2 weeks, and replaced it with the pincer claw of a mega armored nob....looked fantastic, didnt stand up very well though

[timcz]

I picked up the game when I was in high school, which was 2nd edition. I played Eldar back then - not sure what my reasons were back then - probably thought they looked the coolest. Had a great time back then - was part of a local club that played games of Warhammer and D&D (we didnt have any GW shops in Brisbane back then - I think there may have been one in Sydney?). In the end, I got into the Fantasy game more than 40k though, which I played Dark Elves.

Throughout the rest of high school and a lot of the mates I played with stopped playing for various reasons, so it kind of just died. Fast forward the clock almost 20 years later, working as a professional in town I happened to walk past the GW store, went in for nostalgic reasons and ended up walking out with a box of space marines. My god how far had it come since I played in 2nd! However, didnt take me long to realise I wasnt the biggest fan of the space marines, and the tyranids was what I really loved the most. While I figured that out, 8th was just about to drop, so I stockpiled on a bunch of stuff. Amazing how back in the day as a student you'd save months to buy a box of Eldar, and now days, the choice really is there to grab a few things when you can save a bit easier! I also play AoS, with Ironjawz, and have a few chaos demons im keen to paint up also.

Either way, have since found a guy at work that plays and so does his brother, so thats my little group. I have a 1 year old son now so the hobby time has been severely reduced, but starting to find an hour or so every night or two that I can build and paint.

Am really glad that Kill Team exists now, as I absolutely love Orks (hence the Ironjawz), but just couldnt stomach 2 horde armies. So am also loving the fact I can play Orks in KT. 

[onewiththehive]

I kind of started in the dying breath of 7th, bought my first boxes about 6-9 months befor 8th hit the stores. The choice of mine was either tyranids (cause i love the design) or necrons. Ended up starting tyranids, cause i didn't like all designs of the necrons. Destroyers for example i didn't like. Also the shop where i started had one of the Tyriand Army Force box and the start collecting box. So i Picked up both (Start collecting with tyrant, 10 gargoyles and 3 warriors, army box with 10 gargoyles, 40 horma, 40 terma and a carnifex)

Also there were several necron players at the store but no active tyranid. My friends who are playing for years/started a few months before me had orks, space marines and chaos space marines, so thats another reason to start something different.

[tomcaet]

When Battle Games in Middle-earth hit the stores in my area I realized my dream of having rules for sandbox battles isn't far at all. This way, I became aware of Fantasy and 40k, but only played LotR. Together with a friend at some convention we got ourselves a starter set for 4th edition 40k. He liked the Space Marines (now playing Dark Angels with an ever stronger Imperial Knights flavouring) and I liked the Tyranids (although we played Rending for Genestealers' claws in the exhibition scenario very wrong, I never stopped liking the beasts). Didn't get more than the starter, had barely any games throughout 4th, 5th and 6th edition, even though I kept fairly up-to-date on rules. Pretty much stopped playing LotR in the meantime too.

At the end of 7th, I bought into Overkill and Genestealer Cults and finally got to play any real 40k, played quite a lot of Necromunda Community Edition before and around that time too, trying to emulate Genestealer Cults there. After 8th started I'm very in 40k and watching Shadow War, Necromunda and Kill Team.

[meeskmiser]

Heheh big time noob post here. Played a single game of fantasy 8 years ago as a freshman, ended up not even remembering what warhammer was till my friends who played back in 5th started to talk about it. They showed me a couple of primarch models and i decided i should read up on some lore. Ended up spending the next 48-72 hours reading as much 1d4chan on the 40k universe as i could and fell in love. Slowly realized i didnt want to exactly serve everyones favorite benched corpse (big E) after buying forgebane. Ended up selling a 1500 point Admech army i never played a game with to start up on bugs!! I've only played 8th but so far my bugs are 17-1 in my friend group, finally after starting my second army collection (trying to get 1-2k for each chaos god). also using daemons as a cheat code to eventually have a 30k army and AoS army

[infornography]

I was first introduced to 40k in 1996 when someone in the same wing of my dorm had the rulebook with all the factions in it. I read all the fluffy parts and looked at the various units. I quickly decided that nothing was cooler than Tyranids and I really liked the idea behind Genestealers. Also thought that the Carnifex looked friggin awesome. Neither me nor this friend had any money for minis however so it didn't go any further than that.

Later I play Starcraft and think I HAVE to go with Zerg because they are so similar to those awesome Tyranid things I remembered.

MUCH later I see a Space Marine battleforce on a good sale on a deal a day site that used to specialize in board games. I picked it up figuring I could have fun assembling the minis. I didn't have the rules or anything, just enjoyed the modelling. Ended up putting the missile launcher on the Rhino on backwards facing the poor hapless gunner.

Finally right at the beginning of 5th edition a friend of mine gets into 40k and convinces me and another friend to join in. Since I already had SOME space marines I went with them at first, but within a year I picked up my first Tyranids and never looked back. Though I HAVE built myself a large Space Marine, Imperial Guard, and Chaos Space Marine force. My wife has gone with Eldar (all types) and Daemons.

[gigasnail]

i was balls deep into chaos at the start of 5th. one of the guys i played with was putting some tyranid warriors together and being a shameless giger fan, thought they were pretty snazzy. picked up a codex and spent waaay too much before i had any idea what i was doing, just like with chaos.

[tomb]

It was the original Space Hulk box for me, back then a friend and I were randomly collecting fantasy battles models and whilst we loved the rule book and the rogue trader book we were too young to figure out the rules. The Space Hulk box came out and we went halves on it with our pocket money, the rules were understandable and the game was reativly quick.
The Genestealer fluff and art work was out of this world and I was hooked.
But.
Life got real and in my mid twenties I found the Black Reach box set in a local GW, that rekindled my interest in GW. After playing Marines /wolves for a bit a friend in a gaming store always beat me with his nids. That Christmas I found the carnifexen kit I had bought with Black Reach...

An expensive Rogue Trader era stealer cult army collection and Nid force later and I've probably collected and played most other armies as ways to understand how to beat (eat) them with Nids.
I'll always love Stealers, roll on Cult book 2.

[Jbizzy]

When I was 14-15 my dad drove me and my friends down to the new location of the biggest FLGS in town (and I think the biggest in western Canada) to check it out and get some random miniatures and new BattleTech stuff. Ended up buying a box of Skaven clan rats and Black Orcs because they looked cool.

Later that year I went down to and bought the second addition starter set and was more absorbed by the horrifyingly awesome dystopian future presented in the lore booklet. That original artwork was damn cool. My friends and I randomly added some ork minis and some eldar ones over the next year or so and then I bought the 3rd edition starter set. I have no idea what happened to all the marines that came in those box sets but I have all the Orks, Dark Eldar and Eldar.

Years later I had a 1000+ spacewolf army which didn't didn't see much action but at least they were all painted, sold them cheap and bought (2) Tyranid battleforce boxes soon after.

I've always liked nids mainly because I loved the Zerg from Starcraft and when they started coming out with the new kits it was an easy switch. But mainly lurking in this forum for the last 10 years has kept my interest in nids and warhammer alive and I've added to my collection over the years. Shame is I am a slower painter (not modeler) than everyone here that claims to be slow - I have 28 really nicely painted termagaunts and that's it so far and have 3000+ points just staring at me in a nice display case. Some days I feel like giving up because I don't play enough to warrant the money I have invested...

[swarm492]

Got into it during highschool which was during 3rd edition. A friend at the time was explaining the game to me as I flipped through the pages of the core rule book. I came across a picture of a genestealer getting shot point blank in the mouth by a space marine. I pointed it out and asked my friend what that was and if you could play as it. They told me it was a genestealer and yes you can play as that race. I closed the book on the spot and have been playing nids ever since.

[biomassbob]

I started back in 4th. My son and his friends had started 40K and I was asked if I wanted to play (always been a gamer). I liked tyranids but my son and each of his friends already picked an army and tyranids were chosen - only Tau was left so I bought Tau. Some of the players didnt stay long and one was the tyranid player so I started nids then. I loved lots of the tyranid models - the lictor, raveners, warriors, hormagaunts, carnifex, hive tyrant - even liked the biovore.

I liked the weapon stat tied to the the firing creature and being able to alter some of the stat line with upgrades. Genestealers were okay but I was never a big fan. I sometimes would include them in a list when we had outflanking type rules for the "stealers coming to assist the tyranid invasion force" thing but never wanted them as a central part of the army. I also liked the "hive tyrant is the essence of the hive mind" thing and preferred an army having only one hive tyrant. While I was happy with the introduction of a plastic tyrant (with wings!) I guess GW felt they needed to find a way to sell more kits so made a hive tyrant like any other critter. Oh, well - can't go back.

[Overread]

I've actually been trying to remember how I got started with Tyranids!

So for me it was a very slow start into things, my original love was Titan Legions/Epic 40K however both those games fell into death. However before the end of Epic there was this awesome army of monster space aliens called Tyranids. Now I hardly got any Tyranids back then (1 box of plastic infantry and 3 trygons was all); I was young and budget was thin. So I never got anything before it all fell apart.

However I did pick up a trio of the original metal "xeno" hormagaunts; and a Hive Tyrant and 3 Warriors (the old plastic with the stick on chest over the exposed guts). Now they only saw a little table time and not much more. It was a long while until 3rd edition came out with a big wave of renewed tyranids and monsters that I got the codex and the bug in a big way.
Though I was never the biggest fan of all the designs of that era, I did bolster my army with actual choices - adding in battleforces which gave me a solid base of gaunts, warriors and mighty Carnifex. I also got myself some deadly stealers!

Then 4th edition hit and the redesign again and the designs we know and love today were mostly fixed. The more impressive Zoanthrope- the newer plastic and large tyrant and more - That was when I really grew my swarm and when I got the most games.

Since then whilst Tyranids have grown in strength my will has lessened, a few shifts in the meta and also life just meant that I drifted away a bit; never lost the love, just lack the dedication. Plus learning a bit more about painting, and about such devilish things as mould lines means that I kind of want to re-do much of my original "core" of the army (which is a big time and cost commitment that I've yet to really face )

[Zod42]

What a long strange trip it has been!

I remember seeing Games Workshop items in my local game store, but it was just a little more than I wanted to pay. Later, my youngest sister and I invested in an old console game system called 3DO, and one of my first games was Space Hulk. Walking down the halls in Terminator armor and getting jumped by the Genestealers was fun. Shortly after that I picked up the Space Hulk of the '90s (the first one in the USA). Shortly after, a friend and I split the big box with Space Marines and Orks (with the cardboard dreadnought), and I continued my Blood Angels collection. After that, I'd go down to the comic book store down the street to grab whatever hit my fancy that was not an army one of my friends played (Orks and Eldar).

I collected but hardly played Tyranids until the 2001 codex came out that allowed a lot more customization. That part was a lot of fun for me, and that solidly moved my Tyranids into the #2 spot behind my Blood Angels. I averaged picking up about a kit/model a week for the next 5 years for the various armies of the time until some life changes happened. Most of my group dropped out around 5th edition, and I went on a short hiatus in 6th.

Shield of Baal brought me back to 40k and cemented Tyranids in the primacy of my army interests. I liked that I had all of the armies needed for the campaign and am fighting my way through the missions again right now.