Collections vs Armies & My Current 10k Dark Eldar Collection

I have long been a proponent of having Warhammer 40k "collections" as opposed to armies.  Whereas armies focus on what's good and hip in the current Codex or meta, a collector focuses on slowly but surely acquiring a good variety of models for their specific Codex or faction.  When the new Eldar Codex dropped, I was already in possession of close to 20,000 points worth of models.  I had Force Organization charts maxed out and could field just about anything I wanted.  As such, when the new Codex dropped I found that I really didn't need anything new (other than some shiny Wraithknights) to bring my army up to speed.

Not my army, but a picture of the infamous Dark Moon Kabal - probably the largest Dark Eldar army out there. Check out more at darkmoonkabal.blogspot.com

Well, I just did an inventory of my Dark Eldar mini's.  Many of which have been in storage since they didn't get much play in the last book.  My current calculations have me right at 10,000 points, and I need to do very little to create the army I want to try out in 7E.  The only thing I really need to do is kitbash some of my Dark Eldar with some extra Tyranid bits to create some Sslyth (the models are great, but I just can't bring myself to get Finecast).  Other than that my army is set as is.

Now, the biggest downside to collecting is that it's hard to have a variety of armies.  Personally, I only have two: Eldar and Dark Eldar.  While the initial investment of a collection is great, I think it pays dividends if you keep it around from edition to edition.  Only having to update an army with minimal purchases or converting every 3-5 years is much better than having to buy a lot of new stuff. I also have a friend who has both; a large Chaos Space Marine collection (20k+ points), supplemented with some choice armies that he enjoys playing. Always be on the lookout for good deals and ways to add to your collection!

Now, on to my collection: Google Doc Dark Eldar Collection