[Brapapple]

me and my friend want to get into 40k so like we have spent some time and worked out army lists for a 2k battle.
what i would like to know is apart from the models (£400 worth so far) what will i need to get and how much am i looking at spending? cheers

 

[hippypancake]

dice
measuring tape
templates

 

[Azezel]

For the love of god do not spend £400 on minis until you know for sure you like this game and will want to play it regularly for a long time.

Also - do not start at 2'000 points.

For two people who are new at the game, a 2'000 point battle will take six-eight hours and not be much fun. You won't learn a damned thing.

Work out one or two 500 point lists, buy those models, paint them and play. Add a few more models a little at a time. Jiggle your lists, trying out different models and tactics at the same or similar points. Slowly increase the size of your army.

Paint as you go! Seriously.

By a small army and paint it. Then add to it. Try never to play an unpainted model. Yes this can be done. Don't let people tell you otherwise.

Buy one of the small 'Assault on Black Reach' rulebooks, two-dozen or so six-sided dice, a set of templates and a scatter die.

Expect to pay £50-£100 for a 500 or 750 point army, plus dice, rulebook, codex, templates and paint.

Necrons are by far the cheapest £/Point army there is, Sisters of Battle are by far the most expensive, Space Marines and Orks are cheap, Grey Knights and Tyranids are expensive, plan accordingly.

 

[BucketWalrus]

EDIT: (ignore the wall of text you saw earlier)

2K armies range from £400-£500

but as others have said before me, You shouldn't be starting so high, what if you wasted all that money just to not even like the game?

I started off thinking the same way "Ill buy a huge army and win!" But a good friend of mine told me to put the boxes back and start small.
After a few games i started getting better and i ended up adding over 1000 points of extra models to my 500 points worth, now as the year comes to a close. im looking to go big and find me a chaos space marine renegade strike force set (1500 points worth of models) which will bring my army to a size fit for small appocolypse games.

But you have to start somewhere, and it should be starting small. (even though chaos marines are crippled by anything short of 1000+pts

Design a list, buy the models, play them a few times. find your niche of gameplay (do you like assault, shooting, tanks, etc) and then BUILD on that niche.

 

[CLT40k]

Start with the assault on black reach box set... one can play orks and the other Marines, then you can switch... If you dig the game, then go nuts like many of us have...

Or check out a local gaming store, GW place... watch a few games... Hell if you were in Charlotte NC, I'd let you have a go with one of my armies.... I'd be suprized if that wasn't the case in the UK...

 

[humakt]

Assault on black reach is certainly the way to start. You get the rules, dice, templates and a couple of reasonable sized armies (although neither are chaos).

Besides armies the other thing to consider is terrain and gaming boards. You can make your own boards by buying some MDF and painting it. You can also buy gaming boards although the GW is pretty expensive. Terrain like wise can be made or you can buy. A selection of hills, buildings and woods would probably a good start.

 

[Brapapple]

okay i have worked out an extremely cheaper versions. but what do i need in the way of paints and tools to get started. what do you recommend?

 

[Azezel]

Side cutters, craft knife, fine file.

A few very fine brushes.

The Paints you need depend upon your colour scheme - but don't try to run before you can walk. Start out with block colour and grow from there.

 

[Giant Fossil Penguin]

There should be a 'Beginners' (or possibly it's called a 'Starter') set. This has a good selection of base colours, a built-in palate (although it's a bit fragile, but it should suffice to start) and a paintbrush. I'm not sure if they still do 2 sets; there's one with the paints + brush, but there is another one with a few snap-fit Marines included. In fact, there might even be a version of Assault on Black Reach that includes the paint set, although it will be a little more expensive.
I know there a lot of people who don't go to GW stores, but if you're just starting out, I'd advise you and your friend to go down there and they'll run you through a game, let you use some of the store's models to get more used to the rules, and they'll give you some useful painting lessons; there's also an intro-deal where you get your first model free- although I doubt it would be anything too expensive or world-beating!
As other folk have said, start small and build up gradually, probably go for 500pt blocks. There's nothing worse than starting to build stuff and then being confronted by a huge sea of plastic that you'll never paint. If you start small you'll be able to play lots of small games (because they take less time you can fit more in) thereby getting more and more familiar with how the rules work. You'll also be able to see what sort of army actually appeals to you, informing what you buy in the future. For the moment I'd ignore all of the net-lists you might encounter- have fun and immerse yourself in the coolness, buying what you think looks cool and lets you play the way you want to. When you know what your doing and how you want to play, then you can, if you're interested, start down the road of hard-as-nails lists!
Good luck and I hope you and your mate have a blast; I know I did!

GFP

 

[Khorne's Fist]

With regards to terrain, if you want something instantly usable and reasonably cheap, pay a visit to your local pet shop. Some the stuff they have for fish tanks, like the plastic plants or rock formations, even some ruined buildings, are perfect for this game.

As other people have said, don't commit that much money to an army that you might not like at the end of it. Go to your local GW and say it the staff, they should have no problem organising a small battle with whichever army you'd like to try. Most stores have a small force of each race.

Also, if you do buy 2000 pts of models, it can be extremely daunting looking at all those models that need painting. Buy one unit at a time, and don't let yourself buy anything more until you have the previous one painted.

Best of luck.