Questions on the heresy rules

Kiro, get someone else to join in with you. It is a less broken game system, by virtue of you are playing with the same units as the target, just with slightly different rules.

There are two really strong legions written so far, Iron Hands, and Imperial Fists. Then here are several slightly less powerful, but still good legions; Sons of Horus, Wprd Bearers, and Night Lords. Others are slightly less so, but the weakest is Emperors Children and Alpha Legion.

Bear in mind that they they are not so much 'weak' except that their Legion specific rules are not as strong as others. EC uniques cost too much IMHO, but things like Phoenix Terminators just mash through other units, and are fantastic at raping Terminators.

If you are going to play Blood Angels, either World Eaters or Night lords with Descent of Angels works reasonably well - either to represent the rampaging, or awe inspiring attacks.

I'd advise picking up the Istvaan books if only for the background. It is a lot, but my god, they are worth it.

There are ways of locating the rules. If you do like I do, and purchase the hardset anyway, there's no harm in having another copy to carry around with you, in my eyes. The reason I suggested partnering up with someone is because of that. However, £50 gets you the rules to play everything that has been released so far from FW (and still to be released, in the case of certain models).

The way the army lists are worked out is that you have a generic legion list - at 1000pts or more, you may select a character with a special rule that allows you to modify the FoC, called a Praetor. This is someone who is high up in the legion chain of command, and due to the fact that the Codex Astartes is yet to be written, can train those under him under a particular way of conducting warfare. This is called a Rite of War.

One of those Rites is called Angel's Wrath - my mistake, I thought it was called Descent of Angels, my apologies, calling from hazy memory. You can already take Assault Squads as Troops, and Tactical Squads equipped with BP+CCW anyway (10-20 in size for both). Angel's Descent gives your Jump Infantry models Hit and Run, and allows you to take Storm Eagle gunships as dedicated transports, in exchange for limited options - basically only units which can deep strike (or can start in battle inside units which can) can be taken, no tanks, and no fortifications.

On second thoughts, this might not actually fit BA or would be Flesh Tearers - it's more like an RG force actually. Been a while since I've actually checked these out. Pride of the Legion might be more appropriate, or Orbital Assault.

In regards to modeling, I can't tell you how to make your army, but personally, I prefer the cleaner look. It's more legion-y - and one of the reasons that I prefer 30K compared to 40K - I don't want to look like Goldie, Flava Flav and Jimmie Saville had a love child together, which is how 40K models look these days. And for the Death Company - I might be mistaken, but these do not exist in the manner that they do in 40K - and I don't mean rules wise, but concept wise - neither does Amit's company have personal iconography of the Flesh Tearer, yet - or if they do, I cannot remember it mentioned in Fear To Tread.

There are two books so far which contain a lot of mentions of BA so far in the Heresy series - Vengeful Spirit, and obviously Fear To Tread. And yes, 30K is pricey. You're paying for the better game, and better models.