[SteelCalavera]

So a friend and I decided to jump in and try our hand at painting and learning to play the game and have decided on our armies. I have decided to go for Dark Angels and it seems the best starting place for me would be the current Starter Game available (which would also give me some models for another army)

He has decided on Imperial Guard but we are a bit unsure before making any major purchases just how much in terms of scope we should be looking at to start a fairly even beginner army. Is the starter set enough for me and if that is the case what should he be looking at purchasing in order to match the same as my own?

Apart from the basics and obvious such as paints, brushes etc is there anything else we would find useful investing in at the beginning?

 

[coke123]

Major Staples for your respective armies are-

Dark Angels

Tactical Marines
Ravenwing Bikes
Librarians
Rhinos

and DA generally will bring one unit of

Deathwing Terminators (usually modelled as a Command Squad with Bolter Banner)
Land Raider Crusader
Maybe Black Knights

These units are all played a lot in DA, they give you a really strong base to build up around. Luckily, a lot of the stuff in this list is found in the Dark Vengeance set, so that may well be worth buying, especially if you can find a Chaos player to sell the CSM half to.

For Guard, the list is a bit longer, staples include-

Regular infantry (generally these are modeled with a bunch of special weapons so they can be used as Veterans or Infantry, etc)
Chimeras
Manticores
Vendettas
Company Command Squads (although you don't necessarily need to buy the CCS box, just make four guardsmen with plasma guns)
Psyker Battle Squads

IG will also often bring
Hellhounds/Banewolves
Griffons/Colossus
A Commissar
A Primaris Psyker

Occasionally they also play

Leman Russ Demolisher/Executioner
Maybe Sentinels

The primary thing for a guard player to be buying is infantry though, they're the core of your army.

 

[SteelCalavera]

Thanks that really helps and I can go back to him and give him an idea of what he needs to buy.

We saw those boxes that sell a number of a particular army also, would that be a good start for him also or would that not have a lot of what you were mentioning?

For Dark Angels, if I got that starter box along with one of those army boxes and the codex would that be plenty to see me going for a while?

 

[Straken's_Fist]

Or you can buy second on ebay: It saves a fortune with Imperial Guard...Then learn the easy technique of paint stripping using Dettol and a toothbrush. And you can then re-paint to your liking.

 

[JAMOB]

For lots of guard, the battleforce is phenomenal especially compared to most other ones - scouts sentinels can be very good, and the rest is almost a staple. With mine I made a 2 squad platoon with 3 autocannons and 4 flamers (spread as possible), a converted marbo, a company command squad, and a sentinel. I'm planning on getting another soon and will be converting a commissar - including the gun teams there are 41 guys in there, it's a pretty nice deal.

The other option is ebay: I've seen infantry squads for 5 bucks, I've seen gun teams for 3, I've seen awesome commissars for 6... you can get some great deals. If you want, I'm watching a couple that I don't currently have money to bid on - PM me and I'll send you some links.

For dark angels, Dark Vengeance is a good place to start and from there the battleforce is very good for its price. You can also buy a battleforce from the SM/BA and sell the extra bits on ebay, or just get some squads. The BA one gives you some awesome bits, and if you file off most of the BA stuff (the blood drops etc. but keeping what you like for your army) you could convert some pretty awesome characters, I've already used them for 2 captains a libby and a few priests. And also for just DA