Building an Army on a budget

[SotonShades]

Be happy to play small games. 1000 points can make for some really fun, fast paced games, especially if you stick to 4'x4' boards.

I'm certainly not disputing what others have said about low model count builds and eBay being your friend, but if those armies aren't your thing and you just can't find what you really want, there is nothing wrong with building an army up slowly over time and either asking your opponent for a smaller game, or asking a friend if you can be an ally to their force.

[deinol]

Be happy to play small games. 1000 points can make for some really fun, fast paced games, especially if you stick to 4'x4' boards.

I'm certainly not disputing what others have said about low model count builds and eBay being your friend, but if those armies aren't your thing and you just can't find what you really want, there is nothing wrong with building an army up slowly over time and either asking your opponent for a smaller game, or asking a friend if you can be an ally to their force.

This is good advice. Just pick an army you like, and build a little at a time. I'm actually building up a small marine force for my friend to play against me. One tac squad and one scout squad vs one avenger squad and one ranger squad will be our first battle for 250 points. And we'll keep building up from there, one squad at a time. (Need to hurry up and paint my rangers and scouts!)

[jgebi]

ebay and gum tree. my army only cost me a few hundred for about 2k worth of stuff

[Katharon]

And if you decide to purchase directly from GW -- you can always just get a battleforce box set. That is usually enough points for a 500 point game, or more for upgrades. Try ebay for codices.

[Arkhan Land]

ebay and gum tree. my army only cost me a few hundred for about 2k worth of stuff

craigslist is great too, can find people ditching whole armies for cheap. I got almost all of a complete chapters rhino chasis vehicles (Rhinos, Razors, Preds, Whirlis, Vindis) as well as bikes and lot of loose infantry in two fell swoops buying 100 dollar grab boxes from people who hadn't played their armies in forever, took some stripping but happy to have 15 mars pattern vehicles for less than the cost of 5 of them new

[madlants]

If you're into converting like I am, it's not a bad idea to invest in some green stuff and look into models from other miniature ranges, at least for casual games. Wargames Factory has really good prices, although their models are more suited for Fantasy than 40k. Converted Reaper miniatures can make good HQ characters for IG, Chaos cultists, Inquisitors w/ retinues (if you're going the Grey Knight route), and Eldar.

[dirkspair]

i would get the dark vengeance set, it has all the rules etc plus the DA are a great starting force. the captain can easily be played as Azrael, try to find someone to swap the chaos stuff for more DAs, get one box of DW terminators to convert some different weapon load outs and you are pretty well set.

[Chris Copeland]

I built a HUGE Genestealer army out of bitz from the bits bin at my LGS. I also built a moderately sized Space Marine army the same way... so I'm a big fan of building stuff out of bitz from your LGS. This only works if you have an LGS with a rich bitz collection... Cope

[Antony Copeland]

Thanks everyone, you're help is greatly appreciated. I think I'm going to start with the Dark Vengeance set and build up from there. I'm tempted, given the models included, to build a Fallen Angels army with Chaos Allies. Word Bearers perhaps?
I've also been playing with another idea for a space marine chapter under the care of an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor called "The Seekers of Absolution". The twist is that they are all former Chaos Space Marines who've come to regret their decision and are once more serving the Emperor. The models would have obvious signs that they're really trying. Horns removed from helms, chaos stars filed off, holy scripture tattoo'd on mutated limbs, purity seals all over the place, etc. Is this too weird, or should I go for it?

[madlants]

It's actually a pretty cool and fluffy idea for a radical Inquisitor. A puritan would know that the only absolution comes in death.