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I have the aobr set, an extra 10 man squad of tactical marines and a venerable dread. I'm looking for a few more squad choices and an hq. My plan is to drop pod the dreads and 10 man terminator squad into the midst of battle while whatever troops I have offer support or take objectives. I need a supporting cast to what I already have. I'm new to the hobby so specifics w/loadouts would be helpful. My general tactic would be for the dreads and termies to create havoc while others play cleanup.

Second, I want to start a "nemesis" army to my sm army. I want to do a chaos army. What is a good start? Is it viable now or is the codex too far out of date?

Well the best direction to go with Space Marines is to pretty much get a transport with every squad you got. So Rhinos, Razorbacks, Drop pods, and Land Raiders are a great place to start. Think about how what type of army you want to field. Space Marines can do just about anything (just not a good as some of the specialized armies) Their are Drop Pod list, Shooty List, Mech Assault List, it's good to focus, pick a direction, and keep building up that way.

As for a Nemesis army, personally I think Chaos Space Marines are pretty much the same as Regular Space Marines in a tactical sense. I would recommend getting into another army that is totally different so you can experience more play styles.

The Chaos Space Marine codex is not out of date. People generally dont like the chaos book right now. but since they are marines they get updated regularly so starting them is a viable option.

One thing to consider if getting chaos marines and regular marines is that its a lot of the same. And you will probably get bored. I would suggest getting somthing different if you have space marines, perhaps chaos daemons if you are looking for a counter to space marines, or eldar, or basically anything other than marines again. It gets boring.

Good to know, maybe my third arm then. I'll look into chaos demons or maybe just focus on the orks I got with aobr.

I'll also look into a drop pod or mech list. I'm thinking about another dread but have no idea on an hq choice.

I almost always use chaplains as an HQ choice. But as you don't have an assault squad they aren't as useful. Probably do good with using a named character. most people like those when starting out. I'd tend to avoid Eldar, Dark Eldar and Demon Hunters as a new player. Eldar and Dark Eldar are tricky. Demon Hunters have little variety in unit type and would be very similar to Space Marines.

Transports are good, as general_chaos says. I like sternguard veterans with lots of combi meltas, especially if they get a Librarian with Gate of Infinity as their "transport".

Try to get a HQ model that works together with what the rest of your army does. Some of the named ones have army-wide effects that can really change the feel and effect of your army. Varro Tigurius for example lets you reroll reserve rolls, that can be very powerful for a drop pod army, and he is a good librarian. Vulkan He'stan is another popular choice with in-your-face armies, since he improves melta and flamer weapons and thunderhammers. Kor'sarro Khan lets your entire army outflank, wich can make for a very interesting hybrid between the mechanised and the drop pod armies. Read them all, and think about what would happen with your army if their special rules where applied.

Orks are fun to play, and not too tricky. They are also a big variation from marines, and you can modify and build your own vehicles very easily, wich is great fun. I'd like to suggest tyranids as secondary army, but if you want a story element they are actually a bit boring since it's hard to identify with them.