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I'm not sure if this should be in 40k tactics or not.

I want to start 40k, specifically IG, but the only thing a store near where I live (under an hour of travel that is) has is the Assault on Black Reach box. My problem is I don't want to start either Orks or Space Marines and I have a hard time saving money (all of my younger siblings being kleptomaniacs). So what should I do? Go ahead and just get aobr or try and save up for a Guard battleforce, codex, and rulebook.

ebaY is your friend!

I'm all about supporting local stores, but when it comes to Warhammer the best way to save money is on ebaY. I suggest finding out what kind of army you're going to want first. If you want mass trops marching around I'd look for deals on disassembled battle forces, you can get 20 Cadian/Catachan infantry for roughly $25 (pretty much 2 for 1 in stores) HQs will run you around $20 (they're $25 in stores) and you can get sentinels and HWS cheap if you want them. I'd buy a Codex, and look through there and see what you want first, then check around the forums and the articles to see how you want to stage your army. Research will save you money.

Also, good choice on avoiding SM, I chose guard 'cause I didn't want to be another SM player.

Yeah I'd heard from some others that ebay was a good choice but mom had a bad experience with it and if she sees it in the browser history she will have a cow, ask what I was doing on that site and then ground me for all eternity (ok maybe not all eternity but I would seriously regret it) and if a box randomly showed up with my name on it she would get even worse. I could use Amazon though so maybe i should just use it? On a side note I was going to use some of my graduation money but my parents are making me use it to pay the tuition for college some bull- about working harder if i used my money.

Haha, understandable, Well be warned, 40k is expensive, and usually you won't get all the bitz you'll need from just one box. Amazon will save you some money, but the shipping will kill it. Honestly, I'd use ebaY and delete the history after each use. Talk to the sellers about discreet shipping.

Yeah I'm aware it's expensive and in all honesty i was contemplating waiting a few years till I transfer to a university. They have a flgs really close to the campus so maybe i should just do that?

I think that'd be your safest bet, When I first started playing I was just moving into anew apartment and I ended up being broke and unable to pay my bills for a month and had to eat ramen and PBJ

Alright. Thanks for the advice.

Try ordering from http://www.thewarstore.com/. They've got 20% off any given 40k stuff.

Its best to wait till you have a decent way of funding your hobby first before you start collecting-even if it is selling on models like me ^^. Avoid buying the started boxset, just get someone who's already in the hobby to teach you it- GW were weekly lessons when I got into it. The Imperial Guard, though a nice looking army, can be an expensive choice due to GW's stupid marketing ethics, so it really is advisable to buy them second hand or use some count as miniatures. =/

Some of my friends were talking about starting too (I almost always have a bl novel in with me) and were going to get aobr and i was thinking about getting the ig codex and just using paper circles as proxies to see what i like best. Oh it would be so much simpler if Books a Million had the codices...

Assault on Black Reach contains the basic rules for the game, templates and a few dice, plus roughly 400-500 points of Orks and Space Marines, but you still need to buy the codexes for both of these armies (£20 a pop, or find some PDFs). Orks are an expensive army to start, so I'd avoid them, Marines are cheaper, but they're ten a penny and are generally disliked in their newest incarnation by veteran gamers. If you can just get hold of a copy of the rulebook and have a more expeirianced gamer help you out with a practiced game or two after you've read it.

Wyrmalla wrote:Orks are an expensive army to start, so I'd avoid them, Marines are cheaper, but they're ten a penny and are generally disliked in their newest incarnation by veteran gamers.

Both of these statements are (mostly) false. AoBR makes Orks very, very cheap. If you just want slugga boyz, the heart of just about any Ork army, you can spend a little over $30 and get 60 sluggas on eBay or the Warstore. Marines are liked just fine in their newest incarnation, although some people miss the incredibly unbalanced chapter traits and some people were irked by the special characters when they came out. There are a lot of Marine armies out there, but they're perfectly acceptable, especially for beginners.