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Hi, guys. Not sure if this is the right place to post this.

I've been painting for the last year or so, and I'm only just getting interested in playing 40k games at my local store, it's confusing the hell out of me - what units do I get first??

I'm starting as Blood Angels, specifically the Flesh Tearers. I've got a Death Company, Sanguinary Guard, a Combat Squad, and Astorath the Grim so far. How do the points work? Would I need vehicles? I've had a quick read of the BA Codex and it's a little confusing, so any help will be awesome!

Thanks

It would be wrong of me to tell you what to get, there are a number of different ways to run BA competitively, but that is no more right or wrong than simply picking units because you like the models, depending on what it is you're looking to get out of your games.

You (just about) have the models to field a legal force, but they don't form any sort of cohesive force.

Typically, BA are either many jump infantry squads (descent of angels) or using the discount that Assault squads get on transports to field lots of small units in razorbacks.

I infer from your post that you don't own the codex, get it and read it until it isn't overwhelming anymore, develop an idea of what direction you want to go and hit the tactics forum to get help on refining the details.

You can make pretty much any Blood Angels army you want from 2 battleforce boxes and a sanguinary guard set. Since you've got a start on it, even 1 battleforce would do you good.

The key thing is to mix up the parts, the Death Company set is a gold mine for making your army more interesting. And you should, with good use of special weapons and the like, get 15-18 assault dudes out of the 10 it provides. More if you include any left over sanguinary guard dudes.

You're going to need lots of assault marines if you want to run a cc oriented list. If you want to run it in transports you'll need rhinos. Sanguinary priest are a staple for cc lists.

The problem with death company is that they're not cost effecient when running them with jump packs as they're easily kitable. If you run them in a rhino, they can't assault the turn they disembark and a land raider is a hefty investment.

You can't go badly wrong buying some assault marines. Start assembling and painting the stuff you have while occasionally leafing through your code and sketching out army lists on scratch paper. You'll eventually figure out what style appeals to you and that will guide your purchases.

Some I have enjoyed having in my armies:

A furioso dreadnaught can be really fun either as a librarian or with blood talons tearing through squads. I have 2 of them I throw on storm ravens to deliver to where I need them.

Assault marines are always great, they can rip an tear through things.

Sanguinary guard squad with Dante, I occasionally run them with all infernos pistols to pinpoint drop and assassinate vehicles then jump around ruining peoples days.

I would recommend you also look into sanguinary priests if your going to be running assault marines, having furious charge and feel no pain makes them very good.

I've so far got myself an Assault Squad, a Devastator Squad, Sanguinary Guard, a Razorback (it was ridiculously cheap), a space marine chaplain with jump pack, a combat squad and Astorath the Grim

I don't know how I'm going to go with armies, so I'm just collecting everything haha

I wanna add some dreadnoughts, and a terminator squad because I like the look of them

For heavy support most of the choices are solid - auto/las predators are tough to kill with AV 13 and they can shoot every gun at full BS with a 6 inch move cause they are fast.

Same deal with Vindicators - 12 inch move and fire that big gun, with the change to templates they really wreck vehicles (and pretty much anything else they hit) and glancing hits no longer stop them from shooting.

Dev sqauds remain decent, cheaper than normal marines but not quite as efficient as Space Wolves.

Stormravens a with the new flyer rules are probably more survivable than land raiders (unless others also have alot of fliers) and can deliver good firepower and a load of nasty troops (death company or termies) right where they need to go.

Dont forget some of the core units a few Tactical marines, A squad of scouts and, Capitan thoes are just some units you cant go wrong with
when you get the time and money a Baal Preditor is a nice little toy and for when you ust get enuff a Land Raider is a Sweet ride for termies