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My lovely girlfriend surprised me with a Deathstorm boxed set a couple months ago. This, being my first dive into the miniatures realm, was super exciting and I've had a blast assembling/painting (even got her into it although she had no interest in playing the actual game). After some pleading and a couple cocktails I finally got her to do some of the Deathstorm Scenarios with me and we had a TON of fun.

Now I would like to expand on the forces to make decent and fun 750-1000pt armies. Being brand new to the hobby side I'm a little overwhelmed with all the choices of what to buy next for both BA and Nidz'. I have both of the codexes, but am still overwhelmed. The only thing i have bought so far is a Sanquinary priest.

Keep in mind I'm not looking for super competitive armies, just something for my lady and I to have fun, balanced games every once in a while.

Any advice or guidance on building these forces into fun, playable armies would be greatly appreciated!!!

I'd say start by grabbing some Tactical Marines and another five Death Company for the BA, get some kind of fire support base going in the backfield for objective holding while the Terminators and the Death Company run forwards. As for Tyranids Venomthropes are a fairly central utility beast, beyond that it's a matter of preference as to whether you go for the big critters or a swarm.

Have you considered picking up the other Shield of Baal books?

I figured a tactical squad was a must buy. I'll definitely grab another DC. I'm more leaning toward swarm for the nidz', so I'm assuming my next buy for them would be some Gaunts?

I didn't know there was more (edit:Shield of Baal) stuff, I'll have to look into that!

Thanks for the quick replies!

a second box set like the first would give you a great start and be economical. A spare rulebook is always good and would allow you to model different options on your termies to trade in and out as needed.
The extra genestealer leader blood angel character can be done up as display pieces (a diarama of them facing each other sounds cool. of course, you could always sell or convert them as well.
if your going blood angel, after the 2nd starter box, the bloo.....HEY! I just looked on GW site to get links but the $115 (or whatever they were) ox sets arent on there. Was gonna suggest that one. maybe could find it on ebay or somewhere like that.

If you want a swarm then you need a Tervigon and two boxes of Gaunts. There's no way around it with a Tervigon, but you need a LOT of Termagant models. 20+ JUST for spawning and another 30 if you want to make the Tervigon a Troop. Other than that, Zoanthropes and of course a Flying Hive Tyrant. A walking Tyrant (2 minimum Tyrant Guard) is a fun addition to a swarm but a Flyrant is a must have from a 'winning the game' perspective. Also another Deathstorm of Tyranids would be good. The other Carnifex and more Warriors would be very helpful. Five warriors with a single Cannon and matching loadouts of your choice is a good anchor for a swarmy list but isn't very durable. That's what the Zoas are for.

The other Shield of Baal stuff, Leviathan and Exterminatus, are more like supplements for Tyranids and Blood Angels respectively. Very good units, very good Formations, good goals to work towards but nothing NEEDED yet. Leviathan has very good options for Tyranid players AFTER they get to 2000pt armies and want more options. That's three Flyrant territory and realistically, you have a while to go before you need anything in those books. Not high on the priority list when you're just starting to collect. A better buy, cheaper and well rounded, would be the Dataslate 'Tyranid Invasion: Rising Leviathan 2'. Has Skyblight, a brilliant and strong Formation that used to help win tournaments, and Living Artillery Node, another strong Formation that addresses Tyranid's lack of ranged and powerful shooting and really helps a walking army. Skyblight is also reprinted in Leviathan.

Building my own lists from Deathstorm, I went with five more Death Company, Assault Squads with Meltaguns, Drop Pods (that I still haven't picked up), Tacticals in a Razorback, Sanguinary Priest with a Jump Pack and Vanguard Veterans (Sanguinary Guard would be better but eBay had a few lots of ASM and Vanguard so may as well make it work for cheap). It's been a very solid core for me and I'm still adding to my army nearly weekly with Scouts, Librarians, blah blah blah but I'm on the table winning matches and having a lot of fun with what Blood Angels have to offer.

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Tyranid-Swarm
Would be a good start if your looking swarm. Its a great deal for the price as well.
For your blood angels, I would also suggest checking out odeling forums and checking out conversion ideas. I know I saved a lot of $ by making drop pods out of PVC pipe ends and have seen other cheap options as well. You'll be amazed at some of the ideas you'll pick up in terms of saving $ and building a great looking army.

I'm not sure what to add to the Tyranids to keep the sets relatively even, but some fluffy options for the Blood Angels are going to be a tac squad, maybe some scouts (btw the melee scouts have a place in the BA list whereas everywhere else it's mostly scout snipers), might pick up a nice Baal Predator, and a Librarian. One thing I'd note on the assault squads people suggest is the cost of drop podding them. You end up dropping their jump packs to do so but get to buy a brand new $50 drop pod just to deploy them that way.

From a dollar perspective, I'd probably just get some more Death Company instead of ASMs as overall I feel they are better, and more than likely you won't wanna drop pod them anyways, saving that money.

Some Termies "might" be fun, but they might also get completely slaughtered depending on what you buy for Tyranids to counter them. Assuming you do buy a drop pod, I'd only buy it for some assault termies or sternguard but the sternguard will cost you less pointwise.

A Rhino or two might not be bad to look at also for your tac squads. Razorbacks can be nice but points start to add up if you use multiples kitted out. It all depends on what you are countering.

Thanks to everyone for the guidance!! I feel like I know where to go from here with the BA.

The Nidz' might take some more thought/research to make it semi-balanced. Great suggestions so far!