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Well, the discount at Miniature Market (and an unexpected raise at work) prompted me to finally jump into this game. I ordered the Icestorm box, the N3 book and, after a bit of research, some additional stuff to bulk out both sides - an Aquila Guard, the Armbots Bulleteer box and a Croc Man (w/sniper rifle) for PanOceania, and the Interventor box and Iguana Squad for Nomads.

The tips I read recommended against getting into TAGs early on, and it makes sense, but I couldn't resist Iguana Squad. And frankly my resolve is weakening on some others.

Anything else I should grab while the grabbing is good? The fact that things keep getting new sculpts makes it a bit confusing. I saw recommendations for the Support Packs, but I don't really care for the models.

As I read more, I find myself interested in the upcoming USAriadna Army Pack and may pick it up, although it's not on MM at the moment. Still, if there is any Ariadna stuff that would complement that, I would be into it.

Terrain-wise, I backed the Tablescapes Kickstarter and have a bunch of Mantic Battlezones, so I should be mostly ok once I get some of it assembled (honestly, one reason I decided to get into Infinity is it's another reason to use all that stuff).

Thanks for the help!

Are you planning on playing both armies out of the icestorm box? If you don't like the support boxes (neither do I), PanO has other specialist options. A hospitilar is a great doctor. The father knight is a great hacker, as are Kamau.
Nomads have a wide variety. The Reverend Custodiers are awesome hackers . Plus you get tomcats. Doctors and engineers that can jump in where they are needed. And pupnicks/chimeras, sin Eaters, interventors....

Basically I'd like two viable, roughly balanced factions so I can play with friends. If I can sell them on getting into it themselves, so much the better, but I'm assuming we'll mainly be using whatever I get.

The best thing I would recommend is terrain (if you don't have enough already or suitable substitutes). I am not sure how many tabletop games you have played, but Infinity uses a lot of terrain for LOS blocking. If you have a small amount, fire lanes are wide open and units will be killed off pretty quick.

I did the same thing - built up the Nomads and PanO from OpIce.

Nomads as my main faction, PanO for my friend to play against me. Obviously, the Nomads got more time, effort and money spent on them.

The usual answer of "buy what you think looks cool" works, but I've found that after playing a few games, you end up coming up with ideas of what you want to do with your list, go hunting through the Troop Profiles for something that fits the bill, fall in love with the idea, imagine all these different scenarios and what you'd do with the troop and basically get carried away with the idea.

At this point you realise that you haven't even bought the model, yet!

I've learned to stop worrying about new model/old model/resculpt being announced two weeks after you've finished painting the original issues.

Case in point: fell in love with the Interventor Sniper (for obvious reasons), bought the model (not the greatest IMO), used it, loved it, new model with HMG comes out... Better model... Quick weapon swap conversion and I'm in love with it even more than the original.

 Chillreaper wrote:
The usual answer of "buy what you think looks cool" works, but I've found that after playing a few games, you end up coming up with ideas of what you want to do with your list, go hunting through the Troop Profiles for something that fits the bill, fall in love with the idea, imagine all these different scenarios and what you'd do with the troop and basically get carried away with the idea.

This is how I wound up with 7 Kum riders.