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Greetings,
I've looked through a couple of newbie topics already on getting started and still have some questions. First off, loooooooong time 40k fan but haven played a solid game since 4th due to life. Finally the dust has settled and I'm at a happy place where gaming is a possibility again. I've been with the HH since the first novel and now i'm at a crossroads as weather to start a 40k army or what's now known as a 30k army.

I see most gamers get a quick boost through the BaC which doesn't seem to hard on the pocket.(still amazed at GW increase prices for plastics but that's another time)
-Am I correct that I use the now 7th Ed 40k rules with the FW HH book for standard games? (Never used FW before)
-I've come across several of the HH Rulebook via pdf, and that amount of info is alittle mind blowing especially with having to learn the game all over again.
How's does one go about picking a legion??????? I've tried looking for a post that gives a run down on the pros and cons of each legion but having a hard time. Though I do miss my Emperor's Children Chaos army, Sonic Blasters were a beast.
-I would imagine you'd want to magnatize everything out of the BaC box set correct?
-Is there a standard size that 30k works best at? I know I used to start at 1k when I started new armies in 4th.

I probably have many more questions but feel alittle burnt looking through all the FW HH books on my nook. :p
I greatly appreciate any help, and hopefully the wall of texts above makes since.
Thanks Dakka

1) basically
2) True-ish. it's basically learning a new army, and un-learning 'everything scores' and 'formations'
3) Pick whatever legion you like the fluff/look of, there is no 'terrible' options in 30k....... other than rotor cannons
4) not really, unless you build them all as veteran tactical squads, which I would advise against.
5) anywhere from 1,500 (smallest) to 3,000. locally, 2,500 seems to be the sweet spot.

Start with 1-2 BaC box sets.

Build a basic army from that then add to it and paint to your legions scheme would be my advice. Some legions allows some different specials wpns on characters both squad SGTs and IC so other than looking out for that or wanting specific shoulder pads/decals for your legion not much else to do.

My plan for building each of my legions is-
2x 10 man tactical squads- I do these 9x bolters w/CCW on the backpack- 1 w/legion vexilia in case I decide to spend the points for the morale roll-usually don't...and 1 SGT- w/a combi wpn, and a some type of power wpn usually.

Keeping them to 10 men gets you your 2 minimum troop choices without a lot of extra points as you can always just not use the vexilia and extra CCW if you want...but to get a SGT with 2 special wpns you have to upgrade the squad to extra CCW.

After you have your first 2 squads you can use the BaC set to build whatever you want....

I would use one set to build

2x 10 tactical squads
1x 10 vet squad- w/2heavy bolters
1x assault cannon/PF contemptor
1x 5 man terminator squad---would try to get some combi wpn bits tho so they have better shooting that just combi- bolters and a heavy flamer

Both characters you can keep as is or get some bits to mod up...they are alright as is but not great....biggest change would be to give the terminator captain an paragon blade over a chainfist.

If you would like a pretty good rundown on all of the Legions presently out, I would recommend the above spoiler link.

I would only go straight for BaC if: 1) you LOVE MK IV armour (this is not to say the cataphractii + contemptor isn't nice as well ) or 2) you would rather spend less as opposed to building you 'preferred mk' of armour. It is a great deal, but it does have the problem of ONLY having MK IV armour, so if you're not a huge fan of it (like me) then you'd probably want to spend a bit more and buy some MK II, III, V, or VI

Thanks for all the awesome help, just ordered the 7th Ed Rulebook and reading through the 1st HH Rulebook. I know I want to go infantry heavy. After that legion rundown I've narrowed the list down to emperor's children, Raven wing, and waiting to see Blood Angels rules.

DA ravenwing or Raven Guard? Blood angels have rules (in book 6): super duper stabby with some poorly worded rules such as: ANY heavy flamer can be swapped for an assault cannon and the hand flamer swap being possibly broken with Moritats (though there is a RAW work around)

Sry I meant the Ravenguard. I just want to start them all. LoL
Until I can get me hands on the 6th book or a pdf I may have to place as everyone and proxy units once I get me hands in a BaC box.