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I concur with Grey Knights, you can field a 1500 point army for under $230 retail, an 1850 point army for under $300.

SJ

Not Imperial Guard

Honestly, I haven't read all of the previous replies, but with the Start Collecting and some of the double Start Collecting boxes that you can find at some stores, it's very easy to put together pretty much any army you want to play for a $400 budget.

SG

 Talamare wrote:
Not Imperial Guard

You can get into IG for $400. Tanks are $50 each. Buy yourself 8 of them, and you're now the Armoured Battlegroup. Or buy 5 and a Baneblade.
195 - Tank Command Vanquisher, Lascannon, Beast Hunter Shells
195 - Tank Command Vanquisher, Lascannon, Beast Hunter Shells
165 - Leman Russ Battle Tank, Lascannon
165 - Leman Russ Battle Tank, Lascannon
165 - Leman Russ Battle Tank, Lascannon
510 - Shadowsword, Sponsons, Hull Mounted Heavy Bolter
1395 points. Add in sponson options or change the Battle Tanks to other varieties, or change the Shadowsword to a Stormlord if you're feeling uncomfortable about enemy infantry, and you'll easily make 1500 or more.

I would highly recommend this list as a starter for IG, actually. You get a baneblade chassis at the start, which is good fun to model and great to play with, and 5 tanks. The two Vanquisher TC's are really good and won't let you down on the tabletop [also, Tyranids will hate you for them] and the remaining 3 tanks can be whatever type of Leman Russ you like, so building and painting won't be as tedious as painting up 150 troopers at once.


Alternatively, if Blobguard is more your speed, you can buy the Cadian/Catachan Defense Force kit for 165. The CDF gets you a tank, a chimera, a ccs, 2 infantry sections, and a gun battery. This is a good start, I think, and gets you a 250 point infantry platoon, a 65 point transport, and a 160 point tank. Then you either buy another CDF box, for another platoon and another tank, or just buy a big pile of infantry section boxes. I'd recommend buying 6 of the 5-man boxes, 4 of the 10-man boxes, and 2 of the Heavy Weapons Battery boxes, which allows you to make 58 additional infantry models and 12 heavy weapons teams [you use the trooper boxes to crew the extra heavy weapons]. It totals up to $165+6*$10+4*$30+2*$30, which comes up to $405.

Out of the $405 you get a tank, a chimera, 6 squads of heavy guns, a CCS, 6 infantry sections, and 2 PCS's, which comes up to being around 1300 points.
130 - CCS, Chimera, Vox
40 - PCS, Vox
55 - Rifles, Vox
55 - Rifles, Vox
55 - Rifles, Vox
105 - Lascannon Battery
105 - Lascannon Battery
105 - Lascannon Battery
40 -PCS, Vox
55 - Rifles, Vox
55 - Rifles, Vox
55 - Rifles, Vox
90 - Missile Battery
90 - Missile Battery
90 - Missile Battery
160 - Leman Russ Battle Tank, Lascannon
1285 points. Add in upgrades as you see fit.

If you want to run Chimera Vets, they sell the Armoured Fist box for $55, and you can start with the CDF again, then buy a stack of AF boxes up to the $400. The problem is that you're going to have a hard time finding meltaguns if you want to be WYSIWYG.


I don't think I can work out a Sisters starting force for $400, though.
$80 for Celestine, $80 for ten [6 bolters, 1 superior, 1 meltagun, 1 storm bolter, and 1 simulacrum], $55 for 4 special weapons and a second superior, $60 for an exorcist, and $120 for three Immolators for your troops sets you back $400 and gets you the following list:
200-Celestine
130-5 Battle Sisters w/ 2 Flamers and a Multimelta Immolator
130-5 Battle Sisters w/ 2 Storm Bolters and a Multimelta Immolator
145-5 Dominions w/ 2 Meltaguns and a Multimelta Immolator
130-Exorcist w/ Storm Bolter

Which sets you to 735 points.

I thought about this this weekend if starting new to the hobby and honestly I would probably start a mechanicum army. something very different, they are fairly new so gw is likely to make them at least decent in the new edition. awesome kits and $400 can get a respectable army. that plays very different than space marines with amazing steam punk type models that would be fun to paint up.

You can get quite a lot for 400. especially online discount retailers/ sales and bundles.

you just need to pick an army that you like to look at. then see what you can pick up for them.

but as everyone else had said, wait till 8th comes out. 99% sure the rules will be free ish,

 Desubot wrote:
You can get quite a lot for 400. especially online discount retailers/ sales and bundles.

you just need to pick an army that you like to look at. then see what you can pick up for them.

but as everyone else had said, wait till 8th comes out. 99% sure the rules will be free ish,

Even check around your local club. Someone may be wanting to get rid of his army in favor of something else, or just getting out all together.

IMO the best deal is always the starter boxes.
Start with the new box, and either make a Deathguard/traitor marine army with those troops trading away what you don't want and adding vehicles with the remaining 280USD,
or go with one of the other boxes and try to work a trade for the unwanted side.
So, you could go Harlies if you could get your hands on a Death mask box, trading the other half for another gamer's Eldar stuff, and use the rest of the cash to buy up vehicles like Falcons and other stuff for Eldar, or better may be Prospero for the sisters and custodes if you like to paint gold.
If you want to go with orks, try to trade some of your store credit for another gamer's ork troops, and use the rest to add vehicles and some men guns and so on. You might find someone with a few Dredz and Kanz, add a new wagon and some trukks, maybe a few bikers for the lulz.

Get 2 Stormsurges, that s all you need

Wait for 8th edition to come out. Figure out which army is the least favored and make offers for it in the swap shop. Someone will want to sell you a complete force for a lot less than you would pay retail. Eventually, some way to have fun with them will present itself.

I have about 10k worth of Orks purchased as 4 lots after the latest Ork Codex came out. I spent maybe $1,600 on all of them. That got me at least 50 lootas, 300 boys, 12 trukks, 40 mega nobs, 50 bikes, and tons of other stuff. Sellers also threw in unpainted rogue-trader era metal Orks, carrying cases, copies of the Codex, games day miniatures, and a whole lot of other stuff that now just occupies my closet, waiting for 8th to hit.

Probably the cheapest army that will get you into the game is a house detachment.

Basically you run 3 knights, which will put you to almost 1500 points.

Probably better choices out there, that one just came to mind first

Does this budget need to cover paint/tools as well? $400 (spent wisely) will absolutely get you an army in numerous ways. Store credit makes it much harder.

Custodes.

 Elbows wrote:
Does this budget need to cover paint/tools as well? $400 (spent wisely) will absolutely get you an army in numerous ways. Store credit makes it much harder.

you can get away with a single can of spray paint and a lighter shade dry brush for 99% of an army you just got to think ahead of time and plan it out. you can do a whole army painting for like under 20$ depending on what brand you use.

 Ginsu33 wrote:
Don't get anything, forget the hobby for awhile and take a break.

Really this is a hobby for personal entertainment/enjoyment, you should either be struggling to pick between things you like or already know what you want. If you just traded in an entire force and it 'hurt' doing so, and now you're wondering what to do with store credit.. I would just stop right there and then. There is a new eddition coming out in a couple of months, come back then with a fresh mind and see what takes your fancy, hopefully the new stuff will get you excited.

100% agree, I traded a few armies and regret it completely as additions and codex changed. Hold on to your store credit, wait for 8th, see how things play out, and pick an army you feel like you can roll with AS the rules eb and flow.

Don't buy armies based on power level of the month, you will regret it and be in a constant state of flux.

for a bit more than $200 you can get Battle of Calth and Prospero Burns... that's a solid force... and then spend the extra on some transports