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Alright....I finished my Guardsmen, which were a pretty standard build at 750 points, and my modelling/painting/gaming impatience is getting ahold of me.

I posted some Marine ideas earlier, which was fun, but also made me realize how much creativity was out there on this board.  So I present a challenge:

Give me an army list between 750-1,000 pts which I can buy for $150-220, all told.  Use bitz or boxed sets in whatever wacky combination you want.  The list should be interesting in some way (aka no "Buy 3 boxes of terminators narf!" and can be from any army list (Except Necrons...the models are just too ugly for me.).
The list should also be reasonably competitive, but it needn't be tourney-lean.

Go to, my compatriots.  Right now I'm still on the drawing board for Trait Marines since the Marine Battleforce is such a cheapo deal....

-Adso

2 boxes of pathfinders
Eldrad
Autarch with spiderpack and fusion gun
8-10 warp spiders with exarch
2 vibrocannons

Should be able to handle pretty much anything at 1000 points.

Orks, speed freaks theme, you can get a hell of a good list from 2 ork battlefoces and a basalisk/leman russ, and the ork battlefoces is the best value-for-money battleforce ( $160 worth of stuff for $90! how good is that!), altho, you still need to dig up a boss and some nobs for his bodyguard.......

$180 For a 1500pt Chaos &/or Khorne army. Just buy the chaos battleforce and megaforce.

Total army is
defiler
2 rhinos
6 bikes
20 berzerkers
20 chaos marines

Paint the normal chaos marines as either black legion or use some of the berzerker parts to make them all khorne per your preferences. You can convert one of the bikers, or one of the basic berzerkers to be your chaos lord. You could even add 10 bloodletters or a daemon prince and still stay within your budget.

A friend of mine worked this out not so long ago for some new guys looking for the cheapest way to get into 40k.

Steve

Hmmmm. Good suggestions, so far. Possible problems: the Ork warbike models are ugly and old, and are the least efficient part of any Kult list, whose real strength is speeding Boyz with powerfists and rokkits. If I use the boxed set, I'm stuck with at least three of them.

As for Chaos...well, I hate Khorne, frankly. Chaos as a list is good, and the Black Legion, Alpha Legion, Night Lords, etc all seem interesting...but I like neither Khorne's image/philosophy or the models (the look like they're ready to fall over...).

The Eldar idea is really cool...you're sure it would come in on budget? It's a quite unorthodox army...I just hope my opponent's wouldn't scream cheeze.

Keep coming...I'm pointsing out the Orks and Eldar later today.

-Adso

2 boxes of rangers @ $25 each
Eldrad @$15
Spidertarch @ $15
2 boxes of warp spiders @ $35 each
2 vibrocannons @ $15 each

Total: $180

If you can find warp spider blisters, you can save a few bucks.

In my experience, "Eldar Cheese" when spoken by many non-Eldar players means "any Eldar unit that is actually effective." Sure, you can avoid accusations of cheese by buying five boxes of guardians, but don't expect to actually win a game, hehe.

For Orks on the cheap, I'd make three suggestions: 1) find a guy who can do small castings - there's one at my club, there's bound to be one around your area. His job will be to "supplement" the Ork vehicle wheels and infantry torsoes you purchase. Why just the wheels and torsoes? Because 2) you're not using any more than one official trukk or buggy model and are instead relying on inexpensive 1/48 vintage car models. If it looks like it has GW make wheels, it becomes a GW-legal conversion incorporating their bits. And what of those infantry? 3) you're playing Speed Freeks and recasting the torsoes from the infantry boxes to take full advantage of the extra heads, arms, and guns you are forced to purchase. Using the stronger appendix list has the added benefit of giving your list enough of a competitive advantage to be fun to play with, beyond getting slaughtered three or four times and putting your unpainted stuff up on eBay.

I didn't say GW legal would LIKE what I had to say, but THAT's how you'd do Orks on the cheap. If you have significantly more time than money, I would vote for using 1920s and 30s automobiles and converting the torsoes to ties and lapels prior to having them cast - I haven't seen many people go for a truly Mob-style Ork look. A real blast of amition and you could give each unit a Nob bearing a suspicious resemblance to one of the rogues gallery of Dick Tracy - not that Flat Top was anything much besides a pink Ork anyways...

Necrons,
3 boxes of warriors
one lord
gives you 36 warriors and 15 scarab bases for under a hundred dollars

I'm not sure how competitive this is:
36 genestealers from BWB ($6 for 6 from BfM)
a broodlord
2 Zoeys w/ scream
9 toxic spore mines ($1.99 for 8 from BWB).

This presents a lot of T4 saves, some indirect fire that's good against light vehicles, and absolute murder in assault. this is also dirt cheap, $51 for the three big bugs, and less than $50 with shipping for the stealers and the mines.

tank company, with a bitzbox from guard and mild converting:

5 leaman russes( Executioner HQ, vanquisher ace, and 3 troop russes)

fun to play and darn killy

$225 from GW, buy from warstore to lose the 5 bucks :p

If you are really on a budget and go on ebay, find a guy called mealstromgames (or something like that), he operates out of britan and sell gw stuff at about stockist price (ie, what independent retailers buy the things at) and ships it for free!
Another idea for a budget army:
tau megaforce - 175
tau commander - 25
crisis suit - 20
and hey-presto, you have a mech tau army

OK, here's one of the ones I worked out so far -- fits in two tanks, a good variety of firepower, and a chunk of heavy infantry at a mere 1,000 pts. My main worry would be mobility...thoughts?

Oh, this works off the bright idea of buying the predator turret/sponson sprues and making the Rhino in the SM Battleforce box into a Predator on the cheap(er). Clever, I hope.

LAMENTERS CHAPTER RECLAMATION FORCE ALPHA

Traits: Suffer Not The Works of Heretics, Faithful Unto Death

HQ (135)

Lesser Chaplain with Jumppack, PFist (135)

TROOPS (451)

8 Marines w/Tankhunter, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher, Vet. Sgt. w/Pfist (184)

8 Marines w/Tankhunter, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher, Vet. Sgt. w/Pfist (184)

6 Scouts w/Heavy Bolter, Bolters (83)

FAST ATTACK (172)

6 Assault Marines, Vet Sgt with PFist, Bpistol. 2 Plasma Pistols. (172)

HEAVY SUPPORT (250)

Predator Destructor w/Las Sponsons , Dozer Blade (125)

Predator Destructor w/Las Sponsons, Dozer Blade (125)

1,008 pts

Quantity Description Part Code Price Sub Total
Space Marine Predator Tank $40
Space Marine Battleforce Mk. 2 $90
Jump Pack Sprue $5.00
Space Marine Tactical Squad Upgrade $6.00
Space Marine Predator Turret Sprue $10.00
Space Marine Predator Sponsons Sprue $10.00
Assault Marine Sergeant Body 1 $11.00
Space Marine Chaplain 4 $13.50
Total: $185.50

This Eldar list clocks in at just over 200, but its all boxed sets, so I can get it at discount from WarStore. Conventional, but efficient and packs a punch....I just worryu about anti-tank.

ELDAR

HQ (125)
Farseer w/Guide, Doom, Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding (125)

ELITES (223)

5 Fire Dragons (80)

6 Striking Scorpions, Exarch with Scorpion?s Claw, Shadowstrike (143)

TROOPS (354)

10 Dire Avengers, Exarch with Power Weapon/Shimmershield, Defend, Bladestorm (177)

10 Dire Avengers, Exarch with Power Weapon/Shimmershield, Defend, Bladestorm (177)

HEAVY SUPPORT (350)

Falcon w/Pulse Laser, Scatter Laser, Holofield, Vectored Engines (175)

Falcon w/Pulse Laser, Scatter Laser, Holofield, Vectored Engines (175)

Buy List
Farseer
x2 Dire Avenger Boxed Sets
Scorpions Boxed Set
Dragons Boxed Set
x2 Falcons

-Adso