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How viable would it be to create a large army using all of the IoM codices and factions?
What I mean is: you can take SM, and IG, and SoB, and GK, and Skitarii, and CM, so on and so forth...

How much money would it take to create a small force containing all of the IoM factions, and would it be worth it?

Worth it to see on a table yes. But even a start collecting box per faction is 85$ minus codexs but I think you're getting close to 1000. On troops alone. That's if you go with one flavor of marine. Assassins knights titans inquisitors start to really crazy things up. I can't calculate the cost in time. Unbound would be your best bet but at smaller points and by small I mean 2000 points you will hamstring your armies as even is you do 500pts a pop still only gonna get 4 factions, also probably gonna be weak as heavy hitters tend to suck up points. Your call though and I would praise your attempt.
Oh and god at the paint cost for that many factions

The Get Started! boxes each contain a standalone formation (though you'll still need the relevant codexes). Get each box, and play them as their own formations. Will be a legal army, but each box is worth about 300-500 ish points, so it will likely be a large game.
There are 12 IOM armies to buy from.

Lemme estimate costs:

£50 BRB

Available Start Collecting! boxes:

Blood Angels - £50
Space Wolves - £50
Skitarii - £50
AM - £50
C:SM - £50
MT - £50

Codexes:

C:SM - £35
Space Wolves - £30
AM (Softback) - £25
Imperial Knights - £25
Dark Angels - £35
Grey Knights - £30
Blood Angels (Softback) - £25
Cult Mechanicus - £20
Skitarii - £20
Militarum Tempestus - £20
Officio Assassinorum (ebook) - £9.99
Adepta Sororitas - £19.99

======

That's £644.98 already...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and there's a chance that while you're putting this all together, GW might just go and release a new edition and/or codexes, and thus force you to rebuy stuff.

And possibly make your list illegal in the process.

After doing some research, I've decided that the basics of the Imperial Super Army will be a HQ and two troops for each army. The HQ can be a special character or a generic guy like a captain or commander. Then I will pick a specialist unit, be it elite, heavy support or fast attack, and add that to the cost. So, let's start figuring out prices.

The Rulebook - £50

Generic Space Marines: £133
Codex: SM - £35
Space Marine Captain - £18
Tactical Squad x2 - £50 (£25 each)
Sternguard Veterans - £30

Dark Angels: £135
Codex: DA - £35
Belial - £15
Tactical Squad x2 - £50 (£25 each)
Deathwing Knights - £35

Space Wolves: £153
Codex: SW - £30
Canis Wolfborn - £30
Blood Claws x2 - £60 (£30 each)
Thunderwolf Cavalry - £33

Blood Angels: £112.50
Codex: BA - £25
The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host - £15
BA Tactical Squad x2 - £52 (£26 each)
Death Company - £20.50

Grey Knights: £153
Codex: GK - £30
Lord Kaldor Draigo - £15
GK Strike Squad 10 Models x2 - £75 (£37.50 each)
Nemesis Dreadknight - £33

Deathwatch: £125
Codex: DW - £30
Death Masque - £95 (No other models available yet)

Adeptus Mechanicus: Cult Mechanicus: £154
Codex: CM - £20
Tech Priest Dominus - £22
Kataphron Battle Servitors - £70
Kastelan Robots - £42

Adeptus Mechanicus: Skitarii: £96.50
Codex: Skitarii - £20
Vanguard and Rangers - £47
Sydonian Dragoon - £29.50

Adepta Sororitas: £147.70
Celestine the Living Saint - £12.30
Battle Sister Squad x2 - £99.40 (£49.70 each)
Exorcist - £36

Astra Militarum: £101.50
Codex: AM - £25 (Softback)
Lord Commissar - £9.50
Cadian Shock Troops - £36 (£18 each)
Leman Russ - £31

Imperial Knights: £300
Codex: IK - £25
Warden - £95
Crusader - £95
Paladin - £85

Inquisition: £81.49
Codex: Inquisition - £15.99 (eBook)
Inquisitor Karamazov - £36
Jokaero Weaponsmith - £8
Death Cult Assassins - £9.50
Acro-Flagellants - £12

Militarum Tempestus: £129
Codex: MT - £25 (Softback)
Scions Command Squad - £21
Scions x2 - £42 (£21 each)
Valkyrie - £41

Officio Assassinorum: £87.99
Dataslate - £11.99 (iPad)
Vindicare - £19
Eversor - £19
Culexus - £19
Callidus - £19

Total: £1959.68

This total is without modelling tools, brushes, paints, so on and so forth...
As you can see, this would take a very long time and a huge amount of money. Of course, cuts could be made - cheaper HQs, less troops, cheaper specialists. But I'm still determined to go ahead with it. As well as being a nice break from my Tau, it would mean I have an army to play if I got bored with Tau. Eventually I'll get around to starting it, and when I do I will create a Project Log on dakka for you to watch my progress. I can start with my tactical squads, I have a couple of old tactical squads I can use, once I've stripped the paint and decided on a chapter to start my marines with. After I've done this, I will start getting the codices.

GLHF!

 Selym wrote:
GLHF!

This will seem daft, but what does that mean exactly?

Good luck, have fun

 Selym wrote:
Good luck, have fun

xD Thanks.

Sounds like an awesome project, but also what'll be a long-running one too. Best of luck with that.

A couple of money saving points:
Renegade box to get 2 knights; £120 for 2, actually cheaper than a single FW knight, like a Magaera. And you get buildings with it.
Try and find an Elimination Maniple box for your Cult Mech stuff. 6 Kataphrons and a Kastelan unit, £90. They did stop producing these, though. I got the last one in my local 2 months ago.

As for getting the Guardsmen, incidentally getting the individual kits will cost the same as a SC box + another Cadian kit.
Could be a case of convenience, although I'm not sure you'd need 2 Cadian kits? I thought they could be taken in 5-man squads.

IG troops are 10 man only. Except for some stuff in platoons.

Two grand? Two THOUSAND pounds??? That's a car...

And that's why I do 1/72 and build my tanks out of cardboard....

Honestly, if you're going for something this epic, choose one of the iconic special characters in each army - St. Celestine leading a squad of Battle Sisters, Azrael leading the Dark Angels, Marneus Calgar leading the Ultramarines, Commander Dante leading the Blood Angels, etc. I would just find this to be a better representation of the might of the Imperium, and would probably be a lot more fun than just a bunch of Chapter Masters or Captains.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Honestly, if you're going for something this epic, choose one of the iconic special characters in each army - St. Celestine leading a squad of Battle Sisters, Azrael leading the Dark Angels, Marneus Calgar leading the Ultramarines, Commander Dante leading the Blood Angels, etc. I would just find this to be a better representation of the might of the Imperium, and would probably be a lot more fun than just a bunch of Chapter Masters or Captains.

Ditto. You could do so much with that army.

 Selym wrote:

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Honestly, if you're going for something this epic, choose one of the iconic special characters in each army - St. Celestine leading a squad of Battle Sisters, Azrael leading the Dark Angels, Marneus Calgar leading the Ultramarines, Commander Dante leading the Blood Angels, etc. I would just find this to be a better representation of the might of the Imperium, and would probably be a lot more fun than just a bunch of Chapter Masters or Captains.

Ditto. You could do so much with that army.

I like this idea, and it would save me some money. A leader and a squad to start with. Maybe the Start Collecting boxes would help, since they generally have a specialist, a troop, and a HQ in it.

Best of luck with that project. You'll need it, but if that's really what you want, then you will succeed.