Hey there, Greez! Hope you have a great time playing
BA. It's dominated my wargaming hobby ever since my first game. Let me see if I can help with some of these questions...
Yep, the theatre books do have additional units. They also have bonus force selectors, scenarios, and fluff (or as we say, history
) Buying the campaign book for your theatre is not at all necessary, it just gives you some neat options. You can take all the motorcycles, Panzer III's, and early war German squads you want with just the core German book.
No periods. It's up to you to adhere to making your list historical and talking it over with your opponent to match up periods. Or you can take the force selectors out of the campaign books and save yourself a slight headache.
The base rules off no restrictions to what armies you can fight. You can play any army against any army- all balance, continuity, and geographical issues aside!
Don't worry about what other people are playing, do what YOU want to do! That being said, starting off with doing some desert rats before moving onto the
DAK army of your dreams isn't at all a bad idea if you are really committing to the hobby. Brits are a ton of fun and offer a wide variety of playstyles.
Starter armies, boxed sets, and build-your-owns are a great way to go, especially if you have not created a specific list. Just make sure you have enough for an officer, 2-5 squads of infantry, a couple of teams or fixed weapons, and a couple of vehicles (trucks, jeeps, a tank, etc.). 1,000 points fills up quick!
British are a solid army. You should have no problem going toe to toe with ANY army. Germans can be pretty nasty with the new Tiger Fear rule, though, if they don't have enough shame to take a more stately Stug or Puma
. You might consider talking them into ignoring that particular rule for your first couple of games.
Airborne are an excellent army. Chindits will likely be regular and Airborne veteran, though it depends which divisions you want to play. I would say neither is inherently more complex.
Best of luck!
Cheers,
Warptide