[Gen] A guide to starting out in Warhammer 40k

[Havock]

I'm STRONGLY considering consolidating my status as an ultimate nerd and getting involved with the tabletop version of 40k.

I'm in Iraq, so... not like I can walk down to the local hobby shop in the mall to check stuff out. Question:

IG armies are about massed strength, correct? Is this reflected in real-life by having to spend more to amass an appropriately-sized force to hit the point plateaus (500,1000,1500,etc)?

In those terms, what's the "cheapest" army to consider investing in?

(chaos) space marines are relatively cheap, the latter because you can spend a gazillion points in infiltrate and other veteran skills.

Imperial guard can be pretty cheap if you go the "canned meat" way

[Snake1311]

Im a new player, im slowly getting more and more into the game
The cheapest way to start off with w40k would be to buy yourself a box of the basic troops, especailly if you look in ebay shops.
borrow the rulebooks/codexes off someone who plays - you will likely almost always need those for reference, but until you've decided for sure you want to play W40k buying your own copy can really stretch your finances (especailly if you decided its not your thing). Once you play 1-2 games and you decide you like the game + the race you've chosen , THEN you can get your rulebook and codex.
Try to buy thing simultaniously with a friend or two, then you can share modeliing/painting supplies and tools

The main advantage of this over battle for macragge...actually maybe the ONLY advantage....is that you get to choose between all 11 armies. If you know you're going with SM or nids though, BfM is still your buy