Newb: Getting Started FAQ?

[aenfield]

I'm an old school tabletop and RPG gamer (at least I was 15+ years ago), but collectible games are new to me. A&A Miniatures looked too cool to pass up, so I picked up the starter set and a few boosters. Since then, I've read through some of the forums, but haven't yet found a newbie 'getting started' type post/thread. If I've just missed it and someone can provide a link, I'd appreciate it.

If not, here are some of the questions I'm thinking about:
a) How do people get started? Individual boosters? Cases? Individual pieces? Is this primarily dependent on how much you want to spend, or something else? At this point, I've only bought pieces from Set 1 - would people spread out their purchases, or concentrate them?
b) Where do people like to buy, generally? Online? In a store? By the case? Individually? I've seen some sites that sell individual pieces - is this less preferable than eBay (for individual pieces)? Why/why not?
c) I know posting direct links is verboten, but I think people can recommend sites by name, w/o a link? If so, are there any consensus recommendations for good sites? (If this is also against the terms of use, never mind - or PM me.)
d) I've seen this site and the Wizards site, as well as the site w/ campaign PDFs. Are there other good fan sites that I'm missing? Other forums?

Thanks for the help getting started.

[RaidingParty]

Hi, aenfield. Welcome to the fold. I don't know about a newbie section, but there are plenty of threads which answer your questions mixed in here somewhere. I'll try to say what I know right here.

a) I started with a few boosters and starters, then moved up to single cases. I think about one case per set is enough for effective armies of all the main nationalities. I fill out the rest with more boosters or trading, because singles are really expensive.

b) I buy boosters from a local gaming store, and cases online. Be careful when buying cases or singles online, since there are quite a few phonies out there.

c) This is as good a site as any! You might also want to see if your local gaming store has a website.

d) I know BoardGameGeek also has some resources, but I think the bulk of it is right here.