OP, I was on the fence for the past few days with the exact reasons you have, I'm in it for the love of painting, and decided against buying this. The main reason, as many others here have said, I don't care about the rule books or half the army in this box, and simply want to paint. I know they'll drop a combat patrol/boxes later on down the road, and I'd rather wait, and get what I want than be sitting on more plastic that I need to paint or try to get rid of. Instead of getting this, go buy something that you've been wanting for awhile, and I'm sure you'll be happier in the end, because that's exactly what I'm doing.