I'm trying to put together some "starting out" lists for Epic new-comers, so I thought I'd throw this out there for comments from the community. Lemme hear your thoughts.  

=== CODEX SPACE MARINES ===
Strengths: Flexible and exceptionally tough infantry. Fast- and hard-hitting.
Weaknesses: Small and expensive formations. Always outnumbered and therefore susceptible to out-manoeuvring on the ground. Requires high mobility to be truly effective.

One Battle Company box set for ₤11.75/$20.00
One Space Marine Character blister pack for ₤9.80/$17.00
One Space Marine Rhinos blister pack for ₤14.60/$25.00
Total spend: ₤36.15/$62.00

With these, you can easily make the following 1,000-point army:

Tactical Detachment (9 units, 400pts)
6 Tactical marines stands armed with bolters and one missile launcher per 10 models
3 Rhinos
1 Supreme Commander

Tactical Detachment (9 units, 350pts)
6 Tactical marines stands armed with bolters and one missile launcher for every two stands
3 Rhinos
1 Librarian

Tactica
With this army, a reasonable game plan would be to hold your own blitz objective with the Devastator detachment and hold the other two objectives in your half with the two Tactical detachments for the Defend The Flag victory condition, while also doing your best to ensure there are no unbroken enemy formations in your half of the table for the They Shall Not Pass condition.

Um... Devastators? I only see Tacticals and Tacticals there

Now mind you I have never played a 1000 points game. It sounds different enough from usual E:A games, but it's also cheap and probably gives a good idea of the full game, perhaps somewhat like the excellent Training Scenarios in the book. One thing I suggest is maybe using a 4'x3' size table so it doesn't look that empty.

Supreme Commander, for marines of all people, is overkill at 1000 points (I wouldn't use it even at 2000 points).

Leaving a large chunk of your army guarding your blitz (which is simultaneously your shootiest unit and one with only 45 cm range at that) sounds somewhat suboptimal. IME playing Marines you can't afford leaving formations behind to guard your objectives. You want to drive your Rhinos around, get in your opponent's grill, stomp the BTS goal, capture their objectives and enforce your They Shall Not Pass with extreme prejudice.

To achieve those ends I suggest this armylist:

Devastators + 2 ML/TLLC Dreadnoughts @ 350
Tactical + 2 Rhinos + 3 Razorbacks @ 375 (BTS)
Tactical + 3 Rhinos + 1 Razorback @ 325

Pricewise this is passing over the character pack in favor of Razorbacks and Dreadnoughts which makes it about ₤8 (give or take) more expensive. In any case you will want both razorbacks and the characters in the future so this is only restructuring your guaranteed purchases anyway . Also remember to never ever buy new Rhinos (or Land Raiders for that matter) without at least looking at ebay - I can't stress this enough.

Garrison your Devs on overwatch somewhere in the middle of the table with good lanes of firing (touching the dreadnoughts of course). They will be an anchor of your forward line while the tactical formations advance up the flanks. Don't spread out too much, keep your forces close and crush the enemy with the iron fist. For {Guilliman|Dorn|Sanguinius|Vulkan|Lion|Russ|Corax|Khan|Ferrus} and the Emperor!

1,000 points is probably too small for epic to work between races. I would expect the Leman russ company to dominate any games between these forces. I think it would be better to run through the training scenarios then go to 2,000 points with no air or war engines.

Sorry for going kinda off topic.

I hear you. I struggled with this as well, particularly when trying to think of potential all-comer tactics at that points level.

The problem with the training scenarios, though, is that they're marines vs marines, so if the player wanted to collect a different army, they're effectively wasting their hard-earned on the marines figs.

I think I'll stick with the 1,000pts level, and just highlight the fact that they'll likely want to purchase another one or two thousand points worth of units in short order.