Okay, I finally hit the 'crap or get off the pot' point and said to myself, "This is stupid. Just find a spot to start at, and start."
So, I went to a favorite local game store, and determined on the way that I would be fine with starting with one of the following: High Elves, Dark Elves, or Lizardmen. I love the look and feel of the Dark Elves, from what I've seen in their book; Lizardmen are dinosaurs riding on dinosaurs = awesome; and high elves are just plain cool. I'd also played them from the Island of Blood starter, and had a good time with them.
My plan was to see what army book or books they had used, and if one of them was there, that's where I'd start, period. I really thought about what Learn2Eel said about starting with elves on a different thread (and thanks again for that, L2E), but I really like the look and tone of the elves, so...I decided that if a steeper learning curve comes with that, so be it.
And, what do I find? A copy of the High Elves army book, used, at a very reasonable price. So that and a battalion box went home with me. Several hours and a nice score on Ebay later, I've got a good start on an army. I've got my core troops filled in quite well at this point--lots of spearmen, archers, and some seaguard. I've got pieces to use for my heroes and lords. Those are not issues.
What I'm wondering about is:
--What named characters are 'must haves' or 'must avoids'? (or, is that even the case?)
--Any thoughts on which special and rare units are desirable?
And, most importantly:
--I'm thinking of going with a more earth-toned, almost desert-like look for the paint scheme. I've been wanting to do a scheme with browns and reds for a while, and I'm tempted to go that way with these high elves, like they are from a more desolate or barren part of the elven homeland. I would be concerned about that being too far away from the general tone of the background of the race for it to work (I haven't totally read the army book cover to cover yet, starting that today)--is that workable?