Starting FPGA Design

Hello to everyone,

i want to start learning more about the FPGA systems design. I am a complete n00b on FPGA systems design and i want to start with something simple as far as a development board concerned. My goal regarding the FPGA usage is to try and implement soft processors (even though i don't have any idea whatsoever on how to start with this ! :cry:). My target board is the DE0 Nano board from Terasic. Can anyone please give me any suggestions if this is a good entry board or not ?

Another question i would like to ask is...how many logic elements are roughly needed in order to design a simple processor ? Like 6502 or a Z80.

If my n00b questions sound dump please give me your opinions or suggestions.

Best regards and

thank you in advance.