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So I am just coming back to 40k. I've decided on a SM army as I have had nothing but horde armies and like the idea of a rather elite small model count army. As such I was curious about the SM Strike Force box on Games-Workshop. Is it worth the buy as far as the model collection it comes with? I real;y would rather not drop that much cash only to find out half of the stuff in it is effectively useless. I have a casual meta but on the flip side there's lots of local events where having competitive is good and I am hoping to get a solid start with a selection of models that can be used in a more competitive environment but also are just fun for a casual game.

Hopefully this isn't a common question. I was unable to really find a thread on here like this. Thanks for any advice you guys have to give.

The strike force is a great bundle with a good discount over buying everything separately. It's a great basis to start building your atmy from. If you wanted a larger army, you could argue for buying more than 1, though doubles of the commander and command squad become less useful.

Everything in the box is viable and worth the money and points if their loadout is well thought out and also used well in the game.

2 full Tactical Squads: Good stuff. Tacticals get stuff done, and are versatile. Good for filling your troop selections for your force organization chart.

Sniper Scouts: Decent, give them camo cloaks and let them camp an objective with a 3+ cover save.

Razorback / Rhino: Rhinos are always nice to carry troops around. Razorbacks are decent firesupport with anything other than the heavy bolter.

Drop Pod: Who doesn't love drop pods. Stick a tactical squad in there or use your tactical squad as Sternguard and take out high-priority models on the first turn. Or stick a dreadnought in there.

(Venerable) Dreadnought: Dual autocannons are always nice. Close combat ability is decent, could be useful for anti-vehicle, monstrous creature, tough HQs, but weak against units like tactical marines who can just krak grenade it to pieces while barely losing any models. Buy the great venerable dreadnought upgrade to give it +1 WS and BS, and re-roll for vehicle damage results.

Assault Squad: Decent counter-assault unit with jump packs. Could always try to harass enemy units that are weak in CC and wipe them out through sweeping advance. Field it as a Vanguard Veteran squad with jump packs for some good fun. Could always be used as a melta bomb suicide squad on enemy vehicles, move 12" up to a vehicle and assault for explosive fun.

Command Squad: Decent little squad for your Captain. Apothecary is always nice.

Commander: Could be fielded as a Captain or Chapter Master. If you have the points, always get the Chapter Master, as you have +1 wounds and attacks, and the orbital combardment ability. Give the Chapter Master the Eternal Shield and artificer armour as well as a nice close combat weapon like the Burning Blade, and use the Iron Hands doctrine and you have a nigh-unstoppable toughness 4 model with 4 wounds with a 2+ armour save and 3+ invulnerable and a 5+ FNP and a 6+ It Will Not Die who is also immune with instant death firing a Strength 10 AP 1 large blast on the enemy on Turn 1. Don't know about the rules, but I'm assuming you can stick it into a Rhino (in the box, just don't put the weapon on the Rhino chassis) and fire the orbital bombardment from the firepoint, and then move up in the Rhino. Would be great if you also get him a bike, then you'd have an nigh unstoppable toughness 5 model that can move 12" in movement and 12" in shooting if turbo boosting.

Even if there is a unit or two you don't want, it's still a good deal. While things like dreads and assault marines might not be seen as competitive, that does not make them useless. If you don't want to captain and command squad, you could use those bits to fancy up one of the tac squads into sternguard, and put them in the pod.

It's a nice box, with lots of cool stuff in it. Unless you are planning a bike army or something very focused, I suspect the contents will serve you well.

I decided to start a blood ravens army recently... so I got 3 strike force boxes ; p Won't use all of it in a standard game, but will give the options to run a bunch of different lists. Will probably resell the extra commanders and command squads though, but 3 dreads, drop pods and razorbacks, 60 tacs, 15 ASMs, 15 scouts is a great base to work from. Actually made buying GW stuff decent value! (from a US discounter, ~$177 per box)

This is perhaps the greatest army starter bundle GW has ever produced.
As written above, avoid only if you want a bike army

It's a great bundle. You get the core of the army sorted straight away, a solid base to build on. You can get even more value out of it with a couple of extra kits, should you be so inclined.

Adding a squad of Sternguard to the Command Squad parts will give you a full 10-man Sternie squad, which with the Drop Pod and a few Combies will be lethal.

To the AM, you can add either another box for some plain AM, best in a full squad, or a VV box for a similar thing to the Sternguard, giving you a full squad of 10 Vanguard.

Hope that gives you a few ideas.