Battle Forces...are they worth the money?

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**monkeysmut**

I am looking into playing SW soon and can't seem to decide if buying to $90 battle force, codex and HQ would be the best route to go. Anyone have thoughts or a better suggestion for me?

**MechaEmperor7000**

Space Wolves battleforce is imo one of the better buys. It is a bit more expensive than the other battle forces, but the amount of units and extra bits you get in it more than justifies. From it you can make Blood Claws, Skyclaws (if you buy some jump packs) convert Long Fangs from a Devastator Squad, Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard, and even your Rune Priest and Wolf lord from it. Unless you can find an army deal or something similar on ebay, the Battle force is probably the first thing you should get.

**monkeysmut**

That is very good to know! I have alway been a little wary of the battle forces because there isn't very much you can use out of them but to learn the SW one is actualy uses is very good knews thank you!

**Phototoxin**

It depends.. its only a good deal if you will use ALL of the stuff... like if you wont use the rhino or the scouts or the 5 man tac squad or whatever from the SM one... it's not too bad since assuming you want the rest then you get a free unit... its when you only want 2 or 3 of something in it... but even then.. basically you need to consider:

'what will I use/what do I want?'
'what is in the battleforce' and
'is buying the battleforce and the other units I want cheaper than buying the battleforce?'

**tdwg83**

All of the battle forces I have looked at typically cost less than if you were to by the units individually. The catch is sometimes the things that are missing. What I bought for example:

Eldar
$33 Guardian squard
$16.5 1/2 Squard of Dire Avengers
$44.50 Wave Serpent
$30 War Walker

$124 bought seperately or in Battleforce for $90.

The caveat is that the DA are a minimum strength squad. Luckily the SM allow you to buy 5 man squads to make up for the defficence (sp?) in the Battleforce. For my Eldar I will probably get a second Battleforce to round out the DA.

**NTFH**

It's an awesome buy if you are going for Grey Hunters and Drop Pod. Ebay is likely to yield cheaper. It comes with bits to make 20Grey Hunters (blood claws use the same bits) 5 Wolf Scouts and a Drop Pod. The amount of bits you get with it and the options are very good. If you don't want a drop pod you can try trading the sprue or selling. Same for Scouts.

The 20 Power Armour models and Space Wolf bits make it the best. Unfortunately, you only get 2 plasma guns for special weapons. That's the only downside. The lack of meltagun and flamer hurts it a bit. The wolf pack sprue only comes with a plasma gun for special weapon option.

You get lots when it comes to pistols, bolters, plasma pistol and special close combat weapons and other cool bits

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AND of course you can make rune priest(s), wolf priest(s), wolf guard(s), wolf lord(s) with the bits and a good paint job.

**MechaEmperor7000**

The only thing that I think wont get much use out of the BF is the Scouts. Drop Pods are awesome for what they cost, and you can put a dread in them (Getting the AoBR set, you can probably kitbash and convert the AoBR stuff too, yielding a Dreadnought, Terminators, and more Grey Hunters as needed).

**bryan40kman2000**

What I did for SW was buy one SW BF and one SM BF. I did this because the SW miniatures are super detailed and if you have 3-5 squads built completely off that kit they begin to look too detailed. I mixed the kits together to create a more unique look. Plus then I got 10 scouts, which is what I wanted to run, a DP and a Rhino plus a ton of marines. The Assault marines are meh, but I just used the running legs and not the JPs so I have a few wolves who have running legs and it looks great.

**OverwatchCNC**

I did the same thing as Bryan. I also mixed in a lot of Chaos bits too so my variety would be even greater. You can see the effect on my SW in the gallery, the pics aren't very high quality (my Salamanders were photographed better...) but you get the basic idea of kit bashing the three SM types together.

**Samus_aran115**

monkeysmut wrote:I am looking into playing SW soon and can't seem to decide if buying to $90 battle force, codex and HQ would be the best route to go. Anyone have thoughts or a better suggestion for me?

The SW battleforce is a better buy than most. Those wolf packs give you SO many extra things. The other battleforces are pretty...unsatisfactory. The ork one is awful, the necron one is meh, the CSM one is okay, tau one is meh, SM one is meh, ravenwing is GREAT

GW just can't fit the bill for SM battleforces. Those five marines you get are completely worthless, as are the scouts. They should just give you:
Rhino
Assault marines
Tactical squads x2
Commander x1

No one uses scouts unless they're building their army around them, in which case, they'll buy them separately.

**monkeysmut**

I have two unpainted rhinos now that can be used as razor backs if need be. I doubt I would use the scouts in the SW battleforce. the rest I would deffinately use no worries there. Seems like so far the general idea is the SW battleforce would be my best way to go. Too bad I started SM and painted all my AoBR models already. BUT fortunately I do have older models that can be easily repainted for a SW long fang unit.

**Shas'O Dorian**

Depends how you want to run your wolves. The extra bitz are great but if you want scouts (wolf scouts are awesome) & don't want the drop pod you could have essentially 20 wolves (Tac squad +5 +5 assault marines - jump packs) and a rhino.

As has been stated it's all how you want to do it.

**NewDeal**

I recently purchased the Cadian Battleforce on ebay for $75 dollars with shipping.

Thats:
Cadian command squad: $25.00
2x Cadian infantry squads: $49.50
Heavy Weapons squad: $35.00
Sentinel: $25

So a value of $134.50 and only thing I might not use is the sentinel. If purchased in the store this is still saving about $45. I think battle forces are great value personally.

**Ailaros**

Obviously, moneywise they're a good deal as you're getting way more product than if you would have bought them individually.

I don't think I'd ever buy one, though. Invariably a battleforce always comes with one or two things I'd never actually use. As such, if you remove those things from the package, I'd wind up spending about the same amount of money for what I'd field anyways. Might as well just spend the money on what I want.

**MechaEmperor7000**

certain ones are better value than others. Personally the Necron and Chaos marine ones are very good deals. Necron, because all of the contents are pretty much required for any decent force. Chaos Marine because of the sheer versitility of the sets. Kitbashing the parts, you can either convert them all into Khorne Berserkers or Possessed Marine, not to mention other possiblities innate to all SM Battle Forces (A sorceror, Chaos Lord, etc...).

**ArtfcllyFlvrd**

Ailaros wrote:Obviously, moneywise they're a good deal as you're getting way more product than if you would have bought them individually.

I don't think I'd ever buy one, though. Invariably a battleforce always comes with one or two things I'd never actually use. As such, if you remove those things from the package, I'd wind up spending about the same amount of money for what I'd field anyways. Might as well just spend the money on what I want.

A couple other people said similar things. I don't really get this, if you would pay the same amount buying the stuff you want individually, what not get the battleforce and get free stuff on top it.

I almost never use my sentinel from the guard battle force, but all the other stuff would would have cost as much as the BF so just buy the BF and get more.

They usually such a better deal money wise you're almost silly not to buy them and just have some bonus stuff that you may or may not play with.

**MechaEmperor7000**

certain purchases are cheaper if you just buy the items alone. If you dont particularly like the Scouts or Assault Squad, and do not want to get a combat squad to boost the exiting one up to full strength, why get the SM battle force when you can just buy a Tactical Squad and Razorback for less? It all depends on how MUCH of the items in it you're going to use. below the Battleforce's price, it's probably easier to just buy the individual items. If it's at or beyond the BF's price, go for it.