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The Battleforce box sets are supposed to give you a little bit of everything, but I've noticed that some box sets are more useful than others. First of all- which is the most cost effective (real money wise)? How about in terms of what is practical to put in an actual army? For example, the Imperial Guard battleforce seems mostly useful- you get a command squad (whose sprue gives you one of every special weapon, I think), 2 platoon squads, a heavy weapon squad (VERY useful) and...a Sentinel.

Now, I'm not knocking Sentinels, I think they're fun to use. But gamewise, in the grand scheme of things, a Chimera would have been MUCH more useful. Chimera hulls are used for lots of things, Sentinels are only...sentinels. Typically you're going to want to need many Chimera hulls even if you are not meching up, but sentinels are much more specific. Its as though the battleforce came with a Techpriest and servitors or something :p

The Tau battleforce contains everything to get you started even an HQ! but aafter that it's effectiveness drops sharply, the stealth suits aren't needed more people rarely play more than 12 firewarriors and so what remains is kroot (12 not 16) a devilfish (which can be used with a skyray kit for 2 awesomesauce results) and a suit which adds up to just it's price and more, i'd garner a good deal although after 2 or so your done and need to save for lots of suits.

Tau battle force hands down. Perfect for 500 points to 1k. Although past 500 some items really suck in the battleforce if your going to bulk an army.

I'd say that the Tyranid force ranks right up there among the most useful of all Battle forces... It comes with some of just about all the most useful units in the army, some warriors, gaunts and gants and Genestealers.

Imperial Guard one is good too. It's a basic platoon plus a sentinel straight out the box. Or if you make the regular guardsmen into veterans, it's a potential 500 point army in a box.

Cerebrium wrote:Imperial Guard one is good too. It's a basic platoon plus a sentinel straight out the box. Or if you make the regular guardsmen into veterans, it's a potential 500 point army in a box.

It works out as basically getting a free Sentinal. Woopdie doo.
It used to have a Russ instead...

From my experience...

Space Marine Battleforce saves some good money, but the unit composition is a bit odd. It forces you Assault marines (who are quite weak), Scouts (who do not fit every list), and a Rhino (excluding the option for Razorback). The odd combat squad is actually a good thing, with some conversions you can make veterans out of them.

Eldar Battleforce has very useful (and expensive) vehicles inside; thats quite rare with newer battleforces. Its a shame there are only 5 dire avengers though. The guardian squad is debatable as well.

Dark Angels Battleforce is pretty useful for any biker SM armies. Six bikes, an assault bike and a land speeder... Comes with way too many upgrade sprues, so you'll end up with spare typhoon launchers, assault cannons, heavy bolters... Good box, though it really misses special weapon options for bikers.

I was sceptical of the Tyranid Battleforce at first (the previous one included a Carnifex), but I change my opinion. With 43 models (even more if you build Rippers - theres enough for 5 bases inside), it's a great start for an army. Only "not that good" unit inside are the Warriors, but you can use these to convert a Tyranid Prime, a HQ choice. The box is more expensive as well, though it still saves a very nice sum of money.

Hope this helps

The ravenwing is the best value for money, however if you dont want bikes then its also not great, its £25.50 for 3 Ravenwing bikes (never be stuid enough to buy regular ones) and £15 for an attack bike, add £18 for the land speeder, and you can see that the ravenwing box set is actually pretty cheap... ok, Not so much of rip off for GW is what i mean lol

No one has mentioned the Necron Battleforce yet.

That one is the best value for money as you basically get the Ark for free. Make it a Doomsday Ark and add a HQ and you have a very small but lethal army.

Puscifer wrote:No one has mentioned the Necron Battleforce yet.

That one is the best value for money as you basically get the Ark for free. Make it a Doomsday Ark and add a HQ and you have a very small but lethal army.

this is very true, remember the old one lol, twas not bad either

Joey wrote:

Cerebrium wrote:Imperial Guard one is good too. It's a basic platoon plus a sentinel straight out the box. Or if you make the regular guardsmen into veterans, it's a potential 500 point army in a box.

It works out as basically getting a free Sentinal. Woopdie doo.
It used to have a Russ instead...

And a piece of terrain, I loved that battle force box.

It has to be the Ravenwing box hands down you have the option to make a hq and 2 troops choices with a attack bike.

However 2 special weapons sprues going into it wouldn't be amiss GW.

If you know what i mean.

My vote is for the Tau as well, since it includes an HQ. The Nid one did when Warriors would be used as an HQ.

The Space Wolves box is not a bad deal.

20 Space Marines
5 Scouts
and a Drop pod

Pretty much getting a slew of extra Space Wolf upgrade bits and a free drop pod for the price. And the Space wolf Upgrade kit is decent enough to make an HQ with if your clever.

Pricewise they are all a decent value if you want what is in them. I have picked up two Eldar boxes and am converting the guardians to corsairs.

I might pick up one to two more to round things out. Its essentially getting the guardians free. All boxes have close to the same savings and most will even let you add an HQ choice and have a codex legal army (two troop choices) of around 500-600 pts.

For someone who is either not interested in using a starter set it probably one of the best was to get started on a new army. Of course if you have a specific build in mind the box may not be for you.....

The ork battleforce sucks.

You save a grand total of $3.

Its only redeeming feature is that nothing is bad.

Chaos Space Marines had an old set that was amazing. I think it was $250 bucks which saved you almost 100 dollars if you bought them seperately

It contained.

1x Land Raider
2x Rhinos
1x Defiler
5x Terminators
10x CC Marines
10x Tac Marines
1x Terminator Lord

I don't think they make it anymore but I use everything.

Silentway wrote:Chaos Space Marines had an old set that was amazing. I think it was $250 bucks which saved you almost 100 dollars if you bought them seperately

It contained.

1x Land Raider
2x Rhinos
1x Defiler
5x Terminators
10x CC Marines
10x Tac Marines
1x Terminator Lord

I don't think they make it anymore but I use everything.

A lot of armies got that megaforce kit. They came out when GW was trying to force Apocalypse down everyone's throat. You could get a great deal on an almost 2000 point army. Unfortunately GW figured out people were not buying these along with all the overpriced Apocalypse stuff, and were just using them to get deals on regular 40k stuff, so it seems they stopped making them.

Silentway wrote:Chaos Space Marines had an old set that was amazing. I think it was $250 bucks which saved you almost 100 dollars if you bought them seperately

It contained.

1x Land Raider
2x Rhinos
1x Defiler
5x Terminators
10x CC Marines
10x Tac Marines
1x Terminator Lord

I don't think they make it anymore but I use everything.

Yeah the limited Run of the Army Boxes was cool. I have the Space Marine Battle Company Box
included: a Space Marine Commander, a five-man Space Marine Command Squad, 70 Tactical Marines, 10 Devastators, 20 Assault Marines with Jump-packs, a Space Marine Razorback and eight Space Marine Rhinos. Worth about $300 at the time, I personally received $150 in savings since GW messed up my orders for 2 solid months straight so they upgraded my order from the Space Marine Army Box ($150) to said Battle Company Box plus a LRC.

Ensis Ferrae wrote:I'd say that the Tyranid force ranks right up there among the most useful of all Battle forces... It comes with some of just about all the most useful units in the army, some warriors, gaunts and gants and Genestealers.

But it's £70!!

The Blood angel one comes with, well...Nothing...

(compared to others)

Joey wrote:

Cerebrium wrote:Imperial Guard one is good too. It's a basic platoon plus a sentinel straight out the box. Or if you make the regular guardsmen into veterans, it's a potential 500 point army in a box.

It works out as basically getting a free Sentinal. Woopdie doo.
It used to have a Russ instead...

Now now, don't knock my 6 Sentinel 1000pt list.

And, Space Wolves Battleforce is quite good. Worst would probably be BA or Orks. Woot, £70 for 20 Boyz, a Trukk and 3 Warbikers!

i brought the imperial guard battleforce and i like it except for the sentinel! i would of rathered almost anything else for the same value... strom troopers, chimera, leman rus... a second heavy weapons team, more troops ahaha i really have no use for a sentinel although plasma cannons are pretty fregin cool

Grey Templar wrote:The ork battleforce sucks.

You save a grand total of $3.

Its only redeeming feature is that nothing is bad.

orks have a great starter set... it just happens to be splitting a assault on blackreach box with a marines player not the gw starter set

raven wing is a good one as is the ork box

as for the nid one....it used to have a fex inside.....now it has nothing....and dont get me started on the dark eldar one -_-

Imperial Guard & Tyrannids comes to mind really

Space wolves and tau.
You have a HQ and troops in a box! (with other useful stuff)

DPBellathrom wrote:raven wing is a good one as is the ork box

as for the nid one....it used to have a fex inside.....now it has nothing....and dont get me started on the dark eldar one -_-

The nid one has 8 more hormagaunts and 8 more termagaunts now instead. Not as eye-catching as a Carnifex, but you are probably going to need those gaunts sooner or later.

I don`t really care much for the BA battleforce, a unit of 10 Tac marines is not very exciting for that army.

G00fySmiley wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:The ork battleforce sucks.

You save a grand total of $3.

Its only redeeming feature is that nothing is bad.

orks have a great starter set... it just happens to be splitting a assault on blackreach box with a marines player not the gw starter set

agreed assuming you can find someone to split the difference the ork half of black reach is brilliant value as the boyz have no command...(sorry ima fantsy player mostly) and so you can put them in mass squads. and the Nobs and deffkoptas can be added together from same box without looking to bad

brentyboi wrote:

G00fySmiley wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:The ork battleforce sucks.

You save a grand total of $3.

Its only redeeming feature is that nothing is bad.

orks have a great starter set... it just happens to be splitting a assault on blackreach box with a marines player not the gw starter set

agreed assuming you can find someone to split the difference the ork half of black reach is brilliant value as the boyz have no command...(sorry ima fantsy player mostly) and so you can put them in mass squads. and the Nobs and deffkoptas can be added together from same box without looking to bad

I do agree with the Black Reach thing, I am going to buy up as many of the plastic Deffkoptas as I can and a few of the warbosses before they are OOP with 6th.

I don't like most Battleforces much at all; looking just at the armies I actually play:
Chaos: I play Tzeentch, I wouldn't use the Berzerkers, and I don't like Possessed.
Dark Eldar: I run a very shooty force, the Wyches would just end up sitting on a shelf; and I much prefer Scourges to Reavers for Fast Attack.
Eldar: I haven't used Guardians since my one squad's miserable first-turn death the first game I played, and I've already got so much Heavy Support that I suspect I wouldn't actually use the War Walker.
Grey Knights: No Battleforce. I wish they did have one, at least if it was a ten PAGKS/five Terminators/Razorback sort of thing.
Space Marines: The normal Battleforce isn't that helpful for me since I play Dark Angels and have no use for Assault Marines (which take slots from Ravenwing and Land Speeders) or Scouts (which take slots from Deathwing and Dreadnaughts), but the Ravenwing Battleforce is a pretty darned good option.

Fantasy-wise, the High Elf and Dark Elf Battalions are pretty good; every unit in both is the sort that my builds would actually field.