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I think I got the answer but wanted to confirm. The IG battle force box is a legal army right out of the box is it not?
From what I looked up in the codex it would appear so but I wanna confirm.

Legal yes, But I am not sure about how useful it is.

From that box you do have your HQ, and 2 troops. So it is a good start to your army. If you run the troops as veterans, it may be close enough to filling out your army pretty well.

If you ran the command squad as a CCS and the infantry squads as veterans you could make a legal force. But you wouldn't be able to use the HWS IIRC.

If you want to use every model, no its not a legal army. You have the bare bones of a single infantry platoon and a fast attack choice. You would need to add an HQ and another troop to make it legal.

Yes, technically you can use the models as an HQ + 2x veteran squads. However, you don't have enough weapon upgrades (melta/plasma) to arm them properly, or the Chimeras/Vendettas that veterans and gun CCS require to be useful. If you do it that way even people who are limited to other battleforces will probably beat you easily.

Basically the only battleforce that contained a legal army was the old Tau battleforce. And can still make a legal army out of the new one that isn't horrible.

OK I need too get to grips with the codex more then.
Its a bit misleading really of you check the box inventory against the codex it looks like you would have company command squad then 2x troops. Having said that I only just saw the footnote in the codex stating that an infantry squad can only be taken as part of a platoon, so now the codex makes much more sense.

I know it wouldn't be much of a fighting force if it was
Legal but I was looking at the battle force as a simple way to get a legal base down for my IG attachment that will be for my space wolf primary army, rather than round up a load of individual models separately

Ahh, if you are just making an allied list all you need is one HQ as allies only require 1 troop choice.

You need to buy three chimeras and some heavy support to make it workable. You can convert some lasguns into plasma guns/meltaguns using a nice guide in the tutorials section or you can buy some off of ebay for a mint. The Sentinel is useless, though, and once you subtract it you are really paying full retail for all squads. As for the HWT, just make em all Lascannon guys and stick em in your vet squads.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Ahh, if you are just making an allied list all you need is one HQ as allies only require 1 troop choice.

Yeah eventually it'd be a force in its own right but it is to start as attachment :-)
I might just go buy individual sets of HQ/troops etc then, sounds like it wouldn't work out much better/worse either way I did it.

Are sentianals any good as a full squad?

No. If you want you can throw a few cheap sentinals in a mech list but don't expect them to do much.

They can be an ok suicide outflanking unit. Come on the board, shoot a vehicle in the side with autocannons and then distract the enemy as they die.

So you only in fact get enough parts in a "Imperial Guard Cadian Shock Troops" (or the catachan version) box to make 5 full guys? But need 10 total dudes for an infantry squad?

This is gonna get expensive in a hurry

Nope, a Box of Cadian Shocks includes enough stuff for 10 guys.

tommse wrote:
Nope, a Box of Cadian Shocks includes enough stuff for 10 guys.

10 full guys, armed etc? That's not to bad then lol I just got the impression from gw website it was only good for 5

Armed with gak. It only comes with the two least useful special weapons, and no heavy weapons.

Well there are only Lasguns, Laspistols, Flamers, Grenade Launchers and Chainswords included, no special stuff for your veterans. But enough legs for 10 guys. Some more extra heads, arms and maybe even torsos.
Btw there is a pack with 5 snap-fit guys for roundabout 8€.

 Xiorell wrote:

tommse wrote:
Nope, a Box of Cadian Shocks includes enough stuff for 10 guys.

10 full guys, armed etc? That's not to bad then lol I just got the impression from gw website it was only good for 5

There are two different guardsmen boxes (well, four since Cadians and Catachans each have both). One is a ten-man box with lasguns for all but also bits to make vox, sergeants, and flamers and grenade launchers. The other one is a five-man box, nonposable snap-fits, with no options, but cheaper model for model.

Back when I started in the game guardsmen came in boxes of 20. The current ten-man set is just that set cut in half.

Ya know, this is starting to sound like more hassle than its worth. I assume then that to acquire any special weapons for a an infantry/veteran squad would involve spending money on other models you didn't necessarily want just for the sake of a few weapons?

This really pisses me off with space wolf boxes - melta guns as options in the codex but not a single one to be seen on the sprues, so then it's a case of ordering off eBay, trading with people or buying other stuff. It does rattle my balls somewhat

Special weapon options are indeed poorly provided, at least for the more customizable units, which would include Guard and all non-Grey Knights Marines. Other options beyond those you listed are scratch-building, proxying, and buying weapon sets from GW (they sell sets of 5 melta and plasma on the website under bitz/weapons).

Every time this comes up, I feel compelled to plug Wargames Factory. Their troopers look great, are way cheaper than GW, and have a full set of weapon options if you're OK with them not looking especially like GW melta or plasma. They also have a kit featuring heavy weapon platforms and commander models.

I've scratch build a few combi weapons before but I really think, if its in the codex for said unit then there should be at least 1 per box, its not as if we don't spend enough on this stuff.

Anyway, as far as the IG battle force goes I might just buy that tomorrow and a primaris Psyker and call it a job done for now

I wouldn't recommend the Primaris. CCS is fantastic. There are three really crucial orders for Guard (FRFSRF, Bring it Down, Fire on my Target) and PCS only has access to FRFSRF of those. Also the grunts in the CCS are vets and can all take special weapons. I like to run it with a Master of Ordnance (aka the 35-point Basilisk) and 4 flamer vets (aka Just Try Charging Me). Lord Commissars are also good HQs, but for a small auxiliary I think a CCS is by far the best choice.

Eh, the CCS is okay but you can stick a Lord Commissar in a Plasma Vet squad and get something with better leadership, durability and almost the same amount of plasma. And can score to boot.

The CCS orders aren't terribly good for a mech list. Veterans are mostly defensive units and you want to leave the killing to your big guns. If you are playing foot horde, though, a CCS is awesome.

CCS + lascannon HWS is pretty boss. Either TL your shots against vehicles/MCs or give enemy Terminators (or high value power armor) two chances to fail a cover save.. The only snag is that the order will be misunderstood close to half the time.

He's looking at a battlebox + HQ, and I think running the battlebox as an infantry platoon, with lascannons on the HWTs (do they even come with lascannons?) and a second command squad to be the CCS would be a good choice for an ally detachment. It lets him spread out and cover multiple objectives while his SW get up in the enemy's grill.

Pretty accurate idea of what I'm doing Bludbaff. To start with I'm making them as an allied force only, for access to some of that IG artillery and vendettas (I need an excuse for more models lol)

Then as time goes on I'll grow the IG into a whole army of its own, I like IG models anyway.