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I just started 40k this summer and I've been hearing a lot of talk about annual Christmas special box sets from GW. I was wondering what they have been in the past or any information on them at all really

They are essentially larger versions of the army boxes you get for each army.

Last year, they did two for 40K (and two for fantasy), with the 40K versions being Dark Eldar and Space Marines




Sold for US$ 215,-

Anyone's guess whether or not they do something like this again and if, for what armies.

If they do it, you will likely not get it for the newest releases (Christmas 2011 had Necrons just released, but they did the older Dark Eldar instead).

They often save you a little bit of money as well. Rarely a new kit will be launched for the holidays, like the Fortress of Redemption.

Theyre good, but not all the models are good for gaming, so I usually stay away

Yeah, excellent value for the price, but from a competitive standpoint its a crapshoot. GW has the annoying habit of thinking suboptimal units are just awsome.

Case in point, the Space Marine Megaforce.

Captain and Command Squad.

2 Tac squads.

Dreadnought

Drop Pod

Land Raider Redeemer.

Scout squad with LSS.




Captains and Command squads are meh HQs compared to Librarians and Chaplains. Yet GW seems to have a fetish for them.

2 Tac squads. This is ok.

Venerable Dreadnought in Drop Pod. This is good.

LRR. Again, its an ok unit.

Scout squad in LSS. Ok unit. Not as great now, but in 5th it was ok.


So pretty meh from a competitive standpoint.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Yeah, excellent value for the price, but from a competitive standpoint its a crapshoot. GW has the annoying habit of thinking suboptimal units are just awsome.

It's more that they want to sell cool models than anything else. It's a problem that the battleforces share, and unless you really want most of the stuff in the box it's generally not worth it.

Some BFs are better then others.

The SM one is ok. The Eldar one is terrible. The Tau one is pretty good. The Space Wolf one has flexability. The IG one is ok. The Chaos one is bad. The ork one is good. The Tyranid one is bad. etc...

Question- do the army boxes have the normal sprues that you'd get if you bough the stuff separately?

BairdEC wrote:
Question- do the army boxes have the normal sprues that you'd get if you bough the stuff separately?

You will get everything you need to build what it says comes in the box. But GW will never give anything away for free...for instance the Ork Boyz box comes with enough bits to make them all Shoota Boyz or all Slugga/Choppa Boyz...but I'm pretty sure the Battleforce box comes with just enough bits to make 10 of each, (i.e. you wont get all the extra weapons/arms you would get had you purchased two boxes of 10 Boyz).

BairdEC wrote:
Question- do the army boxes have the normal sprues that you'd get if you bough the stuff separately?

I believe so. I doubt that it would be economical for them to set the sprues up in any other way.

I'm sure the DE battleforce came with the same sprues as they do in the individual box.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Some BFs are better then others.

The SM one is ok. The Eldar one is terrible. The Tau one is pretty good. The Space Wolf one has flexability. The IG one is ok. The Chaos one is bad. The ork one is good. The Tyranid one is bad. etc...

Hey Grey Templar, is the Island of Nunya, anywhere near San Luis Obispo, CA? Your avatar bears a striking resemblance to a certain horse mascot we Cal Poly grads know as "Musty."

 Fango wrote:

You will get everything you need to build what it says comes in the box. But GW will never give anything away for free...for instance the Ork Boyz box comes with enough bits to make them all Shoota Boyz or all Slugga/Choppa Boyz...but I'm pretty sure the Battleforce box comes with just enough bits to make 10 of each, (i.e. you wont get all the extra weapons/arms you would get had you purchased two boxes of 10 Boyz).

I don't think that's the case. The sprues come with options for both:

Battleforces and the like contain exactly the same bits as you'd get in a regular box. They don't cut down the sprues or do anything silly like that.

The nice thing about the Space Marines boxes, at least, is that even if you don't want to field the individual models as what they are (especially the HQ/Command squad), they're still made up of Space Marine parts that fit in with all the others. While this wasn't always true when the Megaforces would include metal minis, it is now really easy to simply use those Captain/Command bits to make more interesting-looking sergeants, veterans, etc.

That's always been one of the benefits of the plastic Space Marines: near universal compatibility within the range (and the Chaos range as well). Makes my Eldar heart rage with jealousy.

 Magc8Ball wrote:
The nice thing about the Space Marines boxes, at least, is that even if you don't want to field the individual models as what they are (especially the HQ/Command squad), they're still made up of Space Marine parts that fit in with all the others. While this wasn't always true when the Megaforces would include metal minis, it is now really easy to simply use those Captain/Command bits to make more interesting-looking sergeants, veterans, etc.

That's always been one of the benefits of the plastic Space Marines: near universal compatibility within the range (and the Chaos range as well). Makes my Eldar heart rage with jealousy.

This is a very good point; while the Space Marine Captain box set is showing its age, the bits in it can make a bunch of sergeants in your army very cool, with combi-weapons, heads, and close combat weapons.

 Fango wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Some BFs are better then others.

The SM one is ok. The Eldar one is terrible. The Tau one is pretty good. The Space Wolf one has flexability. The IG one is ok. The Chaos one is bad. The ork one is good. The Tyranid one is bad. etc...

Hey Grey Templar, is the Island of Nunya, anywhere near San Luis Obispo, CA? Your avatar bears a striking resemblance to a certain horse mascot we Cal Poly grads know as "Musty."

It will be in a few days. Currently its a little farther north

I don't think that's the case. The sprues come with options for both:

Battleforces and the like contain exactly the same bits as you'd get in a regular box. They don't cut down the sprues or do anything silly like that.