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I hate the fact then when you buy a battle force for pretty much any 40k army they dont give you a Commander a lot of times
Honestly we the gamers have certain things we want to see happen
If we pay 90dollars for a starter set how about giving us a LEGAL army
I noticed that with the CSM battle force and the Ork one that they don't give Generals
Come one Citadel make my wish come true
Give us a playable army

Thats not the way i see it.

Whats a battle force?

A) is it a starter army?

B) is it a booster army ?

I think people buy them for both.
if you use it as starter army , need to buy extra HQ.
If you want to boost your existing army would you want
to be left with bunch of extra HQ?

I think its better this way.

It's easy to buy a commander with the Battle Force for a first time purpose of that army. If they included a commander in the Battle Forces (which would then come at an increased pricecost, or less of another model), you'd end up with multiples of the same commander if you want flesh out your army with more Battle Force boxes.

But yeah, some armies have it easier I guess, like Tyranids, who's Battle Force contains Warriors which can be used as either a HQ or an Elite (or even a Fast Attack if you wing it).

Edit: beaten to it by Luna

I think the tyranid battleforce is the best battleforce actually. I already have two of them. However, if they took a carnifex out and put in a hive tyrant/broodlord, I wouldnt need to buy anymore of them. Id rather have the carnifex and pay an extra 60 for the tyrant.

New playas probably just want the troops to go with the HQ that they have ALREADY picked out. Unless special characters should be given away with battle forces now.

The ravenwing battleforce has an hq and so does tyranids.

Why did I buy my battlebox, I think there's actually a mathematical formula that explains it.
Something along the lines of...

Firewarrior box - 35.00
+ Kroot box - 35.00
+ Steathsuits - 20.00
+ Xv8 suit - 20.00
+ Devilfish - 35.00
= Total - 145.00 (not including tax)

1x Battleforce box = 90.00

What you need but didnt get:
1x Tau Codex - 22.00
1x Xv8 Commander - 30.00
= Total - 52.00

You end up with about 3.00 to spare buying a battlebox, so just go buy your commander (or convert him from that xv8 you've got) and get a cheap lunch while you're out.

I think someone pointed out earlier that you also dont end up with multiple codecies and commaners with the battleforces boxed this way. I personally plan to buy a couple more for the overall value vs buying what I need individually, then bartering with the extra stuff or using it for conversion practice.

I'm not sure how they're making money on battleboxes... so lets just keep this quiet

bobert wrote:
I'm not sure how they're making money on battleboxes... so lets just keep this quiet

Ummm, maybe it is the fact that GW is selling little plastic men for $30+ a box. Seems like their plastic is made out of gold.....


I can go to the Dollar Tree and buy a whole bag of green army men for $1.00, so you see, it is not hard to figure out how they make their money.

I was annoyed at first that Battleforce box's didn't have HQs or really enough points to get up to 500 (depending on the box) but then I thought about it and really realized they're just an economical way to get a lot of the units you will most likely need.

The Tau box is great though.

Two of those is a killer start on an army.

I don't like the SM Battleforce though.

The Space Marine Battle Force is great. You get a combat squad, which you can make into a devastator squad with ease, or even just add them to another combat squad... It is a shame, though, that Command squads can't be ten models strong for gaming purposes, but it makes sense background wise...

Copy and pasted from a post of mine in another thread.

Tau
36 models
12x Tau Fire Warriors
12x Kroot Carnivores
1x Tau XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
3x Tau XV25 Stealth Suits
6x Tau Gun Drones
1x Tau Markerlight Drone
1x Tau Devilfish

Tyranids
31 models
3x Tyranid Warriors
8x Tyranid Genestealers
3x Ripper Swarms
8x Tyranid Termagants
8x Tyranid Hormagaunts
1x Tyranid Carnifex

Space Marines
26 models
10x Tactical Space Marines
5x Combat Space Marines
5x Assault Space Marines
5x Space Marines Scouts
1x Space Marines Rhino

Orks
24 models
20x Ork Boyz
3x Ork Warbikes
1x Ork Trukk

Necrons
38 models
28x Necron Warriors
7x Necron Scarab Swarms
3x Necron Destroyers

Imperial Guard
30 models
1x Imperial Guard Cadian Command Squad
1x Imperial Guard Cadian Officer
1x Imperial Guard Cadian Medic
1x Imperial Guard Cadian Special Weapon Trooper
1x Imperial Guard Cadian Vox-Caster
1x Imperial Guard Cadian Guardsman with Company Banner
20x Imperial Guard Cadian Shock Troops
3x Imperial Guard Cadian Heavy Weapon Teams
1x Imperial Guard Sentinel

Eldar
18 models
10x Eldar Guardians
5x Eldar Dire Avengers
1x Eldar Wave Serpent Grav Tank
1x Eldar War Walker
1x Eldar Heavy Weapon Platform

Dark Eldar
26 models and jungle trees terrain
20x Dark Eldar Warriors
5x Dark Eldar Reaver Jetbikes
1x Dark Eldar Raider
1x Jungle Trees set

Chaos Space Marines
29 models
15x Chaos Space Marines
8x Khorne Berzerkers
5x Possessed Chaos Space Marines
1x Chaos Space Marines Rhino


They used to be more that could be usable straight out of the box, but not any more >_>
IG, Tau and Tyranids are the only ones that are usable straight away. But, it seems that those boxes are there just to add to an existing army or give new players a kick start after they have brought their HQ.

Also Dark Eldar are the only ones that still come with the jungle trees. Why did they take that out of the Tau one?

LunaHound wrote:
Whats a battle force?

A) is it a starter army?

B) is it a booster army ?

This is spot-on. I think the battle force has more traction as Option B rather than A, though.

[quote=stonedv8
Ummm, maybe it is the fact that GW is selling little plastic men for $30+ a box. Seems like their plastic is made out of gold.....


I can go to the Dollar Tree and buy a whole bag of green army men for $1.00, so you see, it is not hard to figure out how they make their money.

Dashofpepper wrote:What's REALLY sad is that their business model is so horrendous that they are having trouble maintaining a profit margin...

That is true and utterly obscene. The only trait more trenchantly characteristic of GW than its lack of business acumen is its tremendous stubbornness. The saving grace for GW is that its consumers are even more stubborn and financially incompetent than them.

Is that the reason why they see rising prices as a solution for nearly any problem that comes their way?

Yes. Any problem that can't be resolved with a new SM Codex will be taken care of by higher prices.

I don't mind it. I figure if you can afford a Battleforce ($130 Canadian when I worked for GW, and before I left for Germay, so I don't know what it is after the Canada/US price equalization), then you can afford a $14-$20 commander.

I see your point about a complete army, though. It's just that most armies don't have plastic commanders yet, and that's what a battleforce is: all plastic.

n0t_u wrote:Tyranids
28 models
3x Tyranid Warriors
8x Tyranid Genestealers
8x Tyranid Termagants
8x Tyranid Hormagaunts
1x Tyranid Carnifex

And 3 Ripper Swarms! :3

Yeah I just copied and pasted it originally from Maelstrom, either they don't mention them or I missed them XD

Oooh, I know!

Subject lines that don't really tell you what the thread is about!

Battleforces don't come with an HQ because most older HQs were metal. Battleforces are all plastic.

I like the feedback from this thread
Its good stuff to think about
I can see why they are booster armies and I can see why they don't have commanders
But then they really shouldn't tell newbies like me that I can play right out of the box (which i can) but who wants to spend another $20 for a commander when I just shelled out a little over $140(paints, glue, primer, and said battleforce) just to get started
I think GW Citadel whatever needs to get their stuff together
Its a great hobby I love it to death but these prices kill my wallet
And yeah its like there plastic is gold.
They should just rename battle forces to Booster Set or Reinforcements something in the nature of that because (except for Tau and Tyranids) you don't get a 'legal army'
Ahhh I love 40k

Oh noes, GW doesn't sell an entire army for $100!

JohnHwangDD wrote:Oh noes, GW doesn't sell an entire army for $100!

lol adding to sig.

DragQueenMarine wrote:
They should just rename battle forces to Booster Set or Reinforcements something in the nature of that because (except for Tau and Tyranids) you don't get a 'legal army'
Ahhh I love 40k

And guard, if you're careful with your choices...

Buy 3 battleforces, you've got some solid win there...

CCS w/medic, standard, vox, Heavy Flamer

2x Platoon of 4-flamer PCS, 2x guard squad with grenade launchers and vox,

3x Heavy weapons squad (chuck 'em in the platoons somewhere),

1 scout sentinel squadron, complete,

two veteran squads w/3 special weapons (melta vets, plasma vets, much?)



EDIT: One box makes a legal force too, but its fething awful.

Thanks I'll think about that the next time I have $300 to spend hahaha