Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What's up,
Ready to take the plunge back into war gaming. Still stimuli between 40k or AOS but I'm narrowing my options. So I've looked at all the start collecting and recently the battleforces. Was decided on the sylaneth Battleforce but it's all but non existent now, so between stormcast and ironjawz battleforces. Are these good places to start or is the model count too low? Appreciate any advice.

Thanks

Don't actually know what's in it, but as long as they have 2 battle line choices you should be fine. The big thing is a lot of the time your battle line choices tend to do more work then your big bad elites.

If you build both Revenant kits as Tree Revenants, you'd have 2 battleline.

Ah ok, well, by no means would you be getting a bad deal if you bought the battle force, in fact i think the deal is like crazy good, and one of the best values to buy. BUT point wise and army wise you would probably be in a better spot with 2 getting started boxes.

At least thats how it is for slaves to darkness

How does everyone feel about sigmar's vengeance? Celestant prime looks like a big target.

I play Sylvaneth and Tomb Kings, so my experience with Ironjawz, Khorne Bloodbound and Stormcasts is pretty limited. Before I talk about any of those boxes though I want to say that I would strongly advise you NOT to pick a faction based on battleforces and what not. You are going to spend a lot of time painting and playing with these models, so I'd suggest picking the faction that you like the most (based on whatever combination of flavor, aesthetics, and gameplay that you find important).

That being said, I have a few thoughts about the actual sets.

1. Stormcasts: Between the battleforce, start collecting, and base game boxes, you won't have any trouble getting your money's worth. The basic starter set and start collecting set give you a decent amount of battleline models and are kinda meant to go together as the 3 retributors from the base set and 2 retributors from the SC box combine to make a legal min sized retributors unit for matched play. The battleforce box also works, but I'm not really sure if it's as good of a starting point because the Celestant-Prime is a bit gimmicky. Both the base set + SC box and the battleforce box clock in at around 1100 points each, but with the battleforce box a lot is tied up in just a couple of models.

2. Khorne Bloodbound: Similar to Stormcasts in terms of value, but you have even more options here as Khorne Bloodbound also combine with Slaves to Darkness and Khorne Daemons. The main boxed set and start collecting box combined also clocks in at 1100 points and gives you tons of battleline. The battleforce box is a bit lighter though on points (even though it's a ton of models), providing only 860ish points.

3. Ironjawz: The battleforce here is a good deal and compliments then start collecting box nicely, but it's a bit weird as the giant doesn't actually work in matched play with the ironjawz units that you have. Ironjawz units are only battleline if you take ONLY Ironjawz, and the giant is actually not technically Ironjawz. So you'd need to have a destruction allegiance instead and would then need some basic destruction battleline units. That said, the box is still a decent value even without the giant. You'd probably want to supplement it though. I'd also caution you that Ironjawz are very one-dimensional as an army. If you like running in and bashing face then they are a great choice, but know that is what you will be doing in pretty much every game!

4. Sylvaneth: Yes, it will be harder to find a battleforce. You can still get them on ebay though. The battleforce is a fantastic deal, but I'm not totally sold on it as a stand alone force mainly because I'm not a huge fan of revenants. They aren't terrible, but I do think dryads are a lot better. Honestly though one battleforce and two start collecting boxes will give you a huge force of Sylvaneth to work with, allowing you to field almost anything that you'd want for a game 2000 points or less.

Thanks that was exactly what I was looking for.

In sylvaneth what's the preference? Dryads or revenants & why?

Thanks again

 Deus Mortis wrote:
In sylvaneth what's the preference? Dryads or revenants & why?

Thanks again

From what I have read, Dryads are the preferred main battleline due to versatility. The advice I was given was to use Dryads like a hammer, hitting whatever needs to be held up. Use Tree Revenants as a scalpel, warping around the board with their pan pipes to take out artillery and weak hero units dumb enough to stay near Wyldwoods or the board edge.

I think both Dryads and Tree-Revenants have uses. The main problem with Tree-Revenants are that they are 20 points per model for models with 1 wound and a 5+ save. They hit harder than Dryads but are very prone to getting shot off the board. The main advantage is their mobility, which is useful if there is a nice squishy target for them to ambush.

Dryads are much cheaper per model and can be quite tough for line troops, particularly if kept near a wyldwood. Dryads are still on the expensive side for battleline though and really need to be in units of 20+ for maximum effect.