Is IG Battleforce a Good Start?

[Dark_Templar]

I was just wondering whether a couple of IG Battleforces were a good starting point for an army?

I want an infantry heavy list, with a few tanks, few valks , and a few armoured sentinels.

With these requirements in mind, is this a good starting point, considering the contents and are heavy weapons teams a handy addition?

Any help would be appreciated, as IG are a pretty big financial investment and I would hate to start off on the wrong foot.

Cheers all.

[Eyespy]

I was just wondering whether a couple of IG Battleforces were a good starting point for an army?

I want an infantry heavy list, with a few tanks, few valks , and a few armoured sentinels.


Sounds like a pair of battleforces will get you off on the right foot. Add a HQ box and some Russes and you're on your way to a 1k list.

[sicarius2424]

so basically you want a rounded army of sorts
yes man i would be a good start and i would suggest the heavy weapons heavily because then you lose one of the advantages you have if you dont all other nonimperium armies can't take anything really bigger then the average rifle for said army but make sure you have some men to capture abjectives i just got the battle force my self and i but the infantry towards a platoon (being that i already have ig prior to this) and i didnt give them any heavy weapons i just gave then assualt type special weapons like the grenade launcher s othey could move and shoot if the need arises and they all could shoot out to the max range of 24 in. when they reach their destination
yeah srry about the tangent there i would also sugest at least one leman russ variant a valk is good too i just got one also

well if you dont have any thing else right now i would sugest to equip them like a regular platoon squad then use the command squad as an company command squad then when you get more men you can turn thoose "veterans" into a platoon squad without having to move any men around

[Dark_Templar]

Thanks. I was thinking the two battleforces to start with, get myself another hq, and a LR Ex / Pun to start with, and I might have a start. I am not after a competitive list, just something fun with a good mix but mostly infantry backed up by some mech support.

Cheers, DT.

[sirrouga]

I'll go as far as saying THREE battleforces would be nice if you can afford that many. That is 3 command squads (1 HQ and the other 2 for Infantry Platoons), a total of 60 guardsmen (or 3 infantry squads per troop choice), 9 Heavy Weapon teams (to be split between infantry squads, command squads, and heavy weapon squads), and 3 Sentinels which would be a full squad.

Granted that is a lot to not even get into a tank yet but that will get practically all the troops and command squads you will need til you reach much higher point games.

[Dark_Templar]

I was thinking of getting 6 eventually, but as an initial layout of cash, I would probably only be able to do two, but it would only be a couple of months until the third would be added. Since It would take me forever to assemble and paint the first two boxes, I probably wouldnt get a game in for a long while anyways.

Thanks for the advice all.

[Lord Azaghul]

Speaking form experience I can tell you 6 battle forces will probably be far too many!
I bought 3 (the old ones with tanks). And 2 of the 20 man boxes of troops and 1 command box. To date I have 1 20 box unopened and 1 battle force unopened, and 1 of the 20 box still have 15 unassembled guys. I've also purchased a few basislk and chimeras along the way. I typically play around 1750-2k and I have plents of assembled stuff that doesn't even hit the field most games.

[borginator]

I started a guard army last month. Instead of buying the battleforce I found some guy on ebay selling the individual components of the battleforce. It worked out cheaper in the long run since I bought cheap troops from him and filled out the rest of my force with tanks from bitkingdom. IMO the new battleforces are really not worth the money, well the IG one at least. There was a thread on warseer the other day going over it's value:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231857

By the way bitkingdom has some of the best deals around. For ~$120 I got a Valkyrie, a regular LR and two chimeras

[Limey El'Jonson]

I started a guard army last month. Instead of buying the battleforce I found some guy on ebay selling the individual components of the battleforce. It worked out cheaper in the long run since I bought cheap troops from him and filled out the rest of my force with tanks from bitkingdom. IMO the new battleforces are really not worth the money, well the IG one at least. There was a thread on warseer the other day going over it's value:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231857

By the way bitkingdom has some of the best deals around. For ~$120 I got a Valkyrie, a regular LR and two chimeras

I wouldn't use Bitkingdom. I paid for a Fortress of Redemption in November, and I still haven't seen it.
The service is flaky at best. He forgets about your orders, doesn't ship them for days on end when he DOES have the product, despite repeated phone calls, emails and chats. When I did get a Fortress from my wife for Christmas, I emailed him AND chatted in GMail with him about swapping my order to a Strongpoint. He hasn't ordered the strongpoint, claims to have the individual pieces to make up the strongpoint (ie two bastions and three defense lines) but STILL hasn't shipped.

It's the last time I'm buying anything from him.

[Irdion]

Personally I felt the IG battleforce to be a bit of a gip compared to most. You get enough line guardsmen and a command squad to justify one box (veterans and Company Command), but aside from that I's suggest picking things up individually. Monetary-wise you basically get a free Sentinel or Command Squad with the Battleforce, and that's not nearly as much of a value as something like the Space Marine box.

[TSINI]

From my experience, i'd say yes, i only wish they'd had these boxes around when i started my latest IG army (several years ago now)

The command squad sprues are brilliant, so many nice things for conversions and kit bashing - its a shame i only had acess to one

heavy weapon teams are a must have, even if you don't want many heavy weapon teams - the kneeling legs and empty hands are priceless for kitbashing.
also if you double up on 60mm bases you can double the heavy weapon count from your boxes (the missile launchers/mortars use different legs to the other tripod mounted guns)


When starting an IG army, i'd give the advice: Get the troops done first, have tons of troops painted up and ready to go, then go tank mad - get the russes in.

Troops just take a time commitment, painting 100+ men is a drain on effort - but its the men that make the army look cool. tanks - due to their large surfce areas just need a good lick of paint (i suggest a simple single colour instead of camoflage, looks more realistic) and some detailing.

[Aldramelech]

Goodbye

[Melissia]

This box set contains 29 multi-part plastic miniatures, including: one Cadian Command Squad, 20 Cadian Shock Troops, three Cadian Heavy Weapon Teams and one Sentinel.

That is enough for a platoon with HW squad, and a sentinel. Two of these, a CCS packge, and a russ or two would put you on the right track.

[Vorlon]

The IG Battleforce is a great start but it also saves you like $15-20 (I forgot the exact amount) opposed to busying all the models individually. I bought one a couple weeks ago to bolster my fledgling army. Only down side is most IG builds are vet heavy so the battleforce wont help you much in that department.


PS....the box makes a great primer tray!!!!

[TSINI]

Having one crew member standing and one kneeling is a great way of doing this.


This,

also remember missile launchers don't have to be fired kneeling (most of mine are standing) lying down loaders/spotters look cool. i've even collapsed one of my autocannons as if it's being packed up for relocating - this way you can make both the guner and loader standing, saving those awesome kneeling legs for other things.

Buying things in small parts Does make the pile less intimidating, But on the flip side, buying Tons of stuff gives you access to tons of BITZ

for example, when building my inantry, i used all sorts of bits from the tank accessory sprues (thos standing still legs are awesome for commanders / surveying infantry.)

also i forgot to add, i too think any more than 2/3 boxes would be a waste. 2 boxes is a great start, 3 is a full army (minus tanks) 4 is moving into apocalypse sized game territory.

[Melissia]

It could help you actually. If you have two boxes, you can have two command squads and four vet squads, and a couple sentinels to round it out. Just do a bit of fiddling around with the models and all. You'd have to figure out where to put the heavy weapons teams though, but that shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Even a force of veterans can benefit from a platoon with a few heavy weapons squads.

[Dark_Templar]

Thanks all, I appreciate the input.

Have found where I will be making the purchases, now just need to buy more of the FW conversion parts (didn't buy enough the first time round).

DT.

[therealjohnny5]

Personally I felt the IG battleforce to be a bit of a gip compared to most. You get enough line guardsmen and a command squad to justify one box (veterans and Company Command), but aside from that I's suggest picking things up individually. Monetary-wise you basically get a free Sentinel or Command Squad with the Battleforce, and that's not nearly as much of a value as something like the Space Marine box.

agreed...ebay is the way to go if you can. i recently scored the old SM Battleforce with the LR, Vindi, WW, and all that goodness for mad cheap. it's worth it.

[scadugenga]

Personally I felt the IG battleforce to be a bit of a gip compared to most. You get enough line guardsmen and a command squad to justify one box (veterans and Company Command), but aside from that I's suggest picking things up individually. Monetary-wise you basically get a free Sentinel or Command Squad with the Battleforce, and that's not nearly as much of a value as something like the Space Marine box.

Most of the battleforce box sets have devolved into crap.

(IG, Eldar, Nid I'm looking at you.) At least (go figure) the SM BF is somewhat usable/plausible.

Sure, on paper you get more bang for your buck, but a lot of what's in there doesn't seem worth it.

And I"m still missing the 20 guard box set and 16 guardian box set days...

[scadugenga]

dp