Warhammer 40K: Balefleet Battleforce Pricing Breakdown
We know the contents and the price. So how does the new Balefleet Battleforce stack-up price wise? Time to do some napkin math.
The Arks of Omen event is sparking the arrival of chaos Balefleets across the galaxy. With promises of power and heretical technology up for grabs chaos pirates are living their best life right now. So if you’re looking to kick off a chaos army of your own GW has a few products you might be interested in. One of which is the new Balefleet Battleforce.
We’ve already tackled this box from a points perspective. Today, we’re taking a look at how it stacks up vs your wallet. It’s time for a pricing breakdown of the Balefleet Battleforce box.
Balefleet Battleforce Pricing Breakdown
5 Chaos Space Marine Terminators – $60
Individual MSRP: $340
Total Savings: $340 – $210 = $130
Based on the US Dollar amount you’re saving the box is basically paying for those two units of Possessed. It’s kind of funny that this particular box is also inline with the Holiday Battleforce pricing. Perhaps this is a late Christmas present for chaos players out there. However you slice it, it’s good discount vs the individual MSRP of those boxes. Again, based on the point breakdown, you’ll get roughly 745 points in Chaos Space Marines + wargear. It’s a good chunk of an army. There’s also the Chaos Boarding Patrol coming out soon which includes Abaddon and more basic troops — not a bad addition to this batch of units.
Balefleet Battleforce Next Steps?
Well, if you’re rocking the Arks of Omen Detachment, you’ve got lots of options. You can always pop over to the latest munitorum field manual and point out a list these days. This box basically checks all the boxes already — you’ve got an HQ with the Daemon Prince and 3 Elites slots filled with two units of 5 Possessed and a unit of 5 Chaos Terminators. The Heldrake takes up one flyer spot, too.
The Chaos Boarding Patrol (as mentioned) is a nice bolt-on addition. That’s another 540 points and tags troops slots and adds in Abaddon. It might not be out just yet but there’s no reason you can’t plan on snagging one of those, too. From there, you’ll probably want to fill out the troops with more Chaos Cultists or Chaos Space Marines. Personally, I’d go with more power armor but that’s just me. Alternatively, you could lean into the heavy armor/elites you’ve already got and fill those options out.
Regardless of what you choose at this point you’ve got a lot of boots on the ground — so how are you going to get them where they need to get? You could opt for Rhinos but with Chaos Terminators a Land Raider could be pretty effective. I’d also look at snagging a Chaos Sorcerer just for some psychic shenanigans as well.
If you’re just looking for more bodies quickly, the Chaos Space Marine Combat Patrol isn’t a bad option either. That set will add the following:
1x Dark Apostle – 95 points (includes 2x Dark Disciples)
2x Dark Disciples
1x Helbrute – 105 + wargear
5x Havocs – 125 – wargear
10x Chaos Space Marines – 180 + wargear
Total Points: 505 + wargear
If you just bought those three boxes you’d actually have a pretty good mix of Chaos units. Points-wise you’re looking at 745 + 630 + 505 + wargear for a point total of 1880. Now, you’re light on vehicles and have a whole lot of footsloggers so consider yourself warned. Rhinos are 80 points each while a Land Raider is 265. You could make some cuts but if you don’t you’re still looking at a very basic “meat-and-potatoes” chaos list. Would this be very competitive? Honestly — not in the current meta. It’s going to struggle with some of the heavy hitters out there.
For example, what would this do against a Knight army? If you’re counting on your Havocs to do all the heavy lifting then you’ve never built that kit (psst, you won’t have enough of any one specific gun like…melta or lascannons). So, if I were building out this list, I probably would skip on the Combat Patrol for now.
Personally, if I was committed to using the Balefleet box, I’d go with a Land Raider and more Chaos Terminators. It’s a lot of points but you can really make them the utility unit you’ll need to do stuff. I’d probably still keep the Boarding Action box because I like Abaddon in this list and the extra bodies are good for objective holding. That means I would want to find a way to max out the Chaos Space Marine Legionaries just to have a unit of 10.
The List
HQ
Abaddon – 350
Daemon Prince – 120
Elites
10 Possessed – 280
5 Chaos Space Marine Terminators – 180
5 Chaos Space Marine Terminators – 180
Troops
10x Chaos Legionaries – 180
20x Cultists Mob – 100
Flyers
Heldrake – 165
Heavy Support
Land Raider – 265
Total: 1820 points + wargear
There’s still a lot of wiggle room for points there but this is a well rounded list. Still, I think it could use some more tweaks as it does a little bit of everything but maybe not enough of anything in particular to be “meta” — but I leave those lists for Goatboy. For me, this looks like a pretty fun list to play and play against. So…mission accomplished!
The face of a man who enjoys “fun” lists.
What do you think of the Balefleet Battleforce? What would you add to it if you were building out this army?
