Age of Sigmar: Ranking The Holiday 2024 Battleforces
It’s time to rank the upcoming Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Battleforce Boxes coming from Games Workshop. Who’s going to come out on top?
Since we know what the price points are and how many points are in the box it’s time to do some power rankings for these boxed sets. This is a tough one because there’s going to be a lot of debate on what’s “good” in the box. While it’s easy to say “not all of the Battleforce boxes are built equally” it’s harder to quantify. So, to do that, we’re going to look at the overall savings, how many points you’re getting, and the “wow factor” aka the centerpiece model from the boxes.
First we’re going to rate each one individually and then we’ll give them an overall power-rank them at the end. Let’s dive in.
Ironjawz Battleforce: Wrekkamob
Total Savings Rank: $85 = #4
Total Points Rank: 860 = #4
Wow Factor: #1 – Tuskboss on Maw-grunta
The Ironjawz box comes in last place for both “total dollar value” and total points. But the Maw-grunta is the biggest and most impressive miniature out of everything in the Battleforce Boxes this season. Only the Ironweld Great Cannon comes close in size.
Flesh-eater Courts Battleforce: Charnelgrand Jury
Total Savings Rank: $94 = #3
Total Points Rank: 870 = #3
Wow Factor: #4 – Grand Justice Gormayne / Morbheg Knights
Just barely more of a value than the Ironjawz and literally 10 points more in the box than them, too, The Flesh-eater Courts box isn’t coming in too hot. Additionally, there’s really not a miniature in here that screams for your attention to me. It’s kind of a toss-up between Grand Justice Gormayne’s “mane” and the Morbheg Knights. I might be biased here though because I have two other Death armies…
Cities of Sigmar Battleforce: Founding Foray
Total Savings: $104 = #1
Total Points: 920 = #2
Wow Factor: = #3 Ironweld Great Cannon / Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk
The Cities of Sigmar box is the best value of the batch in terms of raw dollar amount. It’s also pretty good on the points rank, too. However, I’m struggling to really pick out an individual miniature that grabs my eyes. Honestly, this is one of the things I about the Cities of Sigmar that you’ll either love or hate. As a cohesive force they look great together. It’s a “real army” type of vibe. But there’s just not a ton of individuality here. The cannon and the Fusil-Major are neat but only because they stand out from the rest by so much.
Maggotkin of Nurgle: Shudderblight Cyst
Total Savings Rank: $103 = #2
Total Points Rank: 990 = #1
Wow Factor: #2 – Harbinger of Decay
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Harbinger of Decay is one of the coolest miniature GW ever made. If it was a bigger miniature it could probably have challenged that Tuskboss for the #1 spot — but it’s still just a dude on a horse. He looks sick and really sticks out for this army.
In the other categories, this Battleforce Box is only $1 behind the Cities of Sigmar back and it the best point value of the lot. There’s no arguing those ranks.
Power Ranking the Battleforce Boxes
Before we dive into the rankings just a quick reminder that we’re not basing these ranks on rules. We’ve got no testing of these miniatures on the tabletop and we haven’t even scratched the surface on the usefulness of the miniatures. The fact is that these boxes are all roughly 1/2 of a 2000 army. And that other half of any list will make a HUGE impact on how these units perform. All of these boxes are solid entry points for their respective army. But don’t equate these rankings to how well the will do on the tabletop in a vacuum.
#1 Maggotkin of Nurgle: Shudderblight Cyst
With high marks for all three categories the Shudderblight Cyst is the top Battleforce Box of 2024. It’s only a dollar less in value than the Cites of Sigmar box, has more points in it, and has a better overall “Wow Factor” miniature. That’s why it’s taking our top rank.
#2 Cities of Sigmar Battleforce: Founding Foray
Being the top dog in savings and the second most point effective box, the Cities of Sigmar Battleforce was poised to do well. Even though the “Wow Factor” is lacking. Again, this is an army that looks good together as a cohesive force. I know I wasn’t going to delve into the rules either but this one might just be the most effective fighting force right out of the box. Based on the three categories though we had to put this one at #2.
#3 Ironjawz Battleforce: Wrekkamob
The Tusk-boss here is doing a LOT of the heavy lifting. But, to the Ironjawz credit, they are only ranked #4 in dollar value by $9 and are only rank #4 on points by a measly 10. Because they were so close to the Flesh-eater courts in those stats and because they got the best miniature from the lot, we had to put them above the Flesh-eater Courts.
#4 Flesh-eater Courts Battleforce: Charnelgrand Jury
Because of their relatively weak spots overall, the Flesh-eater Courts are coming in last for our Power Rankings. But again, I need to reiterate that it does not mean this is a weak battleforce or army option overall. In fact, the Flesh-eater Courts have some nasty tricks and this box can play into those. It’s really going to depend on what you spend the other 1130 points on for this army.
