Saw a Starclaw strikehost box for sale today, and assume it is an older ruleset formations in a box? Is that box a good buy all in all, rules wise?
Depends on the price you can get it at (I got mine early January for $145, would grab a second if I could find one anywhere NEAR that price). But, generally, it is a great value. 2 sets of rippers ($120), a bastiladon ($60), 24 skinks ($35), a starpriest ($20), and a troglodon/carnosaur (~$85). All told about $320 in value. I think there is a casual play rule insert where you can use the whole box as a battalion (I may be wrong about this), but generally I find that it's a great deal due to the fact that you can run a Shadowstrike Starhost (1 of our 2 best battalions) with it right out of the gate. I'd say look at what you are likely to use from the box, and if it is under the price of buying everything you'd use separately, pull the trigger and get it. Personally, I wanted to run Shadowstrike, and eventually transition into a summoning force, and this was the perfect way for me to start building those lists.
Can you build either Rippers or Terradons from the box? I held off on buying one solely because it specifically mentions on the back 1 x Terradons and 1 x Rippers.
The sprues included allow you to build either Terradons or Rippers. I think to run the "for fun" battalion included, you may need one of each, but you certainly don't need to build it that way. I went with 6x rippers personally. Similarly, you can do a Trog/Scarvet on foot, or a Carnosaur build. Up to you really.
As I said to the other guy, it's worth it if you can get $180 worth of use outta it. So, if you wanna run Saurus or Eternal starhost, it's probably not for you. However, it should be fairly easy to get that much use since it includes some of our strongest units (Rippers, Bast, Skinks, Star Priest). Personally, I'd snap one up in a heartbeat for 180. The way I'd see it, is I want 2 boxes of rippers and a Bast anyways, so I am getting the Trog, Skinks and Starpriest for free!