Is the 300 pt premade army worth it?

They're a good starting point, but they're less pre-made lists, more good minis bundle. Lists in Infinity are a very fluid thing...

 

Best advice is to start with a starter pack and play a few games. They come with a decent variety of models ie. rule aspects of the game. From there you can always expand.

 

300 pts Steel Phalanx pack looks decent to me, although Ajax and Penthesilea are pretty situational as far as I can tell, but since the box is slightly cheaper per mini than buying that stuff normally, why not.

 

I recommend playing around with the Army Builder first, throw together a list that looks good to your friend, then ask for feedback here in the forum, refine the list and only start buying afterwards. (Preferably play a couple games with proxies!)
In case your friend will be playing SP, Myrmidons are a must have, but Penny, Ajax, Phoenix and the Agema sniper are not obviously a good choice. (I have never ever fielded them, for example. I never leave home without Atalanta and prefer Eudoros, Alke and Machaon insted of Hector, Ajax and Phoenix. That does not mean they are bad troopers; it only means I prefer other troopers.) In case the trooper selection fits your friend's taste, go buy the bundle because it is good value. But if the majority of the troopers will collect dust on the shelf...

 

Why Phoenix is not an obvious good choice ? He may very well be the second most obvious choice in SP right after Machaon.

I agree for Ajax and Penny. They are both good, but, well, differents from what the SP usually do.
Ajax is a brick you launch toward your opponent's face. As a brick, it is hard and it hits hard. But you can't expect anything else (well for 39 pts it's already really good). I don't think Ajax is that good in a fireteam, sure it allows him to take cover, but on the other side it brings a somewhat vulnerable piece into a myrmidon fireteam: no ODD and hackable, and lose the "free" impetuous order. I think it is better used as a distraction carnifex.
I see Penny as a scalpel. A killer too, but more precise. She is damn hard to use, but she can perform really well. Problem is, SP has already more than enough killers, and Diomedes can do the same job in SP. For me, Penny is better in vanilla where she can assist and complement nagas and posthumans.

 

if your friend want to start steel phalanx, the 300 pts army pack is a good starting point because it contain some must have (myrmidons, machaon, phoenix, myrmidon officier, agema). Even if Penthisilea and Ajax are not used as often as the offer, they are nice to try and even nicer to paint.

So it's not a premade list but it's a cheap way to start his collection with important unit. Add the steel phalanx starter pack to that and your friend will be ready to enjoy some game with basics steel phalanx list (2 myrmidons FT + agemas). After this first few games, he will be able to expand with new troops he would like to try (atalanta, teucer, scylla and drakios, achilles, dire foes...)

 

IF you both are sure the faction you wanna play, the Onyx 300pts box is great, the Tohaa one is almost all of the models at 50% (but about 20-25% of them are just filling), and the Steel Phalanx is great (Penthesilea is like a "tax" since she is situational, but you cover a lot of list options by adding Machaon's blister to this box).

The Steel Phalanx' box needs Machaon, he is a must. After that, you have options, but the most common is, right now, the Thorakitai box and finding a Nomad player with which to buy the Dire Foes box, since Thrasimedes is a must for Thorakitai linking (and those are the "specialist group" of troops), then the remotes; you can live without the Steel Phalanx starter box.

The Corregidor box is... kinda horrible, frankly, unless you also go for StarCo (and even then, the Riot Grrls!!!! Core is more interesting because Avicenna).

All boxes can be expanded, of course.

As for how worth the lists are, the minority in this game are the players that use the same list for everything, since tournaments allows you to bring 2 lists (both have to be the same generic, or same sectorial) for 3, 4 or 5 missions, of which some might need tons of specialists and some might be killing things.

 

I prefer Eudoros because Phoenix lacks Eclipse grenades. In my meta people never leave home without a couple of MSV2 snipers. (Except we Ariadna players for obvious reasons.) Don't get me wrong: Phoenix is a great trooper. The need for Eclipse is the decisive factor. Is all.
But the point is: it depends totally on the player, because this is a question of personal taste. The original poster's friend is the ony guy who can ansver the question if the bundle worth it or not. (And the same applies for all boxed sets in my oppinion.)

 

But his buddy Machaon has eclipses, and Phoenix is one of the few long range ARO troops in SP; something that Eurodos cannot really do, he is better in active turn.

 

That is true, but...
1) Two troopers with Eclipse is better than one.
2) Machaon already has a huge red 'Shoot me dead!' sign painted on his forehead.
3) Alke, Thrasymedes and the Thoras will do the ARO duty.
4) AROs are for the weak and the level-headed. SP is for the bloodthirsty.

 

"hitting them so hard they won't even think of retaliate". I like it :)

Well, your other points make sense too, but that one really made me laugh :)

 

Carry BSG Myrmidon Officers :p