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Hi, I dont know much about Warhammer, and was wondering if you veterans could recommend which version of Warhammer would be fun to buy and build a couple of small armies for. I really don't know anything about the differences between one version and the other, but if its been anything like 40k, then I imagine where are popular versions and unpopular.

Keep in mind 40k 2nd ed is prob my favorite version of 40k.

So I dont mind if its a really older version, as I will pick it up on Ebay if I find it. The only thing is, is that I am not crazy about seperate army books. 40k 3rd was the last version that had army lists, and its all codex driven now. So if there are versions that include a decent army list, that would be cool.

Since i am not going to be a hardcore player, I am pretty much going to be slightly expanding on the armies that come in the box set. And the only peeps playing it are probably me and a friend of mine here and there. Really casual.

I have to be honest, I love the idea of Empire vs Orcs, and I know there is an edition that came out with that, but I dont know how well that version plays out.

Thanks!

Keep in mind 40k 2nd ed is prob my favorite version of 40k.

So you liked hour-long close combat phases eh?

8th ed is probably the friendliest to new users, even if I dislike it a lot. It's the best edition for some, a very bad for others, but it's clearly very easy to get without tricky manoeuvering in the rules and their basic applications

8th is probly the best edition to date it took care of A LOT of the BS rules that made some armies unplayable in past editions.... I'm still recovering from Fear and Terror bombs

However 6th edition was loads of fun and has small game rules support for it.

Also with the current edition we have regiments of renown.

If 2nd edition was your favourite version of 40k (which was also mine), then you may enjoy 4th or 5th edition Warhammer best (which I also do). The two have very similar basic rulesets (5th was a minor refinement of 4th, and army books from 4th worked well in 5th edition too), and the army books from that era are likely available quite cheaply on eBay still.

 Magos Explorator wrote:
If 2nd edition was your favourite version of 40k (which was also mine), then you may enjoy 4th or 5th edition Warhammer best (which I also do). The two have very similar basic rulesets (5th was a minor refinement of 4th, and army books from 4th worked well in 5th edition too), and the army books from that era are likely available quite cheaply on eBay still.

I completely agree. 4th/5th editon WFB worked almost exactly like 2nd edition 40k where you draw Winds of Magic cards to hold and use in your Magic phase the same as you would the Psychic cars from 40k.

However, I've played every edition of WFB since 4th and I can tell you that you're probably better off playing 8th edition unless you automatically have a group of people that play and have complete sets of 4th/5th edition.

I will say that I've enjoyed playing 8th edition more than any other edition of WFB to date. In my humble opinion, the army books in 8th edition and lists are more balanced than in previous editons and with pre-measuring and random charge distances, there are a lot fewer rules arguments in 8th than I remember from any previous edition. The other nice thing is that since it is the current edtion, finding players and materials shouldn't be too big of an issue.

Well, if 8th is that popular... then I guess I will get it.

I read a rumor that 9th is on its way this summer. Do you guys believe that?

It's unlikely. The competing rumors are Summer 2014 after Wood Elves, or Summer 2015 after every army has been updated. At this point the latter seems much more likely. Most everyone these days is very happy with 8th edition, and with Dwarfs re-done and Wood Elves on the horizon the only remaining outdated books are Bretonnians, Beastmen, and Skaven. Those could all easily be completed in time for a summer 2015 9th edition release, which few believe will be anything more than an incremental rules update.


Because quite honestly, the 8th edition ruleset is great. Steadfast and Horde rules give infantry a place, whilst monsters and monstrous cavalry maintain a definitive edge in killing power. Characters are powerful but rarely game-changing, unlike in the "hero hammer" editions of old. Pre-measuring makes the game much more accessible, and doesn't unduly favour veteran players who can eyeball distances to a quarter of an inch.

Which isn't to say that it's perfect, but most would agree that it's ALMOST there. Steadfast is a little too powerful, and needs more counters. MC are a little too powerful as well, whilst regular cavalry are underwhelming. Cannons are too good compared to other artillery, to the point where monsters are rated as usable or not based almost entirely on how resistant they are to cannonballs. Likewise monster-mounted characters, which were once ubiquitous in previous editions and are now laughably vulnerable to cannons.

So if 9th DOES hit don't expect it to change all that much.



(that said, if you're looking for small-scale skirmish games then Warhammer isn't really the place to look. WHFB is a large-scale battle game, and doesn't really take well to smaller scale games. Warmachine-Hordes is probably your best bet in that department)

Many thanks PirateRobot! I am sold! BUT, I really only plan on sticking with what is in the last few stater armies from the box sets. I like army variety, and dont like big games, and this is really for having around the house for casual gams with fam and friends. So I recently picked up the box set, more for the Empire and Orc starter armies, and I do like the Skaven so I guess I will get 8th, rather than try to dig up a Battle for Skull pass.

I have taken a look at Warmachine but it just didnt do it for me. I like the Warhammer world, but just didnt know the differences between the versions.

I forgot to mention magic, which many people also think is overpowered. The "6-spells," being the big nasty spells that a number of lores have, can effectively win you the game on a single casting. You mitigate against this with list construction of course, but it still sucks when a game comes down to that.

That said, the single biggest problem with WHFB 8th edition over other games or previous editions is cost, which I also should probably have mentioned. This game doesn't play particularly well until at least 1,500 points, and isn't ideal until around 2,500 points. Go cost out your ideal 2,500 point army and see how much that runs you. Depending on the army it'll probably be between $700-900. That's fething insane. A warmachine army, by comparison, will cost you a fraction of that. Malifaux even less.

Warhammer is fething awesome, don't get me wrong. But it's a huge cost investment, not to mention the time to paint all of those models. It's worth it once you do...but damn did that hurt the wallet to get started out.

I played 3rd ed fantasy before jumping into 8th ed. I'm not overly enamoured of certain aspects, but I'll deal.
You can't win a game with a single spell cast, but three can probably win the game for you.

WHFB8 runs best around 24-2500 pts. My elf army cost me $190 but I got a few good deals and the core units are mostly mantic (smaller and skinnier don't matter when it's the BASE SIZE that matters in the game. Besides, "too skinny" is relative and when someone can give me a REAL elf to compare the models to, I'll start listening to them)
This army was not so expensive to set up that I won't be unhappy if I have to shelve it (because it can't keep up with rules/edition changes.). It wasn't going to be my forever game anyway.

I played every version of 40k up to 5th ed (I've played 2 games of 6th ed but I don't have a 6th ed codex). I really don't like 6th ed.

PirateRobotNinjaofDeath wrote:
I forgot to mention magic, which many people also think is overpowered. The "6-spells," being the big nasty spells that a number of lores have, can effectively win you the game on a single casting. You mitigate against this with list construction of course, but it still sucks when a game comes down to that.

The only thing I find to be 'uber over powering with the current Magic phase are the "pass an Initiative test or die outright!" spells, simply because they're too unbalanced...
Elves of all flavours, most of the Chaos Warriors book, Skaven, mono-Slaanesh Daemons for example laugh at those spells. On the other hand, Dwarfs, all Undead, Lizzies, Ogres and similar get junk-punched due to near army-wide I2 or worse.

Re-tool those 'test or die' spells so that they target something other than the wildly variable initiative stat, and suddenly a lot of the pet peeves over the Magic phase go away.

PirateRobotNinjaofDeath wrote:
That said, the single biggest problem with WHFB 8th edition over other games or previous editions is cost, which I also should probably have mentioned. This game doesn't play particularly well until at least 1,500 points, and isn't ideal until around 2,500 points. Go cost out your ideal 2,500 point army and see how much that runs you. Depending on the army it'll probably be between $700-900. That's fething insane. A warmachine army, by comparison, will cost you a fraction of that. Malifaux even less.

Warhammer is fething awesome, don't get me wrong. But it's a huge cost investment, not to mention the time to paint all of those models. It's worth it once you do...but damn did that hurt the wallet to get started out.

I find that 8th works decently in the 1000-1500pts range by simply putting a gentleman's agreement to not use any Lord choices at all.

Doing so means you avoid really stupid gak like Skaven or Orcs & Goblins getting to field a powerful Lv4 wizard vs. the poor Vampire or Tomb King player who's stuck at only being able to field a Lv2 wizard due to how much more expensive their characters are.
By the same token, you avoid things like a bare-bones WoC Daemon Prince going up against a bunch of rats who end up either luckily gunning him down turn 1 or 2, or else basically spend the rest of game getting the snot beaten out of them by a model they struggle to ever hurt.