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I'm getting to a stage with my Ultramarines where I've got enough to play a few small points games however I don't own a rule book yet.

I've read a new edition is due soon and can see the current edition on eBay for £35 with an A5 version for £20.

My question is, is it worth buying a rule book now to enable me to play a couple of games or should I wait for the new edition?

If I should buy a rule book, what's the difference between the two?

Can someone confirm that the small rulebook is in the Kill Team set? GW's site suggests so, but says it's out of stock for the UK.

If so, that's £40, with a squad of Marines, and a squad of Fire Warriors, with the rulebook.
It's a great value set, with the rules, and you can sell off the unit you don't want.

The new version has no known release date, and if you want to play before then, get the BRB.

Let me ask this question: How do you plan on playing the game without a rulebook?

Regarding the title, yes.

Regarding the 'soon' to be released new edition, there is no real ETA for it, and 'soon' is a relative term regarding GW and this hobby, as a year from now it still 'soon'. Heck, 'recent' codexexexes (plural of codex of course :p) are from years ago.

Do you plan on playing this hobby game anytime 'soon'?

If you only want the rules and not the fluff and pics found in book 1+2 of this:
https://www.games-workshop.com/de-AT/Warhammer-40-000-EN-A

then you should go for the A4 version, it is axactly the same as book 3 of this set, except size of course.

But I would also recommend getting the Kill Team box, preferably from an independent shop with a discount

We don't really know when the next edition will come and how big the changes will be, so I can't give a recommendation if you should wait or not. I guess it depends on your patience

People have been saying that 8E will be coming soon for at least 6 months now(I feel like they've been going on much longer). There have been no soft or solid dates given. As such, I'd consider conjecture for now. There will always be rumors, but the beauty of rumors is anyone can start them for fun without any knowledge whatsoever. Could it be announced tomorrow with a date a month from now? Sure. Could it still be a year+ off? Absolutely.

 Skinnereal wrote:
Can someone confirm that the small rulebook is in the Kill Team set? GW's site suggests so, but says it's out of stock for the UK.

I can confirm it does. I picked it up for the two cheap units and the miniaturized book, myself.

Jump on ebay and grab a second hand one, people are offing them pretty cheap.

Skinnereal wrote:Can someone confirm that the small rulebook is in the Kill Team set? GW's site suggests so, but says it's out of stock for the UK.

If so, that's £40, with a squad of Marines, and a squad of Fire Warriors, with the rulebook.
It's a great value set, with the rules, and you can sell off the unit you don't want.

As Jasper said, it does indeed come in the KT set. And as you said, it is a great value. For OP it will get you an extra Tac Squad to work with as well, which will be useful for you.

Blain87 wrote:
I'm getting to a stage with my Ultramarines where I've got enough to play a few small points games however I don't own a rule book yet.

I've read a new edition is due soon and can see the current edition on eBay for £35 with an A5 version for £20.

My question is, is it worth buying a rule book now to enable me to play a couple of games or should I wait for the new edition?

If I should buy a rule book, what's the difference between the two?

As mentioned, go for the Kill Team boxed set.

It gets you a Tactical Squad, the current rules set, and the rules for Kill Team.

Kill Team is a smaller version of 40k, where each model operates as an individual rather than a cohesive squad. Other than that, it uses the normal mechanics. It's a pretty good way to build towards something bigger.

Kill Team works even better if you find another fledgling player interested in Tau, and you each buy a box and swap the respective squads.

To buy the book? It depends. How many games do you plan on playing from now till say June? So about 4 months away. So if you buy a book now for $40 that would be like $10 a month.

Even if you do buy say brand new that is $25 a month of use from now till June. Is that worth it to you? Can you get in games with the people you play with? If so, save that money to go towards the new edition when it comes out.

Other wise just look at it how much use you will get out of it. Will you play every day? Just once a week? Once a month?

I know when I bought the iPad version of 6th edition, I was upset it was invalidated only after 3 months when I thought I was expecting 2 years out of it. Got no use out of it at all.

So it all depends on how you feel buying something that will be invalidated in a few months or how much use and value you can get out of it in the next few months.

Learning how to play now would be better than learning how to play later. You can also get the rulebook cheap online.

 Kanluwen wrote:


Kill Team works even better if you find another fledgling player interested in Tau, and you each buy a box and swap the respective squads.

Hell if he even knows someone considering starting a Tau army the KT box is a good place to start. Get the Firewarriors from that and then throw in the Getting Started Tau Empire Box and they'll have a small CAD force.

 troa wrote:
People have been saying that 8E will be coming soon for at least 6 months now(I feel like they've been going on much longer). There have been no soft or solid dates given. As such, I'd consider conjecture for now. There will always be rumors, but the beauty of rumors is anyone can start them for fun without any knowledge whatsoever. Could it be announced tomorrow with a date a month from now? Sure. Could it still be a year+ off? Absolutely.

The rumour started in October/September time and has always been "8th will come around about July 2017", this was also unofficially confirmed by some GW people. (Also the rumour was started by the same guy who told us about Traitors hate, Wrath of Magnus, Traitor legions and gathering storm)

So, if you want to play any games in the next five months or so, buy a rulebook.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
So, if you want to play any games in the next five months or so, buy a rulebook.

Or if you have friends who have a book and use it so the money to buy the 8th edition codex is perfectly valid as well.

Or just look for a PDF version online.

 Ginjitzu wrote:
Or just look for a PDF version online.

What!? Noooo, never ever do this. Only buy 40k codeces direct from GW® at full price or more.

I'm resisting the urge to buy a bunch of rulebooks, but it's hard.

I bought the small Kill Team rulebook off Ebay, that was a good deal. I also got the Astra Militarum codex off Ebay. I'm considering getting the Ork codex and CSM codex even though they might be invalidated fairly soon. A lot of the codices (codexes?) are nice for the fluff, art and painting tips even if the rules in them are out of date.

The things I'm holding off on are the six or seven supplemental books I would need in addition to the main rules codices. I really like that 7th edition allows me to create really fun, fluffy themed armies. My wallet really doesn't like buying piles of books to get a couple units or formations from each.

Even more than the money of buying new stuff, I really don't want to spend the time converting and painting my existing stuff only to have a new set of rules change everything.

I'm going to be kicking myself if GW doesn't come out with 8th for two years though.

Ah yes.

This game, it is expensive. Buy the book now, buy the book often. Don't want to waste money? Well then, this is not the hobby for you.

Or you could just paint more Marines until May, I bet we will all know more by then.

Personally I would get the kill team box, just because the rulebook can be treated as a bonus to it if not anything else. I mean Kill Team is fairly fun, even if I personally prefer Hammer of Ruin, so having the official rules might not hurt and the models can be great for either a secondary army down the line or trading to someone else.

You should really have read the book before you start the game. Not knowing the rules of the game doesn't make you a fun player to play with even if it is only for a few months..
I do not really care how you read the book as long as it isn't illegal. Its totally up to you if you just borrow a book from a friend or but a new, or even come up with something more creative however pls do not skip the rule reading / learning part.


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 mrhappyface wrote:

 Ginjitzu wrote:
Or just look for a PDF version online.

What!? Noooo, never ever do this. Only buy 40k codeces direct from GW® at full price or more.

Na noting wrong with buying book from black library. They are even auto updated, so you might call them superior ( Not me I like having paper copies, with printed out FAQ's )
-> http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/40k-cod-sup/40k-rules-digital.html

Find someone that explains the game to you or borrow the book from a friend, do not waste money in the rulebook. 80% of the rules are immediate and you'll learn them just playing a couple of games.

I'm gonna a be honest, I've played for more than 6 years and have NEVER owned a rulebook...

 oldzoggy wrote:
You should really have read the book before you start the game. Not knowing the rules of the game doesn't make you a fun player to play with even if it is only for a few months..
I do not really care how you read the book as long as it isn't illegal. Its totally up to you if you just borrow a book from a friend or but a new, or even come up with something more creative however pls do not skip the rule reading / learning part.

Not true at all. I own the rule book and I still have the game explained to me when I play. Call it a learning disability or just being plain dumb and forgetful, if you have a nice opponent who will explain as you go is perfectly fine. No need to be rude and saying they need to read the book before starting the game. Lots of people get into the game as they go without reading the book.

How do you think they do it when you go into a GW store? When the Red Shirt was showing my son how to play he didn't say "read the rule book" he showed them as they played.

I would highly recommend getting a rule book and reading through it entirely, before you enter into your first match

What I personally recommend for getting a handle on the rules is to read through the rule book after each of your first two to three games. The big thing is this allows you to resolve any specific ambiguities/confusion you encountered in the previous match, and be able to handle it for the next one. Within three games you should be able to play it more or less autonomously.

I will admit flat out that my above suggestion does entail a lot of reading, but it is what I did to get a handle on everything and it worked out fairly well.

Davor wrote:

Not true at all. I own the rule book and I still have the game explained to me when I play. Call it a learning disability or just being plain dumb and forgetful, if you have a nice opponent who will explain as you go is perfectly fine. No need to be rude and saying they need to read the book before starting the game. Lots of people get into the game as they go without reading the book.

Sure you can partly learn the game by asking others to learn you the game, this is how most of us learned the game including me and we all need to reference it once in a while. However asking others to learn you the game (or anything else) without at least taking the effort to read the required books is quite something to ask and too much to ask really if you did not inform the other party beforehand.

Please don't be that guy who shows up to a pick up game without having read his or her codex and or rulebook just as much as you do not want to ask someone to help you with a math problem if you haven't opened your study books.

New edition rumored for June; fwiw.

Don't buy one this close to 8th; if you can, borrow and read a friend's (or club's) copy.

If you have chance to play in next few months and aren't super tight on money sure. Just make sure it's CHEAP option. Ebay or kill team. Especially the big book from GW would be pretty much waste of money. KT meanwhile is pretty efficient way to get it as long as there's literally no need for more tactical marines for your army.