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I noticed the new red book came out a while ago with the 8th edition revamp. Does this mean that the new Red Book is a consolidation of the 2 older ones used for 30k? My main question would be: What books do i need to start playing again? Thanks!

The new red rulebook is basically a stop-gap. They realised that, since Heresy isn’t going to 8ed at the moment, and used the 40k 7ed rulebook, they were publishing a game with no available rulebook.

So, the new red rulebook is basically the old 7ed rulebook with a few tweaks.

To play, you need a 7ed rulebook (either the new red book or the old 7ed rulebook and a quick web search for the pertinent changes) and the books for your army. For Mechanicum, that’s the Mechanicum book, for Militia, Solar Auxilia or Knights, that’s the Crusade Imperialis book, and for the Legions, that’s both the Legions Army List AND the AoD Legions book.

Are most of the special rules pretty similar like fearless, deep strike etc. the same?

It’s almost exactly the same rules as 7ed 40k.

Some special rules have been removed. A few more 30k-only ones have been included for ease where they only used to be in the army books. Army composition is different. The rules for grenades and few psychic powers are different. That’s pretty much all the important changes.

There are currently Five Red Books for 30K.

1. HH: Age of Darkness Rulebook- Just the rules. It's the Warhammer 40,000 7th edition rulebook rewritten for the Horus Heresy 30K.
2. HH: Legion Astartes: Age of Darkness Army List- The "generic" 30K Legion Army rules, including force organization, Rites of War, War Gear and Equipment, Missions, and deployment
3. HH: Legion Astartes: Age of Darkness Legions- Legion Specific rules for all the Legions EXCEPT Thousand Sons, Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and White Scars
4: HH: Mechanicum: Taghmata Army List- Playing Ad Mech in 30K and the three factions (not Dark Mechanicum)
5: HH: Crusade Imperialis: Army Lists- Solar Auxilia, Knights and Titans, Imperial Militia and Cults

Thousand Sons, Space Wolves, and Custodies can all be found in HH: Book VII: Inferno. Hold Over rules for Dark Angels, Blood Angels, White Scars, and Black Shields (dispossessed Legion armies) can be found in HH: Book VI: Retribution.

By the end of the year, Forge World says it will release Book IX: Malevolence and its all about Blood Angels, White Scars, deamons, and some additional rules for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion, and new campaign system.

Book 10 is presumed to have Dark Angels and Dark Mechanium, and beyond that... no idea. Forge World stated in 2020 when all the Legions are done, the Red Rule books will be redone one more time. I'd presume in preparation for the next rules edition of 30K.

Books 1-3 on Mr Wulfs list covers most of it.

The 'black' books are okay if you're a fluff bunny but not great value if you just want rules, I suspect a collected Red book that's mostly rules will occur at some point but it maybe a good while

Addendum: The red books (the five Tamwulf listed) contain all army list content from main-sequence books 1-5 and most of the content from book 6. Books 1-5 do contain narrative scenarios, campaign rules, and the like that aren't in the red books.

Book 6 has some named characters, some AdMech units, the BA/DA/Scars rules, Shattered Legions, Blackshields, and the Knights-Errant that haven't been reprinted elsewhere. Most of the rules in the book are flavourful rather than necessary; if you want to play AdMech in a competitive setting you may want it for Scoria and you need it if you want to run BA/DA/Scars, but otherwise it's optional/characterful.

Book 7 has a number of AdMech units in addition to the Thousand Sons/Space Wolves/Custodes; Secutarii, Vultarax, and the artillery variant of the Triarios.

13 of 18 Legions and the Crusade Imperialis armies really just need their red books. The other five Legions without red book rules obviously need their main-sequence book, AdMech work fine with red-book only but Book 6 and Book 7 open up a number of extra builds and options, and the Talons need Book 7 and don't benefit from any of the red army books (they still need the rulebook for the core rules, mind).