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Hey Gang

So I was collecting High elves back in 6th edition.
I have very fond memories of the High Elf book. The lore, the art the units roster. Just everything about that time feels good remembering. Unfortnately a lot of life happened and I was sadly not hobbying for many many years always thinking I can get back into it later in life. Lo and behold, WHFB no longer exists. *sad face*

I lament the loss of the old world. It makes me very sad things happened like they did... But not all is lost.
Second hand market is still a thing, and fortunately the old world has been immortalised in the form of Warhammer total war 2 which is pretty darn good!! But its not quite enough.

So, I'm looking to get back into the and start a long term project mainly for display (as they ain't getting no new models or rules so no need to rush anything at all!). Ive got a great opportunity to buy a large core force still on sprues so I am happy I should be able to realise my childhood dream later in life. The narrative/head cannon for my force has always been for one of Aenarions children retuning from exile/being lost/stranded/amnesia (the dogs of war dragon lord model was always that guy for me!) and returning the asur to glory, reclaiming their lost empire and slaying the would be usurper king...
At 6th edition their fate was shrouded in mystery much like the primarchs so I really liked that idea!

So a couple questions if I may:

Which GW edition has the best/fairest core rule set? (I know 9th age is a thing but I would like to stick to the source)

Have there been many changes to the lore and game play since 6th edition for the HE? Looking for some source materials to transport me back to the old world and am thinking of picking up some army books/BRB. But don't want to go too far and head beyond end times territory because that's heresy of the highest order.

Any good books source books? I remember gortek and Felix being a thing..

There's been a significant retro movement recently as people back up to editions that they were happy with and plant their feet there. I'm personally in a 6th Ed. WFB group, a small one, and several other people on here are as well.

People are still playing 8th as well, so it will all depend on what you can find in your area, or what you can convince people to try.



I personally feel that 6th with 2 rules from 7th houseruled in is about perfect, but tastes definitely vary.



Also, check out the link in my sig for a little of what some people have going on.

6th and 7th edition featured the mostly the same unit types for High Elves. In 7th, they added the Lion Chariot, which is a very nice model, and rules for a Dragon Mage using the lore of fire.
The 6th Edition book was a very rounded, fair book compared to the releases that had appeared until then (Empire, O&G, Dark Elves, Dwarves if I remember correctly).
Later on, GW unfortunately cranked things up to 11 , and the 7th Ed. High Elves book brought the notorious "Always Strike First" rule for High Elves. I really hated that rule

8th edition was a big step away from 6th and 7th edition in the basic rules and added some new units to the portfolio of High Elves in the new army book.
In 8th Edition, you can field the Sisters of Avelorn, an infantry unit with enchanted bows.
Also a flying chariot pulled by Eagles, the Skycutter Chariot.
And last but not least, a kit to build a Phoenix, either a Fire or a Frost Phoenix.
It also featured rules for an alternative Lord choice, a Loremaster.
I hope I didn't forget anything.

If you have a player group of WHF fans that still play one of the editions mentioned above, go for it, but note that 8th can be a bit more challenging to get into (and find/paint the recommendable model count).

Everyone here will tell you gladly about the advantages of his favorite edition, Just Tony favoring 6th, Orlanth favoring 8th (just to name some of the more active users here in this part of the forum), and be ready with good advice, so don't worry if it has been 15 years since you last played Warhammer Fantasy.

I am kind of the odd person who recommends a fan made ruleset, Warhammer Classic Edition, which combines elements of all editions 6 to 8, and goes its own way in army selection and point costs. Advantage is, you can play all the fancy "new" stuff on the basis of 7th ed ruleset, without the trouble 7th ed. armybooks created.

For fluff, I would rely on 6th and 7th edition army books, as the 8th edition army books were rather... well. Not so good. At least from my POV, when looking at army books of O&G from 4th to 8th edition, 6th was best and 8th was worst. 6th to 8th Dark Elves was the same, Dark Elves 6th being the best and 8th the worst.

Gotrek and Felix are really fun to read.
i also recommend the Malus Darkblade books, but well.. Other side of the coin of Khaine

I prefer 9th Age v1.1
Gave reasons on another thread.

Will play other editions though.

 Moscha wrote:
6th and 7th edition featured the mostly the same unit types for High Elves. In 7th, they added the Lion Chariot, which is a very nice model, and rules for a Dragon Mage using the lore of fire.
The 6th Edition book was a very rounded, fair book compared to the releases that had appeared until then (Empire, O&G, Dark Elves, Dwarves if I remember correctly).
Later on, GW unfortunately cranked things up to 11 , and the 7th Ed. High Elves book brought the notorious "Always Strike First" rule for High Elves. I really hated that rule

8th edition was a big step away from 6th and 7th edition in the basic rules and added some new units to the portfolio of High Elves in the new army book.
In 8th Edition, you can field the Sisters of Avelorn, an infantry unit with enchanted bows.
Also a flying chariot pulled by Eagles, the Skycutter Chariot.
And last but not least, a kit to build a Phoenix, either a Fire or a Frost Phoenix.
It also featured rules for an alternative Lord choice, a Loremaster.
I hope I didn't forget anything.

If you have a player group of WHF fans that still play one of the editions mentioned above, go for it, but note that 8th can be a bit more challenging to get into (and find/paint the recommendable model count).

Everyone here will tell you gladly about the advantages of his favorite edition, Just Tony favoring 6th, Orlanth favoring 8th (just to name some of the more active users here in this part of the forum), and be ready with good advice, so don't worry if it has been 15 years since you last played Warhammer Fantasy.

I am kind of the odd person who recommends a fan made ruleset, Warhammer Classic Edition, which combines elements of all editions 6 to 8, and goes its own way in army selection and point costs. Advantage is, you can play all the fancy "new" stuff on the basis of 7th ed ruleset, without the trouble 7th ed. armybooks created.

For fluff, I would rely on 6th and 7th edition army books, as the 8th edition army books were rather... well. Not so good. At least from my POV, when looking at army books of O&G from 4th to 8th edition, 6th was best and 8th was worst. 6th to 8th Dark Elves was the same, Dark Elves 6th being the best and 8th the worst.

Gotrek and Felix are really fun to read.
i also recommend the Malus Darkblade books, but well.. Other side of the coin of Khaine

Thanks for the run down.

Lore wise, do the books go hard end times in 7th 8th edition in the war book?

 Argive wrote:

Thanks for the run down.

Lore wise, do the books go hard end times in 7th 8th edition in the war book?

No, End Times was a thing in 2014 / 2015 to kill Warhammer Fantasy, there were novels especially written to describe the "End Times".
As far as I know, no single 8th edition armybook is "tainted" with the bullcrap, and 100 % sure 7th edition books are not.

Actually, 7th Ed. lore went so far as to retcon back some of the character progress of 6th for certain characters while keeping the progress of others. Eltharion is a GREAT example of the former, and Archaon is a great example of the latter.

My favorite edition was 6th edition. The rules were solid, immersive, and the balance was for the most part awesome. Things started going off the rails toward the end of that edition and 7th edition was not bad from a core rules standpoint, but had the worst balance evah with things like the dark elves, vampire counts, and matt ward daemons running amuk.

My play group and I are having a lot of fun with 8th for whatever that is worth, though 8th was our first edition.

If anyone know where I can get hold of some Pdfs/ resources??

(I'm hunting on ebay and waiting on some offers being accepted to get the 7th/6th books for some light reading)

The 8th book more than a new codex... though...

I might be able to help on books - though I'll have go to digging to see what I've got and I'm not sure what edition the Battletome will be (fairly modern though).

I just bought 6th & 7th war books and 6th BRB all for around £15. I guess I need 7th & 8th BRB and 8th war book so that I can play any of those rulesets.
If I can get them for a steal il pick those up but should be sorted. Still have a ton of eldar to do before HE get anywhere near the paint desk lol.

Plus.. just thinking about all the lore and pictures gets me warm and fuzzy on the inside.

 Argive wrote:
If anyone know where I can get hold of some Pdfs/ resources??

(I'm hunting on ebay and waiting on some offers being accepted to get the 7th/6th books for some light reading)

The 8th book more than a new codex... though...

On classichammer there is a thread entitled "Hope I don't get banned..." which has some links to a TON of resources, including PDFs AND wayback links to actual GW PDFs from when they were publishing extra content on their website.

All of us have a preference when it comes to editions. As the purveyor of Classichammer, I am with Tony on this, so I admit that I prefer the 6th rather than the 8th or 3rd, which are the other popular editions. Ultimately, this is something that you need to figure out, and having active opponents help in this.

Ok. Lets cut all the BS from the topic.

What will you need for a High Elf army:

Mounted hero
Dragon or Griffon
BSB
foot hero
three Mages

20-40 Archers, in one to four units.
20-50 Spearelves, in one to two units
10 Cavalry
two different units of 20 elite infantry
two bolt throwers
two or more eagles
a chariot

Now you can add to this in different directions but its a good core collection.

Is there anyone who thinks you cannot make a valid army for 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th and T9A with the above? Yes composition will vary, in editions prior to 8th you will want units of ten archers with little or no command, for 8th or 9th you need one or two units of 20 probably with command.
So if you had 36 archers including two full command groups, you have 3x10 archers, 2x18 archers full command, 1x30 archers in horde or deep block with full command. That is not a lot of archers but it is a lot of edition flexibility.
Missile troops are one of the biggest change points between editions, most earlier editions only allowed a single rank shooting and it was pointless to have more than a single rank. Some didnt mind that, some hated it. Now with faction rules High Elves did more to two rank shooting earlier so they are not the clearest example, but are still a valid example.

If you want to collect High Elves, COLLECT HIGH ELVES, worry about editions later. If anyone wants to get into any edition of WHFB the time to do so is now, while they can still buy models from GW third party sites or people getting out on eBay. If you don't know what to get but like a unit build it to 20 if infantry and 10 if cavalry or skirmisher and give it full command. You can always field less. For basic infantry of most factions buy more rather than less, even with pre-steadfast it was a good idea to build Empire state troops, greenskins and skaven in bigger units.
What of small units, you mostly end up deploying Ellyrian Reavers in five with musician and you built ten with full command, don't worrit, you have flexibility for editions and have a more viable collection for collections sake. 10 cavalry with full command almost always looks better on the shelf, so long as they actually rank up. If you think a unit looks better with a full command make one even if you don't field it, if you dont care dont bother. Aesthetics matter, its your army, so it should look good from your perspective. If you don't want to collect the models play Total War Warhammer instead, if you want to collect then build an army that looks good and you are proud to paint and own, often that means your collection will differ from your fielded army for any particular edition.
Choosing editions can wait, build an army worthy of the shelf it rests on first, if it has flowing banners that you don't field, or four dragons, multiple sculpts of the same special character etc, go with it. By the time you have the army you want you should be able to play any edition at a variety of point limits and with a large repertoire of characters to lead them. The only real mistake you can make with that is to be a pedant and say 'I only play edition x', don't be That Guy, mix it up and be flexible, be accommodating of others and even explore editions to fit different army availability and sub genres. There were a lot of campaign packs for 5th, and some for 6th and 8th. If your playgroup wants to play one, play the edition listed, or make a mutually agreed choice. If someone brings a historical samurai army you can play 3rd edition 'Sea Elves' which was the last to include the Nippon list, or download a homebrew army book, most of those are 8th, and now 9th Age.

TL : DR Build an army and collection you will enjoy owning. Be as edition flexible as possible. Find out which edition is your favourite later.

I personally like 8th edition because of formation rules (2 rank fire, volley fire, 2 rank fight and horde formation) and 6th edition for magical items (more variety)

Firing and fighting from one rank is too static in my opinion, the battles should be bloody.


Magic was funniest in the 5th with the card mini game.

Thanks. To reitarate i will collect HE regardless of edition and will end up with a unit of everything at the barest minimum.

That said the 7th ed war book came through and I am dissapointed. It looks like a lot of options are gone from memory, mainly there is no Imrik so will probably stick with 6th ed if i can find players. But this is more of a side issue. Getting an army built and painted to a high standard is the priority. Ruleset is an afterthought. Will be getting new dragon mage or two as well for sure. But I always loved the sculpts of the older serpentine dragons. Quintesential WH if you ask me. So mpre likely to lean towards 6th.

One of us...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And agree on the old plastic Talisman dragon, that thing didn't need retired. GW needs to make it available as a separate kit.

Ive been reading through the fluff and have to say I am not impressed with the 7th ed book :(

Apparently imrik died coz his boat got ambushed by some DE so he jumped in the water wearing full armour lest he be captured..
Also the layout of the book seems very clunky...

The lore and even the images on the 6th ed book feel much more narrative and fleshed out and the layout is perfect.

 Argive wrote:
Ive been reading through the fluff and have to say I am not impressed with the 7th ed book :(

Apparently imrik died coz his boat got ambushed by some DE so he jumped in the water wearing full armour lest he be captured..
Also the layout of the book seems very clunky...

The lore and even the images on the 6th ed book feel much more narrative and fleshed out and the layout is perfect.

The Imrik that dies drowning is actually Caledor the Conqueror, a past Phoenix King. The Imrik from 6th ("Prince Imrik") was for some reason removed from 7th, even though he just had a mini prior edition. If the dragon sculpt update was the issue, they could have just switched it for a re-box. He later makes an appearance in the End Times and gets wrecked by a Bloodthirster. All this is from memory, so I might be wrong.

Overall, it is true that 7th ed books often feel of lesser quality than their 6th equivalent... as if done hastly and unfinished or something.

Another thing that got erased by 7th was the Dark Elf character that died fighting Tyrion at Griffon Gate, I believe. Captain of the Black Guard or whatnot. Totally erased.

 Just Tony wrote:
One of us...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And agree on the old plastic Talisman dragon, that thing didn't need retired. GW needs to make it available as a separate kit.

Be careful. If you manage to get that Talisman set I recommend you DONT strip it for parts. It sells for hundreds intact.

If you want a high elf dragon cant get a High Elf dragon and want to use a GW model buy the Black Dragon kit. The druchii armour panels are optional and it is easy to convert the Dreadlord to a Dragon Prince from the Dragon prince set, or general set.

 Orlanth wrote:

 Just Tony wrote:
One of us...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And agree on the old plastic Talisman dragon, that thing didn't need retired. GW needs to make it available as a separate kit.

Be careful. If you manage to get that Talisman set I recommend you DONT strip it for parts. It sells for hundreds intact.

If you want a high elf dragon cant get a High Elf dragon and want to use a GW model buy the Black Dragon kit. The druchii armour panels are optional and it is easy to convert the Dreadlord to a Dragon Prince from the Dragon prince set, or general set.

I've been tracking prices on stuff for a while. The prices for those "toy box" sets where they reissued Talisman, 2nd 40K and 4th/5th WFB plastics are criminal. It's hard to picture that massive a demand for the figs. I just want some characterful plastics and more Minotaurs that don't suck. Is that too much to ask?


And the old Malekith kit would be ideal as well, just have to come across one somewhere other than ebay.

I think its mostly because there's a subset of stores on ebay who sell products (not just warhammer) at obscene prices. So old stuff that is still a bit popular sells out and leaves only those that sell it for hundreds and hundreds. The stores basically predate on those desperate enough to own the product that price becomes less of a barrier. You get this in all markets, though when you're dealing with rare secondhand goods and goods that can devalue if they are used (eg models assembled and painted - badly) then you really notice it.

 Overread wrote:
I think its mostly because there's a subset of stores on ebay who sell products (not just warhammer) at obscene prices. So old stuff that is still a bit popular sells out and leaves only those that sell it for hundreds and hundreds. The stores basically predate on those desperate enough to own the product that price becomes less of a barrier. You get this in all markets, though when you're dealing with rare secondhand goods and goods that can devalue if they are used (eg models assembled and painted - badly) then you really notice it.

Same thing happens with older Transformers. Hell, sometimes when stuff is currently on the shelf.

 Just Tony wrote:

 Overread wrote:
I think its mostly because there's a subset of stores on ebay who sell products (not just warhammer) at obscene prices. So old stuff that is still a bit popular sells out and leaves only those that sell it for hundreds and hundreds. The stores basically predate on those desperate enough to own the product that price becomes less of a barrier. You get this in all markets, though when you're dealing with rare secondhand goods and goods that can devalue if they are used (eg models assembled and painted - badly) then you really notice it.

Same thing happens with older Transformers. Hell, sometimes when stuff is currently on the shelf.

Yes I've seen some amusing prices for stuff still on sale. Sometimes two or three times its current regular price. Sometimes its because there's some funky exchange rate change going on; other times I can't help but shake the feeling its some kind of money laundering scam, or just people preying on the clueless and lazy

I guess I'm the only one that likes 5th edition the best, huh?

5th ed. had so much more flavor, albeit a bit more bookkeeping. I think mid to late 5th ed. was the best WHFB that ever existed.
Just after Chaos had its Realms of Chaos box and separate codex released. I thoroughly love the depth of the Battle Magic boxed set added. Hundreds of magic weapons, armor, trinkets, spells, etc. They were generic, as well as race-specific.

Back when the magic phase used the Winds of Magic deck, instead of the dice-rolling mechanic. I hated when they changed that in 6th ed. Hated it. That card mechanic was a game within a game. It was so much more fun, for us.

Plus, it was a time that predated the GW money-grab business model. When Chaos Beastmen Gors had 2 wounds. After the 6th ed. cash-grab began, with the release of Ravening Hordes in 2001, they switched Gors to 1 wound and half the points cost. Which naturally meant you had to buy more. Before they changed it, I had 3k pts of painted Beastmen and another 1000 pts. unpainted. After the changes, I barely had 2000 pts in total.

5th edition is my favorite, hands down.

At the time of this reply, you can get the 5th ed. Rulebook, Battles Book, and 3 army books (High Elves, Skaven, Dwarfs) for a mere $19.99 USD! You can also get the entire Warhammer: Magic box expansion for only $30. Unpunched!!!

 Ghidorah wrote:
I guess I'm the only one that likes 5th edition the best, huh?

5th ed. had so much more flavor, albeit a bit more bookkeeping. I think mid to late 5th ed. was the best WHFB that ever existed.
Just after Chaos had its Realms of Chaos box and separate codex released. I thoroughly love the depth of the Battle Magic boxed set added. Hundreds of magic weapons, armor, trinkets, spells, etc. They were generic, as well as race-specific.

Back when the magic phase used the Winds of Magic deck, instead of the dice-rolling mechanic. I hated when they changed that in 6th ed. Hated it. That card mechanic was a game within a game. It was so much more fun, for us.

Plus, it was a time that predated the GW money-grab business model. When Chaos Beastmen Gors had 2 wounds. After the 6th ed. cash-grab began, with the release of Ravening Hordes in 2001, they switched Gors to 1 wound and half the points cost. Which naturally meant you had to buy more. Before they changed it, I had 3k pts of painted Beastmen and another 1000 pts. unpainted. After the changes, I barely had 2000 pts in total.

5th edition is my favorite, hands down.

At the time of this reply, you can get the 5th ed. Rulebook, Battles Book, and 3 army books (High Elves, Skaven, Dwarfs) for a mere $19.99 USD! You can also get the entire Warhammer: Magic box expansion for only $30. Unpunched!!!

My High Elves never got to the sheer lethality that they were under 5th, but in my mind that's a good thing. The game was called Herohammer for a reason. I realize some like that sort of game, and won't lash out at preferences, but that version was one of the least balanced out there. Good on you if you like a narrative game with little restraint, but the soldier in me likes at least a pinch of accuracy. My only regret is that we lost Arthurian Brets in the transition.

I started playing in 5th edition, but I was only starting to build a small army when 6th edition got released.

I also liked the Card system in magic, it was a lot of fun.

But the Herohammer aspect can't be denied.

In order to get to 2000 points, I used every upgrade I could get.

I had some 20 Orc grunts, 20 Plastic Goblins, 10 Orc archers, Grom on Chariot, a rocklobber, and a Wizard Level 4 in my first game Oh and 9 badly painted Wolf riders taken from the Claymore-Saga box.

But hey, no problem, just give the unit champion of the Orcs a 125 points weapon (Axe of Morglor or so I recall). Utterly useless, but hey, there are points in the units slot to be filled
I never had the impression that 6th edition was a money grab. No, it was well thought over. The only things that I felt 5th edition did better (and 8th), was using a percentage of points system rather than a slot system. The higher availability of generic magic items in 5th was also more fun (but inevitably impossible to balance).
The slot system of 6th and 7th with Lords Heroes, Core, Special and Rare slots was a nice idea to force people to take at least some center elements the armies should consist of. But 8th did better with adding a point cost to these categories.

I started in 5th edition. I didn't really like it because the game didn't seem like an armies game. It was more like D&D, where you had the super powered heroes backed by a handful of cheerleading troops.

I preferred the massed battle aspect of 6th, and have never been a big fan of hero hammer, but if you love hero hammer then yes 5th edition was king.