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Hey Dakka,

I looked through search but couldn't find an answer to this. I'm collecting (slowly) the old Army Books from 6th edition (circa 2001/2002) for WHFB and WHFB skirmish/Mordheim and General's Compendium, with my son. I have the older purple Dark Elf book (1995), but that's doesn't match up stat or point wise to the 6th edition-ish stuff.

So, which book should I go looking to get my hands on? The 2001 6th edition army book? Or the 2008 7th edition book? I'm not looking for anything overpowered, but it'd be going up against, for example, the 2001 High Elf book (6th ed), and the last Bretonnian book (2004, also 6th edition).

I'm leaning toward the 2001 6th ed book, but could be swayed to 7th assuming the 7th didn't break the faction (I assume the later pics, models, and photos would be superior).

So, enough rambling, anyone have any thoughts?

Well if you want to avoid overpowered it's best to avoid the 7th edition Dark Elf book....Oh man that book was nasty.

As for the 6th edition book be aware that there are 2 versions. One pre-Errata and one post Errata that fixed the points for a lot of the units.

Thanks for that. I couldn't remember if it was 7th or 8th that put them over the top.

Thanks also for the info re: editions. Don't know if I'll be able to discern them from what might be offered on ebay or elsewhere. If I get an old one, I'll look for an errata, bound to be one somewhere.

If I'm not mistaken, the revised version for the 6th DE book was released in 2003. Search for that publication year, not the original 2001 version.

The fastest way to tell is if there's a border around the edge of the cover painting. If the painting touches the edges of the cover, it's the original run. If there's a border going around it's the second run.

The 7th Ed. book is the stuff of legends. It was done in response to the precedent set by the 7th Ed. High Elves getting ASF, but they went WAY overboard with it, and it started an arms race that had them, Daemons, and Vampire Counts as the top tier books for quite some time. We're talking damn near unbeatable.

EDIT: Also, and I can't believe I didn't think of this right away, you should pop over to www.classichammer.com as most of the posters still left posting over there are 6th Ed. players currently, or at the very least highly 6th Ed. knowledgeable.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll check out classichammer.

Also thanks all for the info, I'll keep an eye out for the dates and book covers.

I appreciate the assist

Don't bother with 5th or earlier unless you wish to invest in the whole schebang. Multiple army books etc and host games. If you are not going to host everything yourself stick with 6th and 8th, and I recommend you collect for both.