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I decided to get into WHFB and have purchased an OOOOOOOOLD High Elf Army. I'm trying to fill it out, but I don't have any rules from this century.....only stuff from 1996 (5th edition).
I ask because I see a lot of 6th edition on Dakka, but 8th was the last released.

Also, because buying OOP rule books on Ebay is expensive.

Any advice on what is the most FUN to play and balanced would be great. Or what you hate about a certain edition vs. others. I probably won't play AoS, but I plan on giving it a try eventually.

Thanks!
J

This is a question I actually asked on here a while back when I realized my group was accidentally playing with multiple different editions.

We ended up going with 6th Edition for many different reasons, but it is my opinion that it does satisfy your ask of being the most balanced.

As far as FUN, I do believe it succeeds there as well, but I will fully disclose to you that we "ported" cool models from 7th and 8th Edition (High Elf Lion Chariots are an example) into our 6th Edition Army Books.


This is what I understand the "tone" of each Edition to be, but anyone who plays may have a differing opinion and I'd love to hear those, too:

5th Edition - "Hero Hammer" . Do you like when a Character can dictate a battle, like in the movies? Strong Characters with the ability to stack incredible attributes onto themselves prevailed during this Edition.

6th Edition - "Classic Hammer" . This was the first Edition when Warhammer switched their Magic system to be the Spell Lores rather than their old card system. Running from 2000-2005, and with some of the 6th Edition Books remaining as the only legal way to run some armies through like 2010, this Edition also bled heavily into 7th. My personal gripe with this Edition is that they teased a Chaos Dwarfs army for us and then didn't deliver.

7th Edition - "Classic Hammer Continued: Power Creep" . Very similar to 6th, only tweaking a few things such as Power Dice Pools and Lapping Round, what I've heard most from people is their dislike of how it seemed Games Workshop felt compelled to push sales by making each Army Book they released even more powerful (and there will be some who point to later Books from 6th Edition such as Wood Elves or the Revised Dwarfs and say corporate sales tactics were already affecting internal game balance.)

8th Edition - "The End Times" . This was a major shift to the game mechanics unlike the compatibility between 6th and 7th Edition. A major example is that charge ranges become random, which is either a major relief if you dislike "the dance" or a major disappointment if you value positioning over the randomness of dice rolls. Another point either in favor or against depending on your group's preferences are the introduction of even more models. Some crazy things like Flying Chariots for the High Elves or the IronBlaster for the Ogres jump out as examples.

The Ninth Age - I am honestly not familiar enough with this one to give it a """". Some really nice people have posted about it and it seems to be a collection of hardcore fantasy players who wanted to keep the game alive when it switched to AoS by creating their own master rules set. I believe they are now in their second edition, actually.

AoS - "The Rulebook is 3 Pages Long" . Seriously. Its not a book; its a brochure. If you liked Warhammer Fantasy's collecting, modeling, painting, and lore aspects, but didnt enjoy all the studying and long set ups this is the much more casual (but distinct for copywrite purposes)
version of Warhammer Fantasy (where orcs are orks). They switched over to round bases, so no more big blocks of ranked up units.


Recommended Resources:

http://classichammer.com/news.php - A forum site dedicated to just the old Fantasy and 40K Editions with some helpful posters

 jthewarrior wrote:
I decided to get into WHFB and have purchased an OOOOOOOOLD High Elf Army. I'm trying to fill it out, but I don't have any rules from this century.....only stuff from 1996 (5th edition).
I ask because I see a lot of 6th edition on Dakka, but 8th was the last released.

Also, because buying OOP rule books on Ebay is expensive.

Any advice on what is the most FUN to play and balanced would be great. Or what you hate about a certain edition vs. others. I probably won't play AoS, but I plan on giving it a try eventually.

Thanks!
J

Really? They are getting that expensive? It has been a while since I priced them, but getting an old set of 6th edition books was around $10 or so a year or two back. The times, they are a changing I guess. A lot of people have their personal taste when it comes to which edition of WFB that is out there. My personal favorite is the 6th edition, and yes Matt is pretty pretty close to the feel of the editions more or less. For someone totally new who is not being taught by someone who has a preference, I would see if you can get watch a few you tube videos of a few games and see what you think. There used to be tons of videos out there for 8th edition and to a lesser extent, 7th. Taking a video or making a slide show of your game was not that popular before the 7th edition, however, the website that Matt mentioned has more than a few battle reports on there specifically for the 6th so if you want to see how the game plays, take a look and see what you think. I think that there are a few around here as well, mainly for either 8th or 6th. One thing about the books, search for a PDF before you buy one. That may be a better alternative if the army books are more than $20 or a basic rule book is over$50.

I tried posting a link to a site that offers all the pdfs of all the rulebooks and army books from 1st edition thru 8th under my resources part but i believe i may have broken a site rule by doing so and it appears to have been scrubbed. (Sorry dakka)

Tiny gives a good suggestion to see if you can find battle reports if that could shed some light on your preferences.

Add me as a third for 6th Ed. meeting my balance and gameplay preferences. On the site that Matty recommended you'll actually see some of my battle reports alongside a host of other great material. Ultimately without knowing what your playstyle is, it's difficult to make a recommendation. There are posters on here that will make a reasonable pitch for 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th. Hell, there's a group of gamers still playing 3rd.

Tiny has the best of it: watch some videos and see what appeals to you the most. I can tell you one thing, though: if mass casualties is one of the draws for you, 6th won't be your bag.

Best one depends on what you want
as MattyFenby pointed out, they are all very different

in addition, there are Community Versions for all of them

T9A is a better balanced 8th Edition focused on tournament play

Warhammer CE is a better balanced 7th

Fluffhammer original 8th with changes to be more true to the background and better balanced

Warhammer Armies, a "best of" from 6th to 8th

Personally I'd say go with 8th. However, there is no right answer to this question. It all comes down to what you are looking for. Each edition offers something different. A good way to help you out would be to watch some videos on YouTube. You'll find plenty of 6th & 8th. 7th may be a bit had to find.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and feedback. I'm joining ClassicHammer now and looking into T9A and Warhammer Armies.

TinyLegions wrote:

One thing about the books, search for a PDF before you buy one. That may be a better alternative if the army books are more than $20 or a basic rule book is over$50.

I did just that and found pretty much everything I needed. Now I just need to find some more minis for a decent price........any suggestions? I'm on miniswap on reddit, the swap forum here , and also FB Marketplace.

Another question: Why isn't 6th edition good if massive casualties are my thing?

6th doesn't cater to mass casualties, to the point that your average combat round can track the number of wounds on one hand. Psychology and the press of combat are the real sorters, as you'll remove more models killed during pursuit than during the actual combat.

There are exceptions as a Frenzied unit with two close combat weapons and a champion will have 16 attacks if run in a 5 man front. That unit can be kited easily, though.

I've been asking myself this a lot lately. My current plan is to use 8th edition rules (which I'm most familiar with) with the Warhammer Armies Project armybooks, but I have been looking a lot at classichammer's forums and battle reports and looking to 6th a bit.
6th's army building rules do generally appeal to me more (I like heroes, smaller units, and monsters! Not so big a fan of the big block of 40 core infantry + 40 special of 8th)
However... 6th "doesn't support" some models I have and really like (Dread Saurian, elf phoenixes) so not sure how to reconcile all of this without like, homebrewing rules for 6th?

Of course, since the army building rules of 6th are what really strongly appeal to me, I could probably just play 8th with that + WAP armybooks.

Anyways, sorry for rambling about my own things and not really answering your question much.

 kodos wrote:

T9A is a better balanced 8th Edition focused on tournament play

This was true, it isnt now. Current T9A is post-warhammer because of legal issues.
If you download the 9th Age 1.1 you will get the fixed version of 8th.

In a nutshell the three editions of WHFB worth playing are 3rd, 6th and 8th.
3rd for skirmish rules with a very open ended ruleset, but dont bother for mass battles.
6th and 8th both have a strong following, and remember you don't need to add End Times to 8th, it was a deliberate ruin of the system to close everything down to move onto AoS.

 Orlanth wrote:

 kodos wrote:

T9A is a better balanced 8th Edition focused on tournament play

This was true, it isnt now. Current T9A is post-warhammer because of legal issues.
If you download the 9th Age 1.1 you will get the fixed version of 8th.

well, they claim that it is still just a fixed 8th with minor changes on the overlay for legal reasons, of they are "more" ore something different they need to work on their marketing

but than you can also throw Kings of War into the ring

if T9A is a post-warhammer version of 8th, KoW is the post-warhammer version of 6th

All editions are fine but can offer very different games. 6th and up have been covered already so I'll bat one home for 5th.

The card-based magic phase of 5th edition is great with lots more mind-games than in later editions. The army building is also quite free form and allows more variation, with a long list of monster mounts and allies available. It's easy to build superman characters but at the same time there's plenty of nasty magic items you can bring to deal with them. Like all editions, though, it works best when house-ruled together with your group of friends to promote what you like most.

6th and 8th probably still have the largest following currently. 7th is a more refined 6th and there is nothing wrong with the rules themselves. It was the army books that screwed 7th edition.

8th may be the one you'd have the least trouble getting into as the books are still easy to get. Anything 6th or earlier is getting expensive to find. Unless you manage to find a local store that has old OOP stuff. That's how I manage to find 6th edition stuff nowadays.

Otherwise theres The 9th Age. While they had too change a bunch of stuff for legal reasons, it still pretty much plays like 8th edition mechanic wise at least. Army creation and magic is much different.

Rihgu wrote:
I've been asking myself this a lot lately. My current plan is to use 8th edition rules (which I'm most familiar with) with the Warhammer Armies Project armybooks, but I have been looking a lot at classichammer's forums and battle reports and looking to 6th a bit.
6th's army building rules do generally appeal to me more (I like heroes, smaller units, and monsters! Not so big a fan of the big block of 40 core infantry + 40 special of 8th)
However... 6th "doesn't support" some models I have and really like (Dread Saurian, elf phoenixes) so not sure how to reconcile all of this without like, homebrewing rules for 6th?
.

My group actually DID exactly that. We currently have rules we like for High Elf Lion Chariots, Forest Goblin Spider Riderz, and a few others. We actually own both a fire and a frost Elf Phoenix model and have been discussing possible ways to "port" it!
When it comes to your Dread Saurian, check out the 2004 Book for 6th Edition; it included rules for the Arcanodon, the Great Wyrm, the Coatl, and the Thunder Lizard, which I think could fit as a Dread Saurian if I'm thinking of the right model.

Let me take another whack at offering a resource since my last one got shut down.

This guy compiled all the 6th Edition models that weren't released at the same time as their Army Book. https://wfb6thcharacters.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

And there's definitely a group of hardcore 6th Edition players in Europe who are going through all the 7th and 8th Edition Models and converting their rule sets to 6th (as far as I know, they have it up and running in Spanish and are working on translating it to English this year)


As you can see from the other responses, pretty much every Edition from 1995-present is still alive in at least one form or another. It's a good time to play some Warhammer

MattyFenby wrote:


My group actually DID exactly that. We currently have rules we like for High Elf Lion Chariots, Forest Goblin Spider Riderz, and a few others. We actually own both a fire and a frost Elf Phoenix model and have been discussing possible ways to "port" it!
When it comes to your Dread Saurian, check out the 2004 Book for 6th Edition; it included rules for the Arcanodon, the Great Wyrm, the Coatl, and the Thunder Lizard, which I think could fit as a Dread Saurian if I'm thinking of the right model.

I had actually seen your efforts with the lion chariots, I think on classichammer forums? Is the 2004 book the White Dwarf one or the "actual" book? I think I've seen both floating around and couldn't really trace which one was the uh, "real" one? 6th edition has a LOT of resources to dig through (White Dwarf Legion of Chaos Ascendant vs Storm of Chaos armylist? Which one to use...!?) that I assume are easier to dig through had you "been there".

Thanks for the link. The Great Lizards army list is very interesting! I have an un-ridden Grymloq that I've always been disappointed that I couldn't use as a rare choice in Lizardman lists...

The main draw here is that because its an old system players feel free to edition surf. Back when it was active the current edition was really the only one played.

May I suggest you buy multiple army books for your army and prepare to play multiple editions.

I have T9A 1.1 (which is free download) and bought all the 8th and 6th army books over time. That pretty much covers it and if I meet people that only play 8th or only play 6th, I can shrug and let them have it their way.

 jthewarrior wrote:
Thanks to everyone for the advice and feedback. I'm joining ClassicHammer now and looking into T9A and Warhammer Armies.

TinyLegions wrote:

One thing about the books, search for a PDF before you buy one. That may be a better alternative if the army books are more than $20 or a basic rule book is over$50.

I did just that and found pretty much everything I needed. Now I just need to find some more minis for a decent price........any suggestions? I'm on miniswap on reddit, the swap forum here , and also FB Marketplace.

Another question: Why isn't 6th edition good if massive casualties are my thing?

For the armies, it really does depend on which armies that you want to collect. I tend to like the historical armies for Bretts, Empire, DOW, and Chaos Marauders. There is a lot of variation in size so do your research on it, and get a few sample miniatures to see if it fits what you are looking for. For the armies that are more fantastic in nature (Elves, Dwarves, Greenskins, etc.) I have not found any replacement to GW that I like other than some of the line from Black Tree Design. But, don't let my perference stop you. There are all kinds of kick starters and 3D printing coming online that is tempting me, so continue to use your google-fu to find something that you like.

Edit: I have been impressed with Oathmark for Elves. I have been contemplating using them for Wood Elves as of late. Check them out for Dwarves and Elves if you want an alternative to GW.

 Orlanth wrote:
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.

I love your Mentat themed signature. Dune is my favorite book. I will need to make one for the Litany of Fear in Ork-ese. "I ain't a-feared, 'cause da WarBoss will bash me 'ead, being afeared of humies is stoopid, I bash skulls inside-out an' den I'll shoot em 'till I ain't a-feared none more..."

Sadly I don't think that is from any of the books but was included in the Dino De Laurentis 1984 film to make mentats stand out and be different from regular smart guys (of which there were many) without too much explanation.

I love both, Victorian gothic was spot on for Dune. As for the mantra, I would copy it more directly. "Fear is da mind killa, fear is da little deff that brings obliteration...."
There is actually a lot of wisdom in those words.