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I'm getting back into 6e along with Warhammer Renaissance, and I'm going to start off with Ravening Hordes because I'm rebuying all my old army books and I want to take my time.

I have PDFs of the older army books and it strikes me that while more limited, sometimes the Ravening Hordes lists are actually a little bit better. Like High Elves - you've got Pheonix Guard in Special so people might actually take them, and they're cheaper than the Army Book version as well. Okay, they'd don't cause Fear, but they're also not a massive points sink. There's a bunch of other bits too - more options for heavy armour for your guys and so on.

Orcs and Goblins have a less punishing version of Animosity, they still have Spider Riders, and they get to use normal hand weapons, which I reckon is actually a buff over the army book Choppa rule.

Empire retain halflings, steam tanks, Kislev, War Wagons, ogres and all sorts, while still having their core troops. Missing the cool detachment rules, it is true.

Daemons get to be their own faction with pretty decent rules (though they are mental expensive!) which wouldn't come back around until Storm of Chaos.

On the other hand, Beastmen are barely there as a faction and their army book is frankly miles better in terms of feel and flavour on the table. The skirmishing-then-sorta-ranking up herds were such a great concept, as well as the ambush mechanic. Lizardmen only have Skink cavalry rather than the far cooler Saurus cavalry, and no Saurus Lord choice or Carnasaur is very sad. Dwarves also make me a bit sad - Miners, my favourite unit, is essentially just exactly Warriors with Great Weapons and Heavy Armour? Why even make it a separate entry?

It's just interesting to compare army books vs. ravening hordes and think about which you'd rather use. I'm actually leaning a bit towards sticking with the High Elves from Ravening Hordes because I'm not so interested in doing a magic heavy High Elf army (or any army, really, I prefer Wizards in a secondary role most of the time) and I happen to own Pheonix Guard and I'd like them to actually be a decent choice.

And of course if you play Chaos Dwarves this was your army book til what, 8th edition?

Ravening Hordes was the singular point in GW WHF history where all factions were on the same level (I can't judge pre-4th E stuff like the "white lists"). It is very straight forward basic rules for each faction.

It is a matter of necessity in such a small pamphlet.
While army books were of course more elaborate, but not containing the better rules in each case

But you also mention Warhammer Rennaissance, have you a group of players willing to play it? That would be nice!
I am (of course) always advocating our little community project Warhammer CE,I wonder if you have heard about it and if yes considered testing it?
Almost all units that have been available in WHF since 4th edition and beyond are playable. Checking your message, all the units you are missing from ravening hordes or the army books of 6e are included. Even Chaos Dwarfs, Arabia, Norsca, Dogs of War are included.
I don't wanna 'spread the gospel' but if you're interested, I can provide you with rules etc

Well, I'm sort of a one man show so my approach is to set up games for colleagues and friends and provide all the armies and rules and terrain myself.

I have ambitions of a group but life keeps getting in the way of the time commitment that is, maybe when my kids are a bit older!

That's part of the attraction of "out of the box" 6th, because at least there are already existing groups and events for that, so if I feel like it I might be able to find some strangers to play against.

I'm certainly not opposed to trying out your rules, I remember having a look at them a while ago and thinking they looked decent! Fan rules are where the best WFB stuff is happening imo. Renaissance has a lot to recommend it but I'm going to take my time getting magic cards together and stuff so I'm going to scratch my fantasy itch with 6e for now, but I'll give Warhammer CE a look too!

Having rules for Norsca is very cool- I was inspired by the WR rules to put some vikings I had knocking around together for that, so CE having a Noscan list is exciting!

I love the 6e ravening hordes book, the last great hurrah for high elves having pegasus and unicorns, and chaos dwarves having semi-official rules.

 Da Boss wrote:
Well, I'm sort of a one man show so my approach is to set up games for colleagues and friends and provide all the armies and rules and terrain myself.
I have ambitions of a group but life keeps getting in the way of the time commitment that is, maybe when my kids are a bit older!

I feel your pain haha, my oldest is 6 and he already loves to play with them Giants and Knights but my daughter is only 10 months old, so there is not much space in terms of squeezing in a game, lest a regular schedule for gaming

Ravening Hordes was a great point in WHFB. All armies well represented.

I remember playing Chaos Dwarves, with those blunderbusses projecting a "kill-area".

I just had a look at Warhammer CE, looks pretty fun. Seems like a rebalanced 7e to me, which I'm not at all opposed to - the core rules for 7e were pretty solid, it was the terrible army books that ruined it. I picked 6e over 7e for three main reasons: Everyone gets some rules for 6e, the beastmen rules are the best they'll ever be, and the siege rules are in the main book. But I think early 7th was a great time in the game too - the personal power dice works a lot better, and I much preferred how Orcs and Goblins worked in 7e to 6e - the simpler and less harsh animosity table is a lot more fun and choppas being better is just a lot more satisfying. It's not like Orcs and Goblins were overpowered at any point that I can remember!

Norse list looks a bit like what I was thinking of - based on Marauder statlines for the mainline troops with some weaker human statlines for light troops and your classic viking units like bearskin wearing berserkers and so on as well.