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If someone was interested in starting warmachine/hordes is it a safe purchase to buy the MK2 rulebook or are they getting close to making a new rule book? Also which army/ armies are beginner friendly?

The recently (about 2 years ago) released a new core rulebook, and considering that the Hordes Two-Player Starter Set just got released, you should be fine buying the Mk2 book. Please note that the Forces of ... books are optional.

 wowsmash wrote:
If someone was interested in starting warmachine/hordes is it a safe purchase to buy the MK2 rulebook or are they getting close to making a new rule book? Also which army/ armies are beginner friendly?

MkII is still relatively fresh. While granted we only have the MkI->MkII move which isn't much of a sample size to establish when they release new versions, I wouldn't expect anything for that sort for at least the next 3 years or so.

None of the armies are particularly more "Beginner Friendly" than the others, each faction is going to have pieces with a lot of different special rules that interact in some potentially complex ways. A few armies (Menoth, Trollbloods, Circle) are perhaps a bit more finicky about their order of operations than other factions and will take slightly longer to get a feel for. However this difference isn't major. The learning curve is going to be fairly steep for any faction, and it'll be eased more by your overall gaming experience than it will by faction choice.

What's more important to picking a faction (at least from a gameplay standpoint) is knowing what play styles you enjoy, and what attracts you to the game (Lots of Warjacks!, Cool Soldiers!, Guns!, Setting things on Fire!) etc.., as different factions play to some elements more than others.

Is there a difference from the hard cover and soft cover books contain?

If you're talking about the big version of the softcover, no. The small one that comes in the Two-Player starter sets only has the rules, but both versions of the big are the same. The hardcover will have a slight bend to the cover, but that's it. No difference in content.

I was looking on amazon and they had both listed but i didn't notice if it said the soft cover was the large or smal one.

If it's on Amazon it'll be the large one. Only eBay will have the small one separate.

Every army can be competetive

No army is Harder then another army
**Note: Some Casters are harder to play then other casters in said armies

Mk2 is new ish, there wont be a new rulebook for awhile.

If you like the models in the 2 player boxes, they are a good option to go with.