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I've been out of the wargaming area for nearly 2 years, but still like to come to Dakka and see what's happening; especially with the old and decrepit empire and what they are doing to annoy the gaming world.
What I've noticed a lot is the vast amount of books they are inflicting on everybody.

Are all these books really necessary? It seems like you need a book to go with the previous book,another book to explain the last 2 ,then you are onto the next rules set and guess what, there are even more books that you are going to need! The only surprise is that they have not released a book on the correct way to roll a dice.

Seriously, it's a tabletop wargame, how many books do they believe people need to actually play the game?
I think they may end up having to sell Sherpas to help gamers cart all their rules books to their local clubs...

Rulebook, codex is all you need to play. If you want to bring something from Escalation or Stronghold Assault, or a Supplement, then you need those too. But to actually play, just the BRB and codex.

The rules glut is really only akin to 40k. Warmarhordes has a large pile of rules, but they're at least cheaper to access all of it through legitimate means.

Essentially you can either try to learn every army and rules through rote memorization or choose to play and learn through trial by fire. The latter is probably a better use of your time as you're really only going to need to know the units people traditionally bring and it gets you into the wilds meeting new folks. Neither are a bad thing.

Now as a more competitive gamer, this is a reason I hung my hat on the game. It's just too full of rules here and there for someone who likes to know them all.

I'm with the OP on this one. More books is not necessarily better. I love it when a single modest book can contain the rules, army lists and maybe (some games are generic in a good way) some fluff in a package that I don't have to invest a week decipering. Games like Kings of War, Song of Blades and Heroes, Of Gods and Mortals, In Her Magesty's name, etc, are nice self-contained books where everything you need is in the book and if there are supplements, they are modest in size and number.

As for the many-big-expensive-books-companies, while we all know that it is a money grab by GW, but it should be pointed out that such a characterization doesn't show the whole picture.

There is a certain type of gamer for whom reflecting the minutiae of the character/unit/hero/race in the gaming rules as well as the fluff is very desirable. These folks look forward to new codices and sub-codices that give stats, abilities, wargear, special rules, etc as well as lots of fluff and pretty pictures. 40k and similar games cater well to this group. Say what you will about the mess of the rules and codices, they certainly do reflect the minutiae of the fluff of the units they describe. It's the reason people actually play Apocalypse when adapting a more abstract ruleset like Epic Armageddon would make much more sense for handling so many units on one table. Some folks just like having more detail.

Lastly, there's just the attraction of a big pretty book with lots of pictures. I refuse to drop another $80 on 7th edition, but looking over at my bookshelf, I see 6 other editions and I can't deny that they were beautiful books to read and admire.

My favorite game has rules that fit on one page front and back. Moar bukz ain't better.

Slipstream wrote:
I've been out of the wargaming area for nearly 2 years, but still like to come to Dakka and see what's happening; especially with the old and decrepit empire and what they are doing to annoy the gaming world.
What I've noticed a lot is the vast amount of books they are inflicting on everybody.

Are all these books really necessary? It seems like you need a book to go with the previous book,another book to explain the last 2 ,then you are onto the next rules set and guess what, there are even more books that you are going to need! The only surprise is that they have not released a book on the correct way to roll a dice.

Seriously, it's a tabletop wargame, how many books do they believe people need to actually play the game?
I think they may end up having to sell Sherpas to help gamers cart all their rules books to their local clubs...

They got you covered..