Whats the difference between these Warhammer rule books?

ok im new to warhammer and was immediately shocked at how pricy the rule books are. does anybody know if there are any major difference between the 4th edition and 5th edition rule books? i want to get one for cheap. i only want one for the basic rules of the game i dont care about anything else in it.



if anyone can tell me the basic rules from the 5th edition or email them to me that would be awesome also.Whats the difference between these Warhammer rule books?
First of all, for a full-colour, hardback, A4, glossy-paper product, the price for the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook (which I assume you're talking about, because the Warhammer Fantasy rules are on their 7th edition currently) is perfectly reasonable.



If you want a cheaper rulebook, then an eBay search will yield the A5 softcover rulebook usually sold with the Assault on Black Reach boxed set as a separate item, usually costing between 拢10 and 拢20. It has all of the rules but less background and fewer photos.



You could, of course, buy the 4th Ed rulebook and play that version of the game. But be warned: there is a reason those old rulebooks sell for so little - hardly anyone plays 4th Edition! It's not like AD%26amp;D, where you can find players of 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 all over the place. In 40k, newer editions tend to be better than old editions.



It would be fair to say that the "basic rules" - how to move, shoot, assault, take wounds etc - haven't changed substantially between 4th and 5th editions. But there are important subtleties. 4th edition had no rules for Running, nor for vehicle movement on roads. 4th Edition had a target priority system that was dropped in 5th. The way one can or cannot target individual models in the assault was altered. Going to ground was added. New vehicle damage tables and rules were included. Universal Special Rules like Fleet and True Grit were given unified rules that don't exist in 4th Ed.



A list of changes would be so long as almost to replicate the rulebook itself.



Finally: Warhammer 40,000 is not an expensive hobby as far as hobbies go. It's less expensive than building a model railway in your attic, or replacing the engine of your Vauxhall Corsa with one from a Subaru Impreza. It offers a far higher return on your hobby investment than computer games. But, on the other hand, it doesn involve a financial outlay. You need miniatures, tools, paints, glue, a gaming table, terrain, rulebooks, codexes, tape measures, dice... Eventually, you will "need" a titan (for 拢400), because that's what hobbies are about.



If you're not prepared to commit to that sort of financial outlay even going so far as not wanting to buy the basic rules then this probably isn't the right game for you to play.



But don't be downhearted! There are loads of tabletop wargames you can download for free. Even Games Workshop has made the rules to its Specialist Games range free to download. Necromunda is a game of gang warfare based on the rules for 2nd Edition Warhammer 40,000 (a rare case when the old rules actually were better - at squad-to-squad combat - than the new ones). It requires only a handful of miniature to play. Inquisitor requires a minimum of one model! Mordheim is like Necromunda in a fantasy setting. Battlefleet Gothic is a great space-combat game. Bloodbowl is a game of fantasy football that uses teams of about a dozen models on a board no larger than a couple of feet long.



And if you don't even want to pay Games Workshop's prices for the Specialist Games range, you can look at generic free games like Stargrunt 2 , Full Thrust (another space-combat game) and Dirtside, all from Ground Zero Games.



Personally, I find that these "generic" games lack some of the soul of games set in better-defined universes, and there are few fictional game universe deeper and more exciting than that of Warhammer 40,000. But, if you can find likeminded players, there's no reason not to play games of Stargrunt or Dirtside (or Full Thrust, for that matter) set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.



Just don't tell the staff at your local GW! ;)Whats the difference between these Warhammer rule books?
warhammer 4th edition is out of date. 5th edition is the newest edition and is the rules that are played with now. one option you can do [if you play the armies included] is buy the game box. BLACK REACH for 40k and SKULL PASS for fantasy. they both come with 2 armies and a mini rulebook it has all you need to play without the fluf,stories. thats what i use its small enough to fit in your pocket.i have also seen them on ebay.Whats the difference between these Warhammer rule books?
5th edition is the ONLY legal rulebook out there, and you cant "just learn the basic rules", you need to know almost all of them to play the game
I think you are talking about 40k, not Warhammer fantasy. The rulebook for fantasy will soon be 8th edition.