New to 30k - What Books do I need?

[carlisimo]

New rules always come out in the black books first. It later gets compiled, sometimes with changes, into red books.

 

The current red books don’t include any rules introduced in black books 6-8.

[SkimaskMohawk]

That's not true. The leviathan came out in book 6 and is in the current red book, as is phosphex quad mortars, mastodon, cortus, herald, laser vindi and all the new rite of wars introduced there. The missing things are the characters and knights errant.

[UnstableDominus]

I've been swayed by the new Dark Angels models to try my hand at 30k.  I've done some reading through this thread and have to admit, I'm still a little confused.  I see the rulebook and the army list collection (the two red books), but I also need book six right?  Can I get away with just the Age of Darkness Army List book and forgo Age of Darkness Legions?

[Lord Krungharr]

I’m also a bit confused with so many books needed. I want to start playing with my Iron Warriors. Looks like one could play with just the Army List book but you wouldn’t have any of the Legion specific rules or Rites of War I think? If we could just use the old tiny 40k rulebook that would be nice.

 

Also sounds like the new Legions book has been updated to have IronFire Rite of War which I am very interested in using.

[Spagunk]

I’m also a bit confused with so many books needed. I want to start playing with my Iron Warriors. Looks like one could play with just the Army List book but you wouldn’t have any of the Legion specific rules or Rites of War I think? If we could just use the old tiny 40k rulebook that would be nice.

 

Also sounds like the new Legions book has been updated to have IronFire Rite of War which I am very interested in using.

For Iron Warriors, you need the red army book and the red legion book. You should probably get the big rule book but otherwise you only need 2 books total.

 

If you want to ally/add admech stuff, you will probably want to add the tehgmata book for the two robbuts marines have access to (vorax, castalax) . Otherwise it's relatively easy to get into.

 

That said, book 8 has a couple of worthwhile items if you want some specialist gear. Mostly new sheets for some of the newer sicaran variants.

[Dindrenzi]

Has anyone purchased the enhanced editions from iTunes? Are they up to date?

[Lord Krungharr]

If I still had my old iPad I would have.  Instead I got the 3 red books off eBay.  I hope they don't change things up anytime soon!  Gotta get some mileage out of them, not cheap but FW is out of stock right now and will be presumably for a while.

[Spagunk]

Someone can correct me, but it will likely be awhile after book 9 before they collate legion/army rules into a new red book. I'd start a timer to about 6 months after book 9 before a hint at a new legion/army red book would start to appear.

[Gederas]

Someone can correct me, but it will likely be awhile after book 9 before they collate legion/army rules into a new red book. I'd start a timer to about 6 months after book 9 before a hint at a new legion/army red book would start to appear.

So, using this logic, it'd be safe for me to get the Red Books for Marines next month, along with the BRB and not have it be immediately replaced?

 

Because that's been my big worry with the Red Books.

[Spagunk]

It's not the worst idea at this time. But a consolidated book may still be awhile. We will see.

[Marshal Vespasian]

I mean there is radio silence from fw again now that we got a release. Depends on how much you want them.

Since we have a few copies of them in my gaming group im sticking to battlescribe till we get the next announcement about whats to come for us from fw.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Marshal Vespasian

[Gorgoff]

I mean there is radio silence from fw again now that we got a release. Depends on how much you want them.

Since we have a few copies of them in my gaming group im sticking to battlescribe

Why?

Why not load down the rulebook for free in the internet?

[spafe]

Hi all,

I assume its okay to reply here as its a pinned topic even though its been a while. 

So I have the Age of darkness book, I have the liber loyalist on the way, and waiting for a good deal on the liber hereticus. I'm looking to do iron warriors (got the loyalist one jsut cos it was a good deal on ebay), and nice to make lists. From what I can glean, they have close links to mechanicus stuff, and I also like the idea of doing a termite assault list with the solar... 30k guard chaps as a meat shield holding the line til the IW actually appear. Ive not seen any topics on this (although might hav emissed), is there a current book for these (robots and humans)?

 

Cheers for the help!

[Harrowmaster]

7 minutes ago, spafe said:

Hi all,

I assume its okay to reply here as its a pinned topic even though its been a while. 

So I have the Age of darkness book, I have the liber loyalist on the way, and waiting for a good deal on the liber hereticus. I'm looking to do iron warriors (got the loyalist one jsut cos it was a good deal on ebay), and nice to make lists. From what I can glean, they have close links to mechanicus stuff, and I also like the idea of doing a termite assault list with the solar... 30k guard chaps as a meat shield holding the line til the IW actually appear. Ive not seen any topics on this (although might hav emissed), is there a current book for these (robots and humans)?

 

Cheers for the help!

Not at the moment, the liber mechanicum and liber imperialis have been mentioned in warcom articles so we don't have official rules yet. There's a thread somewhere in this forum with a liber obscurus containing fan made rules for 2.0 so people have something to use while waiting on GW. 

 

Edit: Here's the link: 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Harrowmaster
Update

[Aeternus]

2 minutes ago, spafe said:

Hi all,

I assume its okay to reply here as its a pinned topic even though its been a while. 

So I have the Age of darkness book, I have the liber loyalist on the way, and waiting for a good deal on the liber hereticus. I'm looking to do iron warriors (got the loyalist one jsut cos it was a good deal on ebay), and nice to make lists. From what I can glean, they have close links to mechanicus stuff, and I also like the idea of doing a termite assault list with the solar... 30k guard chaps as a meat shield holding the line til the IW actually appear. Ive not seen any topics on this (although might hav emissed), is there a current book for these (robots and humans)?

 

Cheers for the help!

Currently there's no official rules for either the Mechanicum or the Solar Auxilia/general humans. We know they'll be coming in their own liber's eventually (the roadmap has Liber Mechanicum in August, and Liber Imperium in October - I assume the SA rules will be in the latter) but until then you won't be able to run them except with fan rules.

[spafe]

thanks for that! I'll not worry about the fan made stuff just yet though. Still not got any models, so plenty of time to start collecting power armour core before I worry about branching out.

[TheArtilleryman]

I know this thread is old but seeing as it is a sticky and most of the advice is out of date I thought it was worth posting a clear and full answer for Heresy second edition.

 

If you’re starting Horus Heresy now then you need the Rulebook and the army list book for your chosen faction. Rulebook is this one:

 

 

Army lists are called “Liber ….” depending on what faction you’re going for:

 

 

Astartes and Hereticus are the space marine books. Both books contain rules for all the generic units like tactical squads and land raiders etc. Astartes contains rules for the special units and primarchs from the 9 loyalist legions and Hereticus contains the same but for the 9 traitor legions.

 

Mechanicum sounds fairly obvious but also has the rules for knights and titans.

 

Imperium is everything else i.e. Solar Auxilia, sisters of silence, assassins and Custodes.

 

The rule book can be purchased separately for £40ish, but because it also comes in the big Age of Darkness box there are usually tons of new and sealed copies on eBay going for as little as £12.

Edited May 12 by TheArtilleryman

[WrathOfTheLion]

I'd like to see the current 1E post remain in some capacity, whether it be a repost or something of the sort. It's always nice to keep information like that available in a more permanent fashion.