Morehammer

Hello,
Being as that I never played Warhammer Fantasy Battles nearly as much as I would have liked to, I am resolved to get a game of it going now. However, gaming in this brave new world is going to represent some challenges. While I had thought about hacking the warscrolls into something I could use with newer gamers, I think this will be impossible, or at least, pointless.

On the surface, the free, ubiquitous nature of a pdf ruleset seems great for getting games going. Unfortunately the more I read them, the less interested I become.  I may still find a use for them but here's the thing: with the free rules out there, the books have devaluated on the secondary market to the point that they are no longer a costly barrier to entry. At this point I just need to find an opponent, settle on an edition to play, and that's that.

So, blagosphere, you tell me, what is the best edition of Warhammer Fantasy to be playing in this strange new era? I am going to make the case for 6th. I know it had a lot going against it, but that is probably the most widespread set of army books on the secondary market right now. I'd like to play an earlier edition but here's what they have going against them:

• 5th edition: too much cardboard to keep track of
• 4th edition: ditto, especially for magic
• 3rd and earlier: too expensive, when you can even find them

Only thing that bothers me about 6th is that the army books for my favorite armies were pretty bad. I don't mean 'bad' in the sense that they were ineffective because I don't like that method of evaluating games. I mean 'bad' like, they failed to capture what was cool about those armies, or required weird rebasing of the figures. Nothing I can't fix with house rules and the like, but it's still annoying.

So, if any Oldhammer types are reading this, please chime in with advice on ditching the current rules and making your own group. I have been cutting my own path with regard to models for a long time now, and using outdated codices without apology in 40k while I waited to upgrade my more casually played armies. However, ditching the current core rules (while still trying to get regular games in!) is new to me. That being said, I'm also looking for good house rules to incorporate rank and file units into Age of Sigmar.  I have my own ideas but I will keep them to myself until I can mull them over and perhaps playtest them.

Thanks