What would be the best course of action at this time to get started

[Malgior]

ok,
in a couple of days i'm joining a friend in a day of warhammer fantasy battles to see how the game works. I've been playing around with the idea of getting started in tabletop war gaming for a long time now and reading up on whatever I can get my hands on but after reading the possible changes that might be happening to the game i'm doubting about starting right now.
I was first planning on going dwarf but after reading they get boring pretty fast and with the possibility that they will be getting fused with another group of factions I don't like I started looking into the one faction everybody seems to say is extremely newbie unfriendly and that's the skaven ( I for some reason like the fact that you can blow up your own units :p )
But now I keep wondering if now is the time to get into all of this and sink money into it with all these rumours ( some more solid then others) and would skaven be a waste of time to get started with ( if it's even a good time to start)

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Personally, if you're getting started for the first time: just go for it. Ignore the rumours; there's bound to be a lot of discouraging stuff in there which won't even turn out to be true.

If you want to be cautious with all the uncertainty (not a terrible idea, despite what I said above - it's your money and time), then you can concentrate on finding some things you like, reading around, and getting going with the hobby: play some introductory or practice games (a store will usually offer one, or find a friend with an army you can borrow) and get started with painting and modelling figures that you like the look of.

The pre-edition change is always a period of uncertainty, but if you want to get into the hobby, it's also often a good time to get in on the ground with the inevitable metagame shift! (And if everyone decides to throw their toys out of the pram, cheap deals for armies and models on Ebay and the like!) If you want to do it, this is my advice: just find some models and a playstyle you like, and get going with it. :)

At the moment, Skaven have just been on the receiving end of some very nice new toys: the Stormfiends add an extra level of hitty goodness (and horrid machineguns), and you've also got new models and rules for the ever-cool Verminlords. Thanquol's lovely, as are the two new characters. The army book is on the older side but that also means it's cheaper than the hardbacks. Skaven are really unreliable. Sometimes they'll shoot themselves, their war machines will fall over and explode, and all your rats will run away when someone says boo. When it all comes together, though, they can be pretty frightening. And yeah, I like that they're full of character that way (same with Orcs and Goblins, who sometimes decide to ignore your orders and have an inter-unit punch-up).

The new Dwarfs are also pretty lovely. Rock hard blocks of slow moving killers and lines of horrible, horrible war machines. Also strangely cute helicopters.

I'm doing Undead Legions right now.

[Lord Manton]

Pretty much everything the Cap'n just said. I would add though, that if you're looking at Skaven, it's a pretty safe way to go in terms of covering your butt with the new edition. They just got some cool new models, so I think it's safe to say they'll stick around and those models will be useable. My advice would be to pick up one or two of the new things and maybe a unit of clanrats or two and get those painted up while you play some smaller games and get used to everything. Then, around the middle of the year you can really get into it once you know what's going on with the changes.

Good luck and happy gaming!

[Cap'nSmurfs]

The fact that the new army composition rules allow for 50% Lords/Heroes means it's a bit easier nowadays to pick up an army and get playing: get Thanquol, get a warlord, get a Battalion and you're probably good to go for 1500 pts (or on your way there).

And then you've got Thanquol, and who doesn't want that guy?

[Ben_S]

Pretty much everything the Cap'n just said. I would add though, that if you're looking at Skaven, it's a pretty safe way to go in terms of covering your butt with the new edition. They just got some cool new models, so I think it's safe to say they'll stick around and those models will be useable. My advice would be to pick up one or two of the new things and maybe a unit of clanrats or two and get those painted up while you play some smaller games and get used to everything. Then, around the middle of the year you can really get into it once you know what's going on with the changes.

Good luck and happy gaming!

Hopefully those new models will remain unchanged, though it's not impossible that there may be some change to their bases. Personally, I'd say that if you decide on Skaven you should load up on the Island of Blood Skaven while you can get them relatively cheap.

As general advice though, I'd say start small and gradual. Choose an army and get ONE box of core troops. Try assembling and painting those before you buy any more. It's all too easy to spend a fortune buying a whole army, only to find you then have to assemble it all (and, in the longer run, paint it). Since it probably doesn't make sense to invest a lot right now, given uncertainty over a new edition, building up gradually is a good way to slow yourself down.

Also, sometimes you may find that an army appeals to you in certain respects, but you just don't get on with the models. For example, you may feel drawn to High Elves but have a quick and dirty painting style more suited to Undead, Skaven, or Orcs - in that case, the nice clean High Elves (or Bretonnians, etc) are probably not the best choice for you after all.

[Wildeybeast]

Pretty much what the others have said, pick what you like, go for it and totally ignore the rumours. Anything rumours this far out are fairly unreliable. No one had a clue End Times was coming until a few weeks before it arrived, so GW keep a pretty tight control of their rumours. The worse case scenario is you build up an army and GW totally changes everything, get rid of a load of existing units and make us put everything on round bases. If that happens (and it won't), then you will be in the same boat as everyone else who has wasted a load of money. Most people would simply decide to keep playing 8th edition with their existing models as it works perfectly well.

[Spider-pope]

Going to have to be the one to break from the consensus so far, i would suggest waiting at least one more month before beginning. Age of Sigmar lands on the 11th of July, at which point we should have a far better idea on just what the future holds.
At the moment you can no longer buy Army books, making it rather difficult to plan anything out. But if you can't wait, Skaven are a fairly safe bet. As one of the unique elements of GW's IP, they are almost certain to remain long term, meaning you're almost guaranteed to be able to use what you buy going forward.