Which books do I need for the complete up to date rules. Is the softback smaller rulebook like this one (while I'm at it is this price decent)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lord-of-the-R ... 4d0a9c5add

combined with the new sourcebooks for whatever army I want? Does this cover all the rules and profiles? Also is the hardback version of the rule book any different now that there are new profiles (I don't care for senarios or hobby tips).

Thanks in advance.

Seems like a pretty high price for an out of date book. Still, it's cheaper than the new ones, and if you just want to see if you like the game, it's a decent place to start. If you like the game, the new rules aren't much different, you'll adapt in no time.

But if you want to commit, the latest rules are here:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... od1820032a

There's a small version of the rules available in the Escape from Goblin Town box set, but it has no profiles in it, not even for the models in the box...!

Them's the rules, but you still need the profiles, which are found here:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... Style=lotr

Only the first five are profiles for SBG. War of the Ring is a different game. The last three are journeybooks, very handy if you're new to the game and/or are new to terrain building.

Thanks but I am ignoring the hobbit rules, I've only played a few SBG games (I play WOTR mostly) but the hobbit rules don't seem as good.

That's really expensive. Keep searching in the next few days and almost garunteed you'll find one below half the price

The hobbit and LOTR SBG are not different games, they are the same game. The new rules are renamed to cash in on the movie. Hobbit rules are the up to date rules and replace the LOTR rules.

If you are just playing with friends it doesn't matter, but if you want to play comps etc. you would need to play the most up to date rules.

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I don't really understand how the Hobbit rules could be 'worse' than the standard SBG rules... They're almost exactly the same. And WOTR is nice in its own way, personally I just find it kind of limited but the striking order, cavalry charging bonus (and the removal there of by pikes) are all pretty cool.

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No the profiles are contained in army specific source books these books are as follows:
Mordor: Mordor
The Free Peoples: Dwarves, Elves, Wanderers in the wild (The Fellowship, Hobbits, Ents, Eagles, Etc)
Kingdoms of Men: Gondor, Rohan, the Fiefdoms
Moria & Angmar: Moria, Angmar
The Fallen Realms: Isengard, Easterlings, Khand, Harad, Corsairs, Etc.

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Thanks for the replys, but if I ignore the rule brought out for the hobbit, would the books I had in the OP be everything I need? I don't plan on entering competitions and the group I play with have unanimously agreed to stick with the non-hobbit rules.

The book in the OP does have all the rules you need. It even has a few basic profiles, which is fine to start out with, but at some point you'll probably want to look at the profile books that JamesR and I pointed out.

Not to try to up-sell you but one thing the Hobbit rules introduced was new rules for monsters. They were a very welcome addition to the game because monsters can easily be tied up by feeding them one minion at a time.