Starting Out With Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Warhammer Fantasy Battle is a tabletop wargame, where two (or more) players take command of an army of model soldiers. Games take place in a fantasy settings of unparalleled detail that has been developed over the past 25 years. The world is one where warriors and wizards of great power vie for supremacy over the other and you and your friends can dictate their fate.
In each game of Warhammer you will pit your army of model soldiers against the army of another player. The aim is to defeat the opposing army through either wiping out a sufficiently large proportion of their force or by controlling predetermined objectives. All games of Warhammer will provide a series of entertaining challenges in which you try to out-think and out-play your opponent.
What you need to play a game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle
An army of miniatures: The models used in games are manufactured by Games Workshop and are made to a 25mm scale, meaning that a model of an adult human would measure 25mm. Miniatures made by other manufacturers can be used as long as both players agree on this in advance, however at official tournaments you must use Games Workshops models.
An opponent: In order to fight a battle you need an opponent, this could be a friend or someone you only know through gaming, Warhammer can bring a wide range of people together through having a common interest.
The Warhammer Fantasy Battle Rules: Additionally in order to fight a battle you need the game rules. These are available in two ways; it is important to know what the two options are as one is very different from the other and choosing the wrong version could spoil the game for the player. The two ways of learning the rules are as follow:
The Battle for Skull Pass boxed set: An easy introduction to Warhammer is through the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set, it contains everything you need to begin fighting battles in the world; including the full game rules, some plastic scenery, over 100 plastic dwarf and goblin soldiers and a series of introductory gaming scenarios to play through. Each scenario in the boxed set is designed to introduce new elements of the game making it easy to learn the rules a bit at a time.
The Warhammer Rulebook: The second option is to buy the hardback rulebook; players may choose to do this if the two armies that come with the Battle for Skull Pass set don't appeal to them or if they plan to build their own army from scratch. The stand alone rulebook doesn't include the introductory scenarios from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set. The scenarios it does include throws players in at the deep end so it could be considered an option for experienced wargamers or people that are willing to spend a lot of time learning the rules before they start to play.
What are you waiting for?
Now that you know what you need to play a game of Warhammer and have learned the two different ways to get to know the game what are you waiting for?
I hope you enjoy the game.