To buy, or not to buy. That is the question.
The Hobbit SBG is the evolution of the LotR SBG. It's basically the same gaming system, just with alterations, a lot of additions, and certain corrections. The changes though are substantial enough to make the Hobbit rules a very necessary upgrade for any serious SBG fan. Monsters are more powerful, Heroes now have 7 Heroic Actions, Magical Spells have Channeled versions, weapons have more categories and are now more complex and realistic, etc. etc.
We own the hardback Hobbit rulebook. It is a really nice book, and we would certainly recommend it. The quality of the product is great. Just as a book by itself, its a nice addition to any library.
The book is 288 pages long, and contains all the new updated rules, including extra rules for playing Points Match Games with the new Warbands, and a list of generic scenarios to play. The book also contains all the scenarios for An Unexpected Journey (including a campaign), and a few of the major scenarios from the War of the Ring. Also included is a large Hobby section, and a tremendous Gallery, with display pictures of miniatures from the whole GW Middle-earth range. Under the profiles section, there are profiles for nearly all the An Unexpected Journey miniatures, from Thorin and Company to Azog and his Orc Trackers. Profiles are not included for the DoS and BotFA. (The DoS supplement must be purchased separately, and the BofFA supplement can either be purchased separately or downloaded as a free PDF from Black Library. A small PDF of the AUJ profiles can also be downloaded there.) Lastly, the back of the book contains the stat lines for all the LotR miniatures. This section is useful for a quick stat reference, but without the LotR Source Books, which contain all the individual stats and special rules, this section is rather useless. So to play the LotR with the Hobbit SBG you would need the rulebook and the corresponding Source Books.
Sadly, most of the Source Books are no longer available. The reason seems to be that GW intends to either re-publish them or else create a new Middle-earth Rulebook that combines the all the Hobbit and LotR profiles into one big tome, stopping this silly business of having to have a hundred and one books just to have all the rules for your collection. With GW's current position towards The Hobbit and LotR though, it is hard to speculate what they will do. You might wait for eternity for a big rulebook that will never be published, or you might waste your money with this book if a new one is released a day after. If you just want the updated rules alone however, then perhaps the small softcover Hobbit Rulebook from the EfGT would be a good idea.
The small rulebook contains only the updated rules, minus Profiles, Scenarios, Gallery, etc. (As mentioned above however, you can download the AUJ profiles online.) In all other respects, it is just a smaller version of the big rulebook. So if you don't want all the extras, the small rulebook is great. You can purchase it either in the EfGT Boxed Set or else second-hand on Ebay.
The small rulebook is 112 pages, and is different from the "Your Journey Begins Here" booklet also available in the EfGT Boxed Set. That booklet is just an introduction to the game. The small rulebook looks like its big counterpart, except smaller, just like the small LotR SBG rulebook that once came in the Mines of Moria was just a smaller counterpart of the big blue LotR rulebook.
Hope that's helpful!
Elladan & Elrohir