40K Editions and Codexes

[Tyrfigr]

Is there a way to tell which edition of Codex that you have is? I am currently looking at a Tau Empire Codex, trying to figure out if I want to collect an Army but it keeps referencing the rule 'Target Priority.' I have looked everywhere in the Codex as well as the Rulebook and cannot find anything about that rule. Also it says that the Tau have a Strategic Rating of 1, once again cannot find anything that says what this means. Inside the front cover is a copyright that says from 2000-2005. That sounds like it is an older edition, I just can't tell for sure.

I have been playing 40k for the past few months, so I don't know older edition rules and since I am currently in Afghanistan I can't just go to the LGS and compare their copy to mine.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[sonsoftaurus]

That should be the correct one. If it has Vespid, it's the more recent one. The older one was just Codex: Tau, not Tau Empire.

There's always some overlap between codexes and rules editions, just ignore some of the things like target priority. On the plus side, some things like disruption pods are even better now and very cheap.

An easy way to tell if something is the current codex would be to go to GW's website and see if it's the one they have for sale. The covers change each time, so easy to tell them apart. The only one that might trip you up would be the Dark Eldar, which got a revision with the same cover but a big "second edition" stamp on it. It's not actually a book for second edition 40K, it's the second edition of a book for third edition, and still the current one in use.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat420001&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k

Hope that helps! Stay safe!