In Warhammer fantasy, is it permissible to make an army using an old version of a race's codec?

Question

In Warhammer fantasy, new codecs for the races are released periodically that tweak units' attributes, cost, etc.

About 15 years ago I remember comparing two versions of the High Elves codec, which among other changes had increased the cost of a bolt thrower from 50 points to 100 points. I assume this is because the weapon was under-priced at 50 and 100 was a more fair and balanced valuation.

It is against the rules (either explicitly or in terms of etiquette) to build an army using an older version of a codec? For example to take advantage of the cheaper bolt throwers at the cost of not being able to use any of the material in the newer book?

(Obviously anything that a given play-group decides is acceptable they can do; I'm asking in the context of official tournaments or an event where strangers would be playing.)

Answer 1

Every tournament has its own specific rules, but I've never seen one that hasn't required the use of the latest/greatest rules sets available, both for the game itself and the army. There are often additional restrictions, e.g. banned items or characters, troop limits etc, as well as model requirements (minimal painting requirements, no use of non-GW models, etc).

There are several good reasons to require the latest rules for a tournament:

• Everyone is on a level playing field (tournament organiser understands the environment)
• Everyone knows exactly what to expect
• Army list checking and meta game preparation is much simpler
• Strange, unbalanced or just broken loopholes from previous editions are obsolete
• Games Workshop gets you to spend more money