Warhammer 40k 11th Edition rules just got a surprise Tacoma Open FAQ that patches the CP, transport, and character holes players kept hitting.
A week out from the first official 11th Edition event, GW just upended half the rules arguments we’ve been having at the table. The Warhammer Open in Tacoma opens next Friday with more than 500 Grand Tournament players and another 100-plus in the Narrative event, and Games Workshop pushed out an event FAQ to settle the ambiguous rulings and undo the keyword mistakes before anyone rolls a die.
Honestly, it reads like the patch notes for an edition that got out the door a little hot. We’ve been saying the new rules needed a cleanup pass since launch, and here it is, arriving under tournament pressure instead of on a calm release Sunday. The catch is that it’s only “official” inside Tacoma, though GW tells you to run it at home if you’re playing in the next couple of weeks anyway.
That’s the part that should raise an eyebrow. When a company ships an event-only FAQ a week before its flagship GT, it’s telling you the edition launched with more open questions than it wanted to admit.
The Character You Kill Stops Sneaking Back Into the Squad
- Character revival: A rule that resurrects a slain Character now returns it as a one-model unit, and general healing can’t bring an attached Character back at all.
- Command Points and transports: CP generation is capped at one per battle round outside Core CP, and a Dedicated Transport must start with a unit embarked or count as destroyed.
- Tacoma only: This FAQ is official just at the Tacoma Open, with GW’s real one-month 11th Edition update still about two weeks out.
So the fix everyone’s been shouting about finally landed, and it’s a little clumsier than people were hoping for. Healing a slain Character back into its bodyguard unit was the single most-asked question GW got over the last few days, and the event FAQ shuts the door on it. A rule that resurrects a destroyed Character now sets that model up as its own unit of one model, even if the squad it was leading is still standing. General healing and wound-restoration effects can’t bring an attached Character back at all.
That takes the edge off a couple of units that had quietly built their entire plan around the old wording. Bringing a beatstick Character back into a full squad turn after turn was exactly the kind of loop that warps a meta fast, so we get why GW moved on it first. But a lone hero standing next to the squad he used to lead is awkward, and plenty of players are already side-eyeing it. GW basically says as much by calling this a stopgap rather than the final word.
GW Quietly Capped Command Points Again
Honestly, the less flashy fixes might touch more of your games than the Character ruling does. Command Points get their leash back. Outside of Core CP, you top out at one gained per battle round, and discarding an active Secondary Mission card counts against that ceiling. That’s the kind of number that stops a fringe combo before it starts.
Transports got a sensible patch too. A Dedicated Transport has to start the game with a unit embarked, or it counts as destroyed, which kills the empty-taxi trick some lists were eyeing. Rules that made a stratagem cost zero now knock a single CP off the price instead of zeroing it out, and effects that add a new unit to your army are capped at once per battle.
Grenade is now the Explosives Stratagem, and Tank Shock is Crushing Impact, so the renamed 11th Edition versions finally line up with the rules that reference them.
The MOBILE and FRAME Keyword Fixes Can Decide Games
Now, here’s the errata that looks boring and absolutely is not. A pile of big models were missing the MOBILE keyword, so GW added it to Belisarius Cawl, Roboute Guilliman, Lion El’Jonson, Fulgrim, Thulia Ghuld, and The Red Terror. That changes how those centerpiece models move through terrain, which is the difference between a hero getting where he needs to be and getting stuck behind a ruin all game.
FRAME got the messier cleanup. GW added it to the Falcon, Fire Prism, Wave Serpent, Doomsday Ark, and a stack of Aeldari platforms that clearly want to measure from the hull, then stripped it off a long list of Aircraft where measuring from the base makes more sense.
There’s also a matching fix letting big Aircraft like the Orion Assault Dropship and Ares Gunship actually shoot on the turn they arrive from Strategic Reserves, which is how anyone assumed they worked in the first place…
This Is a Tacoma Patch, Not the Real One-Month 40k Update
Regardless, none of this is the update GW actually promised. The real one-month dataslate for the new edition is still about two weeks out, and this document is a bridge to get Tacoma played without table arguments, not the final errata. Some of these rulings will probably come back in the July update as specific datasheet changes rather than blanket clarifications, so treat them as a preview, not gospel (for now)
There’s hobby news buried in here too. Tacoma is the first event anywhere to run GW’s new Ready Painted Terrain, with all 250-plus Grand Tournament tables kitted out in an Armageddon-themed battlefield and a chunk of the Narrative tables getting the same treatment.
If you’ve been tracking the new terrain closely, seeing it debut on a floor this size is a real signal about where GW wants organized play headed. The event’s also expected to be the largest 11th Edition tournament to date, which is a lot of eyes on rules that are still drying, lol.
Final Thoughts on the Warhammer 40k FAQ
Well, the real test of 11th edition’s new rules is the one-month update, and this FAQ is GW showing its hand early. Patching Command Points, transports, and the Character-revival loop before the first big event is the right instinct, and doing it out in the open beats letting 600 players argue it out across 250 tables.
We’d still bet the split-off Character ruling gets a cleaner version in the July dataslate, because a one-model unit hanging off the squad it used to lead isn’t where this ends up long term. The thing to watch now is how much of this Tacoma document survives into the official errata, and how quickly the official FAQ follows this event…
🔗 Related Reads:
- Warhammer 40k 11th Edition Rules: Every Change
- 11th Edition 40k Q&A Reveals Big Rules Changes + FAQ
- GW Drops 11th Edition Q&A + Big New USR Rules
- 11th Edition Rules: GW Calls It Evolution, Tournament Players Will Disagree
- New 40k 11th Edition Terrain Rules Guide
- 2026 Warhammer Tournaments & Events Calendar
What do you think of the Tacoma Open 40k FAQ, and does the split-off Character ruling belong in the real 11th Edition update?
