LAST UPDATED - 7.23.26

CHANGE NOTES
-Removed some entries that are clarified by the July 2026 rules update.
-Clarified rules hierarchy to include the latest WHO FAQ documents that have not been superseded by other rules.
-Changed that 'Up to X' distance moves are still governed by other maximum move restrictions (such as M characteristci).
-Clarified the effects of keyword specific leader abilities.
-Clarified unit vs. model engagement range.
-Further defined 'destroyed models'.
-Clarified the correct resolution of the Thousand Sons 'Curse of Life' enhancement.

(NOTE) Rulings in this document marked (FAQ) describe how common rules interactions function together, but do not add new interpretation or information. Rulings marked (JUDGEMENT) are rules judgements to resolve ambiguous or novel interactions and may represent new or uncommon interpretations of rules that may be played differently in other communities. Entries marked (NOTE) are just explanatory and don't represent any rules implications. Entries may be marked (NEEDS REVISION) if they represent rules inconsistencies that require further research; expect such entries to be changed in the near future.
Related rulings are grouped together where possible.

(NOTE) Because this FAQ comes at the start of the edition which comes with a unique set of growing pains, these rulings will rely on interpreting intended rules to a much greater degree than normal; and will be changed in the future to reflect future FAQs.

Rulings contained within the LATEST FAQ document from a WHO (Warhammer Open) events are considered to be credible sources until such time as core rules or FAQs are updated to incorporate them. In all cases, rules predence should be considered to follow the hierarchies below where contradictions are encountered (entries on the left being of the highest authority):
CORE RULES
This Document > WHO FAQs > Core Rules FAQs > Core Rules (Found in Warhammer 40,000: The App)
FACTION/DATASHEET RULES
This Document > WHO FAQs > Munitorum Field Manual > Faction Packs > Codexes > Warhammer 40,000: The App

(NOTE) The faction hierarchy may change in the future, but for the time being the app is considered to be the least credible source cuz of all the typos. Where such rules are contradicted by entries in other documents, those documents are considered to supersede. The Core Rules PDF found on Warhammer Community is useful as a reference, but since many rules in it have already been contradicted it is not considered a credible source.

++CORE RULES++
CORE CONCEPTS
- (FAQ) If a rule or effect applies a keyword to a unit (such as the Phantasm Grenade Launcher wargear option), that keyword is applied to each model in that unit.

- (JUDGEMENT) Any non-player effects (such as the calculation of Level of Control over an objective) that would apply simultaneously with player's effects (e.g. both effects take place at the 'End of the Command Phase') are fully resolved before moving to resolve player effects as normal, even if those non-player effects do not constitute mission rules.

- (FAQ) In order for a unit to be in coherency, the distance between groups of models that are all within 2" of one other model in the unit must NEVER be greater than 2" (i.e. units are not allowed to form two or more seperate groups of models that are within 2" of one another, but not within 2" of any members of models in the other groups). The requirement for a unit to end a move in coherency does not allow it to break other requirements of a move it is performing; if a unit cannot end such a move in coherency then that move cannot be performed).

- (JUDGEMENT) Effects that refer to an 'Objective Marker' work on any Objective element, even if it is not explicitly a Marker.
(NOTE) This isn't strictly true, but few effects have been errata'd with the new Objective terminology in mind.

MUSTER ARMIES
- (JUDGEMENT) Section 25.04 (Fill Your Army Roster) is treated as a linear series of steps, starting with "Select Detachments" and ending with "Select Enhancements". At the end of this process, the restrictions listed at the top of the section must be true.

- (FAQ) A unit including one or more attached Epic Heroes may include models with Enhancements, and recieve Upgrades.

- (JUDGEMENT) Effects that attach characters to units or refer to character attachments in units occur/refer to the "Attach Leaders and Support Units" step in Muster Armies (25.04).

MOVEMENT PHASE
- (JUDGEMENT) Any time a unit is repositioned, removed from the battlefield then subsequently set up or set up on the battlefield from Reserves or Strategic reserves, it is considered to be making an Ingress Move. For this reason, such effects cannot resolve during the first battle round unless otherwise specified.
The exception to this are units that are resurrected or set up after having been destroyed, which are simply set up but not considered to be making an Ingress Move.

- (FAQ) A unit that is repositioned but MUST return at a specified point (such as 'during the next Movement Phase') can perform an Ingress Move during the first battle round in order to satisfy the specified conditions of its return.

- (JUDGEMENT) Effects that allow a unit to ignore modifiers to its Movement characteristic do not allow it to ignore modifiers to the maximum distance of moves it performs.
(NOTE) This is because the maximum distance of most moves is a function of the M characteristic of the performing model, which should be fully calculated before the Maximum Distance of the move is set.

- (JUDGEMENT) Effects that require that a unit have 'remained stationary' in the preceeding Movement Phase are activated by selecting the "Remain Stationary" movement type during that phase, regardless of whether they've otherwise been moved by another effect.

- (JUDGEMENT) An effect that provides a unit a move of 'up to' a distance is still restricted by any maximum move restrictions imposed by the type of movement allowed by the effect (e.g. a Normal Move is still restricted by the performing model's M characteristic, and such has effectively two Maximum Moves; performing a move 'up to' the specified distance and no greater than its M characteristic).
(NOTE) This is unclear in the rules and may be subject to change.

MAKING ATTACKS
- (FAQ) A destroyed model is considered to be removed from play for all rules purposes other than the following:
-Effects that return destroyed models to play.
-Rules that explicitly resolve while they are destroyed (such as Angron's Reborn in Blood ability).
-Tracking the Starting Strength of their original unit.
Destroyed models do NOT continue to apply their keywords to their original unit nor may they use abilities or wargear not explicitly used while they are destroyed.
(NOTE) For some reason the rules don't state this explicitly but ima put it as a FAQ cuz I defy you to find anyone on earth who'd rule otherwise.

- (FAQ) The 'Allocation Order' step is repeated for each attack sequence during an attacking unit's attacks. This means that the defender may have the opportunity to re-order their allocation groups (following all the rules presented in that section as normal).

- (JUDGEMENT) If a model is under the effects of a rule that resolves an effect "when it is destroyed", it remains in play until the attacking unit has completed all of its attacks. This means that if such a rule has been triggered but not yet resolved, that model's allocation group remains the first allocation group until ALL of the attack unit's attacks are resolved (following all other allocation rules as normal).
(NOTE) Destroyed models are otherwise removed from the battlefield immediately and not considered to be in-play for rules purposes unless otherwise specified. Keep in mind that destroyed models (even those that remain on the battlefield) are still not eligible to be selected to have damage assigned to them, and their allocation group will cease to be the current allocation group as soon as all of its members recieve the destroyed status.

- (FAQ) A unit that Advanced in the preceeding Movement Phase cannot use Indirect Fire weapons to fire at targets out of Line of Sight, since it must choose Assault shooting rather than Indirect shooting.

- (FAQ) A unit that is using Indirect shooting is subject to the effects of that shooting type with ALL of its [INDIRECT FIRE] weapons, even if such weapons are targeting enemies that are visible to the attacking model.

- (JUDGEMENT) The [HEAVY] keyword checks the TOTAL movement that each member of a unit has made during the entirety of that round (so any model moving more than a total of 3" prevents the unit from receiving the benefit, even if that movement was broken into multiple parts).
(NOTE) The 3" restriction is not synonymous with Remaining Stationary, and vise versa.

CHARGE PHASE
- (FAQ) An effect that provides a modifier to a charge roll as long as that charge targets a specific unit come into effect when that enemy has been been targeted. For this reason, the initial charge roll needs to be high enough to make the specific target an elegible target of the charge (not including the modifier), however if this modifier is positive it can improve the minimum distance of the charge move once targeted. If this modifier would cause the charge to subsequently fail by reducing the minimum distance of the charge, placing the target out of range or reachability, the charging unit's controlling player may select new targets as described in 04.03.02.

- (JUDGEMENT) An effect that re-rolls a charge as long as that charge targets a specific unit may be used after the initial charge roll has been made but before targets are declared; however if such as rule is used the specific target mentioned in that effect MUST be declared as one of the targets (otherwise no targets are declared).

FIGHT PHASE
- (FAQ) A model is only considered engaged with another unit if one or more members of that unit are within that model's engagement range. Models in engaged units with no enemy models within their engagement range are still considered engaged (as a general concept), but have no eligible targets for melee attacks since no enemy units are within that model's engagement range.

- (FAQ) A unit that was engaged during the Fight Phase, but became unengaged as the result of casualties, is eligible to both fight and perform an Overrun Fight (provided it fulfills all other normal requirements).

- (JUDGEMENT) A unit that is has not been selected to fight and is engaged during the consolidation step at the end of an Ongoing Consolidation may be selected to fight after the ongoing consolidation movement has been resolved, using Overrun Fight.
(NOTE) This is not allowed RAW, but the interaction seems unintended.

TERRAIN
- (JUDGEMENT) Line of sight traced over obscuring terrain areas cannot pass through that terrain areas unless model for which LOS is being drawn, or a model to which LOS is being drawn, is within that area terrain (this can make models partially visible due to being partially behind obscuring terrain areas).
(NOTE) This is implied by terrain diagrams and cover rules, but never explicitly stated.

TRANSPORTS
- (FAQ) Weapons being used to make attacks via the Firing Deck ability are not considered to be part of an attached unit while resolving those attacks, and as such do not benefit from any abilities provided by their attached characters.
(NOTE) This is per the Space Marine Faction Pack FAQ.

- (JUDGEMENT) A unit must satisfy all of the requirements of the Able To Embark rule ANY time that it embarks within a TRANSPORT, not just when it finishes a movement.
(NOTE) The contrary is implied (but not stated outright) by the core rules FAQ, which seems unintentional and would have problematic interactions with out-of-phase embarkations).

- (JUDGEMENT) The keywords of an embarking model/unit are only compared to the keywords that are eligible to embark described on a TRANSPORT's datasheet at the time that it embarks (i.e. if a unit's keywords change after it has embarked they remain embarked).

PROFILES
- (FAQ) If a characteristic is replaced with 0 by a modifier, that characteristic can no longer be modified further while that replacement modifier is in effect.

LEADERS
- (JUDGEMENT) Effects that allow characters to attach to specific units 'During the Battle Formations Step' also allow such attachments during the Muster Armies step.

- (JUDGEMENT) A rule that applies an effect based on a Leader leading unit with specific unit names or keywords (such as Ragnar Blackmane's War Howl or Xenocreed Congregation's Unquestioning Fanatacism) no longer apply that effect if no models with those names or keywords remain in the unit.
(NOTE) This is due to the fact that unit names are considered keywords, and a unit does not possess keywords if no models with that keyword remain in it. Note that if such effects are part of a 'while leading a unit' effect the character is still considered to be leading 'a' unit, but may not benefit from some parts of their ability (e.g. Ragnar Blackmane is still considered leading a unit all bodyguard models in his unit are destroyed, but does not recieve any benefit from War Howl since his unit doesn't currently possess the correct keywords).

++MISSION RULES++
- (JUDGEMENT) The Plunder secondary mission requires the terrain element referred to on the mission card to be outside your territory.

- (FAQ) End-of-game scoring parameters are not subject to the "15 VP per battle round" cap, since they do not occur duing any battle round.

++FACTION RULES++
AELDARI
- (JUDGEMENT) Corsair Enhancements are added to a unit when it is added to a roster during the "Fill Your Army Roster" step. They are not considered to be Enhancements and do not otherwise follow the normal rules or restrictions for Enhancements.

ADEPTUS CUSTODES
- (JUDGEMENT) A unit targeted by the Unleash the Lions stratagem is considered to be replaced by a number of NEW units containing the models that composed the original unit. As such any persisting effect that was applied to the original unit ceases to apply, and the orignal unit is considered to no longer be on the battlefield.

NECRONS
- (JUDGEMENT) When setting up a unit using the Eternity Gate ability of the Monolith, replace the "While Moving" section of the resulting Ingress Move performed by the set up unit with the restrictions imposed by the Eternity Gate ability.

ULTRAMARINES
- (FAQ) TITUS units in the Reclamation Force detachments benefit from the -1 To Wound effect of the detachment ability only if they are in range of an objective they controlled at the beginning of the phase (regardless of the attack's Str characteristic).

THOUSAND SONS
- (FAQ) The Curse of Life enhancement adds 3 to the total healed by Sorcerous Invigoration if ANY of the healed wounds are applied to the character with the Enhancement (e.g. a Sorcerer with 1 missing wound that triggers Sorcerous Invigoration determines the d3 wounds healed, applies the first healed wound to himself, then adds 3 to the total remaining healed wounds available and can subsequently apply that to bodyguard models in its unit).

TYRANIDS
- (FAQ) If Old One Eye is attached to a Carnifex unit, and the last model in the Carnifex unit is destroyed by a ranged attack, Old One Eye may not make use of the Blistering Assault Surge move.
(NOTE) This is per to the Blood Surge FAQ of the World Eaters faction pack.