What Is the Munitorum Field Manual?
The Munitorum Field Manual is Games Workshop's official, regularly updated document that lists the points costs for every unit, model, and wargear option in Warhammer 40,000. Think of it as the rulebook for list building — if you're playing matched play (the standard format for competitive and most casual games), the MFM is the law.
It's available for free from the Warhammer Community website, and it's updated periodically — sometimes seasonally, sometimes mid-season — to keep the game balanced and the competitive meta healthy.
Why Does It Matter?
In matched play, both players agree to a points limit — typically 1,000, 1,500, or 2,000 points — and build their army within that budget. Every model you field costs points, from your HQ choices down to the last bolter-toting Guardsman.
The MFM dictates exactly how much each unit costs, which means a points increase makes a unit more expensive to field, a points decrease breathes new life into overlooked models, and wargear adjustments can reshape popular loadouts entirely. These changes regularly shift the competitive meta — sometimes dramatically.
How to Read and Use the MFM
Using the MFM is straightforward once you know your way around it:
- Find your faction. Units are organised by army — Adeptus Astartes, Aeldari, T'au Empire, etc.
- Check your unit costs. Each datasheet entry lists the base points cost, often noting how many models that covers.
- Add wargear. Some weapons and upgrades carry additional points costs, listed separately.
- Total it up. Use a list-building tool like the Warhammer 40,000 App to track your running total — these typically auto-sync with the latest MFM.
Pro tip: Always check the version date before a tournament. Updates drop without much warning, and playing with outdated points could invalidate your list.
Latest Update: The Biggest Winners & Losers
The latest MFM isn't simply making individual units cheaper or more expensive — it's continuing to shape how armies are built, rewarding variety over spamming the most efficient unit available.
🏆 Winners
- Astra Militarum — Reductions across infantry and several Leman Russ variants give Guard players more room to field the numbers and firepower the faction is built around.
- Tyranids — Key monsters and battlefield units are cheaper, giving players more freedom to build around iconic big creatures without sacrificing elsewhere.
- Death Guard — Reductions across larger threats and support units add flexibility to those slow-moving, hard-to-kill lists.
- Aeldari — A broad spread of reductions rather than one standout change, giving players more freedom across different army styles.
- Adeptus Mechanicus — Modest reductions, but for an army that struggles to fit everything in, even small savings open up interesting new options.
💀 Losers
- Orks — The biggest hit of the update. Widespread increases, particularly on popular and powerful units, will force a rethink of many favourite combinations.
- Chaos Daemons — Several popular units are now more expensive, demanding harder choices at the list-building stage.
- Necrons — Increases on popular choices make repeated units less attractive and push players toward alternative combinations.
- Space Wolves — Elite and cavalry options have gone up, continuing 11th Edition's trend of discouraging multiple copies of the same powerful unit.
- Grey Knights — Popular elite choices are pricier, requiring a reconsideration of where the army's strengths should lie.
What Does This Mean for 40K?
The direction is clear: 11th Edition continues to reward variety in army construction, making it harder to simply stack multiple copies of the most efficient unit. At the same time, reductions across a range of factions give players more opportunity to field the units they actually enjoy collecting and painting.
Points will keep evolving as the edition develops — but the latest MFM gives plenty of reasons to revisit your collection, experiment with new builds, and perhaps bring a few neglected units back to the tabletop.
You can always access the latest version at mfm.warhammer-community.com.
Has your army been helped or hurt by the latest update? Let us know — and if you're looking to expand your collection, check out what's currently available at The Game Foundry.
Build. Paint. Play.