I have a complex project that runs fine with Gradle 1.10 and fails with Gradle 1.11
It is an older build script that makes use of GradleLauncher to run a some child builds. One of these fails with a cryptic message:

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

• What went wrong:
  A problem occurred configuring root project 'build'.

> Could not create task of type 'Help'.

I don't know where that comes from. None of our scripts reference any task of type 'Help'. The stack trace only seems to indicate that the sub-process used to run the child build failed.

This is the method I'm using to run the child builds:

void runSubGradle( Collection tasks ) {
println "******* Calling Gradle Launcher ${project.name} $project.projectDir - $tasks ************"
def startParameter = project.gradle.startParameter.newBuild();
startParameter.setTaskNames( tasks )
startParameter.setSearchUpwards(false)
startParameter.setProjectDir( projectDir );
startParameter.setCurrentDir( projectDir );

def subLauncher = GradleLauncher.newInstance(startParameter);
def result = subLauncher.run();
result.rethrowFailure();
}

And this is the stack trace when it fails:

org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':MyProject:allRelease'.
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:69)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:46)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.PostExecutionAnalysisTaskExecuter.execute(PostExecutionAnalysisTaskExecuter.java:35)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.execute(SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.java:64)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ValidatingTaskExecuter.execute(ValidatingTaskExecuter.java:58)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.execute(SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.java:42)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:52)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:53)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.java:43)
at org.gradle.api.internal.AbstractTask.executeWithoutThrowingTaskFailure(AbstractTask.java:289)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.executeTask(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:79)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.processTask(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:63)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.run(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:51)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.process(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:23)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.execute(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:86)
at org.gradle.execution.SelectedTaskExecutionAction.execute(SelectedTaskExecutionAction.java:29)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:61)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.access$200(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:23)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter$2.proceed(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:67)
at org.gradle.execution.DryRunBuildExecutionAction.execute(DryRunBuildExecutionAction.java:32)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:61)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:54)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuildStages(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:166)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuild(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:113)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.run(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:81)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter$DefaultBuildController.run(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:64)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExecuteBuildAction.run(ExecuteBuildAction.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExecuteBuildAction.run(ExecuteBuildAction.java:24)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:35)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:26)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.RunBuildAction.run(RunBuildAction.java:50)
at org.gradle.internal.Actions$RunnableActionAdapter.execute(Actions.java:171)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$ParseAndBuildAction.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:201)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$ParseAndBuildAction.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:174)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$WithLogging.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:170)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$WithLogging.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:139)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExceptionReportingAction.execute(ExceptionReportingAction.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExceptionReportingAction.execute(ExceptionReportingAction.java:22)
at org.gradle.launcher.Main.doAction(Main.java:46)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.EntryPoint.run(EntryPoint.java:45)
at org.gradle.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:37)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.ProcessBootstrap.runNoExit(ProcessBootstrap.java:50)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.ProcessBootstrap.run(ProcessBootstrap.java:32)
at org.gradle.launcher.GradleMain.main(GradleMain.java:23)
Caused by: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: Process 'command 'C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe'' finished with non-zero exit value 1
at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle$ExecResultImpl.assertNormalExitValue(DefaultExecHandle.java:365)
at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecAction.execute(DefaultExecAction.java:31)
at org.gradle.api.tasks.Exec.exec(Exec.java:63)
at org.gradle.internal.reflect.JavaMethod.invoke(JavaMethod.java:63)
at org.gradle.api.internal.project.taskfactory.AnnotationProcessingTaskFactory$StandardTaskAction.doExecute(AnnotationProcessingTaskFactory.java:219)
at org.gradle.api.internal.project.taskfactory.AnnotationProcessingTaskFactory$StandardTaskAction.execute(AnnotationProcessingTaskFactory.java:212)
at org.gradle.api.internal.project.taskfactory.AnnotationProcessingTaskFactory$StandardTaskAction.execute(AnnotationProcessingTaskFactory.java:201)
at org.gradle.api.internal.AbstractTask$TaskActionWrapper.execute(AbstractTask.java:533)
at org.gradle.api.internal.AbstractTask$TaskActionWrapper.execute(AbstractTask.java:516)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeAction(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:80)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:61)
... 43 more