Creative Assembly, the creators of Total War, have big plans for the future. After launching Total War: Warhammer 3, a strategy title set in the world of Warhammer, a spin-off for the dystopian Warhammer 40,000 is set to come. This much we know so far.
During the anniversary stream, Creative Assembly made several new announcements, including the upcoming DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3, a new Medieval installment after 20 years of waiting, and a new engine that is said to enable console releases.
At the end, there was a teaser for a big surprise, revealed at the Game Awards 2025: Warhammer 40,000 is coming to Total War. The release was speculated before but is now official.
Warhammer consists of multiple worlds and Creative Assembly has already achieved great success with Warhammer Fantasy. However, the fantasy world of Warhammer fitted better into the otherwise historically themed parts of Total War.
Now the developers are going in a completely different direction and with a whole new scale – changing some of the gameplay principles that you are used to from Total War.
4 factions fight for entire planets
Unlike in Total War and especially Warhammer 3, you fight in Total War: Warhammer 40k not on “one world”, but on several – or more accurately: for several. The map is a galaxy and the objectives are entire planets. Initially, Creative Assembly has announced four factions:
- Adeptus Astartes, which are Space Marines, the engineered super-soldiers
- the Astra Militarum, formerly known as the “Imperial Guard”, which is the standard army of the Imperium of Mankind
- Aeldari, who once ruled the entire galaxy
- and Orks, born to fight – literally, they are just very aggressive fungi
Colleague Fabiano Ulsenghi from GameStar has already spoken with the developers and provided more information about the game in his detailed interview about Total War: Warhammer 40k. However, there isn’t much information yet about the factions, their sub-factions (“legendary Lords”), and their special characteristics.
We already know that Aeldari work a lot with psionics and teleporters, the Astra Militarum drowns its opponents in troops, and the Space Marines are few but elite soldiers – but not much more. However, there is already information about the campaign, and it sounds very exciting.
A campaign on multiple levels
The developers explain, according to GameStar, that there are different game modes with different scales. Total War: Warhammer 3 has already shown this with skirmishes, a small campaign, and the huge “Immortal Empires” mode.
In Total War: Warhammer 40k, there seem to be several maps. On the “big” map, the various systems are visible, separated by space, which will likely function similarly to the ocean in earlier installments.
Many systems are, as is customary, fixed, meaning they are hand-designed with corresponding wars already occurring. Others are to be randomly generated, as the galaxy is simply large enough for such possibilities. Here you will find different worlds such as ice or jungle planets.
The planets themselves are roughly equivalent to continents, while the continents on these planets are meant to correspond to provinces. Instead of cities, there are “bases” or megalopolises, the gigantic “Hive Cities” with billions of inhabitants.
How exactly all of this will work, especially with the tricky travel through the Warp – which the Orks do not have and the Aeldari circumvent through their webway – we do not yet know. However, there are some details about the real-time battles.
Warhammer 40k almost sounds like no longer a Total War
Instead of fighting as in previous installments with sword and shield, the armies of the 41st millennium fight, of course, with tanks, battle spacecraft, laser rifles, and the iconic bolt guns.
In the RTS battles, cover and destruction also play a role, unlike in earlier Total War games. Soldiers can seek cover behind buildings and other objects and if a bullet does not penetrate, it also does no damage.
However, these objects can also be destroyed and crush units underneath them if they are unlucky. While it should not degenerate into a tactical gameplay like in Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters, a certain tactical component is apparently there.
However, the complete opposite is also possible: orbital bombardment. If you have no desire to deal with a planet, you can apparently just “remove” it. At least the Space Marines and Astra Militarum have a very well-known and feared method at hand: The Exterminatus is the worst weapon in Warhammer 40,000, and even the insane Imperium uses it very rarely
