In 2026, a new real-time strategy game set in the world of Warhammer 40,000 will be released, titled Dawn of War 4. The developers aim to return “to the roots” with the title, especially by incorporating the feature that made Dawn of War stand out in the genre: Sync Kills.
What is this feature?
- In Sync Kills, individual models in a battle fight against each other. When two units clash, one-on-one duels occur – with unique kill animations for each possible combination, as each faction from Dawn of War has completely different units.
- Dawn of War is the best game for Warhammer 40,000 on Steam and Sync Kills are one of the reasons for that. Through these animations, which many might not even actively notice, battles feel significantly more immersive.
- So far, no other strategy game has had Sync Kills to the extent that Dawn of War did. Now Dawn of War 4 is in the works and aims to expand this feature further.
This is how Dawn of War 4 makes Sync Kills even better: Developer King Art from Germany wants to build on the success of the first game with Dawn of War 4. Especially among fans, the original Dawn of War – which now has a remaster – is considered the best entry in the series.
In a new video on YouTube, Combat Director Thomas Derksen explains that a lot of work is going into the kill animations for Dawn of War 4. This is mainly because there are so many different scales of units:
There are these size differences, we call them “Power Levels.” Some Power Levels overlap, but not all. For example, a Gretchin can never fight against a Dreadnought, as another Dreadnought could. You need to find actions that work for both Power Levels. I think we have four Power Levels in total.
For instance, there are a series of actions that only a Terminator can perform against another Terminator, as they do not fit any other unit. In the video, you can see some animations of a few Ork Gretchins climbing on one of the Dreadnoughts still serving in death and hacking away at him. It’s hard to imagine this with Necrons.
Instead of just having Sync Kills, Dawn of War 4 aims to introduce a “Sync Combat,” something that “no other RTS has ever done before.”
Dawn of War 4 wants to return to its roots while exploring completely new paths
The idea behind Sync Combat is to make one of the unique features of the first Dawn of War even more pronounced. However, King Art goes even further and brings something to the RTS that has not been present in any Warhammer game in this manner before: a playable Primarch.
Lion El’Johnson appears in the campaign and will have his own set of animations, as Derksen explains in the video. Space Marines themselves are already something special, as they look like humans but fight differently, and a Primarch will be on a much larger scale with a wilder fighting style.
For players, all of this will be somewhat more demanding, as the individual chaos will make it necessary to better “read” the battlefield. You need a good overview to see what exactly is happening.
So far, we know that four factions will be playable at the release of Dawn of War 4: Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, and the Adeptus Mechanicus, a complete novelty in the series. Recently, the Orks received an impressive trailer.
The strategy game is scheduled for release in 2026, but no specific release date has been set yet. However, some previews were playable as early as 2025, and MeinMMO was live at gamescom: I played Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 for just 30 minutes, but I am already as excited as I haven’t been in years.
