Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV

Developer

KING Art Games, Bremen, Germany^[1][8]

Publisher

Deep Silver, a label of PLAION^[1][17]

Genre

Real-time strategy with base building^[1][7]

Platform

Windows, on Steam; no console version announced^[1][18]

Release

Dec 3, 2026; Commander Edition from Nov 30, 2026^[1][2]

Price

$59.99 Standard, $89.99 Commander; 10% off on pre-order^[1][17]

Factions at launch

Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, Adeptus Mechanicus^[3]

Modes

Four campaigns (solo or co-op), Skirmish, multiplayer 1v1 to 3v3, Last Stand^[3][7]

Reviews

None yet; the game is not released^[1]

Overview

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV is a real-time strategy game set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe, in which players capture territory, build bases and command squads in large battles.^[7][1] KING Art Games, an independent studio in Bremen, Germany, develops it, and Deep Silver publishes it.^[6][8] It was revealed at gamescom Opening Night Live on Aug 19, 2025, and is set to launch on Steam for Windows on Dec 3, 2026.^[6][2] Buyers of the Commander Edition get a three-day early unlock from Nov 30, 2026.^[2] The game ships with four factions, four campaigns with more than 70 missions in all, Skirmish against the computer, online multiplayer on 30 maps and a three-player survival mode called Last Stand.^[3] As of Nov 7, 2026, the game has no reviews and no Metacritic score, Steam lists it as coming soon, and its system requirements beyond a 64-bit processor and operating system are still unpublished.^[1]

2:15 Battles on Kronus The core gameplay chapter of the official Game Overview Trailer cuts between top-down battles across the factions, a Necron and Adeptus Mechanicus base laced with network lines, and a close-up of a red Space Marine grappling an Ork.

Development

KING Art, whose earlier strategy game is Iron Harvest, describes itself as a studio that has made story-driven games for nearly 25 years.^[8] Creative director Jan Theysen told MeinMMO that Games Workshop approached the studio while Iron Harvest was still in development and asked what it would do with a Dawn of War 4, and that after Iron Harvest's release Games Workshop returned to discuss the project in earnest, which KING Art then took on with Deep Silver.^[21] The studio says its guiding question was what a modern version of the first Dawn of War, from 2004, would look like.^[8][7] In November 2025 KING Art said it had worked on the game for four years, and in November 2026 Theysen spoke of a team that had worked for almost six.^[7][15] Black Library author John French wrote the story with the studio.^[9][13] Players tested the game in two closed alphas, in November 2025 and from Dec 12 to 15, 2025, and in a closed beta of 1v1 Skirmish and multiplayer from Oct 21 to 26, 2026.^[27][28][2] KING Art said the beta drew more than twice the participation it expected and that 80% of players returned for more than one session.^[15]

Setting and story

The campaign returns to Kronus, the planet of the 2006 expansion Dark Crusade, about 200 years after that game, with the planet cut off on the far side of the Great Rift.^[9] The Blood Ravens, led by Cyrus and Chief Librarian Jonah Orion, come to Kronus, their old recruiting world, to rebuild their Chapter, and are ambushed in orbit by the Ork warboss Gorgutz.^[10][9] Beneath the planet's sands an Adeptus Mechanicus expedition finds a Necron complex that it first takes for a tomb and then for a prison, and the Necrons begin to wake.^[9] KING Art has not said what the prison holds.^[9] The Dark Angels Space Marines also intervene, which makes the game the first in the series to let players command two Space Marine Chapters in a campaign.^[10] Their Primarch, Lion El'Jonson, appears as what KING Art calls the first playable Warhammer 40,000 Primarch in any video game.^[10] The voice cast includes Steve Blum as Cyrus and Brian Drummond as Gorgutz.^[13]

1:17 The story chapter of the overview trailer The trailer's story chapter moves from a battle to a ship in space, the campaign map of Kronus, Space Marines silhouetted against fire, Orks in a ruined trench and a Necron stirring in a dark green-lit chamber.

Factions

Each of the four factions builds and pays for its army in its own way.^[3][32] KING Art describes the Space Marines as an elite force of a few very effective, relatively expensive units, and players command both the Blood Ravens and the Dark Angels, which Deep Silver treats as a sub-faction of the Space Marines.^[29][18] The Orks have some of the cheapest units and buildings in the game, expand quickly, gain veterancy fast and build structures that always come armed.^[30][32] The Necrons grow slowly from an upgradeable Tomb Citadel that also produces their units, and many of their buildings can only stand on a field called the Power Matrix.^[31] The Adeptus Mechanicus link buildings, static weapons and units into a Noosphere Network that makes units inside it stronger and cheaper.^[14] They are new to the series: KING Art says it wanted one faction that had never been playable in Dawn of War before.^[14][9] ComicBook noted that Chaos and the Eldar are absent from the base game.^[24]

2:58 The four factions The trailer's faction chapter takes each army in turn, from Space Marine drop pods and Ork hordes to Necron beams and Adeptus Mechanicus walkers, with each one's buildings and signature units on show.

Gameplay

Matches follow the first game's model: players build a base, and construction, research and upgrades unlock stronger units.^[7][8] Resources come from capturing, controlling and upgrading resource points across the map, and Deep Silver advises players to deny the Space Marines their Power in particular.^[18] Units that survive gain veterancy and grow stronger.^[18] Senior game designer Elliott Verbiest has described cover, retreat and reinforcing in the field as ways to keep squads and their experience alive: cover sharply cuts damage from ranged units, retreat pulls units out of melee at the cost of control for a while, and the Necrons do not use cover at all.^[32] The studio also extended the series' sync kills, the choreographed animations once used for final blows, into a system it calls the Combat Director, which applies them to every combat animation for every participant.^[7][11] KING Art says the system stitches together animation snippets to fit each fight and yields millions of possible combinations.^[11] In multiplayer Quick Match the default mode is Annihilation, the destruction of every enemy headquarters, and players can also queue for Domination and Maelstrom, which score points from positions and objectives.^[32]

3:06 A Space Marines and Orks match KING Art's July 2026 Battlefield Report follows a match between Space Marines and Orks: Ork forces fight across a desert map, the camera moves to the Space Marine side, and a Space Marine base takes shape around its headquarters.

Campaigns and modes

The four campaigns, one per faction, can be played alone or with a friend.^[13][3] They branch: choices change which missions a player takes, and Theysen told IGN that the Ork campaign has about 18 missions, of which one playthrough sees about 14 or 15.^[3][20] He also said each campaign is bigger than the first Dawn of War's.^[20] Multiplayer offers 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 matches on 30 maps.^[7][3] Last Stand, a mode from earlier Dawn of War games, puts three players against 20 increasingly hard waves, each with a Commander who can bring a strike force of up to four companion units, and runs unlock new wargear, abilities and units.^[16] An Army Painter lets players change the colors, decals and wargear of their units.^[3] Crusade Mode, a turn-based campaign over a map of Kronus that returns from Dark Crusade, is a free update after launch; KING Art estimates a typical Crusade at eight to ten hours.^[12][1]

5:30 Skirmish, Last Stand and multiplayer The trailer's modes chapter shows the Skirmish settings screen with several AI opponents, a Last Stand wave summary, and team battles on frozen and jungle maps.

Release, editions and price

KING Art first set the release for Sep 17, 2026, at the Warhammer Skulls showcase on May 21, 2026, when pre-orders opened.^[5] On Aug 12, 2026, it moved the launch to Dec 3, 2026.^[4] Insider Gaming reported Theysen's reasons as more time to optimize performance, fix bugs and polish the game.^[19] The game is sold in two editions.^[17] The Standard Edition lists at $59.99, 59.99 euros or 49.99 pounds, and the Commander Edition at $89.99, 89.99 euros or 74.99 pounds.^[17] The Commander Edition adds the three-day early unlock, the digital soundtrack and both paid expansions of the first year, the Blood Ravens Story Prologue and Aftermath, which are also to be sold separately.^[17][5] Pre-orders on Steam are 10% off, at $53.99 for the Standard Edition as of Nov 7, 2026.^[1] The game is announced only for Windows on Steam, with full English audio and text in 13 languages.^[1][18] As of Nov 7, 2026, neither KING Art nor Deep Silver had published a launch hour or a pre-load date.^[2][1]

0:15 Jan Theysen on the delay In KING Art's August 2026 release date update, Jan Theysen speaks to the camera about moving the launch, between work-in-progress footage of battles and the team at their desks.

Previews and reception

No reviews exist as of Nov 7, 2026, because the game is not out.^[1] In October 2026 press and creators had three weeks with a preview build that held the Astra Militarum and Space Marine prologues, the full Ork and Adeptus Mechanicus campaigns and 1v1 Skirmish.^[2] KING Art's own selection of the coverage quotes Polygon saying the game could be the best Warhammer 40,000 game ever and PC Gamer calling two of its campaigns everything its writer had hoped.^[2] ComicBook called it a return to form for the series, found the Skirmish AI on medium difficulty brutal, and found the Necrons and Adeptus Mechanicus harder to learn than the other two factions.^[24] Gameswelt expected one of the genre's highlights of recent years but found battles hard to read, infantry getting stuck on obstacles, too little zoom and some technical problems left, and warned that players who prefer slower strategy may find it hectic.^[23] None of these impressions covers the Necron campaign, the full Space Marine campaign or the finished game.^[2]

Plans after launch

KING Art plans a first year of free and paid content.^[3][5] The roadmap on the Steam page, marked as subject to change, lists four free map packs, Crusade Mode, a Mission Editor, and the Commanders Lord Ahmnok and Guzcutta for Last Stand and Crusade, all across 2027.^[1] The paid Blood Ravens Story Prologue, placed just before spring 2027, follows a separate Blood Ravens strike force to Aurelia.^[1][5] Aftermath, placed in summer 2027, expands the campaign and adds a new faction that KING Art has not named.^[1][5] The studio said in May 2026 that it was keeping that faction a surprise, adding that the campaign's ending would leave room to speculate about who gains from Kronus's new order.^[5] When the game still had its September date, the free updates were planned from fall 2026 to spring 2027; since the delay the roadmap places all of them in 2027.^[5][1]

1:16 The first-year roadmap After a green Necron blast over Ork lines, the May 2026 reveal trailer builds the first-year roadmap item by item: Crusade Mode and the map packs on the free line, then the Blood Ravens Story Prologue and Aftermath with its new faction on the paid line, still on the dates of before the delay.

Place in the series

The Dawn of War series began in 2004, and Relic Entertainment developed every earlier main game in it.^[22] Dark Crusade, the expansion set on Kronus, holds a Metascore of 87, the series' highest.^[26] Dawn of War III, released on Apr 27, 2017, holds a Metascore of 77 from critics and a user score of 4.6 on Metacritic.^[25] No company involved has published a reason for the move to KING Art.^[22] Wargamer argued that Dawn of War III's reception, with fewer than 500 players within a year of launch by its count, made Games Workshop's decision to change studios unsurprising.^[22] KING Art presents its game as a new story that brings back familiar characters, and it calls the project a kind of reimagining of the first Dawn of War.^[9] Besides base building, it brings back the Orks and Gorgutz from the earlier games and the Last Stand mode.^[7][30][8]

1. 2025-08-19 Revealed at gamescom Opening Night Live, coming to Steam in 2026.^[6]
2. 2025-11 First closed alpha test.^[27]
3. 2025-12-12 Second closed alpha, through Dec 15.^[27]
4. 2026-05-21 Release set for Sep 17, 2026; pre-orders and the first-year plan announced.^[5]
5. 2026-08-12 Launch moved to Dec 3, 2026.^[4]
6. 2026-10-21 Game Overview Trailer released; closed beta runs through Oct 26.^[3][2]
7. 2026-11-30 Commander Edition early unlock (planned).^[2]
8. 2026-12-03 Launch on Steam for Windows (planned).^[1][2]
9. 2027 Free updates, the Blood Ravens Story Prologue and Aftermath (planned).^[1]