Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

And there it is, after months of rumors. No release date set yet, but some preliminary gameplay sequences towards the end of the video. If they manage to pull off the scope of the setting with transitions from space to ground this seamlessly, we might have something great on our hands here.

Edit: The game will be multiplatform, PS5 and Xbox current gen included. Make of that what you will.

I'm quite excited by this

I rather enjoyed Gladius, and I hope this is a more compelling version of that

Think it was pretty much a given that it was 40K or Star Wars when they spoke about basically making a new/rebuilt engine to deal with a new style of combat and Medieval 3 was their big historical title. Be interesting to see how this compares with DOW4 and how the TW format works with a greater emphasis on firepower. If it's anything like the past couple of Warhammer games then I'll try not to judge it based just on its state at release and let the post-launch team who usually takes over do their thing. Console release... I don't know how they pull that off without the UI suffering a lot of compromises to make it more controller friendly.

Well that looks fun.

How do we think this is going to compare with DoW4 that we are also expecting? They look to scratch the same itch.

I think DoW is tactical, while Total War is grand strategy and will bring in logistics and development requirements. I haven't played a Total War game for a long time, but I sank and awful lot of time into the original Shogun.

The idea of this being something that works across whole sectors rather than individual planets or continents is very exciting for me

 Nevelon wrote:
Well that looks fun.

How do we think this is going to compare with DoW4 that we are also expecting? They look to scratch the same itch.

I'd assume that the focus will be different. DoW will be in-deph planetside battles while TW will be more shallow on that front because it has to cover a bigger strategic framework on a galactic level.

I'm really looking forward to this, assuming they can make a game that is both true to 40K and true to the Total War series.

My main concern is how long it will take to get to a stage where we have many fleshed out factions and huge maps to play on. After all the Total War Warhammer series took 3 games and who knows how much DLC to get to where we are now.

As for Dawn of War 4, I think both games can coexist successfully. Sure, they're both strategy games but the gameplay of the two series is different enough to each potentially have a fanbase.

The screen shots so far look like they're just blocks of troops moving and shooting around in formations like the pre-modern-ranged-weapons TW games.... which is very stupid and bad to be honest. Hopefully it's not so much like that and more like Steel Division or even simply DoW at larger scale... I'm fine with the action being less micro-managing of individual units/abilities than Dawn of War but if it's visually troops marching around in the open spraying each other for extended periods of time that ain't doing much for muh immersion.

 RustyNumber wrote:
The screen shots so far look like they're just blocks of troops moving and shooting around in formations like the pre-modern-ranged-weapons games.... which is very stupid and bad to be honest. Hopefully it's not so much like that and more like Steel Division or even simply DoW at larger scale...

To be fair, that is basically how battles are portrayed in the art and arguably on the tabletop; big formations of soldiers just rushing each other and using their guns at close range, artillery be damned.
I'm more interested in the strategic layer myself. I wasn't too impressed by the tactical battles, but that small snippet of the sector map is what really got my attention.
I don't think I've seen something like that since Empire At War.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

To be fair, that is basically how battles are portrayed in the art and arguably on the tabletop; big formations of soldiers just rushing each other and using their guns at close range, artillery be damned.

Which is fine sometimes, but play the DoW1 remaster and tell me it looks like a modern game and true to setting just having to squads standing in open terrain static firing at each other. It doesn't have to be Men of War Assault Squad 2 level of detail (which incidentally has some pretty cool and extensive 40k mods) but I'm sure they can do better than "black powder troops from previous games but they're space marines now" style fights.

The game RUSE (alas a great game but unloved/abandoned before its time!) has most of the action occur on a cool table top map with models on chits to represent units, but you could zoom in and have it come to life with fairly realistic terrain and units (albeit the tanks zooming along at mad speeds)

 Nevelon wrote:
Well that looks fun.

How do we think this is going to compare with DoW4 that we are also expecting? They look to scratch the same itch.

Total War will have way more factions and units. I think that's more appealing to a large audience, even if DoW4 ends up being a great game too

Console release?

What do the youngsters say these days? LOL? LMAO even?

Looks like a mobile game. If you search Creative Assembly videos on YT, people aren't happy with them and haven't been for a long time. This will likely just be bad, sorry.

The interesting bit for me is whether the different factions actually have different play mechanisms. Sure Guard and Orks fit well into the classic 4x mould of expansion and holding of worlds. However if I go marines, will I be deploying multiple full chapters on every battlefield? Will the Eldar be garrisoning subjugated Imperial worlds with millions of warp spiders?

Hopefully not, and marines and Eldarxwill be more about the surgical strikes being made in the context of larger conflicts, possibly even between other main combatants.

It is good to see they it’s not just mirrored Imperium vs Chaos

That poor, poor Stompa.

Minding its own business, doing what it was built to do. Then some sneaky git blats it from orbit!

 Flinty wrote:
The interesting bit for me is whether the different factions actually have different play mechanisms. Sure Guard and Orks fit well into the classic 4x mould of expansion and holding of worlds. However if I go marines, will I be deploying multiple full chapters on every battlefield? Will the Eldar be garrisoning subjugated Imperial worlds with millions of warp spiders?

Hopefully not, and marines and Eldarxwill be more about the surgical strikes being made in the context of larger conflicts, possibly even between other main combatants.

It is good to see they it’s not just mirrored Imperium vs Chaos

Would certainly expect this to be the case, they've done this in the fantasy games. Different factions play very differently and have unique mechanics.

Dunno... CA's business model of dicing and diming their customers for all they're worth annoys and bores me to death. So I'll probably pass either way.

Honestly I didn't feel "diced and dimed" by Warhammer Total War at all.

Yes there's a lot of DLC (that goes on sale very regularly if you're willing to wait); however much of that is whole new factions worth of content.

And its not like "ancient human faction with a reskin" its entirely new spell effects, monsters, animations, faction art, species etc...


Most RTS games have 2 maybe 3 distinct factions (heck these days you seem to get 2 and an endless promise of the 3rd maybe appearing at some point if sales remain just strong enough).
Beyond that you really don't see many games going with many more; so for TW Warhammer to have 24 is bonkers. Esp when many of them have multiple decently distinct (campaign wise) subfactions within that.


So yeah I've no problem at TW Warhammer launching with 4 core factions and expanding. Dawn of War did that over 3 games; most 4X games do similar - even back to the golden age of gaming you'd have had to have had 20 expansion packs to reach that number for a classic game like Red Alert or Starcraft.


So yeah not a problem and honestly freaking hyped about this.

 Overread wrote:
Honestly I didn't feel "diced and dimed" by Warhammer Total War at all.

Yes there's a lot of DLC (that goes on sale very regularly if you're willing to wait); however much of that is whole new factions worth of content.

And its not like "ancient human faction with a reskin" its entirely new spell effects, monsters, animations, faction art, species etc...


Most RTS games have 2 maybe 3 distinct factions (heck these days you seem to get 2 and an endless promise of the 3rd maybe appearing at some point if sales remain just strong enough).
Beyond that you really don't see many games going with many more; so for TW Warhammer to have 24 is bonkers. Esp when many of them have multiple decently distinct (campaign wise) subfactions within that.


So yeah I've no problem at TW Warhammer launching with 4 core factions and expanding. Dawn of War did that over 3 games; most 4X games do similar - even back to the golden age of gaming you'd have had to have had 20 expansion packs to reach that number for a classic game like Red Alert or Starcraft.


So yeah not a problem and honestly freaking hyped about this.

Sorry, what was that? i couldn't hear you over the " TOoo DiffIcUlt TO AniMate NightMaW" from CA.

 Overread wrote:
Honestly I didn't feel "diced and dimed" by Warhammer Total War at all.

I did. Like, A LOT.

I guess not quite as much as with Nintendo's and Pokemon's DLCs, but well, I'm not 12 years old anymore like my nephew and I don't like what I see.

 RustyNumber wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

To be fair, that is basically how battles are portrayed in the art and arguably on the tabletop; big formations of soldiers just rushing each other and using their guns at close range, artillery be damned.

Which is fine sometimes, but play the DoW1 remaster and tell me it looks like a modern game and true to setting just having to squads standing in open terrain static firing at each other. It doesn't have to be Men of War Assault Squad 2 level of detail (which incidentally has some pretty cool and extensive 40k mods) but I'm sure they can do better than "black powder troops from previous games but they're space marines now" style fights.

The game RUSE (alas a great game but unloved/abandoned before its time!) has most of the action occur on a cool table top map with models on chits to represent units, but you could zoom in and have it come to life with fairly realistic terrain and units (albeit the tanks zooming along at mad speeds)

I mean, what do you want? How do you think marines will fight? There is nearly no gameplay footage, but from the one shown, it's a big open bridge. How should they be shooting when on a 400m wide bridge?

Dawn of war 1 - move and operate in bricks,

Dawn of war 2 - largely move and shoot in a close knit brick but dynamically adapt to the terrain they're stood in. This is a fair point to take but I dare say not possible with stuff like 30 man units etc.

Dawn of war 3 - honestly bleached it from my brain

Space marine 1 and 2 dont have a cover system, wonder why.

Chaos gate and mechanicum encourage cover but dont limit to it.

I think CA's biggest challenge here will be meeting expectations of the 40k fans that may not be familiar with the Total War franchise or how CA operates as a development studio as of late (this could be an entirely separate and very long topic in itself).

I'm cautiously optimistic, but also concerned that 40k will starve Medieval 3 of resources and manpower. Historical TW fans have been hungry for a solid title for a long time.

Dudeface wrote:


I mean, what do you want?

Dawn of war 2 - largely move and shoot in a close knit brick but dynamically adapt to the terrain they're stood in. This is a fair point to take but I dare say not possible with stuff like 30 man units etc.

Why not? I'd settle for this. Craters, obstacles, ruins etc. are plenty to simulate cover. Go a step further and have them garrison buildings, shoot from rooftops and so on. Have this interact with destructible terrain, so there is a trade-off that makes it mechanically interesting. It's not hard to think of ways to make this work, it's just that this level of granularity is often dismissed at a conceptual level, while it has been done plenty of times already in much older games.

Red alert 2 and later command and conquer games had decent systems for garrisioning buildings.

Hell, even empire total war allowed you to build trenches when on the defensive.
And most total war games have units in forest take less damage from ranged weapons.
You could easily place those forests mechanics within ruin/rubble areas.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
That poor, poor Stompa.

Minding its own business, doing what it was built to do. Then some sneaky git blats it from orbit!

Best bit for me: The Primaris marine getting run over by the Deffroller!

I'll have to see what kind of specs they want for it. If it's gonna require a very expensive PC I'll pass. I'm past the phase of my life where I want to pay that much for video games.

My son and I are building a new gaming machine this year. Hopefully its grunty enough to allow spanky detail levels to be used

Probably too much to ask for the first instalment but I hope at some point they do space battles. The sea battles in Empire and Napoleon were really fun, and it'd essentially just need to be that but in space.

Billicus wrote:
Probably too much to ask for the first instalment but I hope at some point they do space battles. The sea battles in Empire and Napoleon were really fun, and it'd essentially just need to be that but in space.

Or just copy/paste Rogue Trader's space battles, but on a bigger scale.

Massive battles are a good thing, but also small band of adventureres moving in a huge enviroment would be awesome (the same in the Fantasy Battle universe, noone is doing a Mordheim mod...)