December is always a big time in gaming as the annual Game Awards celebrates games from the current year and teases upcoming games, and The Game Awards 2025 was no different, celebrating titles like Clair Obscur 33, Umamusume Pretty Derby, and Hollow Knight: Silksong, while also showing off teasers of upcoming games for 2026 and 2027. Among the surprise announcements at The Game Awards 2025 was the reveal of a new title in the Total War franchise: Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000. Announced by David Harbour who sported a t-shirt with the inquisitorial icon, SEGA and Creative Assembly then showed off a cinematic trailer with pre-alpha gameplay of the upcoming strategy title.
If you missed it, here's the trailer, showing off all of the cool guy moments of the Ultramarines (as well as Orks, Astra Militarum, and at least the sight of a Falcon):
The Total War franchise is no stranger to Games Workshop properties, having put out the very successful Total War: Warhammer trilogy, the combination of turn-based and real-time strategy in Total War always seemed like the perfect fit for simulating the tabletop scale; the question was always "when" 40k would make a debut, and the answer is... "To Be Announced"!
That's right; sadly, there was no announced release date. The Steam Page is currently live, and although we don't have a ton of details, some of the short list items mentioned in the catalog is that players can play as Space Marines, Orks, Aeldari, and Astra Militarum as the four starting factions the game will have at launch. If that sounds a little Imperium heavy, it is, but Total War is no stranger to adding in new factions and continuing to improve their games (Total Warhammer III has 30~ something DLC packs, for example), so if your favorite faction is not currently in the game yet, don't despair: they very likely will be included in post-launch content.
The page also notes heavy customization options, which also tracks with previous iterations, and perhaps puts some early grumblings of "Ultramarines always get to look cool"; never fear, you (likely) will be able to play your favorite chapters or even customize your army to meet your personal preferences with Total War's usual flair; one of the more interesting features as the trailer wrapped up was the tease that combat campaigns could take place on multiple planets and span across a galactic size, but how realistically that comes across in the game play remains to be seen; there is about equal chance that it feels properly galactic and also that you are just selecting planets that serve as different maps in your campaign, frankly.
There are a few things we can speculate on based on past Total War games. For one, its a safe bet that there will be a launch DLC faction available with preorder. In the past those were Chaos, Norsca, and Ogres and there's a pretty obvious eight pointed star shaped hole in the current roster that needs to be filled. For those who tuned into the anniversary stream, you may recall there was a section where the engine team were interviewed to talk about enhancements they've made to the engine for future games. Based off that it looks like terrain will be somewhat destructible and the AI will be able to react to that. In the screenshots we can see some guardsmen taking cover behind an Agis Defense Line and it may be that destroyed ruins will function similarly. Lastly, in the final shot of the gameplay section of the trailer, we can see Calgar's ugly mug in the top left hand corner, which means that while customizing your own faction will be a major feature of this one, legendary lords aren't going anywhere. Its possible the customization will function similarly to the Daemon Prince faction in TTWIII, allowing you to slot things in and out on your faction leader to fully fine tune how they operate.
The game itself seems much more hectic than past titles. In all the trailer shots, combat is happening in tight close quarters, a far flung change from square regiments marching in an open field. Based on the mini map that can be seen on the Steam page, battlefields look very similar to some of the current siege map interiors. Veterans of the series will read that and shudder -- the TWW series hasn't had a great track record of the AI working well in sieges -- but I think its safe to say a major effort will have gone into making sure that kind of close quarters combat functions quite a bit better with the new engine. There also seems to be more of a combined arms focus, with guardsmen and space marines fighting side by side in each shot of the trailer, but that could be similar to the current ally system and not be such a major departure.
Overall there's a lot to be excited about here. Many have said that the Total War formula couldn't really be adapted for the 40k universe, but here we are. It will be very interesting to see how Creative Assembly plans to incorporate things like the galactic map, a ranged focused force with lots of vehicles, and even seeing how they adapt old systems like their diplomacy system. There's a lot we don't know right now, but it will no doubt be exciting to see how it all shakes out.
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