Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV – Story Trailer Breakdown and New Campaign Details

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV has finally stepped out of the Warp and into the spotlight, with publisher Deep Silver and German studio KING Art Games showing a meaty new story trailer during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted 2025.

For veterans of the classic Dawn of War trilogy and curious newcomers who only know Warhammer 40,000 from the tabletop or Black Library novels, this first extended look makes one thing clear: Dawn of War IV wants to be the most cinematic and story-driven entry the series has ever seen.

The trailer returns players to the war-torn world of Kronus, now once again a sacrificial altar to the endless conflict of the 41st millennium. The planet is a nexus where multiple forces converge, each with its own agenda. The ever-tenacious Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter, the ancient Necron legions commanded by the chilling Chronomancer Thothmek, the roaring Ork hordes gathered under Warboss Gorgutz and his lieutenant Guzcutta, and the calculating Adeptus Mechanicus presence represented by technoarcheologist Potentia Delta-9 all collide over secrets buried deep beneath the world’s surface. Just as their clash reaches a breaking point, the secretive Dark Angels arrive to drag the war firmly back into the service of the Imperium.

Dawn of War IV’s campaign is being built with unusual ambition. Black Library author John French is co-writing the story, lending it the tone and internal logic fans expect from official Warhammer fiction. The campaign promises more than seventy missions, and crucially, every one of them is playable both solo and in co-op. Instead of restricting friends to a small side mode, KING Art Games wants entire groups to experience the arc of the Kronus conflict together: swapping perspectives between factions, watching uneasy alliances form and crumble, and uncovering long-buried truths about what really lies beneath the planet’s surface.

Within this narrative, the Dark Angels step into the limelight as a fully playable Space Marine faction, available across all game modes. Their forces are led by Company Master Astoran and Chaplain Ezrael, two commanders who embody the Chapter’s mix of monastic discipline and terrifying zeal. On the tabletop, Dark Angels are often imagined as a relentless wall of armour and firepower, and Dawn of War IV leans into that fantasy. Their playstyle is built around large-scale, all-out warfare: thick armoured spearheads, overlapping fields of fire, and devastating combined-arms assaults that reward players who are willing to commit to map-wide pushes instead of cautious skirmishing.

The Blood Ravens, by contrast, return as the more surgical Space Marine chapter. They still bring iconic wargear and units, but their missions are framed as smaller, more intricate operations. Many scenarios push players toward stealth, reconnaissance and precise strikes rather than brute force. In gameplay terms, that means clever use of elite squads, flanking drops and sabotage instead of simply rolling the heaviest armour to the front. Where a Dark Angels commander might flatten an entire district with artillery and Predators, a Blood Ravens strike force is more likely to slip behind enemy lines, destroy a key objective and vanish before a full counter-offensive can be organised.

The trailer makes it equally clear that the Imperium is far from alone in this war. Necron fans will appreciate the focus on Chronomancer Thothmek, whose mastery of time and ancient technology hints at missions built around stasis fields, eerie temporal anomalies and awakening tomb complexes that shift as you fight through them. On the opposite end of the tonal spectrum, Ork devotees can rejoice at the return of Warboss Gorgutz, now accompanied by the wonderfully named Guzcutta. Their presence promises the series’ trademark brand of comedic brutality, as green tide mobs, ramshackle vehicles and improvised super-weapons crash headfirst into anything foolish enough to stand still. Meanwhile, Potentia Delta-9 and the Adeptus Mechanicus bring the cold logic of the Omnissiah, experimental war engines and a more methodical, zone-controlling approach that looks tailor-made for players who enjoy locking down choke points and grinding the enemy beneath layered defenses.

Under the hood, Dawn of War IV is positioning itself as a feature-rich RTS package. Four fully playable factions are confirmed at launch: Space Marines, Orks, Necrons and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Multiple non-linear campaigns will allow players to tackle operations in different orders, chase optional objectives and influence how individual fronts on Kronus evolve. Outside the main story, classic modes like Skirmish and Last Stand return, giving players ways to experiment with army builds, test new strategies and just enjoy the core combat loop without worrying about campaign progression.

Competitive multiplayer is also a core pillar of KING Art’s vision. Ranked and unranked options are planned across 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 formats, offering room for solo ladder specialists and coordinated squads alike. With four asymmetrical factions, the meta should quickly become diverse: from elite Space Marine strike teams and artillery-driven Adeptus Mechanicus gunlines to swarming Ork hordes and the implacable, ever-advancing phalanxes of the Necrons. The big open question is whether Dawn of War IV will lean closer to the hero-focused skirmishes of Dawn of War II or the sweeping, army-sized clashes of the original game, but the story trailer clearly leans into large, spectacular battles with plenty of screen-filling destruction.

The most headline-grabbing reveal, however, is saved for the campaign’s climax. For the first time in the series, players will take direct control of a Primarch: Lion El’Jonson himself strides onto the battlefield as a playable unit. In lore terms, that places the final act of the story firmly in mythic territory, and from a gameplay perspective it opens the door to set-piece missions designed around a single, godlike figure turning the tide. The challenge for the designers will be making the Lion feel appropriately legendary without trivialising the late-game encounters, but the prospect of marching alongside the Primarch of the Dark Angels is bound to be irresistible for many fans.

For now, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV is confirmed for PC with a launch window set for next year. KING Art Games has not yet shared official system requirements, and given the scale of the battles shown, players are understandably curious about how demanding the game will be. The studio is promising scalable settings, but until those specs are locked in, strategy fans and Warhammer enthusiasts will be replaying the trailer frame by frame, theory-crafting build orders, arguing over faction balance and speculating about the campaign twists, hidden factions or surprise cameos that might still be waiting in the Warp.