The main factions at play in the story of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 are the Space Marine chapter Blood Ravens being led by Captain Cyrus and Chief Librarian Jonah Orion, the Orks under Warboss Gorgutz, Mechanicus forces led by Technoarcheologist Potentia Delta-9, and Necrons being led by Chronomancer Thotmek. All of these important characters are showcased in the trailer, with the Space Marines taking on the Orks, while the Adeptus Mechanicus is exploring the world’s lost ruins and finding the existence of dormant Necron tombs.

Towards the end, the trailer showcases the arrival of a second Space Marine chapter into the battlefield – the Dark Angels. This is an especially pivotal moment since the Dark Angels have a reputation for being quite secretive and non-trusting. However, with the trailer showcasing the two chapters working together, as well as Lion El’Jonson offering a helping hand to the Blood Ravens, indicates that the overarching plot of the Warhammer 40,000 universe is going to see a major shift.

King Art Games has also confirmed that the Dark Angel chapter will have its own unique in-game units, including playable Commanders Company Master Astoran and Chaplain Ezrael, as well as their own distinct tactical advantages and disadvantages. The chapter will be playable in all of the game modes, which likely also includes competitive online matches. This will also mark the first time that a Dawn of War title has featured distinctly separate playable Space Marine chapters. Previous games in the series have only allowed superficial changes to Space Marine through their Army Painter feature, without bringing in any characters or units unique to the chapter.

Dawn of War 4 marks the first time a new game in the series is being developed since 2017’s Dawn of War 3, which was made by Relic Entertainment. The title was quite poorly received, however, which ultimately led to the franchise being left alone for almost an entire decade. Among the criticism faced by the title were its simplification of complex gameplay mechanics, as well as its emphasis on offering an esports experience without having the depth of gameplay to support this aspect. Along with this, its single-player story was also panned, and was considered a major downgrade over its predecessors.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 is being developed for PC, and is slated for release in 2026. While you wait for the fourth entry in the RTS franchise, you can check out our review of the Definitive Edition release of the original Dawn of War, which came out earlier this year.

Going by the earlier parts of the trailer, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 will once again revolve around the heroic efforts of the Blood Raven Space Marines as they take on Xeno threats from Orks and Necrons. The title is being developed by King Art Games—a studio known for its previous real-time strategy game Iron Harvest.

The gameplay shown off towards the end of the trailer can give us some vague details about the upcoming title. It looks like Dawn of War 4 will leave behind many of the unpopular changes from the previous game, and will instead go back to focusing on larger skirmishes between squads of soldiers, as well as vehicles, as we saw in the original Dawn of War and its first sequel.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 is coming to PC, and is slated for release in 2026.

The world is in a fragile state in KING Art Games’ Iron Harvest. The Great War has ended and Europe is in a state of recuperation. Unfortunately, in this alternate reality version of 1920+, dieselpunk mechs dominate the battlefield and a new foe is slowly emerging to bring about chaos. So naturally, the three factions go to war once more.

This is highlighted in the new trailer below, which features lots of mech-oriented warfare. KING Art Games and Deep Silver also confirmed that a demo for the game would be available on PC. It goes live today and will be available until June 22nd as part of the Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition.

The final game promises a fairly hefty single-player component with nine heroes, three campaigns and over 20 missions. There are more than 30 units types across all the factions and all campaigns are playable in co-op. Skirmish and multiplayer is also supported, the latter having support for ranked play and leagues.

Iron Harvest is out on September 1st for PC with PS4 and Xbox One versions coming later.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard about KING Art Games’ Iron Harvest, an alternative World War 1 era RTS that’s in development for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Fortunately, the developer has offered a pretty significant update today. It will be partnering with Deep Silver of Metro: Exodus fame to publish Iron Harvest.

The developer settled on Deep Silver after more than a dozen publishers expressed interest. The benefit of this deal is that KING Art Games will retain creative control, while Deep Silver will handle production, first party dealings, and whatnot.

Of course, that’s not all. A map editor and mods have been a top request from the game’s community, and while nothing is confirmed, the development team has found a way to load maps into the main game. Players will have to install the Unity Engine and the developer’s plugin to create maps though. Though users will only be able to create maps on PC, the developer will release “officially sanctioned” maps by the community for consoles.

Iron Harvest is slated to release in 2019 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Stay tuned for more information on the map editor and other features in the meantime.

King Art Games attracted quite a bit of attention last year with Iron Harvest, a real-time strategy game with cover elements and destructible environments set in an alternative post-World War 1 universe. The game recently launched its Kickstarter, seeking $450,000 in funding and it seems backers were quite taken with the premise. Iron Harvest has already crossed its crowdfunding goal and stands at $523,538 with 29 days remaining.

That’s a pretty stellar amount especially with so much time left. Among the stretch goals included are cinematic cutscenes ($600,000), Challenge Maps (($750,000), multiplayer ($1 million), a co-op campaign ($1.1 million) and a free DLC campaign ($1.5 million). As of right now, the New Game Plus stretch goal has already been fulfilled.

Check out the Kickstarter trailer below for Iron Harvest – it showcases the emphasis on cover-based combat, how giant steampunk mechs play into things, the different factions and the general aesthetic. The game is currently in development for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

KING Art Games’ intriguing steampunk strategy title Iron Harvest is scheduled to release in 2018 but it will also have a Kickstarter taking place on March 13th. As of now, the goals and funding amount aren’t known. We’re also unsure how this affects the current release window. Perhaps the crowd-funding campaign is for any additional funding needed at the final stretch.

Regardless, what we’ve seen about Iron Harvest has been very impressive. It takes place in an alternate-history post-World War 1 universe where three major factions rule. These are the Saxony Empire, the Rusviet and Polania Republic, each with their own playable campaign and story. The twist is that each nation has huge steampunk mechs to fight along with the traditional soldiers.

With the setting created by Polish artist Jakub Różalski, Iron Harvest definitely has promise. It’s in development for Xbox One, PS4 and PC so stay tuned for more information on the Kickstarter.

GamingBolt had a chance to speak to Julian Strzoda of King Art Games about the concept, the overall gameplay mechanics and inspirations behind Iron Harvest: 1920+. What makes it so special? Find out below.

"We’re going to do a similar structure with one big, overarching story and three campaigns, one for each faction. So there is a certain order in which you should play the campaigns."

Iron Harvest: 1920+ looks extremely compelling, especially since the initial gameplay reveal. What was it like moving from a series like The Book of Unwritten Tales to an RTS with such a tactical scale?

Thanks! We’ve done other genres before, like turn-based strategy with “Battle Worlds: Kronos” or RTS/RPG with “The Dwarves”. So this isn’t the first time we tackled a new genre. Nonetheless, Iron Harvest is our biggest and most ambitious project yet, of course. We like a challenge!

What inspired the game’s concept and core aesthetic? What was it like working with Polish artist Jakub Rozalski?

I saw Jakub’s work for the first time three or four years ago and was blown away by it. A couple of years later we were thinking about making an RTS in the tradition of Company of Heroes and I remembered his work. He was very excited about the idea and he’s very much involved in the production today. He designs all the mechs and characters. Fortunately, he’s not only a great artist but also a great human being, so working with him is a blast.

We know about the game’s three main factions. Can players choose from any faction while starting the game or will all three be playable in the campaign?

We played many, many RTS campaigns as research and for us, the best RTS campaign out there still is Warcraft 3’s (including Frozen Throne). We’re going to do a similar structure with one big, overarching story and three campaigns, one for each faction. So there is a certain order in which you should play the campaigns.

What are some of the different units and heroes for each faction, especially given their underlying philosophies and resources?

Each of the three factions has three playable heroes, each with a unique playstyle. For example, Polania has a sniper hero (stealth, long range), a mech hero (slow, lots of firepower) and a cavalry hero (multiple units, speed). In general, each faction has a slightly different combat focus but it’s more like the different factions in Company of Heroes or other war games than the completely different factions in Warcraft or Dawn of War. Each faction uses the same resource type.

"We think there is a lack of real-time strategy games where indeed your strategy and tactics are the key for success, instead of dexterity and ‘clicks per minute’."

The game is touted as having a dynamic storyline. Will certain win conditions be available to change the direction of the story?

No. The storyline is not dynamic. The missions within the campaign however are as dynamic and open as possible. The idea is: We give the players tough obstacles and various tools to overcome them. How they go about it is up to them.

Can you tell us more about the open, sandbox-style levels? Will there be different side-quests that players can discover while exploring the world?

Absolutely. We think players want a sense of freedom in how to approach a task and how to deal with obstacles. In each map, there are different ways to reach your goals, some of them more obvious than others. (And we’re pretty sure players will come up with solutions we won’t even have thought of ourselves, which is exactly what we want.)

Thus far, Iron Harvest has been compared to Company of Heroes and Rozalski even noted that there was a bit of XCOM involved. How does this work with regards to the cover mechanics and destructible environments? How does Iron Harvest differ from those games?

We think there is a lack of real-time strategy games where indeed your strategy and tactics are the key for success, instead of dexterity and ‘clicks per minute’. In many games, it’s more about managing your economy and throwing units into battle faster than your opponent does. We don’t want “blobs” of units. Instead, we want to give players time to explore all possibilities, to come up with a plan, execute this plan and adjust it on-the-fly if necessary. A cover system in which units behind cover are relatively save, slows the gameplay down. We think that’s a good thing because it gives you time to come up with a new plan.

Furthermore, how will the mechs work in-game? Will they be super units that players can use every now and then?

Mechs are the equivalent of tanks or armoured vehicles in other games. So they are not super rare, but they are always a threat. Even heroes are not super-powerful. What makes them special is that they have more skills and therefore more options in combat than other units.

"That’s one of the biggest challenges because we think it has never been done perfectly. We’re still in early development, but our UI and controls tests with gamepads are very promising."

Iron Harvest will be coming to consoles as well as PC. How difficult was it to translate the RTS gameplay to consoles with regards to the interface and controls?

That’s one of the biggest challenges because we think it has never been done perfectly. We’re still in early development, but our UI and controls tests with gamepads are very promising. We don’t want to compromise the PC version, so there are two completely different UIs and controls for both input methods. The PC controls are pretty much what you would expect from a modern RTS, there is not that much room for improvement compared to the console controls.

When can we expect the game to release?

We’ll decide early next year whether we’re going to do a Kickstarter for Iron Harvest or not. If we do a Kickstarter, a backer alpha version would be available 2018, but the release is scheduled for late 2019.

The game is coming on the PS4 and Xbox One as well. What frame rate and resolution are you targeting for both? 1080p and 60fps?

1080p for sure, but we don’t know about FPS yet. Again, we don’t want to compromise the PC version,so it might be a problem to obtain a stable 60fps on these consoles.

Will the game run at native 4K and 60fps on the Xbox One X?

I think there is a good chance to achieve 1080p/60fps and probably 4K/30fps, but I’m not so sure about 4K/60fps.

"There’ll never be such a thing as enough memory. Ever. Of course it’s great to have more memory available. But in the end, the differences won’t be dramatic."

Do you think the Xbox One X’s weaker CPU hold it back?

For “The Dwarves” the CPU was, in fact, the bottle neck on Xbox One, not GPU. At the time Iron Harvest will be released, the original consoles will be 6+ years old. It’s always a problem when PC and console hardware capabilities drift too far apart (Although I think this time the problem isn’t as big as it has been for the previous generation.)

Are you aiming for parity between PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, or will you push the latter to its limits?

As a small developer we don’t have dedicated developers working on Xbox One X or PlayStation 4 Pro. We’re going to have seven different quality settings. Three for PCs (high, medium, low + custom) and one for each console. For each setting we’ll try to figure out the best compromise between visuals and performance. So, yes, if a system is more powerful it’ll get the better version of the game, but we’re probably not going to write specific code for any of the platforms.

From a development perspective, what are the advantage of 12GB memory in Xbox One X?

There’ll never be such a thing as enough memory. Ever. Of course it’s great to have more memory available. But in the end, the differences won’t be dramatic. For example: It’s not enough memory to double the size of all textures in the game or something like that. So, yes, there will be more stuff and stuff will be higher quality. But the differences won’t be huge.

Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before we let you go?

If you’re part of our Facebook community I would like to say: Thank you. The involvement of our fans on there is insane. Whenever we ask questions or we would like some feedback, we got 500 competent answers within the hour. That’s a first for us and its great to see that there is so much enthusiasm for this project!

King Art Games’ Iron Harvest is still at a relatively stage but it’s intrigued us with its alternate history, steampunk tactical RTS style of gameplay. The overall aesthetic with hulking steam machines and several factions at work looks great and we can’t wait to see how the developer’s vision pans out.

Of course, what’s more interesting is how the game will run on consoles. Despite strategy games having more room on Xbox One and PS4 than before, they’re still relatively niche on consoles. When Iron Harvest arrives, it will be among this generation’s more powerful variants of console hardware, namely the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. How does the developer plan to approach parity in that regard? Will it simply push the Xbox One X hard or try to fit its vision on both systems?

King Arts’ Julian Strzoda replied, noting that, “As a small developer we don’t have dedicated developers working on Xbox One X or PlayStation 4 Pro. We’re going to have seven different quality settings.

“Three for PCs (high, medium, low + custom) and one for each console. For each setting we’ll try to figure out the best compromise between visuals and performance. So, yes, if a system is more powerful it’ll get the better version of the game, but we’re probably not going to write specific code for any of the platforms.”

It’s good to see the developer keeping the Xbox One’s strengths in mind along with prioritizing graphics for different PC settings as well. How much of a drain that will be on resources remains to be seen though. The Xbox One X arrives on November 7th worldwide for $499 while Iron Harvest’s release date is still to be announced.

King Art Games’ Iron Harvest feels like a dream come true. It’s set in an alternate 1920s universe with steampunk aesthetics, huge mechs, destructible environments, cover-based shooting akin to Company of Heroes and much more. Given the number of real-time strategy games on consoles these days, we thought it would be interesting to hear what the studio thinks about the upcoming Xbox One X and how beneficial it would be.

GamingBolt spoke to King Arts’ Julian Strzoda about the console’s 12 GB GDDR5 RAM and the benefits it offers. When we commented on the console having a ton of memory, Strzoda noted that, “There’ll never be such a thing as enough memory. Ever. Of course it’s great to have more memory available.”

However, even as Microsoft hammers home the console’s status as the most powerful yet, the RAM won’t be the biggest difference-maker. “But in the end, the differences won’t be dramatic. For example: It’s not enough memory to double the size of all textures in the game or something like that. So, yes, there will be more stuff and stuff will be higher quality. But the differences won’t be huge.”

This seems to reinforce the idea of the Xbox One X being a mid-generation upgrade rather than a full-fledged step forward. But we’ll only know for ourselves when the console is out on November 7th for $499 so stay tuned till then.

KING Art Games, perhaps better known for The Book of Unwritten Tales series, has released the first gameplay trailer for Iron Harvest, its alternate reality RTS that’s set in 1920+ and features hulking machines that act as weapons. Check it out below along with some concept art of the game.

The setting has been developed Polish artist Jakub Różalski and sees three factions vying for supremacy – the Saxony Empire which is composed of industries, cities, factories and a strong military presence; the Polania Republic which focuses on agriculture and does its best to thwart neighbouring enemies; and Rusviet Rusviet, a powerful industrial faction with lots of people but torn apart by years of war.

Along with hero characters, players can use mechs and soldiers, take cover and use dynamic destruction in environments for tactical purposes. Levels function as “open sandboxes” and there will be a “dynamic story line” to follow. Iron Harvest is currently slated to release in 2019 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.