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.