Total War is finally heading into Warhammer 40,000, and this time the series isn’t staying PC‑only. The new game pushes the familiar blend of turn‑based empire management and real‑time battles out into a galactic map, with four launch factions drawn straight from 40K’s core armies.
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 release timing
There is no release date or release window announced for Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000. Creative Assembly and Sega are explicitly holding that back and have only said that there will be “lots more to talk about later in 2026.” That language points to a long marketing runway rather than an imminent launch.
On the studio side, developers describe the project as being in a polishing phase, with voiceover work coming in and assets being refined. The public trailer footage is labelled as pre‑alpha and is several months old, which suggests internal builds are significantly ahead of what has been shown, but still not ready for a firm ship date.
Commentary around the game generally clusters around a late‑2026 or 2027 launch, with 2027 being notable as the 40th anniversary of Warhammer 40,000’s original Rogue Trader rulebook. None of that is confirmed. For now, the only reliable signal is that players should expect more concrete information once Creative Assembly’s planned Spring 2026 campaign deep dives begin.
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 platforms
Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 is the first mainline Total War built for consoles as well as PC.
| Platform | Confirmed support |
|---|---|
| PC (Windows) | Yes |
| PlayStation 5 | Yes |
| Xbox Series X|S | Yes |
PC players will be able to wishlist the game on Steam through the official Steam store page. Console players can do the same through the PlayStation Store listing on PS5 and the Microsoft Store page on Xbox Series X|S.
Creative Assembly’s new Warcore engine is the technical foundation that makes this multi‑platform push possible. The engine is designed with console hardware in mind and is also intended to scale down Total War’s demanding simulations more gracefully on lower‑spec PCs.
Playable factions at launch
The game launches with four factions, each positioned to showcase a distinct flavor of 40K warfare and a different Total War playstyle.
- Space Marines are elite, genetically engineered warriors encased in power armour. In campaign terms, they are few in number but individually powerful, leaning into compact, high‑value stacks rather than broad conscript lines. On the battlefield they emphasize durability, precise firepower, and decisive shock assaults.
- Orks arrive as barely controlled entropy. They favor massed infantry, ramshackle walkers, and noisy, unreliable guns. You can expect them to trade efficiency for scale, winning wars through sheer volume of bodies, dakka, and scrap‑built war machines.
- Aeldari represent a dwindling but hyper‑specialised civilization. Their campaign identity leans on speed and delicacy: smaller but exquisitely lethal forces, strong in psychic abilities and precision strikes, with an emphasis on exploiting openings and disengaging before attrition sets in.
- Astra Militarum (the Imperial Guard) provide the opposite experience, with enormous regiments of human soldiers backed by battle tanks and artillery. They are built to grind opponents down through firepower and discipline, anchoring fronts with armour and guns rather than superhuman infantry.
Chaos Space Marines and other classic 40K factions are not present at launch. Creative Assembly has already committed to adding them later, positioning Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 as a platform that will grow with new armies and sub‑factions over time.
Campaign structure and galactic scale
The strategic layer lifts Total War’s usual province map out into space. Instead of a single continent or continent‑spanning landmass, the campaign is framed as a galactic sandbox.
You direct fleets across star systems, seize planets, and develop them into fortresses or production hubs. Planetary control feeds into a broader war economy, sustaining recruitment, fleet construction, and the apocalyptic end‑game options that define the 41st Millennium.
Campaign turns involve:
- Capturing and upgrading planets as nodes in a war economy.
- Building and improving fleets to move forces and project power between systems.
- Deploying ground armies from orbit into contested regions for real‑time battles.
- Choosing when to commit scarce elite units versus cheaper, more expendable forces.
Planetary warfare happens at several layers. You can soften up targets with planetary bombardments from orbit, then drop forces onto key installations and surface regions. Those ground engagements are where the classic Total War real‑time battles play out.
When a threat becomes overwhelming, there is an option to escalate to 40K’s signature extremes: the game includes planet‑killing weaponry that can wipe worlds off the strategic map. That kind of escalation sits at the top of the campaign’s risk‑reward ladder, trading long‑term strategic value for short‑term survival or denial.
Real‑time battles and combat systems
Real‑time battles still revolve around large armies clashing over terrain, but the shift to 40K pushes the focus further towards ranged warfare, mobility, and destructive abilities.
Battles feature:
- Faction‑specific rosters that mix line infantry, elite squads, walkers, tanks, and towering war engines such as Ork Stompas.
- Destructible environments where artillery, orbital strikes, and heavy weapons carve persistent craters, blow apart cover, and reshape firing lanes.
- Reinforcement mechanics that let you feed in additional units as a battle drags on, sustaining pressure during drawn‑out sieges or planetary assaults.
- Active abilities from commanders and support assets, including artillery barrages, strafing runs, laser or plasma strikes, and psychic powers. Timing and placement of these abilities are central to controlling the tempo of engagements.
Warcore supports more granular movement than earlier Total War games. Ranged units are expected to strafe, seek cover, and maneuver around battlefield debris, while melee specialists still matter once the distance is closed. The result is a battlefield that looks more like a 40K warzone than a traditional shield‑wall line fight, without abandoning the series’ emphasis on unit positioning and flanking.
Army customization and tabletop parallels
One of the headline systems is army customization. Total War has dabbled in this area before, but Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 goes much deeper to reflect the way tabletop 40K players build and paint their forces.
You can:
- Define your force’s identity by naming your warband or chapter, choosing color schemes, and selecting heraldry and iconography. This applies across your roster, tying campaign identity to a coherent visual theme.
- Tune combat philosophy by assigning traits, doctrines, and wargear packages that alter how your faction plays in both campaign and battles. That can mean leaning further into close‑range aggression, doubling down on artillery and armour, or emphasizing psychic warfare.
On the unit side, there is fine‑grained customization that extends down to individual armor pieces and, in some cases, things as small as Space Marine fingers. The goal is to let digital armies mirror the personality and intent that players typically express through painting and kitbashing physical miniatures.
Story framing and 40K canon
The game is set in the Era Indomitus, the current narrative age of Warhammer 40,000. Humanity’s Imperium is fractured, the galaxy is laced with warp storms, and every faction is locked in existential conflict.
Creative Assembly’s narrative team is building a canonical storyline in partnership with Games Workshop. That narrative is organized around crusades, which function as structured campaigns or sub‑campaigns that push the overarching plot forward while giving each faction clear stakes.
Each of the four launch factions participates in that meta‑narrative from its own perspective. While detailed plot beats have not been released, the intention is that Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 sits alongside other modern 40K stories rather than as an isolated “what if” scenario.
Mod support on PC
Modding remains part of the plan, even with the move to a new engine. The intent is to support mods through Steam Workshop at launch on PC, preserving the ecosystem that has grown up around earlier Total War games.
However, the official mod tools will not be ready on day one. They are planned for a later release once Warcore’s own toolchain is stable enough to be exposed publicly. The studio will outline the exact tooling, limits, and timelines closer to launch.
Pre‑orders, DLC, and mature content
Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 is not using a pre‑order DLC lord or faction pack as its hook.
- Pre‑orders will not be tied to a pre‑order DLC at launch. There will be pre‑order bonuses, but the details are being held until later in 2026.
- DLC roadmap is implied rather than detailed. Creative Assembly has already signaled that more factions, including Chaos Space Marines, are planned after launch. The structure will likely echo the trilogy of fantasy Total War: WARHAMMER games, with a mix of free and paid additions, but no specifics are confirmed.
- Violence settings will not be split into a separate “blood pack” purchase. The 41st Millennium’s dismemberment and gore are built into the base game to match the setting.
On ratings, the game targets a PEGI 16 classification, aligned with the existing Warhammer strategy titles.
How to follow development and future updates
Creative Assembly plans to go mostly quiet on the game after its initial reveal, then return in Spring 2026 with in‑depth looks at both campaign and battle gameplay. A smaller developer roundtable is scheduled for December 16 as a final update before the team’s end‑of‑year break.
For direct updates, trailers, and future technical details, the studio is directing players to its official channels, including the Total War website and social feeds. You can also track platform‑specific updates via the game’s store pages on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Until a concrete launch window appears, the realistic expectation is a long haul: a new engine, a console debut, and a 40K‑wide scope all point toward a project that Creative Assembly wants to land once, not rush out the door.
