Over the past few years, Warhammer 40,000 has become a huge part of my lifeāso much so that I’ve now found myself reading books to learn as much as I can about its lore, and even playing its tabletop counterpart competitively. So when I heard that Total War: Warhammer 40,000 was going to be at Gamescom 2026, I knew I needed to play it. After spending roughly an hour with it, I’ve learned that this is the perfect game for Warhammer sickos like myself, and an even better one for introducing new people to the franchise.
I say this for a few reasons. First, Total War takes place in the Armageddon sector of the galaxy, a major point of interest in the current Warhammer 40,000 setting. Second, from what I’ve played, the game doesn’t have any legacy characters; instead, it introduces new people we haven’t seen before and encourages players to create their own homebrew chapters for full immersion. Lastly, the current playable factions are all extremely popular, and most play like their tabletop counterparts.
One thing worth pointing out is that in the demo build I played, I could only play as the Space Marines. But I did get to see the Astra Militarum and Orks in action fighting one another. The only faction that was missing from this demo was the Aeldari. The Space Marines’ mission was spelled out quickly: I had to find top-secret information before the Orks discovered it. To prevent that, the Emperor’s Finest were sent out to retrieve it.Ā
This first cutscene did a fantastic job of briefly explaining who the Orks were, why they shouldn’t be taken lightly, and why the Space Marines were the right ones for the job. Within just a few short minutes, I had been given a deep lesson on some major factions and had a good idea of what they stood for.
Before I jumped into actual combat, I was given a brief overview of the planet. As I looked at it, I had to command my squads to travel from one region to another. What was nice was that it made the world feel huge. But that feeling quickly faded the more I zoomed out, because I could then see the whole galaxy at large and all the nearby planets in the cluster.
After the cutscene ended and the level finally started, I saw a menu that looked extremely complicated at first glance, but quickly made sense. It showed the loadout of every Space Marine in my squad, what weapons they had equipped, how they should fight, and their health. As I was pushing up the map, I noticed I only had maybe a total of five squads with me. That may seem like a small amount of troops to take on a recovery mission, especially when you consider there were about five Orks for every one marine. But that worry was put to ease immediately when I remembered the game was trying to be as lore-accurate as possible, and one squad of Space Marines was more than capable of putting a dent into the Green Tide that was in front of me.
Still, I did exactly what the cutscene warned me about and underestimated the Orks. Before I knew it, I was immediately pinned down by a wall of fire and was forced to take cover in nearby debris. Before any of that became a true threat, I called in some backup from reserves and had them crash-land in front of a huge squad of Orks, immediately killing a bunch of them. This gave me time to push up with my remaining forces and walk away with the information we initially came to retrieve.Ā
This is where I started booting up the game’s second mission. Before I jumped into the action, I was given a brief look at the customizations Total War has to offer. In short, I was able to change everything from the shoulder pad color of my Marines to the chapter’s name, allowing me to put my own personal flavor into the grim darkness of the far future. The next mission was another simple one: Help the Astra Militarum take back a station from the Orks. Admittedly, I did what most lore-accurate Space Marines would do in that situation, and let the Astra Militarum die by themselves in the name of the Emperor.
Despite their numbers, they didn’t stand a chance against the Orks. Within a short amount of time, the Astra Militarum tanks had put a sizable dent into them before the Orks turned their attention to me. As someone who’s read a lot of books about the Astra Militarum, one thing I really enjoyed was watching them charge headfirst into a battle that was all but lost. So what did I do? I zoomed in as close as I could to watch the carnage unfold up close and personal.
The second the Orks noticed my men, it looked like I was dead. But then I suddenly remembered that the Space Marines had a wide range of utilities, like the ability to call in airstrikes and buffs. That’s exactly what I did before they had a chance to close in on me. Within seconds, the battlefield had what seemed like hundreds of green skins flying up in the air thanks to the artillery I called in.Ā
Once things got tight enough for close-quarters fighting, I ordered more melee-focused troops to the frontline. This, combined with the supportive fire from the rear, quickly turned the tide of the war and ultimately ended in another win for the Space Marines.
That had concluded the second part of the demo; I then loaded into the last. It was a giant all-out battle, but the catch was that I was loading into the tail end of it, and things were looking grim for my Space Marines. But after going 2-0 in the last missions, I was riding an all-time high and felt unstoppable.
That confidence quickly went away the moment I saw hundreds of Orks closing in on what felt like 50 squads of Space Marines. Sure, I had tanks and other vehicles to help punch above my weight. Unfortunately for me,Ā they had Stompa (giant walking tanks), smaller armored vehicles, and loads of jetpack Orks that were capable of moving across the battlefield within a moment’s notice.
Before I had a real chance to plan a counterattack, I was quickly swarmed from all angles. This proved fatal because it cost me the lives of a handful of marines I needed. Anxiety kicked in, and the entire UI suddenly looked as complicated to me as it had 40 minutes ago when I’d first looked at it.
After watching a quick bloodbath on my side, I got it together and ordered all of my tanks to focus their fire on the Orks’ heavy vehicles while I split my ground troops between jumping into melee and shooting from a distance. Things started to look good until I remembered the jetpack Orks were a thing, and they quickly dealt with my men providing cover fire.Ā
Just when I thought all hope was lost, I remembered two things. The first was, again, that I could call in airstrikes and buffs; the other was that I had a small army in reserve, waiting to be called into battle. Like in most Warhammer 40,000 books, a bunch of Space Marines appeared out of nowhere to help win a battle that was all but lost. They bought my tanks enough time to take out the heavy threats, giving my ground troops the space they needed to close the gap and kill what was in front of them.
After spending an hour with Total War: Warhammer 40,000, I somehow walked away more excited than when I’d initially walked in. It’s just as complicated as its tabletop counterpart, but once you’re taught the ins and outs of how to play, things really kick into high gear, because the game takes its time to show you how to properly command a squad. What I especially loved is that it’s clearly a game for sickos like me. But it also does a great job of teaching people the basics of this ever-expanding universe without overwhelming them. Total War: Warhammer 40,000 doesn’t have a release date yet, but it will be playable on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
