Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 4 trailer spotlights brutal Ork battles, bigger scale gameplay

The Orks have taken center stage in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV, and the latest trailer made clear this is not a cautious return to the battlefield. It showed Gorgutz, a Bad Moons warboss, launching a surprise attack in the first in-game faction CGI sequence, with the action built around the kind of brutal, fast-moving brawls Dawn of War players expect from green tide warfare. Official Warhammer coverage said the Orks’ Waaagh! ability can swing the fight when momentum starts rolling, and the trailer’s focus on crowded melee, smashed armor and ragged momentum fit the faction’s tabletop identity almost point for point.

The hands-on preview cycle added even more context for longtime Dawn of War and Ork players. IGN said the Ork campaign opens the main story chronologically and introduced a younger Ork leader, Guzcutta, setting up an internal rivalry with Gorgutz before the wider war unfolds. The first mission was named Da Beastboss, a fitting start for a faction that thrives on brute force, loud personalities and escalating chaos. That same preview also tied the trailer to a Blood Ravens battle barge invasion, giving the Orks a bigger stage than a simple skirmish and hinting that faction storylines will matter as much as the combat spectacle.

Dawn of War IV is being built by KING Art Games with Deep Silver, not Relic, and the studio said it has spent almost four years on the project. The game is scheduled to arrive on Steam in 2026, and official materials now frame it as a return to the series’ mass-battle, base-building roots. KING Art says the launch version will include more than 110 units and buildings, four full singleplayer and co-op campaigns, 70-plus campaign missions, and over 40 minutes of fully animated in-game cinematics, with co-op, multiplayer, The Last Stand, Skirmish and Crusades all in the mix.

That scale matters because the game is also making a major lore move. Dawn of War IV returns to Kronus, years after Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, with the planet now on the wrong side of the Great Rift. The story is being written with Black Library author John French, and the launch factions will be Blood Ravens Space Marines, Orks, Necrons and, for the first time in Dawn of War, Adeptus Mechanicus. KING Art’s new Combat Director is also a standout detail for melee fans, expanding the old sync-kill system so every close-quarters clash can get its own procedural animation, not just the finishing blow.