Enter Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4, with yet another trailer showing off Warhammery folks being slapped, smashed, and many other plosives. This one introduces the Dark Angels, who’ll be a playable Space Marine faction alongside the Blood Ravens. It also teases letting you into the battleboots of a Primarch to decimate some foes.

Commanded by company Master Astoran and Chaplain Ezrael, the Dark Angels are deliberately designed as a tactical ying to the Blood Ravens’ yang. The latter are geared towards precise offensive strikes that often require wearing tactical or stealthy hats. The former just deploy their full might onto the battlefield and try to mop the floor with everyone.

Their abilities sound like they’ll have to do the lifting in pulling this contrast off, with the two groups sharing a lot of core Space Marine strategies, tactics, gear, and weapons. The Dark Angels also have an ace in the hole, at least as far the main story, with Primarch Lion El’Jonson swooping down onto the battlefield at one point to let you take his big sword for a spin.

Coming in to save the day is very much Dark Angels’ thing in this game, as the trailer shows, and the Blood Ravens seem pretty grateful for the hand. I suppose I would be if the game’s three other factions – the Orks, Necrons, and Adeptus Mechanicus – had me on the ropes and the some cool blokes who even ride motorbikes in battle showed up. Or maybe they’re just being polite and getting on with space marineing.

We know Dawn Of War 4 developers King Art Games are aiming to make their game a lot like Relic’s classic Dawn of War, with them having discussed how they’re re-intepreting its strategy mechanics with some new additions. Dawn of War 4’s still due out in 2026.