Designing the ULTIMATE TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER 40K game!

[@mojointhedojo938]

don't just call him ghazkull thraka! He is THE GHAZKULL MAG URUK THRAKA to you good sir!

[@Nestmind]

He killed a LOT of gits to gain that name, and he will be referred by his full name

[@Terminator-Plays101]

WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[@deadeye7924]

Put respect on the prophets name

[@shonklebonkle324]

Or kol 'im Gazh, dat way you ain't wastin' krumpin' time.

[@oskarrussjohansson4302]

The Warlord of Warlords, The beast of Armageddon, The Prophet of The WAAAGH!

[@Chunthoor]

I think your realization is extremely successful. In fact, I would only change one thing. You would need demons for the Word Bearers to represent them really well. Yes, of course we already have demons in Fantasy, but when they would appear in a 40K realization is written in the stars. So I would rather recommend the Iron Warriors than the Word Bearers. Especially because they are the Chaos equivalent of the Imperial Fists and you could spin a nice campaign out of the two factions. P.S. Eldar instead of Imperial Guard would also work well and might even make more sense. The Imperial Guard could then be added later as a faction while they are already in the game as an NPC faction to guard the planets. Craftworlds could then be Ulthwé for a "magic" strong faction and either Iyanden for construct strong frontlines or Saim-Hann for fast hit & run tactics. The leaders would then be Eldrad Ulthran for Ulthwé and Prince Yriel for Iyanden. I can't think of a suitable character for Samm-Hann off the top of my head, but I'm sure there is one.

[@gstellar96]

Oh Lord do I want to run a wraith heavy army in a total war 40k. It would be stunning in the game

[@rhard8423]

I like the idea of Iron Warriors, but I'll stick with Word bearers. Creative assembly can just port the assets of daemons from warhammer 3 to 40k. They'll save money that way. But I can see a campaign of Iron warriors vs Imperial Fists. But if we're going word bearers, then I'd switch Imperial fists with Raven guard. They seem to have some beef with each other.

[@EngineerOfVaul]

For Saim-Hann, the most famous characters I can think of are Nuadhu and Eliac Zephyrblade. And if they add Alaitoc, we can get Illic Nightspear. Also yes, I agree Iron Warriors will probably be a better choice. Black Legion can be the jack of all trade, and iron warriors can be the mechanized focus one.

[@Neothunder240]

I assume they could just port over the entire daemon factions to the 40k game. No need to remake perfectly good assets. Sure they'd need to implement them with this game's specific mechanics but nothaving to make any of their models, animations, effects, voicelines and so on would save them a ton of resources.

[@Chunthoor]

@@Neothunder240 Of course, the demon assets would probably be reusable without any major problems. However, CA would then have to listen to questions all the time about when the demons will finally be available as a playable faction, and as we all know, CA hates such questions and tries to avoid them whenever possible. Let's imagine that CA has planned to make the demons a playable race only after three years, because they have other DLC plans before that. Then every DLC release would be a potential shitstorm because the demons weren't released again. I think for now CA has enough of Warhammer shitstorms to avoid anything that could trigger one for the next few years.

[@nerdlydelicious1876]

I think Iron Warriors might be a better fit for the second chaos faction. They’re also Chaos Undivided, with a focus on siege warfare that would contrast nicely with the Imperial Fist’s defensive tactics. It would also be narratively appropriate as the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists have an ancient rivalry. Personally I’d save the Word Bearers for a ‘vs’ style DLC with the Black Templars, like how Total War did for awhile with Warhammer fantasy. The Templars and the Word Bearers are basically direct parallels of one another, so they’d be a perfect fit to be set up as rival factions. And since CA likes their narrative campaigns, you could have each faction squaring off with a particular rival faction in a narrative campaign. Ultramarines vs. Black Legion, Imperial Fists vs. Iron Warriors, and Imperial Guard vs. Orks.

[@voidwyrm57]

honestly I would go with red corsairs, they offer a different starting position with the maelstrom, have a badass and recognizable leader in Huron ,are a still generic enough to reuse csm assets.Then you add the rest in dlc format (word bearer with possessed, the iron warrior with demon engine, monogods (WE,TS,EC,DG)or even nightlords with a raptor/warptalon theme).

[@scelonferdi]

@@voidwyrm57 The issue would be corsairs being post-heresy traiters. Thus using the same models (armor marks) wouldn't do them justice.

[@voidwyrm57]

@@scelonferdi the armor of the csm are more of an amalgamation of armor looted through the ages and "mutated " parts and multi-mark armor are not really unusual among chaos marines. And the red corsair are currently an amalgamation of warband under the rules of Huron so i dont think that they differ too much of an older group of csm, but instead of starting with older mk and looting more recent one they just start with recent mk and get the rest from assimilated or deafeated warbands (and GW always presented them as standard csm with a unique paint scheme) But to be fair i understand what you're saying and wouln't be against the idea

[@rellek4053]

If they go with planets being cities then there will only be naval battles and sieges. I think focusing on a smaller scale of a sector with just a few planets represented by theaters of war like in empire would be the way. A planet could be represented the way Europe, North America and India were, and when you want to travel between them you go to a (space) port, load onto your ships and fly through a space map that includes the major planets to land on but also a few space stations or asteroid bases to conquer (islands) to give you more of a reason to spend time between planets.

[@rellek4053]

I want to reiterate just how important it is to have at least as much settlements with land between them as space. In addition, focusing on a few planets instead of a thousand will make it feel less wrong that we don’t have every chapter of space marines (a pipe dream) represented, which I highly doubt we’ll get.

[@LordPajzl]

@@rellek4053 I was just thinking about the exact same issue but I do not belive the map should be that "small" as in only 5 planets/continents. I personelly would go for about 5 - 6 regions per planet and about 15 - 25 planets to start with. this way we can have proper land battles on planets as well as the feeling of actually expanding our empire on the galactic map.

[@codybonds]

Boarding actions. A special map like underway battles except it’s on a starship. You make a strong argument for each region of 4 cities being a single planet. It brings the game back down to sector size and would be more manageable.

[@seanrogers2482]

I believe anempire at war inspired set up could work if implemented properly. Te idea would be as Cody stated, 5 or 6 planets per system. Each planet Has an orbital layer for your fleets for defence, potentially planetary bombardments on the battle maps. I would suggest that an army on any planet could reach any other planet in the same system within 1 turn, fleets in orbital layers preventing direct invasion...leading to the space battles. Connecting a bunch of systems together would be the tricky part. Maybe it would be as simple as the outer planets of system a connect to their equivalent in system b, maybe multiple connectons through stable warp lanes to systems c, d and e etc.

[@LordPajzl]

@@codybonds how would you do that exactly? boarding is something you'd do in the middle of a battle, it wouldn't be the whole battle. so you'd either have a battle inside of a battle or you'd basically make the whole ship combat obsolete and skippable because you could just board instead of a space battle. unless you mean it like a direct replica of underway battles where you'd have to interupt the movement of a fleet. but again why wouldn't it be a space battle at that point?

[@Ghostrebel017]

Honestly, I think the best kind of basis for a 40k game would be something like "Empire at War".

[@tomstar1800]

This would be honestly incredible

[@chromesucks5299]

This

[@pretzel423]

Everyone is focusing on the Steel Division comparisons I want to focus on the fact you just said “More popular” when referring to the Raven Guard

[@rileybergman6294]

😂 fr

[@tobiasnenseter8044]

Yeah, I reacted to that as well. They are at the bottom with Iron hands and white scars

[@thebaron9405]

I think they should do it like steel division, massive battlefield and your deploying units from off map locations, and building of defensive fortifications, maybe have HQs and sub comanders with different abilities as well as unit abilities

[@Troupe_Master]

that's basically and RTS not a total war game

[@hansgerman3437]

You heard him. "40k has enough of a Nazi problem". And they are fashioned after German WW2 Paratroopers doing mechanized warfare.

[@evergreatest3316]

Just nothing like total war?

[@scelonferdi]

@@Troupe_Master Steel division is basically TW:WW2 battles (more complex than TW though) and not very RTS-Y. You fight a single battle but the map is very large compared to infantry movement speed. That's were the off-map deployment comes in. You select a locations to deploy your unit to and a transport vehicle delivers it there from your edge of the battlefield. I'm sure a different solution to off-map deployment could be found for 40k.

[@basedeltazero714]

That's 40k Steel Division, not 40k Total War. It is, however, much better. All you need is melee combat, I guess.

[@jazzy4830]

I think one of the largest problems with a 40k TW game is the overworld map. Large maps of systems in space will always be visually boring and poor at displaying feedback on activities and providing plausible natural barriers to movement. Unless you go overly cartoony and stylized with very abstract depiction and scales (massive planet models with less space between, or even abstracted into a more tile-based format), but that would damage the atmosphere of a game trying to take itself a little more seriously.

[@nomotog9982]

I think you would want to style the map as an in world map, so use the parchment and hologram look you see in the art.

[@gstellar96]

I agree this is one of the main reasons I prefer 40k over other "sci-fi" settings and games and that's because generally I feel space and space combat are not nearly as visually or mechanically interesting as boots on the ground style games. I would prefer something like AoW Planetfall where your campaign takes place on a planet but after you capture the planet you can move onto a new one with all your upgrades intact.

[@Dianbler]

I think it should use just 3 or 4 sub sectors and expand in that. Give us interesting maps and huge worlds to play at. But that would limit the destruction factor for worlds.

[@ZajiSabb]

Map like Battlefront !

[@max16hunter]

Counterpoint, Stellaris.

[@maksn184]

While I agree with most if not all points presented. I fully believe that starting with 2 imperium factions is extremely limiting and should not be considered. I think the dawn of war games have a perfect 4 faction formula for starting a 40k game: 1.Imperium Faction (most likely SM) 2.One orderly xenos faction that is possible to co-operate with (Eldar/Tau/Leagus of Votann/Necrons) 3.One hostile xenos faction (Orks/Genestealer Cults/Tyranids/Dark Eldar) 4.A chaos faction (Most likely CSM) As much as it might hurt some people i think that Xenos factions give a far more compelling candidate to be the most populous ones at rhe start as we have 2 very unique types of xenos factions when it comes to motivations and interacting with others that would be a very "Shamefull display" to lose at the start

[@deinbarenbruder6570]

"2d ship combat for WH40k? They really need to invent something new there, and can't just copy an already existing, good game..." looks at Battlefleet Gothic Armada I and II

[@ToTheNines87368]

I think it’s fair to mention that the immortal empires campaign was built upon gradually over years. The map for total war Warhammer 1 was way smaller obviously. So I’d expect something similar for the release of this proposed game.

[@akumaking1]

How expensive will it be? How much nickel-and-diming do you expect? Will it still be cheaper than buying actual GW plastic?

[@grandghoul9282]

Don’t worry. It will never be possible to make it more for pensive than GW plastic.

[@richardround2071]

I hope they learn from SoC. Fans will buy expensive DLC, if it's worth the price. They would make a killing with this game, for years and years. They just need to make the DLC worth the price.

[@gstellar96]

You could probably buy all three games and all the dlc for TWH at full price and be cheaper than a Warhammer army

[@NorthernDragon100]

Depends on the scale. Yes (seriously though, there's so many subfactions, I don't know how they'd do it.) Yeah, it probably would xD

[@mushroom3371]

30 dollar dlc for terminator armor marines and 20 dollars for blood effects!

[@MDonuT-of7px]

Honestly, I'd love to see an Armageddon-style Total War game, maybe with a fleet-based battle map structured against some sort of planetary system. Plus, this game would be great for market research. Not quite sure if 40k tabletop players would actually buy 40k Emperor's Children? Throw them into a DLC (Lucius the Eternal vs Chaplain Grimaldus, "The Daemon and the Exorcist" or something) and see what the reception is. People are mad they didn't add a post-heresy Palatine Blade equivalent? Add that to the design pile for the tabletop faction.

[@LordCrate-du8zm]

The fact that you chose the Imperial Fists as the secondary marine chapter makes me so, so happy. I play them on the tabletop and I’d argue they deserve so much more love.

[@tyrodl038]

Commanding the Imperial guard while every space marine chapter hates you because of you being a “Great Power” just seems funny to me.

[@azeranacts4900]

I wish for Eliphas and Gabriel Angelos for the Black Legion / Word Bearers and Blood Ravens. It won’t happen, but I can dream

[@SampoPaalanen]

Well art style wise the Blood Ravens are a Ultra Marines palette swap with more Librarians in the field so if it's not a rights issue I could see them as a Space Marine faction. Maybe not at launch but certainly later and Gabriel Angelos is the most iconic Blood Ravens character. Problem with Eliphas is that he's essentially a generic Chaos Lord as far as the grander lore goes.

[@azeranacts4900]

@@SampoPaalanen Generic chaos lord maybe, but one whom was made canon, had multiple games as an antagonist to build him up, while still having a relation to the opposing side, allowing for a story based dynamic. Only other idea for an opponent would be Sindri, but he didn’t really have as much as Eliphas did. Also, you’d only need one voice actor; Gabriel and Eliphas were voiced by the same guy in the original Dawn of War.

[@SampoPaalanen]

@@azeranacts4900 You got remember that Eliphas would have compete with other iconic Black Legion/Word Bearers characters, something Gabriel Angelos doesn't have to do (being the most iconic Blood Ravens character).

[@azeranacts4900]

@@SampoPaalanen Like I said, I can dream, lol.

[@Amonabus]

One of the biggest concerns would be that they would have to redo the game engine. The spaghetti code being used since the early 2000s won't properly work, hell it don't work properly in the WH titles. Unit commands, pathing, ranged combatants all need to be fixed to allow for actual gameplay. CA will also have to introduce a better line of sight system allowing the more ranged focused gameplay to work.

[@scelonferdi]

I think the main challenge will be tech. The way total war battles work currently just won't suffice (though imho scale doesn't play much into it). The first problem is order of battle. Total war is about comparitively rigid formations meeting each other in a rather open fashion. Just standing there and shooting at each other isn't gonna cut it if everybody and their mom has an automatic weapon. Units need to be loosened with individual entities operating far more independently, responding to things like terrain and incoming fire (so pathing basically need to be reworked in its entirety). Speaking of terrain, there needs to be far more of it, both in quantity and variety: ruins, rubble, trenches, garrisnable buildings, ruins, the list goes on. Obviously formation, pathing and terrain need to work well together. On the plus side, things like flanks can probably be scrapped and units become more mobile. I think maps also possibly need to become bigger as vehicles will introduce a drastically wider range of movement speeds and transports need to be worth it. Armor should possibly be tweaked to allow full blocking of damage (rounds harmlessly glancing of tanks). Mixed units also seem like a must have. At least units were different entities have different weapons are the best way to realize special weapons. In the end you will have something very different from traditional total war, far more resembling something like a simpler version of steel division with respect to battles.

[@Mikester88]

This is the only thing i could think about as well, sure it's fun to think about witch factions could appear and witch current mechanics they will have but as you said the main form of battles is the big problem. The map and star ship battles is probably the easiest problem to solve and might fit in some of it's current form but the line formations, small maps and lack of impactful and interact able terrain is too big of an issue to just gloss over. Sure the ogre kingdoms have smaller units with big individual models but they still work as a set formation. I would love it if they made it work but lets say I'm very cautiously optimistic about the idea. I'm haven't played steel division myself but the scale and mechanics in a more modern setting like it seems much more fitting than the Total war titles.

[@chromesucks5299]

100% this, We have seen that CA already has problem with the tech side of things, especially when it comes to projectile weapons. Now a 40k setting where 90% of it is guns and tanks and stuff, not happening. The maps would need so much details, ideally allowing us to set down bunkers, turrets and trenches but if not that they would be preset in the map and you move units to occupy/garrison them. The tech of 40k total is the bigger issue.

[@davidhauks]

Mechanics of men of war but scaled up by like x5 would be a good rts setting for warhammer 40k

[@jiripodivin7139]

I hate to say that I disagree with you on the campaign structure. Most of this was already done in Dawn of War Dark Crusade and Soulstorm. Handful of planets is enough, split in provinces with unique capabilities. Ideally, it could adopt one of the global campaigns GW regularly produces, like Oghram or Armageddon. But above all NO NAVAL COMBAT. That's battlefleet gothic, it had two games, very well appraised, anything CA can put together would be pale imitation at best, given their lack of experience, and would be panned by critics. PS: PDF does not have the same equipment as guard. In fact they are more like local militia than national guard. Equipped with whatever surplus the world in question has. There PDF regiments armed with simple firearms and riding horses into battle.

[@Wisdomisgood448]

That campaign style would make ZERO sense and would be pitiful. The only way to do a 40K Game any justice would be to do it on a large scale. Similar to Empire At War.

[@eglewether5523]

I think 30K or horus heresy spinoff would work the best for total war, it has everything your average TW game needs. All primarchs as legendary lords, massive armies, having your basic unit formation being 90 tactical space marines would work perfectly, with regular humans being like nurglings compared to them. Massive units like titans, baneblades, stormbirds would easily fit the scale like hierotitans. Necrons are still present, Eldar all 3 variety of them are still present, AdMech exists or starts to exist too, chaos exists, Orks with primeroks and all original ork klans still exist and you could mix it up with things like currently loyal primarchs becoming traitors depending on game progress and vice versa. And your map would be just whole galaxy.

[@shadowturtleyinyang]

i just feel as if a single battle to take a planet is just not enough for smaller less important planets it might work but just one battle for something like tallarn or a hive world? tallarn is a major imperial guard recruiting world covered in tribes which would never stop fighting because one or two locations fall and a hive world? each hive is practically a fortress and even if every other hive fell some hives would still fight depending on a LOT of factors and the map you lined out just does not lend itself to that i think a smaller area allowing for more fighting over major planets is necessary for the feel of the game

[@codybonds]

Another comment suggested that a planet be divided into 3 provinces, one of which is the capitol. I felt this was a good compromise for scale as it still keeps the game at the sector level.

[@revanlord05]

I no longer doubting it, if CA wants to survive, they need a new cash cow but the cash cow needs to be completely new and innovative; the old formula no longer cuts it, the engine is dated and people are fed up with it. What I don't believe it will have, however, are Space Battles as it's a entirely different license deal. it is one of the reasons why we don't have Naval Battles in the Total War Warhammer games; Man'O War is an entirely different license compared to the standard game. So I don't believe they'll go on lengths for the Battlefleet Gothic license and two games of it already exist by Tindalos Interactive and Focus Entertainment.

[@albertdrevdal4233]

The amount of planets in the imperium ranges from thousands to a million depending on the source, so I wouldn't say it's a given that an segmentene would be a fitting size

[@skalgrimfellaxe5796]

There isn't a single source that has that number in the "thousands". Its always been a "million worlds" - which has also been disputed in later lore as meaning several millions. Its also established that the Imperium is so vast and bloated that no one in it even knows how many worlds they actually have control over, as they loose worlds, gain new ones and forget about or rediscover worlds lost in archives all the time.

[@cronykil74]

I think marines and chaos marines should be mercenary like units in generic Chaos and Imperial factions instead. That way you have to appeal to them for support by offering materials. Also have them as roving NPCs. Allow for certain territories to have chapter houses etc.

[@moskaumaster1594]

That would make almost half of all the tabletop armies non-playable factions and would limit the ability to have seperate AdMech or Sisters factions.

[@haydopotato439]

I'm not sure if I like the idea of planets acting as cities cause this would mean that you'll only get ground combat when you basically attack a city, and I think this may lead to most battles become ship battles

[@klaykid117]

For daemons they can just port over alot of them from fantasy. I disagree about Solar being included including segmentum Terra might not be a good idea as it has alot of baggage and if it's lore accurate would be impossible for a player to siege I think CA's best bet is making it take place on a frontier on the edge of the galaxy would let CA have more creative freedom. I think bringing back the Blood Ravens from Dawn of War would help sales.

[@rabblerouserorc8649]

Gimme Tau with a playable Empire and playable Farsight Enclave subfactions.

[@gabrielseth5142]

Everytime someone floats the idea of a hypothetical "total war 40k" I have to disagree because total war just isn't the best style to make a 40k game from. I think from the strategic campaign side of things, maybe, possibly, but purely for the sake of wanting to deal with logistics. My choice pick of developers hands down is Eugene systems. What they did years ago in making Wargame European Escalation was truly the beginning of something great and we've seen it progress with 3 wargame titles, 2 steel divisions and now with WARNO, as well as Broken Arrow being a unique branch off of the same basic formula. It just suits better; the cover system, the armor system, buildings, deployment, the strategic campaign for WARNO and Steel Division are better suited as well. I'd argue hands down, if you want to do a 40K game, this is how you do it

[@skalgrimfellaxe5796]

You could use their system, but it is severely lacking in many aspects that a Total War style game would do better. Melee, close up fights, champions, magic, animations and so on for instance. If you just wanted to keep it at the Epic/Legion scale - then it would probably be better though. Eugens games are terrible for modding though and they are a much smaller developer that also has no ties to GW, so I'd say its very unlikely they would get a chance. But their systems could also easily be copied like how they do cover. (Oh and I'v been modding both Eugen and Total War games for years so I do know a thing or two about how it could be done for either.)

[@pronumeral1446]

I think they should do 5 factions on launch. Space Marines, Astra Militarum, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Eldar. Get the Eldar out of the way early, and they give a totally different playstyle to any of the other factions. It also gives another "not totally evil" option that isn't humans.

[@gunslingerspartan]

you think the imperium is really that much less evil than chaos forces? my guy there is an actual chapter that was given the power to detect lies and immediately fell to chaos

[@slueepy1232]

​@@gunslingerspartanwhat chapter was this?

[@gunslingerspartan]

@@slueepy1232 "the truthseekers", bnow called "the scourged"

[@pronumeral1446]

@@gunslingerspartan The Imperium are basically the worst dystopian regime imaginable, and Chaos are somehow even worse yes.

[@wewuzkangz2505]

@@gunslingerspartan Chaos by definition is much more evil, they're based on every single evil and negative pattern that unfolds in the galaxy at any given time and not only in humanity. So they're the incarnation of every single evil thing + then some.

[@thebaron9405]

ABOUT factions I think you need to blur the line between Imp guard and marines, as lore wise it would make sense to see marines backup guards ans vice versa, also with sisters being mostly part or the guard themselves sometimes, meaning you should be able to "Soup" together armies of the same greater faction, like Imperium and Forces of chaos being separate factions with souped together units marines and humans, marines and humans and daemons, but their interior disputes being tied to characters, say space wolves and grey knights having shacky relations but being under the same faction and inner faction aggression having a "greater Imperium" opinion so if you go to war against fellow Marines, if you win and how you win the greater Imperium will decide if they side with you, you're enemy or just not be involved

[@chaoticentertainment3478]

I think the solution for the "blurring the lines" part is already in total war with being able to recruit your allies units. I just hope that unlike with tww3 they add skills and tech that actually buff the allied units

[@Caragoner]

​@@chaoticentertainment3478 lamo I was gonna say the same thing. Good relationships mean being able to get support from allied factions in terms of units, meaning good relationships with the Imperial guard could get space marines guards units like rank and file guardsmen, ogryns, and lemman Russ, and maybe a basilisk. Sisters of battle/ecclesiarchy could get you a squad of sisters, some repentias, an incinerator rhinos, and maybe like a preacher/squad of warrior priests who boosts stats

[@thebaron9405]

and vice versa marines joining the guard@@Caragoner

[@Caragoner]

@@thebaron9405 very true, though it would probably be much more limited in what you could recruit. Probably like aspirants, scout squads, and firstborn tactical

[@thebaron9405]

@@Caragoner I don't think firstborn and primaris are different things at the moment, GW dropped the whole primaris tag, now they are only marines and we are seeing older "firstborn" units come back like they were, things like the termies for example as well as primaris using old helmets and gear, even scouts are back

[@ascrub3162]

Minor issue with the Lord Solar, if he were to start with control over Terra any future Custodes faction would have to be a horde faction as their home would already be controlled. I would also substitute the Valhallens (as badass as they are) for the Catachans with Straken an the leader mostly because they are better known then the Valhallens and their melee/flamer close range focused combat would further set them apart from the Cadians.

[@VVanilla8914]

For Astra Militarum I feel like Catachan Jungle Fighters helmed by Colonel Straken would be more popular. They would have a somewhat different playstyle than Cadians being more ambush/assault focused while Cadians are more comfortable in gunlines and using artillery. I like Valhallan lore but they seem a bit too similar to Cadians and not special compared to what other regiments could be. With space marines I feel like Blood angels would be a better pair with ultra marines as I do think it would be too difficult to add the important unique Blanagels units of death company and sanguinary guard. I also believe that Blood angels are more popular than imperial fists so it would help to drive sales as people love the golden hawk boy and his sons. With chaos I think it would be really cool if Word Bearers had a split lord scenario with Erebus and Kor Phaeron both taking the legion in different directions. Almost like Vlad and Isabella in Tww. For the actual gameplay I wonder if a game like this should play more like a classic RTS like command and conquer rather than a totalwar game. I just want to make sure we are getting a dynamic gameplay loop that isnt just gunlines shooting and charging each other. Being able to run enemies over with tanks, call in artillery strikes, have dropships make strafing runs and deploying reinforcements are all things I would consider essential for capturing the essence of a far future at constant war.

[@v_cpt-phasma_v689]

imo the best way to do it and to allow a mixture of battle types would be to require a 3 stage assault for taking cities/planets, a space battle followed by a land battle assuming you are taking the planet finally followed by a seige battle to take the capital, the defender can choose to try and defend all 3 but would then ofc risk losing soldiers before the final seige or give up space and attempt to focus land battles etc,

[@Masterc52]

I really hope titans are in this game. Having massive robot stomping around in a total war game would be amazing. This is the game I have hoped to get for a long time so I hope it real.

[@PaleImperator]

Perhaps a better implementation of 'sticky' terrain - special click points such that a unit actually takes cover within/behind/etc a given piece of cover. A bit like that defensive fortifications from the Immortal Empires city battles, but more generally implemented. A terrain feature that could be used for cover would have a 'take cover' order that would be selectable when moving an appropriate unit to them. The unit would gain durability and possibly some firing bonuses, but it would take time to both get into and out of the cover mechanic.

[@_Hierophant]

I would make different sized planets based on the level of the planet within the subsection you're taking, similar to siege difficulty depending on fortification level in twwh3, but make it a multistage takeover like when you enter the realms and play tower defense. The rts elements would have to be tuned and that cover system should not even be able to think about fucking up. I didn't know people thought this couldn't work lmao

[@nickg8100]

I think if they did this they should take the highlight notes from Company of Heroes and, like you said, Starwars Battlefront galactic campaign Also I think with the sheer size of 40K they should include both Greenskins and Tyrnanids but make the ‘Nids unlocked after beating the campaign.

[@omega1735]

A few ideas 1. Imperial guard cadian’s and catachan jungle fighters then death core as dlc 2. Space marines ultramarines and imperial fists with blood angels, dark angels and space wolfs as dlc 3. Chaos space marines black legion and iron warriors with thousand sons, world eaters, death gaurd, emperors children as dlc 4. Craft world eldar should be the first dlc faction if they’re not going to be in at the start fallowed by tau, dark eldar, ad mech, sisters of battle, Necrons and Tyranids not necessarily in that order. 5. Finally primarchs along with other characters of that power level should be in the back ground as advisers as they would be hard to balance well while still showing how powerful they are supposed to be.

[@InquisitorThomas]

Yeah I’m not convinced. Like are land battles going to be confined to settlement battles? This feels like what you’re describing is Battlefleet Gothic with a vestigial total war gameplay for minor settlement battles in a time period and fighting style the series isn’t accustomed to.

[@henrikgallon]

That sounds wonderful though! But I would like the different biomes to decide the kind of maps you face enemies on. So an industrial world would be a cityfight. But I'd like the scale to go up to titans with massive infantry formations and a bit more zoomed out than TW: whfb.

[@lyman6]

Personally I've always been in the camp that Total War: 40k would be incredibly cool and the broad formula works, but the viability of the entire game would hinge on an adaptive cover system. You can't have giant blocks of Imperial Guardsmen marching at each other; when you issue a move order, they need to split up into squads, move from cover to cover, hunker down wherever they can. Dawn of War: Retribution did a squad-based version of this really well, taking contextual cover into account and moving units into it automatically when you issued orders. If CA can make **that** work on a 100-man infantry company, and can figure out a way to make transport vehicles work, Total War: 40k would be a stunningly smashing success.

[@danielrullmann5131]

maybe AI developments in the industry can make this happen

[@centidogfisher2220]

If the vahollands were added instead of the cadian guard, then it would be a very big missed opportunity if they didn’t make Cain the legendary lord, one of his ability’s is that he provides massive leadership bonuses and later makes his units unbreakable or at least near unbreakable. Cain himself would be unbreakable cause he obviously doesn’t want to look like a coward

[@pavloszannas7459]

You could probably also make it so that if you are playing a faction (ex. Ultramarines) you can be assigned missions and end game goals that allow you to start controlling more and more space marine legions as the player but not just “confederating” them into your own colour. You’d basically evolve from being “ultramarines” to “the space marine legions” and you could field and command individual legions.

[@jaredgriffin2155]

Or it could be called a crusade. Chapters join it seeking glory and/or fame.

[@cannibalfan01]

Also the Black Legion has former members of the mono god Legions and Heretic Astartes not just former members of the Sons of Horus. They could field limited numbers of Berserkers from the World Eaters, Noise Marines from the Emperor's Children, Plague Marines from the Death Guard and Sorcerers from the Thousand Sons.

[@SlimShady-tc5mb]

Stellaris x Total War Warhammer Or Hearts of Iron 4 x Total War Warhammer Strategy side is Stellaris/ HOI4 But when it's time for combat, it'll be like Total War Though be free to correct me, because the combat side. I still can't remember or find an inspiration that'll fit, long range and close range combat for a sci-fi games EDIT: Company Of Heroes 2 Combat would've been incredible too

[@yarilolz]

This was well thought out, and truly great to even have this type of mindset and care for the game and TW and GW. The sad part for me. Is they will see this, and do everything else.

[@youtubevanced4900]

We’ve already had 40k in Total War format. It was the necron expansion to Dawn of War campaign. It had turn based map with real time battles. It was great. There is no mystery around whether this will work. Saying that, you’re way off with your idea. They will just do a reskin of warhammer total war essentially. It will be a war on a single planet. If CA are known for anything, it’s taking the easiest laziest road every time.

[@Wyrmshield]

The thing about total war is that whoever is the iconic heroic starter faction has to play as simple and traditional as possible since thats the faction that new players are always encouraged to play as by the system. To that end I dont think that horde style space marines will be the main iconic faction in total war's 40k, but rather the imperial guard. You would have to do something funky with the gameplay for space marines since like you say they dont actually colonize and populate territory with civilians and builders. They could work like Nakai the wanderer where you just control the military and any territory you take is automatically transferred to an imperial guard factions control and they pay you tribute to keep you going (and chaos marines would work the same with like traitor guard or a demon faction instead)

[@Powaup]

I think you’d like battlefleet gothic armada 2. Also chapter doesn’t have to be Ultramarines. After all blood ravens were in Dawn of War

[@MrDeflador]

One thing for faction with the Empire i would love is give the option to play as any legion with marines. (make the Empire 3 to 4 factions aka Space Marines, Inquistion, Mechanicus and Guardsman). Each legion would get one unique unit and a buff fitting for each faction. For example Ultramarines would get a buff to their eco, white scars get a speed buff for all units.

[@gatereaper]

I do love the idea of the word bearers being option 2 for chaos but for something potentially even easier, I could see them doing the Red Corsairs as well

[@MarcelSoares777]

The 40k Setting is so amazing, that to achieve the 100/10 game it would need: * Stellaris - Galactic map * Total war - World campaign maps * Battlefleet Gothic - Space Battles * Company of Heroes - Land battles x100. More units, Reinforce System and bigger maps. The one company who achieve this will profit from it to the end of this Earth. By the way. Since Astartes numbers are limited (Battle Sisters, Marines and Imperial Guard should all be one "race" combined. Each faction having a branch of Said factions: Order of black rose, Ultramarines and 8th cadian for example

[@thadmeboy1129]

A good way to do the map system could be several planets with maps similar to previous total war maps and certain settlements with special buildings which you could build spaceports to allow you to travel between them

[@The-Apothekari]

Each territory/theatre should be a planet, so each faction could start with 1/3 planets under their control, also space travel between planets (maybe sub sectors too) could be the same as naval travel in warhammer 3, with it's ambushes/hazard scenarios being warp demon shenanigans / pirates an rogue traders / xeno troubles / space hulks / etc. Although if you want to travel long distances, say one side of the galaxy to another, i'd make it a mix, so you'd set up fleets for far travel using warp jumps, like the chaos dwarves convoy system where you get the odd battle/scenario of flavour text, etc; but if you need to retreat and run away, make the unplanned warp jump how stellaris does emergency warp travel for escaping. They'd be off your radar completely, and return in a certain time limit you have no knowledge of when, making it a desperate use, could also get some of your fleet to be damaged/lost the longer they stay within the warp. Planet battles should be set in phases; First phase, a siege/assault to get a footing on the planet/defend with your full strength Second phase, large scale/basic conflict with some objectives about Third phase, a king of the hill or last stand situation for the defenders, while the attackers are tasked with taking out forces before they can regroup or cutting off supplies, etc. It'd be similar to needing to take out multiple cities to control a territory in warhammer 3, and controlling enough planets could give a sub-sector/sector buff, same way provinces do. For factions i'd do the same thing most 40k games do, start with the classic four factions, Space Marines, Chaos, Orkz & Eldar. could later on release guardsmen, necrons, tau, tyranids, etc as DLC/FLC when it best suits the narrative/timing. Combat, well, if you could make a solid cover system in the engine, like how the castle walls can have archers "garrison" atop in set positions, but have a lot of the cover positions purposely scattered across the maps. (think halo wars cover system for troops in the field/structures, or dawn of war 2 with it's structures and all the terrain technically being usable as cover) Unit types i'd slowly add everything-ish, but only up to warlord titans (have titans like end tier units to work/research for, noting like a warmaster titan or bigger) As for setting itself, I'd keep it up to date with the giant warp scar across the galaxy, would also mechanical help keep a border system total war enjoys using, having the large warp scars be impassable terrain. Edit: adding new faction ideas could be; -Imperial guard regiment vs traitor guard legion -Aeldari craftworld vs Drukhari house -Votann house vs Orkz waaggh -Necron dynasty vs Aeldari craftworld etc. (Damn I type too much lol)

[@Hypastpist]

As much as I want a 40k total war I don't trust CA to fuck it up until they give us MEDIII Total war that outshines total warhammer

[@froggamer9]

1st of all, great video but I would make imperial guard a flc like brettonia for later than replace it with necrons or something so that it feels like you arent playing the same faction 3 times.

[@jordanmanley9172]

Fully agree. With such a wide scope for the game, the guard would work as an excellent placeholder as PDF vassal/allied factions until they can be fleshed out into their own thing.

[@deathwish_bigboss]

Dawn of War 2 is the only example I need, maybe we can get a decent Blood Ravens game once again

[@K13rZZz]

I know it probably won't happen but I want the space marines to not be their own faction and instead the imperium exists as essentialy many factions in a trenchcoat. Essentially instead of a faction space marines are more like special units. They can only be recruited in specific systems and their lords are horde armies but they have limits just like in lore and if you want more you have to help those systems in some way that frees up said chapters to assist you. This means you could have an Imperial Guard legendary lord that increases the abilities of your regular humans or a Space Marine lord that starts you off with a first founding chapter already available with other bonuses to gaining more. A future mechanicus DLC could even add Belisarius Cawl who could give out Primaris Marines as a way to essentially 'bribe' chapters into giving their support. Like I said probably won't happen but just wanted to put it out there.

[@XXLPIakat]

(Chaos) Space Marines would be a good option for a custom lord, where you have your own chapter/legion.

[@Milk0e777]

My #1 wish for this game would be using the create a daemon prince system they added in Warhammer 3 to make a “Create a Successor Chapter” faction. Your Chapter Master can change depending on what gear upgrades you are bestowed or relics you find, and your chapter could pick from a set of bonuses similar to how you can in 40k. That would make me so happy and something similar to that is my dream 40k game in general.

[@Green0-3]

There's another way CA could implement sub-factions, which I think would be exponentially better: reviving Shogun 2 multiplayer's custom uniforms and symbols mechanic, and thus allow players to make up their own colour schemes and heraldry for their units. It's super simple to do (see Dawn of War), and would exponentially increase the possible variety of factions and units. As for your take on the Astra Militarum, I don't believe making players choose regiments, and stick to those regiments, is the best of ideas. The whole point of playing Guard is having multiple regiments fighting together, with detachments of Cadians, Death Korps, Catachans, Tallarns and Penal Legionnaires all in the same army. After all, they're all under the Militarum's command structure, and we know big Imperial crusades feature millions of guardsmen from hundreds of different planets and cultures fighting together.

[@stevadr]

Awesome Video !! TW 40K is inevitable. CA just need to give it enough time to bake and launch it after releasing a Historical Title first.

[@NapGod]

really cool concepts and fun ideas. The actual issue making people skeptical is a techincal one though. Unless you want a 40k game with two battle lines that just run at each other, CA would need to rework their battle system from the ground-up. There's no cover system robust enough in any of their games thus far to support the gameplay of 40k. Space Marines don't just line-up like a napoleonic formation (and they can't be a horde army there's only 1k marines for most chapters). If you can't use modern squad-based tactics with marines taking cover and laying down suppressing fire to allow the assault units to jump-in (for example) then it won't feel like Space Marines. It will feel like napoleonics with a reskin. The other major thing missing is a shooting system. They had something that worked for gunlines in napoleon, but that didn't even make it's way into the warhammer total war games - put a unit of zombie handgunners on a wall and see if they can aim and shoot at anything sieging the settlement. Similarly, any kind of elevation renders total war warhammer gunpowder units useless. If their current system cannot handle a group of units all shooting in one direction at once, it cannot handle the more complicated angles necessary for a 40k game where almost everything has a gun. I could go on, but those are the easiest examples to illustrate my point. It's absolutely doable, but is CA willing to spend the resources to build a battle system from the ground-up that's completely unlike any game they've ever made is the real question.

[@matijasostojic4288]

Honestly I just see this as an opportunity to possiblly get some GW designed Tau Auxillary units.

[@dome4746]

Love the Idea, my Idea for the 2nd CSM would be Iron Warriors, as the eternal rivals of the fists. Also SMs could work just like Nakai the Wanderer, giving the planets to a NPC Imperium faction and getting recruits/ressoures for a limited time afterwards, to encourage crusading. Same for the guard-factions except they could recruit new Armies after liberating/occuping a planet, If they would be a horde-like

[@Eclipsed_Embers]

my number 1 desire for a Warhammer 40K Total War would be Tyranids since the Total War Warhammer 1 and 2 set a general standard for 4 races+pre-order bonus race with 2 LLs each I'd say my ideal prediction (so absolute best case scenario) for races would be Imperium (1 regular human focused faction with limited access to Space Marine units. 1 Space Marine chapter faction with limited access to non-Space Marine units) Chaos (Black Legion. cultist and/or Daemon focused faction (potentially Word Bearers)) Aeldari (either focus on the Asuryani and have 2 different craftworlds or have 1 Asuryani faction and 1 Drukhari faction) Orks (the Goffs and 1 other clan) pre-order Tyranids (1 Genestealer Cult focused faction (not a proper horde but still migratory and spread through more disposible undercity-like cults). 1 Hive Fleet focused horde faction)

[@augustuscrow1292]

The Star Wars: Empire At War style would be the best method for this type of large scale 40k stategy game. I don't understand what you mean about the factions though. I get that the Imperium is big, divided, and comprised of several different government organizations that don't always work together. But Total War's whole thing is being able to take control of an entire nation and lead its armies into battle. I kinda figured you could have it like medieval 2s Papacy system or the internal political system of Atilla, where you are the controller of the entire Imperium of Man, but you have different subfactions like the Ecclesiarchy, Inquisition, Mechanicus or High Lords of Terra breathing down your back and wanting you to do missions for them. And for things like the vastly different unit compositions, instead of being able to add everything to one Army, make say for example Space Marine armies and Imperial Guard armies not combinable but still able to occupy the same place. Idk I don't really know anything in Total War: Warhammer Fantasy so maybe it couldn't work like that for a 40k adaptation. Great video though you got my hopes up lol.

[@arno_groenewald]

Though total war is a solid platform as well as Men of War and Call to Arms, a combination of the 3 might be more suitable for the specific conditions of 40k. For unites based on x period would behave like line infantry, and those more suited for guerilla warfare and urban warfare will require a looser system like what can be seen in Men of War, with the ability to spread a unite across the area and reshuffle the layout orientation to bolster a weakened flank or reinforce an advance. But both a more riged structure like general Total War and the more improvising flexible nature of MoW-likes.

[@dsghjksdgfgh1359]

I want to say that this is a great concept and you explained it really well. I have only 1 fear, that is that this game would be very similar to Battlefleet Gothic, with added ground combat, if the game is great then it wouldn't be an issue, but judging the state of AAA games at release nowadays I feel like people comparing them would be inevitable. But in spite of that I love the idea, so some additional things I thought of after watching: -space marines could use the fantasy warriors of chaos system, where you upgrade your units as they gain ranks. You would recruit scouts, them upgrade them to the 'regular' marines, then veterans and maybe terminators as a separate tier. This would also allow you to freely switch squad loadouts before a battle, like the warriors of chaos can. I feel like this would reinforce their adaptability that they are supposed to have in lore -csm could borrow the mutation mechanic from throt in fantasy to mutate their soldiers by having them be possesed by deamons, then word bearers would be better at that -ork mechanics could honestly be identical to fantasy total war and it would be great -for the guard I'd love to see implemented some chain of command structure, the only analog I can think of are the wood elfs (and pre rework empire) offices, but those seem so boring that im not sure, I feel like here they need something else. Maybe they could gain bonuses from having more 'heroes' (as in tw: warhammer heroes) in the army? so they fight better with more people shouting orders, maybe something like the cathay harmony system

[@TimeMaster0]

I really like this 40K total war concept the only thing I would change would be maybe upscale the squad sizes a bit more take marine squads to 20 and terminators to 10 so incase if they bring custodians in eventually they have some room to move down. This would be a bit different from 40K and closer to the 30K scale but I think it would fit the typically larger scale of total war a bit more.

[@ssmcs]

I believe they need to have 6 starting factions, Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Traitor Guard, Orks, and Tyranids (No confederation for the factions). Having only four at the launch doesn't really work all that well to start with and honestly you could change orks to something else if needed. For Space Marines having Ultramarines and Imperial Fists are good choices to start with, and they could be lead with their Chapter Masters for both. Leave Guilliman out of the game for now and add primarchs for later point that you can choose to lead the faction, same with Abaddon and create a new Chaos Lord character to lead the forces since gaining favor from Abaddon himself tasking you do complete tasks for him and keeping with the idea of a new Chaos Lord to lead Word Bearers or Iron Warriors. Imperial guard is a bit harder to pick and Cadian being a solid choice, not sure after that along with Traitor Guard. Orks clans being Goffs and Evil Sunz with Tyranids hive fleets any two. Honestly with how many factions are in the game, along with fan favor chapters/groups you honestly need quite a big map. CA would need to create a new engine to run the game and I also agree having it in one game instead of multiple games is the smart and better choice. As for the overall map use current 8th edition star map with the great rift splitting the imperium in half.

[@brandoncarter5662]

I think black templars would be an ideal starter faction. Lots of Neophytes + larger crusading legion. They often set up small citadels on conquered planets. But I guess with the indomitus crusade faction size can be whatever

[@garthwebb4643]

I agree about having a second codex compliant chapter but Imperial Fists are too close to Ultramarines. To with something different but still compliant like White Scars or Salamanders. Very fast on bikes or walking firestorms.

[@24Ippo]

The Eldar may be the third faction choice by default but their whole concept would take a huge amount of effort just to include them and I concur with Cody. If CA makes a W40K game, they need to start with the most popular choices then start developing other factions. As for the maps, not only there's a lot to cover but also WHEN, the fall of Cadia wasn't just a turning point in the story but also presented a change in the tide of Chaos since that whole sector became vulnerable to it and that could be presented as Inmortal empires and Vortex campaign type. Anyway, if they're going to start with Terra sector then they could start with the Conquer of the galaxy in the name of the Emperor meaning they could start with a Horus Heresy campaign. Primarchs could be LH or summoning during a fight with a rival Primarch but the campaign is still run by one of their confidents like Abaddon with the Sons of Horus and so on.

[@Abox-hh9ib]

I think a 40k game in the style of the new battle front games would be sick. It would start off with like 4 of the major factions with your basic units. Infantry, support, sniper and melee class. And then as you play you’d get points to unlock special units to play as.

[@lesterdarke]

I think the imperial side they will need to work some kind of hodgepodge. There’s a contradiction in what you’re saying about depicting scale and showing the distinctiveness of factions. A space marine chapter is 1,000 marines split into 10 Companies of 100. Which means if you’re trying to make this work on a galactic scale then Marines would need to be accompanied by Guard vassals or have alliances with other Marine factions. I think I would try and work out a way that you do have different kinds of Leaders - Marine Chapter Master, Inquisitor, Rogue Trader, Lord Commander Militant, Fabricator General etc. And that these shape the weightings of the composition of your army. A Guard leader can get marines but getting anything other than tactical / intercessors is much harder. Marines easier access to marine specialists like eliminators and eradicators etc. They have got guard but they get less access to guard tanks particularly super heavies. With some kind of system of tithes, fealty, strategic interest etc to gain support of other sub-factions to increase their availability. For instance coming up against lots of deamon activity might make it easier to get some Grey Nights. Marines may want a tithes of resources. Guard might want require strategic intervention for a Planetary governor. Totally expand it out later to include more variation. But really this is an opportunity to show the interconnections and feudal aspects of the imperium that the tabletop never can. Yes other games may have made it an amorphous blob without distinction. But that’s just a reason for the game to colour in the detail rather than just shrinking it to a Marine Chapter or a Specific Imperial Guard regiment. More importantly I want marines to have servo skulls whizzing about ever where filling up their ammo.

[@LichKing36]

I do have a subjection on the factions with these sub-factions as a free dlc u can customize ur sub-faction with paint scheme option so players who homebrew ther own chapter, regiment, etc. There gives the player for freedom like they do on the tabletop. All these ideas u give r spot on I do enjoy these ideas ur giving.

[@Mariner797]

I can see it being possible, however the issue is that it is CA.

[@1987MartinT]

I think that since Creative Assembly has made a fantasy game, they should definitely also make a science fiction game. I don't know if it should be Warhammer 40.000 or an other franchise. I can think of several that would work well. If it does become a Warhammer 40.000 game, then I like you're choices for factions and leaders. Some other leaders I'd also like to see are Eliphas the Inheritor, Ufthak Blackhawk, Huron Blackheart, Honsou, Tu'Shan, Yarrick, and Badrukk.

[@denharte8670]

Instead of fixed subfactions, what about an army painter alongside a point-buy “faction buff” system to create your own, with presets as the officially recognized ones. If not a point-buy, then you could just pick one of the preset buff arrangements like with the tabletop’s subfactions.

[@TheLordofMetroids]

I would argue Black Templars over Fists for the 2ed Faction. They would have a different mechanic from Ultramarines as they actually do settle worlds, and build fortress monasteries. They would field different units, but not different enough to be a different faction. I would also make the Faction LL fan favorite Grimaldus over Helbrecht.

[@Caragoner]

I think it would be absolutely reasonable to include primarchs in game. Yes they are very powerful but many factions do have counters (i.e id say Ghazgul could give Girlyman a pretty solid run for his money in a slugging match) however they should be, in the end, very expensive units to summon. An easy way to have them implemented is make them a "Boss unit" that can be summoned for a large sum of resources. Factions that don't have that can have titan/knight equivalents to deal with it (orks might have a stompa, tyranids a bio titan, Eldar a Warlock titan, Imperial guard either a knight or their choice of one of the bane blade variants like storm lords, shadow swords, ect) The other thing is i think it could be important to lean into the unique aspects of each faction in terms of units anyways (ie IF should get storm shield units, siege cannons, things UM don't really field. UM should probably have less unit variety but be cheaper, better morale generally, and bonuses to diplomacy, plus primaris)

[@ondramraz7837]

I think for the Lord Solar Leontus would fit more Armageddon steel legion, they are a combine arms regiment like cadians, are know from books, have one of the most legendary hero Yarrick. They are also from solar system unlike Vallhalians and have a fought with orks many times they even have ork hunters and stuff like that. And I think you can for chaos marines have units from diffrent warbands like nightlords raptors, or some khorne berzerkers, even some noise marines. I also like the @Chunthoor that the iron warriors would make a better chapter than word bearers, mostly because the number of daemon engines you could deploy

[@Xenos_hive]

The imperium HAS to be able to split up and fight amongst itself that isn’t just “ad mech vs imperium” otherwise the humans just win using the setting 40K has, civil wars and stuff getting in the way with other factions like space marines doing their own thing and aggroing factions u didn’t want to because they are on crusade feels like it would be really important

[@salsabonjour2626]

Personally, I think that the imperial fists shouldn’t be the second loyalist space marine chapter. Because, similar to how CA has done some Warhammer Fantasy releases, the Imperial Fists and the Iron Warriors would likely be released as like a nemesis DLC thing. And instead, maybe the Raven Guard. Something sneaky might be fun. (I personally love the Imperial Fists, they’re my fave space marine chapter, but I can’t see CA not taking the chance at like a rivalry sorta thing happening). Additionally, I feel like there’s going to “Battle Packs” of factions. Like a Battle of Baal pack with Khorne, the Blood Angels, and Hive Fleet Leviathan. Or a “weird” pack, with Fabius Bile, the Harlequins, some even weirder Mechanicum stuff, and the Alpha Legion. Idk, I see CA making more thematic decisions in terms of factions rather than pure recognition with the Ultramarines (although, I do think the ultramarines will absolutely be one of the starting factions for Humanity)

[@blanehiggins4147]

I want this so bad! The amount of content that could be added for YEARS to come could make this the ultimate total war game. New space marine chapters added, new races, new characters, new playstyles, grand scope, epic planet fall invasions. This would be the perfect game to add a faction creator too! Creating my own space marine chapter or my own CRAFT world 🤩🤩🤩

[@Hippie629]

15:28 no one associates Krieg with NAzis, they are influenced from the multiple factions of WWI with Germany being the most prominent. The Faction most fans would jokingly call space Nazis would be the Red Scorpions.

[@mr.mister2583]

Yeah had to take a double take when i heard him say that

[@lesterdarke]

Armageddon Steel Legion are the one to worry about…. Actually know someone when I was a kid who went edge lord and actually did it. Needless to say that army was banned from my local store. He wasn’t an actual nazi sympathiser just an edgy kid who thought it was funny,

[@vaderetrosatana7212]

@@lesterdarke Armageddon Steel Legion would be pretty cool to throw in as a recruitable mechanized unit for the Guard, if not an entire versus DLC dedicated to the Armageddon Wars.

[@Henskelion]

Krieg also wouldn't be a good launch army for IG since they have a ton of unique units that'd require a lot more work from CA. A better starter would probably be Steel Legion, Tallarn or Mordians.

[@allendillow6658]

I think the starting races should be Imperium (SM and IG), Chaos, Tyranids, and Eldar. Do something similar with the imperium to that of WoC in TW3, where you get reductions to fielding things that depend on your leader. So SM would get reductions and benefits for your SM, then guard commanders would do similar for guard. Tech bois and church bois would do the same.

[@danwilliams3093]

this is exactly how ive been imagining it myself, other than the primarchs being advisors, I do think they should be playable as though they are demi-gods, they can be killed (they should be super stong melee lords though)

[@vangrail27]

40k would be amazing in the total war setting. The fights would actually be like the lore, Artillery would matter, they showed they can do monsters well so walkers and stuff would work. And all the unit traits would fit so damn well

[@frazer08000]

I have had this idea brewing for a while now! But I gotta say the starting races for my version would be this Space marines Orkz Craftwold eldar Dark eldar And the imperial guard (I will be 6 ft under before I refer to them as astra militarum) as a FLC like how CA did for bretonnia. And guess what will be pre-order insentive, that's right chaos space marines (no not death guard or thousand sons silly just bogstanded chaos. Obviously this is Sarcasm but CA would want pre-orders so they would totally lop off the arch enemy and use them as bait)

[@baskebenji]

I completely agree that a TW: W40k is totally possible. I think that was proven as far back as when the Great War mod came out for TW: Napoleon, which incidentally is my favourite TW game (the Great War mod that is). I too agree that the campaign should function much like it does in Empire at War and Stellaris. I would however do the factions a lot different than that I reckon. I mean I'd have 7 starting factions and I wouldn't have space marines and the astra militarum be two seperate factions. Rather I'd have the Imperium divided into their own smaller sector factions like the Empire is in the warhammer TW games, so i.e you'd have a playable faction called Ultima. Standard recruitable units would be Imperial Guard, with elite recruitable units consisting of Ultramarines, and then you'd break the entire imperium down like that, with 1 of them being playable on launch, and each with a correlating space marine chapter, so all imperium factions can recruit space marines, but the chapter of space marines is specific to the faction you play. Then you could make the other Imperium factions playable over time, or at least the most notable of them, which a unique story campaign based on their space marine chapter. As for the purely fleet based Astartes chapters, they could play in the same way that chaos does, like horde factions i.e you'd have a faction called the Black Templars, which could be the playable one of the horde imperium/astarte factions. Then I'd have Chaos play as a series of horde factions pretty much exactly like you said, only with each traitor asterte chapter being their own faction, again with one of them being playable on launch. Same with the Tyranids, only they'd be broken down in hive fleets, with each being a seperate faction of their own, again with one playable on launch. Apart from that, I'd break the rest of the major lore factions down in the same way, so the Tau Empire has a certain number of factions with one playable on launch, the Aeldari has a certain number of factions with one playable on launch, and same with the orcs etc etc. This I think would give it a more Total War feel, as they traditionally base their factions on nations, which this ^ would be closer to Imo.

[@bestnameever1850]

i think the better idea would be go sectorum by sectorum because it means you can add more map with each DLC with other people active in and if you start with the whole galaxy it would just be overwhelming

[@eldadsorek504]

Legions imperials will be a perfect match for the Total war engine. The hurous heresy is also a perfect setting for a total war game.

[@josiahjensen9651]

I would love primarchs being in the game , maybe a special event lord for a certain amount of turns , also the ability to elevate or de evalate lords and heroes so they can be replaced but still in the army

[@gunslingerspartan]

I think the most important change to a 40k total war would be being unable to deploy your whole force, maybe you can carry whole armies in your ships but can only pre-deply so much and have to get the rest in by deep striking them in to the AO, be it in drop pods or elysian drop troops, dropships (maybe we could use the capture point system for landing pads/bays etc), tyranid spores, ork roks, genestealers and lictors crawling out from under rocks and vents i would also actually kind of like the imperium to be rolled into one or a small number of factions, rather than having like 5 maybe rolling space marines, sob, IG and knights into the imperium as sub factions similar to how there is say, clan scryre and pestilens in the skaven roster so we can have huge combined arms battles that feel epic, yes this would inflate the number of options open to this one faction, but the empire is already like in tw:wh3 that so who cares cover needs to be in, but a trench system would be almost required for most factions to make sense or we're going to have entire guardsmen squads standing in the open waiting for artillery to destroy them, then again, the handgunners already do this, so who cares

[@gunslingerspartan]

this would also let us play with things like maximum reserve army size as a feature, maybe tyranids can take whole swarms of chaff to spew forth because each guardsman is worth like 4 gaunts and each astartes is actually almost as elite as they are in lore and a company of 100 should be able to destroy a massive tyranid stack and that is normally less than 10 squads

[@jamespearson3216]

I wasn't sure if I would like this, you knocked it out of the park! I would be on board to play.

[@michaelwintermantel9127]

I like the base idea, but i think that youd turn a lot of people off by having 3 of the 4 factions be humans (even if chaos is monstrous humans, theyre still human). I think having 5 or 6 starting races would bevone alternative, with eldar as one and daemons as another would be a strong showing; alternatively, get rid of the astra militarum to start, leaving them as the planet guard much like servants of the old ones for nakai. Then they can be properly introduced as dlc/flc later. Then add daemons in their place- especially since daemons are almost a 1-1 port from warhammer total war 3. Daemons would be the stationary planet holders for the chaos marine faction.

[@lousy7580]

I’d do Necrons instead of orcs or tyranids. They are basically space tomb kings, have a cool set of leaders, and enough dynasties to add stronger dlc versions like space marines.

[@SkillzRicosGamerTv]

My only gripe with the Warhammer Total War games was the move away from the phyics based combat from the previous ones due to unit scales etc. It was a step back in a lot of ways.