Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War IV - I played it as a complete newbie but I'm absolutely hooked

Warhammer generally is always something I've known about, and know plenty of people who absolutely love it, but have never got into.

However when the opportunity came up to check out Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV and seeing how much love and dedication has been poured into it by its developers at KING Art Games, I simply couldn't say no.

I'm not going to lie, going into it I had no idea of what to expect or if I'd enjoy it, and this is probably the most nervous I've ever been to check out a game for those reasons, worried I'd be completely out of my depth - but I went into it with an open mind and got stuck in.

And I'm so glad I did. Playing through the demo that's available at Gamescom, I had an absolute blast and it kept me glued to the screen for its duration.

Screenshot from KING Art Games, Deep Silver

What's in the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV demo?

The demo I played was locked to a single skirmish mission where Imperial Guard forces and under attack by Orks and as the Space Marines, I had to help out the Guard and defeat the Orks and their leader.

At first, I struggled to move the camera or work out how to deploy units but that's because there's no tutorial with this early build and I'm not that massively experienced in the world of PC gaming or real-time strategy (RTS) games.

But eventually I figured it out and by the end, I had different upgraded units flanking and taking out the most powerful enemy bases with hugely powerful attacks.

After working out the camera and what exactly I needed to do, I built a base of operations, which included a chapel barracks to deploy groups of different soldiers, strategium to research and improve stats of troops and equipment, a chapter keep, a sanctum for bigger units and armoury for vehicles, including tanks.

These units can retreat, along with options to reinforce units or repair vehicles, attack, halt and do different postures. There are skills, upgrades and reinforcements available for each unit too.

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The idea is to start small in one section and take over the battlefield bit by bit, securing smaller objectives that yield further rewards as you go along.

You can also build smaller tarantula turrets or hammerfall bunkers which automatically target any enemies that approach their vicinity. Placing these strategically around the battlefield was essential.

There are also stratagems available in this mission that offer limited but very powerful attacks, very useful if the tide of battle is going against you or to make taking out more tricky foes easier.

The main objective was to take down the Orks' main base of operations with two side objectives of taking down a smaller base and three heavily armoured foes.

Completing these side objectives gave more ground on the battlefield and more rewards and resources to be able to build more structures, again essential for moving up the battlefield so it's easier to deploy more units to fight.

There are smaller objectives dotted around the map which units have to occupy for a period of time to own and this can fluctuate during battle when enemy units attack back.

Screenshot from KING Art Games, Deep Silver

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV - what stood out and what could be improved

What really stood out from my time with the demo was just how quickly you need to think on your feet to win. When you think you've got it figured out, pushing the enemy back bit by bit and dominating the battlefield, a wave of enemies would appear and start to attack your base of operations when advancing on the enemy's.

This gave the added strategic dimension of thinking whether to go all out and secure the win quickly, retreat and defend the base of operations or split units across both options.

I went with the retreat option to take out the enemy wave, restore the health of my base of operations and regain the ground I'd lost. This really helped towards completing the main objective as I was then more easily able to build further barracks where units could be deployed higher up the field towards the enemy.

It was a thrill having these unexpected encounters forcing me to rethink my plan and react.

One thing I did note was that once I managed to deploy my first tank around the halfway point, I was pretty much unstoppable. Nothing was a match for me and as long as I kept its health bar topped up enough through repairing it, it was quite overpowered even if I sent it on its own into battle against huge swathes of enemies.

And when I got my second just before advancing to the final stages, the Orks might as well have given up.

Approaching the main battle, I saved up my stratagems and launched a barrage of attacks when it came to tackling three huge Ork bases along with my two tanks and number of different units. This helped to win this battle very quickly.

Screenshot from KING Art Games, Deep Silver

From that skirmish, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV is shaping up to be a great game that's incredibly fun and really makes you think on your feet. Adaptability is key.

As someone that's not got much experience in Warhammer, PC or RTS games, I went into this with an open mind and truly enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I might.

And I'm hooked. I can't wait to play through the skirmish again and to see more of what the game has to offer.

The demo was played on PC through Steam on a Lenovo Legion 9i Gaming Laptop with Intel Core i9 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Football Manager is finally back - and fans have an awful lot to say about it
• James Cleverly comes clean as a Warhammer fan: 'There is no point in trying to hide this any longer'

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