Creative Assembly have just confirmed the long-rumored Total War: Warhammer 40,000 project in what seems a massive shift away for the veteran strategy studio. Leaving behind the fantasy realm of lined warfare and all the way to cover-based squad-level skirmishes of the 41st Millennium is a massive leap, and the newly announced Aeldari faction is the farthest departure from what the franchise has historically settled upon. Aeldari will not function like an old empire-building force; rather, it is a team of elites making surgical strikes to keep a dying race alive through hit-and-run tactics and objective-based gameplay, lead designer Simon Mann recently explained.
It is in the Aeldari gameplay loop that utmost fragility is combined with extreme mobility. These units, known as “glass cannons,” apply their massive speed through the Webway, getting behind enemy lines without massed infantry charges, which have been the basis for the older Total War titles. Their population must be finite in terms of the lore, so players are unable to see troops as dispensable assets. This necessitates a hide-and-strike philosophy, whereby the interplay of stealth and psychic superiority outweighs mass numbers. Interestingly, the Aeldari do not settle planets in the standard terrain, as their recruitment and infrastructure depend on Craftworlds: synthetic planetary-scale vessels that operate as off-map mobile bases.
Space Marines, Astra Militarum, and Orcs will all provide a necessary counterbalance to the Aeldari wizarding with her tricks. The Astra Militarum will feel more like home to the developers of the series: they fight from immense industrial complexes pouring out massive tank divisions and wall-to-wall infantry. Space Marines, on the flip side, sacrifice economic infrastructure in exchange for all-out combat efficiency, with a few squads of superhuman soldiers to unleash upon the battlefield. Orks remain a wild card, however, motivated by a mechanic that weighs “Waaagh!” against the player for any prolonged idleness, thus forcing them to aggression, lest their very army turn on itself.
Building on this four-way conflict would be a basis for a galactic sandbox that brings in orbital bombardments and an option for planetary destruction. The launch factions focus on these core pillars of the setting, but the developers have already confirmed that the Chaos Space Marines and other iconic xenos like the Tyranids and Necrons will be in long-term planning. While a bold gamble, with a clear departure from the rigid lines of Roman legions and Napoleonic squares, it aims at fluid and multi-planetary warfare with the Warhammer 40,000 theme, which favors faction identity over uniformity in mechanics.
