Total War isn’t exactly the type of game I play every week. I know the series, I understand why people can lose hundreds of hours to it, but give me the choice and I’ll usually end up playing something completely different. So dropping me into Total War: Warhammer 40,000 for almost an hour at Gamescom was going to be interesting. Would I even understand what I was doing?
Well, that tutorial was definitely needed
After learning how to move the camera, select my troops and position them around the battlefield, things slowly started making sense. And once they did, I actually had a really good time. Total War: Warhammer 40,000 isn’t simply Total War with some Space Marines and Orks thrown into it. This is very much Warhammer 40K, only now you’re controlling those huge battles using the tactical foundations Creative Assembly has been working on for years. But first, let me figure out these controls
My session started with a short tutorial, which mostly taught me how to move around the battlefield and control my different units. If you already play Total War, you’ll probably know what to do within minutes. I needed a little longer. There’s quite a lot to control. You select individual units or groups, send them towards another position and decide which enemy they should attack. Moving your troops somewhere is easy enough, but knowing where to put them is another matter entirely. Cover plays an important role, for example. Sending a group of Space Marines straight towards the enemy might work for a while, but putting them somewhere with decent protection gives them a much better chance of surviving whatever the Orks are throwing at them. At the same time, you have to watch the rest of the battlefield because focusing too much on one fight can leave another part of your army in trouble. I definitely had a few moments where I was staring at one group of soldiers before suddenly realising something much more important was happening on the other side of the map.
Where do I send everyone?
After that, I played a normal battle where I could finally start using everything without someone explaining every button. This went surprisingly well and gave me some room to experiment with the different units. I had regular troops, stronger units and a tank to move around, but there were also special attacks available. Laser attacks and bombardments could do serious damage if I placed them correctly, while reinforcements could be dropped onto the battlefield when I needed some extra help. The important part was figuring out when and where to use all of it. Dropping something powerful on a group of smaller enemies might solve an immediate problem, but perhaps that attack would have been much more useful against the giant enemy slowly making its way towards my troops. The same applied to my tank. I could send it straight towards the biggest threat, use it to support another group or move it somewhere else entirely and try to attack from another direction. When I was deciding all of this I suddenly lost track of time and the game sucked me in. I wasn’t simply waiting for two armies to run into each other while watching numbers go down. I was constantly moving around the battlefield and checking where I was needed next.
The final battle was where I really started understanding why Total War and Warhammer 40K work together. There were far more enemies, several enemy types and multiple things demanding my attention at the same time. Suddenly, I had to think about where my ranged units were positioned, which enemies my melee troops should attack and where I wanted to send my tank. There was also a much larger enemy on the battlefield that obviously looked like the thing I should be worrying about, but sending everything towards him would leave the rest of my army open to attack. So I started splitting things up.
Some troops stayed in cover and attacked from a distance, others moved closer to deal with enemies directly, while my tank went towards the areas where I needed the extra firepower. When the Orks started moving around my position, I also had to consider whether I wanted to meet them head-on or move another group around and try to flank them. And while all of that was happening, I still had bombardments and other special attacks waiting to be used. This was also the point where I stopped thinking so much about the controls. During the tutorial I was constantly checking what I had selected and how I needed to move something. During this bigger battle, I was thinking about which enemy needed to die first. That was a much better problem to have.
Total War with bolters and tanks
What I liked about Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is that the move to 40K actually changes what you’re looking at on the battlefield. This isn’t a medieval army slowly marching towards another medieval army. There are Space Marines firing across the map, tanks moving into position, Orks rushing towards you and huge attacks coming down from above. Zooming in also gives you a much better look at how much is actually happening. I spent most of my time zoomed further out because I needed to keep track of my troops, but every now and then I moved the camera closer just to watch the Space Marines and Orks tear into each other. Then I usually remembered there was still a battle I was supposed to be controlling and zoomed straight back out.
The scale can become pretty ridiculous once enough units are involved, but that’s Warhammer 40K. If Creative Assembly was ever going to take Total War into this universe, I wanted to see armies, tanks and absurd amounts of firepower on the same battlefield. Based on the battles I played, that part is definitely there.
Maybe I understand Total War a little better now
I’m probably never going to become the person who studies every Total War unit and spends an entire evening perfecting one army, but I enjoyed my hour with Total War: Warhammer 40,000 more than I expected. The larger battle was easily my favorite part because I constantly had something to think about. Where does the tank go? Who needs cover? Do I flank those enemies? Do I use the bombardment now or save it for that huge bastard coming towards me? For Total War fans who also happen to love Warhammer 40K, I can already imagine this being a very dangerous game for their free time.