Creative Assembly, the developers behind the upcoming strategy game Total War: Warhammer 40,000, has recently concluded its first Alpha Strike Livestream, which showed their first unedited look at its real-time strategy combat system.
The developers demonstrated this gameplay through several 1v1 skirmishes, playing as the Astra Militarum faction defending their cities from the savage Ork faction.
As seen in the PC Gamer trailer, the combat system is fast-paced and chaotic, where you will need to command massive armies to blast enemies with sheer, overwhelming firepower while taking care not to get overwhelmed by making strategic use of cover and making sure enemies don't flank your units.
You must also decide which units are best suited to take down foes, when to use limited-use Stratagem abilities to lay waste to enemies to give your army breathing room, and make liberal use of your army's special abilities.
The Astra Militarum, in particular, have unique abilities where commanding officers within a squad unit can issue special commands to move faster, fire faster, and employ other unique tactics similar to how they operate in the original Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game.
The developers demonstrate these mechanics expertly as they command their light infantry units to take cover and lay down suppressing fire to slow down the Ork infantry's advance, leaving them open for their heavy units and strategems (which in this case are tanks) to blow them to smithereens.
Windows Central's take
I thought I'd seen my fair share of large-scale carnage in Warhammer 40,000 games before, like Dawn of War or Battlesector, but they're nothing compared to Total War: Warhammer 40,000.
Taking control of over 40 units (some of which consisted of 100-man squads), charging across the battlefield, watching them rain down a hail of gunfire upon the enemy, and seeing Orks explode in a shower of blood and guts is an awesome sight to behold.
Now, whether I'll be able to pull off such glorious spectacles without getting massacred in the first seconds of deploying my units is another matter, as I'm woefully inexperienced with real-time strategy games.
But I'm willing to learn because, even this early in development, Total War: Warhammer 40,000 looks awesome, and I can't wait to play it when it comes out on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
🗨️ Over to you
So how do you feel about Total War: Warhammer 40,000? Does it make you excited as a longtime Warhammer 40,000/strategy game fan, or does it make you want to try the Total War series for the first time if you're a newcomer?
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