The latest look into Total War Warhammer 40k shows breathtaking scale and devastating violence

Total War and Warhammer 40k really is a match made in heaven. Like peanut butter and jelly before it, these are two things appreciated in isolation, but adored in combination. We got a peek at some more in-game Total War: Warhammer 40k shenanigans during the PC Gaming Show, and it looks like Christmas is coming early for strategy game and 40k fans alike. Unless it's released in December, in which case it'll just be regular Christmas.

The Total War: Warhammer 40k developer interview is a glorious look into the controlled chaos of the grimdark future. It's hundreds of Orks smashing into hundreds of Space Marines; it's Stompers made from scrap metal, wading haphazardly into the fray; it's orbital lasers scarring the landscape from a safe distance.

Warhammer 40k, to me, is beautifully impenetrable. I can tell some of the factions apart, more or less, but I couldn't tell you their history. I know my Adeptus Mechanicus from my Necrons, but I'm not sure who the T'au Empire are, and at this point I'm too scared to ask. It's a mess of beautiful art and a real feast-for-the-eyes character design, and it looks like Total War is going to offer this all up to me on an ornate, if bloodied, platter.

One thing that Total War has always done well is scale - war is rarely fought in small numbers, and the TW series has always leant into the grandiose, epic battles that punctuate any ongoing conflict. Warhammer 40k never shies from spectacle and cares not for how high the body count may get, with the in-game footage from the dev interview demonstrating just how intense this can get.

The devs talk about how each playthrough should feel different, not only in action but in the narrative wraparound, too. The war never ends, but the context of each battle can differ dramatically, and can ultimately tip the favor of each side from run to run - Orks stumbling across, and subsequently conquering, a planet rich in scrap can then bolster their ramshackle armor, and defending what is important to each faction will distort the big picture conflict over time.

I'm confident that strategy fans will get a kick out of the 40k universe and the unique proposition it offers, and those 40k aficionados will get to see their lore, their miniatures, their passion in full flow like never before. It's a win-win scenario, and I, as a person right in the middle of the strategy and 40k Venn diagram, absolutely cannot wait to dive in.