Hi everyone,

Throughout 2026 we’ve brought you a series of spotlights on the four factions set to take centre-stage in Dawn of War IV. Today, we’re turning our attention to the Space Marines, a faction whose influence has spread far beyond even the celebrated universe of Warhammer 40,000, and into modern science fiction culture as a whole.

Put simply, the Space Marines are the iconic Warhammer 40,000 faction, representing the elite fighting force of the ancient and sprawling Imperium of Man. Their sheer power and combat prowess is legendary, granting these genetically-enhanced super soldiers an almost mythological status among the everyday citizens of the 41st Millennium.

While they operate as independent Chapters that don’t always agree on the fine details, collectively the Space Marines share the same unwavering loyalty towards defending the Imperium and enforcing the Emperor’s will. They have access to the best armour, the best weapons, and they’ll stop at nothing to defend the Imperium and lay low the enemies of humanity.

We knew from the very beginning of development that we wanted the Space Marines to play a significant role in Dawn of War IV, just as they have in previous titles. With that in mind, we decided to not only bring back series stalwarts the Blood Ravens, but also introduce a new, celebrated Chapter from Warhammer 40,000: the Dark Angels.

As our story begins, the Blood Ravens - led by Captain Cyrus and Chief Librarian Jonah Orion - find themselves on their old recruitment world Kronus, in search of fresh blood to bolster their Chapter’s dwindling numbers. Fighting for survival on the planet’s surface, they lack the resources usually available to a full-strength Space Marine deployment.

Their missions reflect this change in circumstances, with a focus on smaller skirmishes, as well as operations behind enemy lines to conduct vital reconnaissance work ahead of precision strikeforce operations.

It’s a different story for the Dark Angels, however, who are led by Chaplain Ezrael and Company Master Astoran. The game’s second playable Chapter continues to enjoy the kind of terrifying arms and armour that have struck fear into the faction’s enemies since time immemorial. Their own missions reflect their ongoing access to this kind of additional, apocalyptic firepower.

Bringing both of these Chapters to life presents a challenge for a game like Dawn of War IV. Compared to the other factions, the Space Marines face their enemies as an elite, sharply-focused force. Their strength comes not from the size of their army, but from the intimidating power wielded by a smaller number of immensely effective, relatively expensive units.

To make the most of this, we looked at what it really is that makes the Space Marines unique. While factions like the Necrons possess unnerving powers of regeneration, and the Orks gleefully flood the battlefield to fuel their Waaagh! mechanic, the Space Marines instead have access to an extraordinary collection of showstopping combat technology.

First of all, we pored over the Space Marines’ expansive armoury to curate a list of devastating combat options. From there, we leaned hard into giving you a deep and rewarding selection of equipment and upgrade paths to enjoy as each individual match plays out.

The end result is that the Space Marines feel very much like your Space Marines. As each battle unfolds, you’ll face many critical decisions about how best to empower the forces under your command. In making these choices, you’ll develop each unit over a longer period of time and gain an intense sense of investment in their survival.

It’s this deep system of commitment that gives the Space Marines their unique factional flavour in Dawn of War IV. Then of course, you have the units themselves, and the powerful synergies that exist between them. Take the Eliminators and Infiltrators, for example.

As long as they remain at arms’ length from their enemies, these two units can traverse the battlefield as invisible assassins. Combined, they allow you to capture points before your opponent can even consider mounting a response. While the Infiltrators busy themselves with the capture itself, the Eliminators wait quietly at range, ready to snipe any curious enemy units that get just a little too close for comfort.

Next, the Redemptor Dreadnought. Each one of these enormous war machines acts as a sarcophagus for a grievously wounded Space Marine. Even as their own bodies betray them, the mechanical might of the Dreadnought allows a Space Marine to fulfil their duty, armed with unimaginably powerful weaponry in their final defence of the Imperium.

Every faction in Dawn of War IV is led by powerful, game-changing Commander units. To reflect their tactical depth, we’ve given the Space Marines more Commanders than any other faction - two each for both the Blood Ravens and the Dark Angels.

Representing the Blood Ravens we have Captain Cyrus, the Vanguard commander who specialises in domination-by-stealth, and dispatching his enemies at range. Chief Librarian Jonah Orion, on the other hand, brings terrifying psychic warfare to the battlefield, sowing chaos among the enemy troops.

Chaplain Ezrael, our first Dark Angels Commander, leads his highly mobile troops into war astride a roaring Raider-pattern bike. Company Master Astoran enters battle clad in his impenetrable Terminator armour - a powerful one-man army, moving at a slower but implacable pace.

Fielding a smaller number of units brings challenges as well as opportunities regardless of how powerful each individual unit may be. This aspect of the Space Marines playstyle becomes particularly tricky when it comes to ensuring your units can respond quickly to emerging threats, and fight wherever they’re needed at any given time.

We’ve gone about solving this problem in a few ways. Instead of producing units which appear on the battlefield directly, you can ready reserves in orbit, where they’ll wait for deployment via Drop Pod. Should one of your most valuable units come under the kind of fire even a Space Marine can’t overcome, you can choose to help them by raining down reinforcements from above.

Then there’s the Thunderhawk Relay. Once you’ve directed your units into this building, you can re-deploy them elsewhere using a Thunderhawk. This tactic proves particularly effective on larger maps, where you may want to work your initial forces behind enemy lines before following up with overwhelming reinforcements.

To support their mission, the Space Marines also have access to a collection of powerful Stratagems. All four Commanders bring their own unique Stratagem to the table, but we’ve designed each one to feel thematically appropriate to the faction overall.

The Thunderhawk Bombing Run, for example, turns half of the screen into a blazing fireball, obliterating anyone and anything unfortunate enough to lie in its path. Then there’s the Orbital Strike, arguably one of the strongest Stratagems in the entire game, which ignites a huge area of the map from the quiet stillness of space.

All four of our factions are special to us of course, but it’s fair to say that everyone at KING Art has relished the opportunity to bring all our passion and dedication towards realising our vision for the Space Marines. We know how much this iconic Warhammer 40,000 faction means to all of you, and they mean just as much to us.

There were so many stories we could have told, hundreds of Chapters we could have chosen, and we know you all have your own personal favourites. To help you bring them to life in your Dawn of War IV, we’ve created a Painter system designed to place an unprecedented degree of customisation power in your hands.

We’ll be including hand-crafted Painter schemes for the most popular Space Marine Chapters at launch, but you’ll have access to the very same tools to build and share your own detailed designs with the community. Equipped with these, you’ll be able to field your favourite Space Marines Chapter across all areas of Dawn of War IV, with the exception of the campaign.

We’re just a few short months away from the release of Dawn of War IV, and we can’t wait to let you loose with all four factions in their own narrative campaigns - not to mention Skirmishes, multiplayer and more.

Thank you as always for your support, and don’t forget to wishlist the game if you haven’t done so already!

Everyone @ KING Art Games