Total War: Warhammer 40,000 Launches With Four Fierce Factions — Here’s What Sets Them Apart
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 storms the battlefield with four playable powerhouses—Space Marines, Orks, Astra Militarum, and Aeldari—while the likes of Death Guard, Necrons, and Black Templars wait in the wings, as Creative Assembly pledges to roll out every faction over the coming years.
Creative Assembly is finally smashing Total War into the Warhammer 40K universe, and yes, they picked a spicy starting lineup. At launch, you get four playable factions: Space Marines, Orks, Astra Militarum, and Aeldari. If you were hoping for Death Guard, Necrons, or Black Templars out of the gate, not yet. CA told IGN they plan to roll out every faction over the years. Big promise. We will see.
If this is your first time wading into 40K, the lore can feel like a brick to the face. Here’s the clean version of who these four are and why they keep trying to turn each other into paste.
Space Marines (Adeptus Astartes)
Humanity’s poster boys in the 41st Millennium. Space Marines are gene-forged super soldiers built to wage endless war in the Emperor’s name. In-game terms and in-lore, they’re the precise, methodical scalpel that shows up, stabilizes impossible fronts, and makes the miracle happen. The regular humans of the Astra Militarum respect them, fight alongside them constantly, and generally try not to get in the way.
Couple of fun details: Space Marines are engineered to shrug off plagues and most natural diseases, which is convenient in a galaxy that weaponizes everything. They also collect enemies like bad habits. Orks hate them for very specific, very bloody reasons, and the Aeldari tend to treat them like talented but reckless children who always leap into the fight because they can. The Astartes ethos isn’t really glory-chasing; it’s more grim duty — impose order, end the chaos, survive to do it again tomorrow. Allies that don’t fully trust them, enemies that never quite stay dead: that’s the day-to-day.
Orks
Green-skinned xenos who are somehow part animal, part fungus, and all fight. Orks cobble together crude guns, junkyard tanks, and screaming war machines held together by belief as much as bolts. That’s not a joke — the famous 'Ork science' bit of deep-lore says if enough Orks believe a thing works, it probably will.
They’re not anyone’s idea of an ally, but they’re everywhere — arguably the most widespread intelligent species in the galaxy. Not every Ork is an unthinking brute; merciful ones exist, they just don’t tend to last long. Ork history is as much civil war as anything else: endless brawling until the strongest rises, unites a tribe, and points it at the next target. In Total War terms, think relentless pressure. Even better: some Ork warbosses keep score and remember particular Space Marine foes, treating them like proper rivals in the ongoing scrap.
Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard)
The human wall. The Imperium’s first line of defense, endlessly replenished, relentlessly disciplined. The Guard isn’t superhuman and doesn’t pretend to be; they make up for it with numbers, armor columns, firing lines, and heavy artillery. When a battle needs softening up, they’re the ones doing the softening so Space Marines can hit the surgical strike after.
The vibe here is duty and sacrifice. The Guard takes pride in holding the line no matter the cost, and that sheer conviction can rattle enemies who expect humans to break. The Aeldari generally consider the Guard an obstacle, not a partner, but even they have teamed up with humanity when the galaxy forces their hand. In a setting stuffed with gods, aliens, and monsters, the Guard’s party trick is simple: keep fighting anyway.
Aeldari (Eldar)
The ancient, elegant survivors. Aeldari are humanoid xenos who used to run the galaxy before it all went sideways. They’re terrifyingly capable — unmatched psychic power, refined technology, and a talent for art and war — but the golden age is over, so they fight from the shadows now.
On the battlefield, the Aeldari live on speed, foresight, and clean execution. Everything is calculated for survival, not spectacle. Space Marines respect the precision (and quietly fear just how smart the Aeldari can be). Tactically, they’d rather trick you than trade blows: Orks are useful pawns to misdirect, while humans — both Marines and the Guard — are looked down on but acknowledged as genuinely dangerous. The broader story is tragic: haunted by past sins, clinging to slim hope, doing whatever it takes to keep their people alive a little longer in a galaxy designed to erase them.
That’s the launch roster. Four very different ways to wage war, plenty of bad blood between them, and a long runway if Creative Assembly really does bring in every other faction over time. Pick your poison now, argue about the rest later.