Sweeping, strafing and suppression: Total War: Warhammer 40,000 threatens to blow up Total War’s combat fundamentals

Perhaps predictably, Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer 40,000 could be quite the step change for how Total War handles ranged combat. Yesterday, the developers livestreamed a battle between the Imperium and the Orks, while chatting enthusiastically about the nuances of drop pods and flamers and evasion stats. Like a gretchin war reporter – there are Ork journalists, right? Newswaaaagh? Gubbinzfeed? The Wall Street Choppa? – I've been running from foxhole to foxhole, jotting down notes. The conclusion I've come to is that the new strategy game could diverge quite significantly from the archers-behind-spearguys square dance of older Twars. Your units are more autonomous and also, more flexible and smarter in terms of who they shoot with what. Read more