Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV is filling the wait for December with videos of matches. KING Art Games dropped Battlefield Report 3 today: a 1v1 Annihilation game of Orks versus Necrons. Creative director Jan Theysen plays Orks. QA lead Orvie Thumel, KING Art’s strongest internal player and a former Dawn of War II shoutcaster, plays Necrons. The video is the late-game pass. New units, configurable match settings, and a readability pass on the Necron Power Matrix after community notes. Two more reports land this month on the official YouTube channel.
September 16 is 2v2 Team Domination with all four launch factions on the board. September 23 is the first look at 2v2 Team Skirmish. Theysen pairs with senior designer Elliott Verbiest against a high-difficulty computer opponent. Commanders and mid-match adaptation are the talking points for that one. 1v1 is what they have shown most. These two clips are how they prove the modes that are not a duel.
Launch factions are Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, and Adeptus Mechanicus. AdMech is new to Dawn of War. Earlier Battlefield Reports already ran Space Marines versus Orks and Necrons versus AdMech. This Ork-Necron tape closes the 1v1 pairings people asked for after those two. Necron tools that keep coming up in the older reports include a Power Matrix, tomb pylons for reserve teleports, and resurrection galleries that bring squads back without a fresh train. Orks still play the snowball: numbers and map pressure if you let the Waaagh cook.
Dawn of War IV slipped from September 17 to December 3, 2026 for it's release date so KING Art could hit performance, bugs, polish, and playtest notes. Commander Edition still gets a three-day head start on November 30. Deep Silver publishes. PC on Steam is the platform. The war is on Kronus, the Dark Crusade world. Campaign work is billed at more than 70 missions, co-written with Black Library’s John French, plus Last Stand, Skirmish, and multiplayer. Year-one plans after launch still list Crusade, map packs, a mission editor, and a summer 2027 story expansion with a new faction.
The Battlefield Reports are the public substitute for a September ship date. Annihilation 1v1 is the cleanest way to show unit identity. Domination 2v2 is the first time all four armies share an objective mode on camera. Skirmish 2v2 versus AI is the couch and Last Stand-adjacent pitch.
No ranked ladder date sat in this announcement. No claim that Power Matrix changes are final patch notes. Watch the Ork-Necron report for late-game toys and UI contrast. Watch the 16th for four-faction chaos. Watch the 23rd if you care whether two humans can hold a high-diff AI without the match turning into a smear.
Are you more interested in the Necron late game on today’s tape, or the 2v2 Domination drop on September 16? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.