Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 Builds
Pre-release army skeletons from shown units and playstyles — not a ranked ladder.
Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 does not have a live multiplayer ladder yet, and Creative Assembly has not shipped a patch with numbered unit stats. Every list on this hub is a pre-release army skeleton built from units and playstyles shown in The Game Awards 2025 trailer, later Alpha Strike coverage, the PC Gaming Show, and Gamescom 2026 hands-on reports. Treat them as practice templates for the closed beta and for the 2027 launch year — not as a ranked meta you should copy into a tournament.
If you want a living checklist instead of a static roster, use the battle planner below, then open the dedicated army planner when you are ready to tick cover, sentry mode, reserves, and mixed weapons before a fight.
Battle checklist
How these preview lists work
A Total War army in the 41st Millennium is not a fantasy frontline with a legendary lord glued to the centre. Shown builds mix infantry, armour, heroes with bodyguards, and army-level tools such as strategic reserves and bombardment. Units can contain mixed models, so a Cadian blob is not one gun type and a Strike Force is not four identical Marines. Unlimited ammunition appeared in the builds Creative Assembly demonstrated, which means you win by sightlines, suppression, and cover — not by counting clips.
Each launch race also receives two lore sub-factions plus a custom warlord you can name, paint, and trait. We do not invent the unnamed second chapters, craftworlds, or clans. Where only Ultramarines, Cadians, or Bad Moons are confirmed on stage, the skeleton stays at that level of certainty. If a unit has not been shown or named by CA, it is not on these pages as if it were in the 2027 box.
The four launch factions
- Space Marines — few warriors, power armour, orbital Strike Forces. Ultramarines are the confirmed lore chapter. Campaign upgrades lean on fleets in the void rather than factories in the dirt.
- Astra Militarum — Cadian battleline, Leman Russ and Rogal Dorn tanks, Sentinels, Ogryns, Commissars, and the Baneblade as a shown super-heavy. Commissar Yarrick is the Guard face of the Armageddon story.
- Orks — mobs as battleline, Meganobz, Deff Dreads, Stompas, and Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Bad Moons are the confirmed clan colour. They want to industrialise planets they hold.
- Aeldari — speed, psychic precision, strike-then-vanish. They have had the least screen time, so this list is a playstyle skeleton rather than a fake codex.
Chaos Space Marines are explicitly later, not a fifth launch race. Traitor Guard currently exist as a custom reskin of the Guard, not as their own roster. Read the faction hub if you still need the lore framing before you pick a list.
What actually shapes a list
Then read the early tier list knowing it is a preview ranking, not a ladder. The systems that change how you build are the same ones the Alpha Strike stream and Eurogamer’s Gamescom 2026 session kept repeating:
- Cover and sightlines — ruins and battlements are the map. Elites still die in the open.
- Sentry mode — stops a gunline chasing bait out of cover.
- Strafing armour — tanks reverse and strafe while firing, with accuracy penalties in the builds shown.
- Mixed weapons — switch roles inside a unit instead of fielding five clones.
- Bodyguards — warlords do not wander as immortal individuals.
- Reserves and bombardment — army tools, not flavour buttons.
If you still cannot choose a race, take the faction picker. If you already know the loop, jump to how to play. The controls hub exists so you can actually issue sentry and cover orders once a keymap is public.
Campaign economy belongs on a builds page
List building in Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 starts on the galactic map. Space Marines upgrade in orbit. Orks build on the ground. Guard and Aeldari sit between those poles; this wiki will not invent extra resources Creative Assembly has not named. Crusade theaters chain planetary wars into system campaigns on the road to Armageddon, where Yarrick and Ghazghkull headline the story CA has put on stage.
A preview list that ignores that split teaches the wrong habits. You cannot pretend a Marine Strike Force is a Guard infantry wave, and you cannot pretend a Stompa is a quiet flanking tool. Gamescom footage already showed a four-unit Adeptus Astartes drop hunting a crash site while an Ork host fielded far more bodies. That is the teaching beat for every skeleton here: elites do not auto-win, hordes do not auto-win, and cover decides both.
Platforms do not change the skeleton. The game launches on PC via Steam app 4199910 and the Epic Games Store, plus PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. It is the first mainline Total War with full controller support advertised on Steam, the first Creative Assembly title rated 18+, and the first Total War with full Japanese voice-over. None of that adds extra units to a list.
How to practise before 2027
Register for the closed beta that opened sign-ups in June 2026 and is planned for later in 2026. Wishlist the Steam page from the wishlist and beta tool. Then run the checklist above on every preview map you watch: cover first, sentry on the gunline, reserves after the enemy commits, bombardment on clustered mobs, warlord inside a bodyguard. That is the entire point of these skeletons.
Steam currently prints Windows 10 64-bit as the minimum OS and Windows 11 as recommended, with full CPU and GPU numbers still unpublished. Do not buy a new PC from a fake spec sheet on this wiki. When Creative Assembly publishes real datasheets, we will replace these pages. Until then they stay labelled as pre-release army skeletons for Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 questions.
Are these Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 builds a live meta?
No. They are pre-release army skeletons based on shown units and playstyles. There is no ranked ladder or patch datasheet to rank yet.
Which launch factions have preview lists?
Space Marines, Astra Militarum, Orks, and Aeldari. Chaos Space Marines are planned later, not as a fifth launch race.
Do you invent unit stats or points?
No. Where Creative Assembly has not published a number, the page describes role and playstyle instead of pretending a codex exists.
How should I practise a list before launch?
Use the battle checklist on this page and the army planner, then register for the 2026 closed beta rather than waiting for a fake tournament patch.
Can I build Traitor Guard or Chaos as a launch army?
Traitor Guard currently exist as a custom Guard reskin, not a separate roster. Chaos Space Marines are post-launch.