Army Customization in Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000
Paint the chapter, trait the warlord, mix the guns. CA is letting you match the shelf army for the first time.
Total War has always let you rename a lord. It has never really let you build the warlord the way a 40k player builds a list. Creative Assembly has said, in interviews and in the “10 new things we learned” roundup that sits on this page’s video, that Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 ships with custom names, colour schemes, heraldry, traits, tactics, and wargear. A custom warlord is a first for the series. This guide maps what that actually means before the closed beta paints a single marine pink.
If you have not picked a race, use the faction picker then read the faction hub. If you already know you want a list rather than a paint job, skip to Builds. The how to play primer explains why a custom warlord is not a fifth launch race. The early tier list is an early-read, labelled as such — do not trait a chapter around a ranking that will move after the beta.
What CA has actually confirmed you can customise
The studio’s public list is short and specific. The Gamescom booth offered a limited editor of the same bundle — chapter name, colours (pink allowed), heraldry, combat philosophy, tactical abilities, traits, and wargear:
- Name — your chapter, warband, regiment, or craftworld-facing force gets a label that is yours.
- Colour scheme — Gamescom previews included custom Space Marine chapters painted in player colours, including schemes a tabletop Chapter Master would hate. Pink is allowed. Ultramarines remain the lore default, not a lock.
- Heraldry — badges, markings, the visual identity that makes a Strike Force look like the models on your shelf rather than a stock blue box.
- Combat philosophy — the booth label for how the chapter wants to fight. Limited in the preview, not a finished doctrine tree.
- Tactical abilities — preview-build army tools tied to that philosophy, not a published ability list.
- Traits — mechanical hooks on the warlord and, depending on the final UI, on the force. CA has not published a full trait table. We will not invent “+10 melee attack versus Orks.”
- Tactics — the way the army wants to fight, not just the colour of the pauldrons. Think doctrine, not wallpaper.
- Wargear — mixed weapons inside a unit, not a single profile pasted onto twenty models.
That bundle is the custom warlord. It sits beside two lore sub-factions per launch race. You are not choosing between “Ultramarines or nothing.” You are choosing Ultramarines, a second official chapter CA will name in its own time, or the chapter you painted in the editor.
A custom warlord is new to Total War
Fantasy Total War gave you legendary lords with fixed names, quests, and skill trees. You could respec a tree. You could not walk into the campaign as “my guy” with a banner you designed. 40k is built for that fantasy because the tabletop already is. Players arrive with a shelf army. CA’s pitch is that the editor should be able to greet that shelf.
IGN’s Gamescom hands-on called the customisation welcome and a bit bare-bones in the preview build. That is the right expectation for 2026 footage. The systems are in. The depth will move. Do not assume a full Chapter Approved builder on day one. Do assume you can land as the Immortals of Demos, or as a Cadian regiment that is not khaki, and have the campaign treat that as your face.
Traits and tactics are where the custom option stops being a paint layer. A warlord who leans into overlapping gunlines is not the same campaign as a warlord who leans into drop-pod aggression, even if both wear your colours. Until CA publishes the actual trait cards, pick the lore sub-faction whose fantasy you already understand, then use the custom slot to match models rather than to chase an unpublished bonus.
Mixed wargear, grenades, and why the unit card got denser
Alpha Strike made the mechanical half of customisation visible. Units contain mixed models. A Guard squad can hide a Commissar, a vox, and different guns. Space Marine Intercessors in the Gamescom slice were not a single bolter profile: grenades, including launchers, punched holes in Ork mobs. CA has described frag versus krak grenades as auto-appropriate — the unit spends the charge that matches the target instead of asking you to open a nested menu mid-volley.
That is tabletop army matching in software form. You are not stuck with “this card is only anti-infantry.” You are stuck with geometry, sightlines, and whether you remembered to bring the barrel that actually hurts a Deff Dread. Build lists as toolkits. The Builds hub exists so those toolkits have a skeleton before anyone has a 2027 points system.
Heroes take the same idea up one rank. They bring customisable bodyguards instead of wandering as immortal solos. The bodyguard is part of the warlord’s footprint: paint it, tool it, keep it alive. A Commissar who walks out of the escort is a corpse. A Librarian who 1v1s a Stompa is a lesson the Gamescom demo already taught.
Matching the shelf — and the Traitor Guard exception
The honest promise is visual and doctrinal matching, not a 1:1 import of every 10th-edition enhancement. If your tabletop army is a custom chapter with a specific green and a bone pauldron, the editor is the feature that lets the campaign look like that army. If your tabletop army is a full Chaos Space Marine legion, that race is post-launch. Do not buy the 2027 box expecting Abaddon as a custom marine preset.
Traitor Guard currently exist as a custom Astra Militarum reskin, not as a fifth launch race. You can paint heresy over a Guard list. You do not get a separate traitor roster, a separate campaign tree, or a Chaos Space Marine substitute. That is the limit CA has actually drawn. Anyone selling “play Chaos on day one via the painter” is ignoring that sentence.
Aeldari and Orks get the same custom-warlord bucket as Marines and Guard: two lore faces plus the one you name. Ork paint jobs will be louder. Craftworld colours will be pickier. The systems listed above are race-agnostic even if the footage has been marine-heavy.
How to use the editor without building a trap
- Pick the race in the faction picker first. Customisation does not fix a fantasy you do not enjoy.
- Decide whether you want a lore sub-faction or the custom slot. Lore comes with story hooks. Custom comes with your colours.
- Paint for recognition at battle camera height, not for a miniature contest. High contrast reads in a ruin; ten edge highlights do not.
- Mix wargear for jobs: anti-infantry barrels plus something that actually bothers walkers. Frag and krak are the tutorial version of that sentence.
- Assign bodyguards as if they were the warlord’s hit points. Because they are.
- Ignore the tier list when you are choosing a paint scheme. Rankings will move. Your chapter badge will not.
Army customisation in Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 is the first time the series has treated a warlord as a player-authored object rather than a cast member. Name it, paint it, trait it, tool the squad, and keep the escort alive. That is the feature CA put on the list. Everything else waits for a public build.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 questions.
Can I create a custom chapter in Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000?
Yes. CA has confirmed custom names, colour schemes, heraldry, traits, tactics, and wargear, including a custom warlord — a first for Total War.
Is this the same as a fifth launch faction?
No. Each launch race still has two lore sub-factions plus the custom warlord option. Traitor Guard is a custom Guard reskin, not a separate race.
Do units use mixed weapons?
Yes. Shown builds mix models and loadouts inside one card. Frag versus krak grenades are described as auto-appropriate to the target.
Can I match my tabletop army?
Visually and doctrinally, that is the pitch. It is not a promise that every 10th-edition enhancement or Chaos legion is in the 2027 box.
Where should I go after I pick colours?
The faction hub and builds pages for a list, the faction picker if you are still choosing a race, and the how-to-play primer for the campaign loop.