Faction Tier List for Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000

This preview faction tier list for Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 ranks the four launch races as campaign-and-battle packages, not as a multiplayer ladder. There is no season, no official win rate, and no patch number attached to these bands. They are an early reading of The Game Awards 2025, Alpha Strike, the PC Gaming Show, and Gamescom 2026 — labelled so you do not quote them as if a 2027 tournament already happened.

Read the tier list hub for the ranking rules, then unit tiers for models. Steal a skeleton from Builds and identity from Factions. Chaos Space Marines are not on this table; they are post-launch. Traitor Guard is a custom reskin of Astra Militarum, not a fifth race.

Preview bands for launch races

Shown and central — Astra Militarum. Cadians are the confirmed battleline. Preview battles keep putting a Guard gunline on a river, in ruins, with Leman Russ and Rogal Dorn tanks on the lanes and a Baneblade as the super-heavy. Sentry mode, mixed weapons, strafing armour, and overlapping fire are the language of those sessions. Yarrick is the confirmed Guard face of Armageddon. That combination of footage depth plus tools that match the new engine is why Guard sit in the central band — not because this wiki invented a 55% win rate.

Shown and central — Orks. Mobs are the confirmed battleline. Ghazghkull is the confirmed Ork face of Armageddon. Bad Moons are the confirmed clan colour. Meganobz, Deff Dreads, and a Stompa give the race a punch-and-super-heavy identity that Gamescom actually played on the attack. They sit central because CA keeps using them as the pressure test for gunlines, not because a WAAAGH! auto-wins if you ignore bombardment.

Shown and specialised — Space Marines. Ultramarines are the confirmed lore chapter. A second chapter ships at launch unnamed here. Gamescom taught the race with a four-unit Strike Force against a larger Ork host: quality, orbital posture, bodyguards, and army tools rather than a map full of cards. That is specialised, not weak. Elites who skip cover will still look like a low tier in any future ladder. Campaign upgrades in orbit make them a different crusade main from Orks who industrialise dirt.

Mid / unknown — Aeldari. Least screen time. Swift, psychic, strike-then-vanish is the official pitch. Two lore sub-factions and a custom warlord are confirmed at the race level. Named craftworlds and Aspect kits are not treated as loadout fact on this wiki. Ranking them S because tabletop players love them, or D because they are “glass”, would be fiction. They stay mid / unknown until a stream shows a battle as clearly as the Cadian river.

How campaign changes the feel without changing the band

On the galactic map, Marines upgrade fleets in the void. Orks build on the ground. Guard and Aeldari sit between those poles; we will not invent extra resources. Crusade theaters can run past 600 turns on the road to Armageddon. A player who loves orbital Strike Forces will experience Marines as “higher tier” over a crusade even if a screenshot battle favoured a Baneblade. That is campaign preference, not a hidden letter.

Each race still gets two lore sub-factions plus a custom warlord you name, paint, and trait. Those options change flavour inside a band. They do not add Chaos to launch. They do not let us invent a second confirmed Ork clan beside Bad Moons or a named Aeldari craftworld.

Matchup notes without fake spreadsheets

Guard versus Orks is the matchup CA has shown most often: overlapping fire, sentry so you do not chase, bombardment on clumps, Stompa versus Baneblade as the super-heavy conversation. Marines versus Orks is the teaching beat for elites: four units, crash site, refuse bad melee. Aeldari versus anyone is a guess with a warning label — see the Aeldari build. Unlimited ammo in shown builds does not crown a race; cover and sightlines do.

If you came here to pick a main, use the faction picker rather than this table. If you came here to practise, use the army planner. If you came here for a keymap, the controls hub is still waiting on an official 40k layout.

What will move these bands

Closed beta sign-ups opened in June 2026, with testing planned later in 2026. A public patch, a second Alpha Strike that actually plays Aeldari, or a Gamescom-style session that shows a craftworld army at the same clarity as Cadians would all move this page. Until then, Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 stays a 2027 release-year game on Steam app 4199910, Epic, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series, with full controller support listed, Japanese VO as a series first, and an 18+ rating as a Creative Assembly first. None of those facts is a faction buff.

Steam currently lists Windows 10 64-bit minimum and Windows 11 recommended. That belongs in system notes, not in a tier cell. When this wiki has repeatable games, the preview sticker comes off. Until launch, treat every band as footage, not gospel.