Developers often showcase their games by spectacularly defeating enemy AI. However, the gameplay demo just released by King Art Games, the developer of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV, did exactly the opposite.
In the video below, Creative Director Jan Theysen and Senior Game Designer Elliott Verbiest teamed up to face off against high-difficulty Ork AI in a 2v2 team skirmish (PvE). These two developers are responsible for nearly all the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War battle report videos. However, while previous game videos mainly focused on PvP modes, this time Theysen and Verbiest joined forces against enemy AI—and they decided to take on Hard mode.
The video showcased two matches, with the first being an absolute disaster for the two developers, who were defeated in just four minutes. They claimed this was merely a practice run—just preparation for the second match—and solemnly promised they were "going all out." Just in case, they also increased the victory points required to win, aiming to extend the match duration.
Alas, it didn't help.
The brutal Orks swept through the Emperor's elite forces, crushing them in a landslide victory worthy of a "Waaagh!" Theysen and Verbiest did their best to capture strongholds and objectives, but even with automatic reinforcements enabled, they couldn't withstand wave after wave of attacks. Falling behind in victory points and short on resources, Theysen and Verbiest had no hope of building a counter-attack force to deal with the Ork assault on their base.
Theysen joked, realizing simultaneously that the Space Marines were doomed: "I think I need to have a serious talk with our programmers about the Hard difficulty setting. I mean, it's supposed to be hard, but we should still be able to win!"
Verbiest added, "I have no doubt that players will come back in a few weeks after launch to tell us, 'Actually, we beat it in two days.'"
The second match, and the video itself, ended rather abruptly: Theysen hit the surrender button just before the Orks delivered the final blow. "This might be our second consecutive loss, which tells us two things," he said. "First, we're not very good at playing our own game. Second, the computer AI is quite strong."
"We surrender. It was an honor to play with you, but we couldn't win. Maybe next time. Goodbye."
And that was that. The second match lasted 13 minutes, much better than the first, but clearly not up to Theysen and Verbiest's expectations. I actually really enjoyed this video, not only because it offered the first look at co-op gameplay against enemy AI, but also because it demonstrated the developers' confidence in their own game. They could have easily scrapped this footage, re-recorded a match on Normal difficulty, or kept challenging the high-difficulty AI until they won. But they didn't. They wanted fans to see the current state of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War in all its raw reality—including all its flaws—even if it meant the developers gained no glory in the process.
It seems fans responded well to this video too.
One user commented, "It's great that you showed both the failure scenarios and the strengths of the AI! Very interesting!" Another replied, "I would never choose Hard mode in a Warhammer game; the Orks would just insta-kill you."
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV will be released on PC on December 3, 2026. I think I'll go with Normal difficulty!
