Dawn of War IV shows off 2v2 battles before December
KING Art has put all four factions into a single 2v2 Team Domination match in a new Battlefield Report, three months before Dawn of War IV arrives on 3 December.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV has shown what its multiplayer looks like with four players on one map, in a Battlefield Report posted to the game's Steam feed on 16 September.
Two teams, four factions, victory points
The match puts creative director Jan Theysen, senior game designer Elliott Verbiest, QA lead Orvie Thumel and Dom into two teams for a round of 2v2 Team Domination, with all four of the game's factions on the battlefield at once. KING Art's own announcement describes more units, larger battles and Victory Points as the thing that keeps both sides committed, and singles out teamwork and adaptation as the skills that decide the result. It is the fourth Battlefield Report the studio has published, after 1v1 matches pitching Space Marines against Orks, Necrons against the Adeptus Mechanicus, and Orks against Necrons.
December, and what is in the box
Dawn of War IV arrives on 3 December 2026, three months after the September date the studio originally worked to and gave up in an update posted in August. KING Art is developing with Deep Silver publishing, and the Steam listing promises four playable factions including the Adeptus Mechanicus in its series debut, more than 70 campaign missions playable solo or with a friend, and the returning Last Stand, Skirmish and multiplayer modes. The campaign is written by Black Library author John French.
What a Battlefield Report is, and is not
A Battlefield Report is a developer match, so it is a showcase rather than a balance statement. The footage is there to demonstrate that the armies scale when two players share a side, that Victory Points force both teams to commit, and that faction identity survives contact with a second opponent. Every asset on the store page still carries a work-in-progress warning, which is the studio's own reminder that none of it is final.
Our opinion
Team Domination is the mode worth watching, because 2v2 is where an RTS either develops a genuine team game or collapses into two separate duels that happen to share a map. The detail suggesting KING Art has thought about it is the Victory Points condition: a shared objective forces rotations, and rotations are what make a second player matter rather than simply doubling the unit count. What a developer match cannot show is whether the four factions are close enough for that to stay interesting, and Dawn of War III's problems were never visible in its videos either. Moving the launch to December was the right call on the available evidence, and these reports have become steadily better at showing the game instead of the marketing. December settles it.