Space Marines

The Space Marines are one of the four launch factions in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV. They are the elite, superhuman warriors of the setting, and in this game they are played as two distinct Chapters over the course of the Campaign: the Blood Ravens and the Dark Angels. Both Chapters fight on Planet Kronus, each with their own leaders, units, and reasons for being there, and their stories form part of the wider Story and Setting.

Two Chapters

Rather than presenting the Space Marines as a single generic force, the game splits them across two famous Chapters. Players experience both, giving the faction two different flavors of play within one overarching campaign.

Blood Ravens

The Blood Ravens travel to Kronus, their old recruitment world, in search of fresh blood to rebuild their dwindling Chapter. They are led by Captain Cyrus and Chief Librarian Jonah Orion (see Characters for the wider cast and Commanders for battlefield leaders). The official Space Marines deep dive explains that, fighting for survival on the planet's surface, the Blood Ravens lack the resources usually available to a full-strength Space Marine deployment. Their missions reflect that, focusing on smaller skirmishes and on operations behind enemy lines that gather reconnaissance ahead of precision strike force operations.

Dark Angels

The Dark Angels bring two of their most iconic formations to the field. The Deathwing are Terminator-armoured frontline troops who close in with power fists, forming a heavily armoured spearhead. The Ravenwing are bike-mounted units built around fast, mobile lightning strikes that hit and reposition quickly. The Dark Angels are led by Company Master Astoran, who fights in sacred Terminator Armour, and Chaplain Ezrael, who rides with the Ravenwing.

• Deathwing: Terminator-armour frontline troops armed with power fists.

• Ravenwing: Bike-mounted units that deliver fast lightning strikes.

• Company Master Astoran: Dark Angels leader in sacred Terminator Armour.

• Chaplain Ezrael: Dark Angels leader who fights alongside the Ravenwing.

The Dark Angels are in a very different position. They still command the arms and armour of a full Chapter, and the deep dive says their missions reflect that ongoing access to additional, apocalyptic firepower. Chaplain Ezrael leads highly mobile troops into war astride a Raider-pattern bike, while Company Master Astoran fights in Terminator armour as a powerful one-man army that moves at a slower but implacable pace.

The Dark Angels as a Sub-Faction

The official faction selector lists the Dark Angels as a playable sub-faction of the Space Marines rather than as a fifth army. Both are commanded by the player during the Space Marine campaign, and the two share the same published play guidance, so the split is a matter of roster and story rather than a separate set of rules. The upcoming fifth faction is a different matter entirely and arrives with the AFTERMATH expansion.

Lion El'Jonson

The Space Marine campaign builds toward a major moment: Lion El'Jonson is playable at the campaign's climax. He is billed as the very first playable Warhammer 40,000 Primarch to appear in any video game, making his playable appearance a headline feature of the faction. His role caps off the Dark Angels' arc within the larger story.

Building From Orbit

The Space Marines have the most straightforward base development of the four armies: structures are upgraded to unlock further units and research. What sets them apart is how those structures arrive. They are dropped from orbit anywhere inside your vision rather than built outward from an existing base, which lets a Space Marine player establish a foothold far from home.

There are two costs to that reach. A drop takes longer the further the target site sits from your headquarters, and the opposing player can see where a structure is about to come down, so an aggressive forward drop announces itself. See Base Building and Resources for how this compares with the other factions.

Reserves and the Thunderhawk Relay

Dropping structures from orbit is only half of how the Space Marines cover ground. Official guidance names two more tools for moving strength around a map: Reserves, a pool of troops held back from the front, and the Thunderhawk Relay, which shifts those troops to where they are needed. The stated logic is that a Space Marine player cannot be everywhere at once, so the intended pattern is to secure points with fortifications first and then use Reserves and the Relay to answer whatever the opponent commits to. Pre-release screenshots show a Reserve readout on the command bar with a small fixed capacity rather than an open-ended pool, so this is meant to be a deliberate choice rather than a free redeployment.

The October 2026 deep dive filled in how both tools work. Instead of producing every unit straight onto the battlefield, a Space Marine player can ready reserves in orbit, where they wait for deployment via Drop Pod. If one of your most valuable units comes under more fire than even a Space Marine can survive, you can rain reinforcements down to help it. The Thunderhawk Relay is a building: units directed into it can be redeployed elsewhere on the map by Thunderhawk. The studio singles this out as especially effective on larger maps, where you might work an initial force behind enemy lines and then follow up with overwhelming reinforcements.

Named Units

The Space Marines faction deep dive, published on October 8, 2026 as the last of the four faction previews, names more of the roster and explains the faction's design. KING Art describes the Space Marines as an elite, sharply focused force whose strength comes not from the size of their army but from a smaller number of immensely effective, relatively expensive units.

The Infiltrators and Eliminators are presented as a pair: the Infiltrators take the capture point while the Eliminators cover them from range. As of October 2026, no unit statistics, costs or complete roster list have been published for the faction.

Equipment and Upgrades

Asked what makes the Space Marines unique, the studio points to their combat technology. Where the Necrons rely on unnerving powers of regeneration and the Orks flood the battlefield to fuel their Waaagh! Energy, the Space Marines draw on a curated list of options from their armoury, with a deep selection of equipment and upgrade paths to choose between as each match plays out. The intent is that you develop each unit over a longer stretch of the battle, face critical decisions about how to empower your forces, and become invested in keeping those units alive.

Commanders

The Space Marines have more Commanders than any other faction: two for each Chapter, which the studio ties to the faction's tactical depth.

Stratagems

Each of the four Space Marine Commanders brings a unique Stratagem, designed to feel thematically appropriate to the faction as a whole. Two have been named. The Thunderhawk Bombing Run turns half of the screen into a blazing fireball that obliterates anything in its path, and the Orbital Strike ignites a huge area of the map from orbit, which the studio calls arguably one of the strongest Stratagems in the entire game. Which Commander carries which Stratagem has not been stated.

Chapter Colours

The Painter will include hand-crafted schemes for the most popular Space Marine Chapters at launch, and players get the same tools to build their own detailed designs and share them with the community. A favourite Chapter can be fielded across every part of the game except the campaign. See Unit Customization for the wider tool.

Trailers

A Space Marines CGI trailer released on September 30, 2026 shows the Blood Ravens and the Dark Angels standing united in the battle for Kronus. A Space Marines faction trailer followed on October 8, 2026 alongside the deep dive, presenting the two Chapters as united in purpose yet divided in doctrine.

How They Play

Across both Chapters, the Space Marines combine resilient, heavily armoured infantry such as the Deathwing with fast strike elements like the Ravenwing, supported by their named hero leaders. As with every faction, their units grow stronger during a battle through Unit Veterancy, and their engagements are governed by the Combat Director system. The split between the two Chapters means players move between a rebuilding, tactically minded force and a Chapter built around armoured spearheads and rapid bike assaults, all within the same Campaign. For the wider list of named leaders and the playable Primarch, see Commanders and Characters.

Official Play Guidance

The official site publishes the same short set of tips for the Blood Ravens and the Dark Angels.

Playing as the Space Marines

• They are elite fighters and will usually win one-on-one encounters, so use that advantage early to harass your opponent.

• Upgrade your units and keep them alive with on-field reinforcements, and retreat when you need to.

• Use fortifications to secure points, then move troops quickly with Reserves and the Thunderhawk Relay.

Playing Against the Space Marines

• Force them into multiple engagements to stretch their elite forces thin.

• Trade efficiently, because replacing losses is usually easier for you than for them.

• Deny them Resource Points, especially Power. Their units are expensive and require a lot of it.