u/SpoonusBoius

I wanted to make a post summarizing the general information we got today. If there's something I missed, let me know! It was mostly information about maps, but we did get our first look at some deployment zones and cover, as well as fleets and how they will interact with ground forces.

Maps

• Planets will be separated into regions, and in order to invade a planet you put forces on the ground to invade them. Systems will have a "handful" of planets. This is information we already had—planets will not be equivalent to settlements, rather a planet is more similar to a continent, if we're making a comparison to WH3 scale.
• Regions on planets will have "key locations" that you need to acquire in order to take the region. In other words, take the settlement to capture the region! Straightforward Total War stuff.
• Planets will have two (maybe three) ways of differentiating themselves from each other. The first is the biome, which is like if the planet is arid, temperate, cold, etc. The second is the level of civilization on the planet (hive world, mining world, frontier world, etc.). The third, which they don't mention directly, could be the planet's topography in and of itself. I imagine planets will either have a large amount of templates that has different biomes applied to it or each heightmap will be procedurally generated. I'm hoping for the latter! The art director said that, when designing planets, they do not have to "manually" insert things like trees and mountains, and that they're capable of making "infinite versions" of planets.
• Battlemaps will not be procedurally generated, but rather there is a selection of pre-made maps that change in appearance depending on the biome you're fighting in. This disappointed me somewhat, as I was hoping for a procedural system, but if there are enough maps I don't think it will be an issue.
• Battlemaps are much bigger than in previous games!
• I think the maps look gorgeous! If nothing else, the art direction for this game is wonderful from what we've seen so far. Potato computers, watch out...

Gameplay

• At least for the Guard infantry, units are still formed up into lines and moved in blocks. Big units of 100+ models are still to be expected!
• Cover is crucial, and can help defend vulnerable units from ranged attacks (makes sense). We see some "cover zones" on the battlemaps they showed off! Some are fortified static positions while others seemed to be simple elevated pieces of terrain.
• A lot of terrain elements will be destructible, including forests and buildings. They were quick to specify that not all terrain will be destructible!
• We got a look at some of the infantry squads, and the units had a few sergeants with chainswords!
• Armies (presumably) were present on the planet map. There are two very large Orks on the planet that they showed off, and they seem to fit the classic Total War vibe of, "here's a dude that you move around on a map, he represents the army he leads."
• The location of a fleet will be very significant for ground battles. If, while you are engaged in combat, there is a fleet overhead, you can call upon your ships to provide you with fire support of different types (like the orbital laser we saw in the trailer).
• No news about the UI or combat directly.

Real World

• We will have no more news until the end of June. It's gonna be a long wait.