When video game developers sit down in front of a live camera to showcase their latest creations, viewers naturally expect a masterclass in gameplay. Traditionally, industry insiders use these promotional streams and combat walkthroughs to demonstrate absolute mastery over the mechanics, smoothly dismantling enemy factions and highlighting their studio’s creative vision in spectacular fashion. However, King Art Games recently decided to take a refreshingly transparent, albeit humbling, approach for its upcoming real-time strategy title, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4.
In a newly released gameplay video that has quickly captured the attention of the strategy gaming community, the developers behind the project learned the hard way that the game’s artificial intelligence on Hard mode is an absolute powerhouse. Rather than orchestrating a heavily scripted, perfectly choreographed victory, creative director Jan Theysen and senior game designer Elliott Verbiest teamed up to face off against a relentless team of AI-controlled Orks in a 2v2 Team Skirmish PvE battle, resulting in a swift and devastating defeat that left the Emperor’s finest completely dismantled.
Throughout the promotional campaign for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4, both Theysen and Verbiest have served as the primary figures at the helm of the battlefield report videos, guiding prospective players through the intricate mechanics and tactical depth of the upcoming real-time strategy experience. While those prior gameplay showcases predominantly focused on competitive player-versus-player scenarios, this latest presentation shifted gears toward cooperative player-versus-environment action. Seeking to test the limits of their own creation, the two developers joined forces to take on the computer-controlled adversary, deliberately opting to crank the challenge setting up to Hard mode to see how the system would hold up under extreme pressure.
What followed was a humbling double-feature that showcased the unyielding brutality of the game’s Greenskin faction. The video captures two distinct matches, the first of which went so spectacularly and catastrophically wrong for the veteran developers that they suffered a complete and utter defeat in just over four minutes. Stunned by the lightning-fast onslaught of the AI, the duo jokingly dismissed the opening rout as merely a practice round—a simple warm-up exercise before the second match, during which the pair earnestly promised viewers that they were entirely "locked in" and ready to turn the tide.
Determined to prevent a repeat of the four-minute disaster, the developers even adjusted the match parameters for the second encounter. They increased the number of Victory Points required to secure a win, a deliberate choice meant to extend the duration of the match and give themselves enough breathing room to mount a proper tactical response.
Unfortunately for the Space Marine commanders, the adjustments did nothing to stem the relentless green tide. The brutal, overwhelming Orks stomped all over the Imperium’s elite forces, delivering the kind of sweeping, merciless beatdown that is not only characteristic of the faction’s lore, but fully deserving of a traditional guttural cry of a Waaagh! As the match progressed, Theysen and Verbiest worked frantically to keep pace with capturing strategic points and map objectives, but they found themselves utterly unable to fend off the continuous, crashing waves of attacks. Even with auto-reinforce features enabled for their units to keep their frontline squads populated, the pressure proved to be too much. Falling critically behind in Victory Points and completely starved of the necessary resources, the developers had no viable way to generate a responsive counter-attack army when the AI orchestrating the Orks made a decisive push straight toward their main base.
Realizing that the battle was mathematically and tactically unwinnable, Theysen offered a humorous reflection on the studio’s internal balancing metrics while watching his digital army get dismantled. "I think I have to have a stern word with our coders about the hard mode difficulty," Theysen joked as the gravity of the Space Marines’ imminent defeat set in. "I mean, it’s supposed to be hard, but also the boss is supposed to win!"
Senior game designer Elliott Verbiest quickly chimed in with his own expectations regarding how the community will approach the challenge once the game finally reaches the hands of strategy enthusiasts worldwide. "I have no doubt that players will come back to us within like a few weeks of launch and tell us, ‘Actually we’ve managed to beat this within two days,’" Verbiest noted, anticipating the relentless drive of hardcore real-time strategy veterans.
"I’m pretty sure that the people in the comments will discuss our shortcomings!" Theysen added, accurately predicting the playful banter that would inevitably emerge from the community after watching the creators of the game get systematically dismantled by their own artificial intelligence.
The second match and the video itself ultimately concluded in a rather unceremoniously abrupt manner: with Theysen manually hitting the surrender button on-screen just moments before the AI Orks could deliver the final, devastating blow to their headquarters. "This might be the second loss in a row which tells you two things," Theysen remarked as the defeat screen materialized. "First of all, we are not that good at our own game. And also the AI is pretty strong."
Offering a polite and lighthearted sign-off to the audience observing their strategic collapse, Theysen concluded the session. "This is a surrender. It was an honor playing with you, but we didn’t make it. Maybe next time. See you soon. Bye."
When all was said and done, the second match managed to stretch out to a much more respectable 13 minutes—a notable improvement over the four-minute blowout of the first round, but clearly falling far short of the triumphant victory the developers had originally envisioned. Despite the public defeat, the candid demonstration resonated remarkably well with the strategy gaming community.
Observers across social media and video-sharing platforms praised the studio for its authenticity and transparency. Rather than tossing out the embarrassing footage and recording a heavily edited match on a more forgiving normal difficulty—or endlessly grinding against the Hard AI until a lucky win could be captured and presented as standard gameplay—the developers chose to pull back the curtain and show Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 exactly as it stands in development right now, warts and all, even if it meant sacrificing their professional pride in the process.
Fans in the community were quick to share their reactions to the brutal display of Ork supremacy. "Pretty cool that you guys showed the defeat and how hard the AI can be. Quite interesting!" one viewer wrote in the video’s comment section. Another user, displaying a healthy respect for the lore-accurate destructive potential of the Greenskins, added, "I will never do hard in a Warhammer game, Orks just nuke you."
With Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 officially scheduled to launch for PC on December 3, 2026, prospective commanders around the world now have a very clear idea of the formidable tactical challenge that awaits them in skirmish modes. For many players tuning into the developers’ humbling misadventure, the takeaway message was loud and clear: sticking to normal difficulty might just be the wisest choice when facing down a Waaagh! of that magnitude.
