If you’re staring at the Warhammer section in the Steam Summer Sale wondering what’s worth your time, this’ll help. These are the five best Warhammer 40K strategy games available right now—ranked, explained, and stripped of anything you don’t need to know.
5. Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
This is pure tactical Warhammer. No territory control, no tech trees, no nonsense. You lead Dominus Forinius and his Adeptus Mechanicus squad through a Necron tomb-world with a single job: extract data, kill anything in the way, and make it out alive.
Everything you do burns cognition points—think of them as a tactical fuel. Use too much and you overheat, fail missions, or lose units. You manage augments, schematics, and servo-skull support. Maps are grid-based, enemy threats are constant, and resource limits shape every move. Between missions you pick relics, adjust doctrine, and decide who to enhance.
The UI doesn’t waste your time. The art direction is grim, metallic, and on-brand. You feel every blast, every swing, every tactical failure. No filler systems. Just missions, decisions, survival. If you don’t care about building empires and just want dense, repeatable 40K tactics, play Mechanicus.
4. Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War
Gladius takes the 4X label and strips out everything but war. There’s no diplomacy, no culture, no peaceful win. You pick a faction, drop onto a hex map, and fight until everyone else is dead. That’s it.
Each faction plays like its lore says it should. Guard rely on numbers and defensive fire zones. Mechanicus builds around tech timing and flexibility. Space Marines hit hard, expand slow. Necrons have no food or influence—they awaken and roll forward like a machine.
Terrain isn’t just set dressing. Forests, elevation, movement penalties—use them or bleed units fast. Build too many cities and you’ll tank your economy or trigger the AI too early. Gladius rewards momentum and punishes bloat. Level up the right units, ditch the rest. You’ll know when you’ve messed up.
Expansions add real depth—Tyranids, T’au, Chaos Marines—but the base game is still worth playing. Four strong factions, clear systems, and a constant pressure loop that keeps every turn tight. No distractions. Just faction identity, map control, and forward movement.
3. Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters
This is turn-based squad tactics under constant pressure. You’re leading Grey Knights through plague-infested systems, trying to contain Nurgle’s bloom. You don’t get time to sit back. You don’t get room to overthink. Warp surge mechanics force the pace. Wait too long and random events stack against you.
Missions are fast, decisive, and brutal. You build squads using class-based roles—Justicars, Interceptors, Purifiers, and more—each with unique traits, gear, and psychic powers. Knockbacks, parries, warp strikes, teleportation—it’s all on the table, and all demands proper timing.
You’re not expanding an empire. You’re maintaining a crippled ship while juggling plague outbreaks and resource limitations. Between fights, you manage what little you’ve got—repair systems, research new strains, triage worlds. Boss fights hit hard, require coordination, and punish any slip.
The DLC adds more classes, enemies, and mission types. But even the base game delivers clean, aggressive tactics that reflect what the Grey Knights are: elite, relentless, and under siege from the warp. It’s tactical combat under a time bomb. Play accordingly.
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2
This is slow, brutal real-time strategy at fleet scale. Ships are kilometres long. Turning one takes time. Committing to an engagement is a choice with weight. Pulling out costs blood.
You get nearly every major 40K fleet. Imperials are durable with solid arcs. Chaos snipes and tricks. Tyranids rush in and chew everything. Aeldari flit around like wasps. Orks crash into everything. Necrons ignore the rules, teleport, and regenerate mid-battle. These aren’t reskins. Each faction warps how you play.
The campaign splits across three core factions: Imperium, Necron, Tyranid. Each plays differently, each tells its own story. You move fleets across a turn-based map, manage resources, face random events, and make hard calls. Lose a ship and it’s gone. Screw up positioning and you’ll pay in hulls and lives.
Combat is real-time, but deliberate. You rotate ships to protect damaged flanks. You target engines, launch boarding pods, deploy stasis bombs. Morale breaks. Mutinies happen. It’s all on you.
The visuals sell it without showboating. Ships look like cathedral-guns. Explosions hit like they mean it. Campaigns are long but efficient. You’re getting a full fleet strategy experience with no fluff. Still one of the best RTSs in the Warhammer catalogue.
1. Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
Turn-based, grid-locked, and mean. No economy. No abstractions. This is squad-level 40K where roles matter, and screwing up is punished immediately. You’re not building armies. You’re fielding squads.
The campaign follows the Blood Angels mopping up a Tyranid infestation. There’s a proper narrative arc, full voice acting, and real character interaction. You unlock units, assign wargear, and prep for missions that hit like sledgehammers.
The momentum system drives everything. Move, kill, push forward—build momentum and spend it to trigger special abilities. Fail to maintain that pace and the enemy walks through you. Every unit has a job. Intercessors hold the line. Assault squads break it. Dreadnoughts tank and punish. You don’t spam. You position.
Since release, Battlesector’s expanded with Necrons, Sisters of Battle, and Orks. Each adds new systems that actually change the game. Skirmish mode gives you sandbox flexibility. Planetary Supremacy adds a light strategic overlay. Multiplayer’s stable and fast.
No hidden dice rolls. No cinematic fluff. Just the tools to win—or lose—by your own decisions. Every mistake is yours. Every win feels earned.
This isn’t just a top five by popularity. These are the strategy games that get Warhammer 40K right. Focused, mechanical, unforgiving. If you want cinematic storytelling and power fantasy, look elsewhere. These games are here to test how well you think.
