The Warhammer and Warhammer 40K franchises are both incredible tabletop games, and they have each had their amazing share of video games as well. Stretching across several decades and many genres, the Umbrella franchise of Warhammer has managed to contain a great list of various video game adaptions under its belt.

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However, there is one genre that has been far more popular and enduring than any other for Warhammer video game adaptions. This is the strategy genre, having proven huge for the franchise across both Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K games. With no end in sight for the several huge series developed using a strategy formula for the Warhammer franchise, the list of great games in this area will only keep growing.

Updated on February 21, 2024, by Chris Harkin: The Warhammer and Warhammer 40K franchises never seem to really slow down. With an endless universe to explore and mine for content, video games set here will continue being released, possibly forever. The breadth of this fantastic series is perfect for a wide variation in strategy games, which are filled with different races and combatants in the many wars taking place all the time across the Warhammer worlds and galaxies of the different franchises. More games will be added as continual updates are made to the franchise, with many spin-off franchises expected to pick up further entries, and untold possibilities remaining beyond that.

10 Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach

Metacritic Score: 69/100

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows
• Released: January 2017
• Developer: Straylight Entertainment

Sanctus Reach is another game not known to every Warhammer fan, but those who know about it absolutely love it. Sanctus Reach was released in 2017 as a video game adaptation of “The Red Waaagh” campaign from the Warhammer 40K tabletop game. This famous campaign made for a great story, as players chose to side with either the Space Marine Blood Wolves or the Orks.

Much praise was leveled from Warhammer fans and critics toward the unit and faction design put into Sanctus Reach. Besides having a great multiplayer mode, the flexibility of various tactics that could be used was praised. Although it somewhat pales in comparison to the very best of the Warhammer 40K strategy games released in the last twenty years, Sanctus Reach was a bold attempt to step away from the Dawn of War franchise.

9 Warhammer: Mark Of Chaos

Metacritic Score: 73/100

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360
• Released: November 2006
• Developer: Black Hole Entertainment

Mark of Chaos was one of the earlier attempts to put a fun Warhammer Fantasy spin on the idea of an RTS game with a great story. It takes place in the old world and gives players the opportunity to choose between one of four armies, including the Empire, Elven Forces, Chaos, and Skaven. This offered players the chance to explore different strategies and ideas through the various forces they were able to command.

There are two separate campaigns that players are able to explore in Mark of Chaos in addition to the excellent multiplayer mode. Mark of Chaos came out at a great time for strategy games, but Warhammer Fantasy RTS games have always had a harder time than 40K games in garnering a fan base. Mark of Chaos is one of the best that have achieved it, enamoring fans with taking down the Chaos Gods.

8 Space Hulk: Tactics

Metacritic Score: 73/100

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox One & PlayStation 4
• Released: October 2018
• Developers: Cyanide

There have been a number of great tabletop games based on the Warhammer franchise, starting with the original game that can be played with the miniature figures at the core of Warhammer. However, one of the most popular board games to come out of this is Space Hulk, which was later adapted into this turn-based tactics video game.

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There have been a few Warhammer video games that adapt tabletop games, but nothing quite as well-executed from tabletop to adaption as this one, although the console controls were a complaint for critics. Space Hulk: Tactics is a great example of how a video game adaption of a board game can change and update the source material without altering too much of what made the board game itself great.

7 Blood Bowl 2

Metacritic Score: 76/100

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One & macOS
• Released: September 2015
• Developer: Cyanide

One of the wilder spin-off franchises within the Warhammer Universe, Blood Bowl, has managed several games, each a sports game that occurs in a turn-based strategy format. A violent version of American Football, Blood Bowl games involve a lot of violence and random events, such as helicopters being crashed onto the field of play.

After attempting various ideas that didn't pan out in the first Blood Bowl game, this sequel mastered the formula, being entirely turn-based and having an extremely fun single-player campaign mode in addition to the other modes that returned from the last game. While it is by no means the most traditional Warhammer setting, the humor the series is capable of is shown off fully in this spin-off series.

6 Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2

Metacritic Score: 77/100

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows
• Released: January 2019
• Developers: Tindalos Interactive

There is so much lore and story around the Warhammer 40,000 Universe, including a great deal about different planets and the races that reach across the stars in order to try and claim as many of them as possible. Given all that, it is surprising how few games about the Warhammer franchise involve space itself.

Battlefleet Gothic is an RTS game set in the Warhammer 40K side of the Universe, adapted from the miniatures around the Battlefleet Gothic wargame. Armada 2 was released in 2019 and was praised for making great advancements over the first entry in almost every regard. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 doesn’t deal with that many of the most familiar elements to Warhammer or Warhammer 40K fans, but it is one of the most perfectly put-together strategy games in that universe, with a great modding community.

5 Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Metacritic Score: 78/100

The cybernetically-enhanced warrior priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus have hardly ever gotten a look in at the long list of Warhammer 40K games which have been created over the past few decades. But Mechanicus finally gave them a proper highlight in a turn-based tactics atmosphere.

Highly praised by many critics, Mechanicus was a somewhat simplified version of the board game of the same name. It was a fantastic jumping-on point for new players and strategy game beginners while being an enjoyable ride without adding anything particularly new for seasoned vets.

4 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2

Metacritic Score: 85/100

Similar to the Total War: Warhammer franchise, the Dawn of War series managed to hit an incredible peak with the sequel. Dawn of War is known for being some of the very best games, not just strategically, for Warhammer fans to try out, and Dawn of War 2 is arguably the best of them all.

In story and character terms, as well as so much love being delivered by fans and critics alike for faction and individual unit designs, Dawn of War 2 is one of the absolute peaks of the franchise, and part of what made it so great was the brave decision to take away much of the base-building available in previous entries, forcing players to strategically choose the units available before scenarios began.

3 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War

Metacritic Score: 86/100

One of the most defining games of all time for the strategy genre and for the Warhammer 40K Universe, the first Dawn of War was a huge success that told an amazing story about the Blood Raven Space Marines who land on a planet under siege by orcs and find themselves in the depths of a darker conspiracy.

The Dawn of War franchise has produced some of the very best strategy games set within the Warhammer Universe, all because of the great first foray made by this game into storytelling, with a great campaign alongside the amazing real-time strategy mechanics that involve capturing points of interest on the battlefield and moving on to enemy bases in turn.

2 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War Dark Crusade

Metacritic Score: 87/100

While the first Dawn of War game is one of the best-regarded games ever released under the Warhammer or Warhammer 40K banner, it is actually the second expansion to that game, which stands as a game in its own right, that has managed to become one of the very best entries in the history of the franchise.

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Dark Crusade centered on the planet Kronus, where seven different factions from the Warhammer 40K Universe were entangled in a war for control of the planet and the valuable locations there. Players got to choose from the seven factions, by far the most options available in a Warhammer game up to that point, and work to take control of different areas in RTS format, battling individual other factions and defending player-controlled areas from other faction’s attacks, until finally gaining control of the whole planet. With the Dawn of War franchise having quietened down, a remake could be on the cards.

1 Total War: Warhammer 2

Metacritic Score: 87/100

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS & Linux
• Released: September 2017
• Developers: Creative Assembly & Feral Interactive

The Total War franchise is one of the best-known strategy video game series in history, having spanned a huge number of civilizations and eras of human history with the games that have been released over the past few decades. However, they also went into the Warhammer Universe to create a fantastic series of games about that franchise.

Working similarly to games like Dark Crusade, players would move their armies around the map in the turn-based format before meeting armies on the field in a real-time strategic fashion. After an initial foray into the franchise, Total War: Warhammer 2 was one of the absolute peaks of the Warhammer Universe throughout history.

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