In Dawn of War 4, each faction can field a massive endgame unit that basically dwarfs everything else on the battlefield. For instance, the machine-loving techpriests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, they can airdrop a multistory tall mech from space. This Titan will then merrily stomp around the battlefield crushing everything in its way. However, of all the factions, the Necrons – Games Workshop’s equivalent of The Terminator – can bring to bear the most powerful. Called a C’Tan Shard of the Void Dragon, this spearwielding megaunit is a machine-bound fragment of a shattered god.
Unlike the other faction’s endgame units, which reserve their rage for the enemy, the Necron’s big unit has as much hate for its masters as it does its enemies.
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When Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade released back in 2006, the Necrons were still a relatively new faction in Warhammer 40,000. They had only received their first codex and official faction status in 2002. Back then, they were largely silent deathless machines that wanted to exterminate all life in the universe for largely unexplained reasons. That’s all changed these days, ever since a major overhaul in 2024.
I mean, they’re still deathless machines that want to exterminate all life in the universe, but now it’s for much more explained reasons.
“The Necrons are an ancient alien civilisation that used to rule the stars, a long long time ago in the history of the Warhammer 40K universe,” Dawn of War 4’s senior game designer Elliott Verbiest tells me. “They are a civilisation that traded their organic bodies for mechanical ones in order to cheat death.” Made virtually immortal, the Necron went on to conquer most of the galaxy.
“For a long time, they lay dormant underneath all the planets they had conquered,” Verbiest says. “Then they began to wake up and realise, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of different species and civilisations that have cropped up over the thousands of years that we’ve been asleep. What are you all doing here? This is our stuff.’ That’s their core conceit. They’re very powerful, bordering on almost mystical levels of technology, and they are thoroughly arrogant in that respect. They’re quite haughty and inherently feel that they are superior to all the other mortal species among the galaxy. That is the primary friction they bring to the galaxy. They’re this huge ancient empire that has returned to the modern day to reclaim what they believe is theirs.”
It was the C’Tan that gave the Necrons the ability to shift from meaty bodies to metal ones. Though, when giving the Necrontyr – as they were called then – this gift, the C’Tan didn’t share all the details. Yes, they did become immortal, but they also became dim and easily led. The C’Tan effectively enslaved the Necrontyr and used them in their war against the other gods of the galaxy. The Necrons that held onto enough of their sentience weren’t thrilled about this and plotted their revenge.
When the war with the Old Ones was done and the C’Tan were victorious, the Necrons were able to strike the star gods to gain their freedom .”They shattered them into these shards,” Verbiest explains. And now the Necron have turned the tables, trapping the C’Tan into machine bodies that are forced into battle. “They’re only part of the essence of this god, because, of course, killing a god is no small feat, even for the Necrons. These shards are something that the Necron can wield and it is their most powerful unit available to them in a regular skirmish or multiplayer game.”
So, when you find yourself leading a Necron army in Dawn of War 4, and you summon up a C’Tan Shard, and he doesn’t sound best pleased to be on your side, know that it’s not just you: he does hate you.
“When you give the Void Dragon orders it does this with no real pleasure,” Verbiest says. “It feels like it is in control but it is still chained. It is forced to act.” You’ll hear a bit of this lip whenever you face another faction of Necrons, too, that’s when the C’Tan Shard can really let its anger out. “Whenever they interact with enemy Necrons, the C’Tan Shard is the only unit that refers to the Necron’s original name, before they transitioned into these mechanical monstrosities: the Necrontyr. We wanted to show there’s a very different relationship for this particular unit compared to all the other Necron units, which are for the most part almost entirely servile to the dynasty.”
If you can get past the fact that you’re summoning a massive spearwielding star god into battle that given half a chance would tear you limb from limb, the C’Tan Shard of the Void Dragon sounds well worth the trouble. Able to fly over the battlefield, the mega unit can avoid obstacles and reposition quickly. They can also hurl their spear to take out large units in a single hit or even clusters of smaller troops that get in its way.
“We want to replicate that feeling of a barely contained fragment of a god,” Verbiest says. “It has these green bolts of lightning that cascade off of it that deal damage to vehicles and restore tiny bits of HP back to it.” And, unlike the other faction’s endgame units, the Necron can only summon one of them at a time. “We really want to convey how strong this is. When you look at all the other units that we have available across all the rosters for all the factions in the game, this is the one that stands out. It’s a momentous occasion when this shows up on the battlefield.”
I do realise that this is basically just a big boss unit in an RTS game. Strip out all the millenia of lore, and the surly voice lines, and the special effects that see green lightning drip off the C’Tan Shard as it marches across the battlefield, and you’re just looking at a large melee unit. But, just as I was charmed to learn why the Adeptus Mechanicus’ Ironstrider mechs dance on the spot, those stories do make for a much more compelling game.
And, just because there is interesting lore that makes its way from the codex pages onto the screen doesn’t guarantee a good game. Just look at Warhammer: Age of Sigmar – Realms of Ruin… But, but, but, even if Dawn of War 4 can’t capture the magic of the first games, I will try to take as much pleasure as I can ordering around a fragment of a disgruntled star god.
