Feast your eyes on Dawn of War 3's campaign opening cinematic – it's like stop motion with Warhammer 40K miniatures

Dawn of War 3 plays to its origins in the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game with this cool little cinematic.

A new Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3 trailer has popped up, showing off the main campaign's opening cinematic.

I've never played a Dawn of War game so I don't know if the cinematics are usually composed of these amazing stop motion-like sequences. Look at the detail on the models! It's almost as if they got a bunch of actual Warhammer 40,000 miniatures and scenery, plonked them around a table, then covered it with fog. Miniatures painted by someone who wins prizes for it, though.

The opening bit seems to refer to Dawn of War 3's larger story, involving the Spear of Khaine. When the action starts the more immediate plot is laid out – the planet Cyprus is being overrun by the Ork horde, the local Imperial commander said nobody could go help out, and only Blood Raven chapter master Gabriel Angelos dared defy orders and go to the defence of the local house. He's gonna get in trouble.

Dawn of War 3 releases this month for PC and is available in a stack of special editions with various pre-order bonuses, too.

The Dawn of War 3 beta kicks off later this month if you fancy having a go early. We were lucky enough to do just that and go hands-on with all three Dawn of War 3 factions last month.

Dawn of War 3 has been a long time coming; the last game released in 2009. Since then THQ went bust, Sega snapped up Relic, and Games Workshop started giving out licenses like candy. It's had some tasty results.