Sega’s development team The Creative Assembly has been quite busy this year. Along with its survival horror first-person experience Alien: Isolation, the team has been hard at work on a new project that could change the face of strategic multiplayer as we know it – all while involving the highly popular Total War franchise.

Total War: Arena has been announced, a real-time strategy game that will allow up to ten players to compete against another group of ten in ancient battles, involving thousands of soldiers, according to VentureBeat.

The game, which will be set up on a free-to-play basis, is part of the Total War: Rome II franchise, providing a huge expansion on multiplayer, which was previously set up on a four-versus-four basis. This should no doubt bring in a bigger audience – which will certainly benefit Sega following a somewhat lackluster year in game sales.

While strategy will play an integral part in the game, battles will certainly be the focus. “This is all about fighting, not building a base,” said Gabor Beressy, project lead for Total War II: Arena. “Our goal is to create a pure, quality multiplayer experience. We have always wanted to have amazing multiplayer. After Rome II, we decided it needed its own team and its own dedicated development.”

The game, originally announced at the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, recently got a press showing in San Francisco, and is currently undergoing closed alpha testing at the moment, indicating that a public beta may not be far behind as 2015 rolls around.

The game will be “easy to get in and hard to master,” according to Beressy, with a number of tactics to utilize and 15 minute battles to endure. There can be situations where players can “turn the tide,” as it were, and rush an unsuspecting enemy.

The Creative Assembly intends to add even more historical content over time, including Gauls, barbarians, Chinese factions and more, according to Beressy.

This could no doubt change the landscape of how some people play online – and it will certainly push Total War to its limits in terms of interaction, not to mention excitement.

Sooo…who wants to conquer an empire?