By David Jagneaux

Like the MOBAs they inspired, real-time strategy games have always been one of the most intimidating and least accessible game genres. It’s a big reason why I don’t play them a ton. But if you give me something with a clean, polished look and a more specific focus, I can get behind it. It’s a big reason why Company of Heroes 2 is one of my favorite RTS games despite my general disinterest in historical military settings – an aesthetic that Ancestors Legacy from developer Destructive Creations aims to pillage and plunder until it’s no more.

Ancestors Legacy is the type of game that shamelessly displays its influences on its sleeve. By featuring a tightly focused gameplay loop that aims to highlight small-scale squad tactics over grand strategy that spans continents, matches feel like much more intense and personal affairs. Since this is an RTS you’ll still have to do things like build up a base and manage resources, but by the middle of a match those things are at the back of your mind as you’re setting traps, adjusting formations, and finding the best choke points and flank angles to take down your enemy.

The closed multiplayer beta that I tried out consisted of only a handful of maps and two game modes. There was only one 1v1 map to choose from, so that’s where I spent most of my time, playing as both the Germans and Anglo-Saxons. The modes, meanwhile, were Annihilation and Domination. In the former, you can only win by (you guessed it) obliterating your opponent, whereas Domination games are timed and mostly focused on tallying up points as you capture villages around the map.

The general gameplay loop in Ancestors Legacy will feel immediately familiar to any RTS veterans out there, as you begin the match with a single unit and a main base of operations. From there you can build things like a Barracks to train melee fighters or buildings to train Cavalry, Archers, Ballistas, and more. Each base camp also has a series of resource nodes around it (such as wood, food, and ore) that will be auto-collected once assigned and you need to build houses to increase the maximum population for your faction.

Due to this design choice, maintaining a steady flow of resources has more to do with the number of villages and outposts you own (as well as how well they are defended) and less about how many villagers you spawned back at the lumber mill. In a way, Ancestors Legacy removes much of the base building micromanagement often found in other RTS games in favor of more focused and flexible combat micromanagement.

In this way, Ancestors Legacy’s approach to resources is refreshing. You don’t need to worry about assigning individual peasants or villagers to collecting certain materials. You don’t pick which one makes the new buildings. The game just handles that stuff for you so you can focus on the war itself. It’s a breath of fresh air in many ways.

Fans of Company of Heroes 2 will notice a lot of mechanical similarities. For example, you control squads of units, not individual units themselves. When my archers take damage the number of archers will decrease, as will their overall health, both of which can affect their effectiveness in battle. Two small squads can be individually healed by making a medcamp or brought back up to full numbers at bases depending on the needs at the time. All units have their own specialties and weaknesses as well, creating a meta-game of rock, paper, scissors. Battles are less about how quickly you can overwhelm your enemy with units and more about how you can strategically take and hold positions while tactfully maneuvering the battlefield.

Since the unit cap was 10 total in the bits I played, each and every decision I made felt more meaningful. Not only can the tide of battle turn more quickly, but wins and losses in the small skirmishes feel like they actually mean something. Every squad that falls was a major asset to the team that lost it, especially when you consider each of your squads receives level up bonuses and individual upgrades.

Ancestors Legacy, due out in Q2 2018 for PC and Xbox One, is shaping up to have just about everything RTS fanatics are after in a new release. It marries concepts well in a surprisingly polished package and feels just inventive enough to not get too stale. Small touches like the day-night cycle and evolving weather system help make each and every match feel different from the last.

Since my Closed Beta only covered the multiplayer portion of the game I can’t comment on the purported single player, but developers have stated it will include an in-depth story that’s entirely inspired by real, historical events. Signups for the multiplayer beta are currently closed right now, but announcements regarding future plans are coming soon. In the meantime, keep an eye on Legacy’s Steam page for more details.

David Jagneaux is a contributor to IGN. Talk RPGs, strategy games, and more with him on Twitter at @DavidJagneaux.