If you’re a fan of military-themed real-time strateg games, you’re probably familiar with the game Company of Heroes. Sega has announced that the second game in the franchise is set to start its closed beta early next month. Company of Heroes 2 will kick off it closed beta April 2. That is next Tuesday if you don’t have a calendar in front of you.

The initial phase of the closed beta is open to eligible pre-order customers only. Sega says that in the coming weeks it will have a second phase of the beta allowing a wider audience to take part. The closed beta will use Steam and players will need the free Steam client to redeem their closed beta access key.

During the closed beta, players will have access to multiple player and skirmish game play with six maps. The beta will support 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 competitive game play and single player game play. Players will have access to the first 40 levels of progression and will be able to customize load-outs. The full game is set to launch for PC gamers in June 2013.