Listen up, all you RTS fans! I'll only say this once and you won't get a second chance!

A two-week closed beta for the highly anticipated sequel to Company of Heroes, is just around the corner. You won't even be able to take down your Easter decorations before the war revs up once again, since the beta launches on Tuesday after April Fool's!

So, seemingly the transition from THQ to Sega didn't put any spanners in Relic's machinery. In fact, executive producer for the team, Jonathan Dowdeswell had this to say about working for the publisher of Total War and Universe at War:

"Our acquisition by Sega has given us the chance to work with a new partner that has a great track record of working with long standing PC franchises. It gives us great confidence to know that we have a well aligned team working to bring the best experience we can to gamers around the world."

Well isn't that just fine and dandy then! Oh, but you wanted to know how you can get into this closed beta? Oh how silly of me. Of course, the only way (at the moment) is to pre-order the game. The game will apparently use Steam for DRM, so it doesn't really matter where you pre-order it, as long as you make sure the retailer provides you with a beta key when it is due time for the war to begin.

As a side note, I'd like to remind those of you who have forgotten - or just didn't pay attention earlier this month - Company of Heroes 2 is set to release June 25. So get your commander hat, it's time for war. And what a beauty will it be.