The closed beta for Total War: ARENA has launched today with massive improvements and changes! The “Fury of Arminius,” update, which is the biggest yet, has a variety of new features:

  • A new faction, the Barbarians, who focus on stealth, misdirection and hit and run attacks, bringing fresh life to the game and can provide hard counters to existing units, and are lead by new commander Arminius.
  • A new map named Rubicon, which features the first river crossing map, offering quick and deadly access to enemy camps. Mirroring Caesar’s crossing at the Rubicon river in real world history, this offers a new test for any faction.
  • Feedback has been taken into account, and the game has been rebalanced and fixed in response to this; you can see the notes for the feedback here.
  • New screenshots have been released:

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Finally, a trailer is now online:

Total War: ARENA is free to play, and you can sign up here for the closed beta if you’re in Europe or Russia, but US servers are coming soon. In the meantime, follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch.