For Conan the Barbarian, the best things in life are crushing your enemies and seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentations of their women. We mortals will get a shot at more Hyborian Age slaughter with Conan Unconquered, a real-time strategy game being developed by Command & Conquer veterans Petroglyph.

Conan Unconquered is more in the vein of They Are Billions than Petroglyph’s more traditional RTS offerings like Grey Goo and 8-Bit Armies. Here, you’ll be charged with building a fortress, raising an army, and then stopping the savage hordes that show up to beat down your gates and put your settlement to the torch.

The good news is, you have Conan on your side. Along with other heroes straight out of Robert E. Howard’s stories, he’ll help stem the tide of invaders while you look to building up your defenses, researching new technologies, and potentially summoning the Avatar of the gods – a giant, living bronze statue that can stamp through masses of enemies with ease.

You’ve also got the option of bringing a friend along. Conan Unconquered can be played in co-op (or Crom-op, maybe?), with both players sharing a settlement but having full freedom to build, recruit, and command. Either together alone, you’ll have to fend off increasingly difficult waves of enemies while making sure to protect your stronghold and repair damage and put out fires.

Petroglyph has a lot of excellent RTS games under its belt, and the screenshots for Conan Unconquered have an appealing Age of Empires look to them. However, this being a Conan property, it’s quite a bit bloodier.

Conquered in the second quarter of the coming year. We’ve reached out to ask whether there will be an early access period and we’ll let you know if we hear back.