The spires-n-skulls in space strategy sim Battlefleet Gothic: Armada will, barring unforeseen delays, soon be upon us. In fact, the multiplayer beta, available to all who preorder, went live today. And that means that this is probably a good time to take a look at the system requirements.

This is what you need:

OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)

Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) Processor: AMD FX-4100 X4 (3,6 GHz)/Intel Core i5-2500 (3,3 GHz)

AMD FX-4100 X4 (3,6 GHz)/Intel Core i5-2500 (3,3 GHz) Memory: 4096 MB RAM

4096 MB RAM Graphics: 1 GB, DirectX 11, AMD Radeon HD 6850/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

1 GB, DirectX 11, AMD Radeon HD 6850/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 DirectX: Version 11

Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection

Broadband Internet connection Storage: 10 GB available space

10 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX compatible

And this is what you want:

OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)

Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) Processor: AMD FX-8350 X8 (4,0 GHz)/Intel Core i7-3770 (3,9 GHz)

AMD FX-8350 X8 (4,0 GHz)/Intel Core i7-3770 (3,9 GHz) Memory: 8192 MB RAM

8192 MB RAM Graphics: 2 GB, DirectX 11, AMD Radeon R9 270X/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760

2 GB, DirectX 11, AMD Radeon R9 270X/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 DirectX: Version 11

Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection

Broadband Internet connection Storage: 10 GB available space

10 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX compatible

The minimum requirement is interesting, in the way that "can I run it?" conundrums so often are. The GTX 560 is hardly high-end stuff, but the Core i5 CPU is still a fairly beefy, and not inexpensive, chip. It's apples and oranges and all that, but the Armada minimum requirement is actually higher than that of Fallout 4—only slightly higher, yes—and way beyond those of the upcoming Total War: Warhammer game, which requires a mere Core 2 Duo.

But I suppose that's to be expected if you want your game to look this good. Somewhat oddly, a solid release date still hasn't been announced: Steam still lists Battlefleet Gothic: Armada as coming in March, but that clock is ticking down pretty quickly. The developers did say, however, that progress will be wiped at the end of the beta, “to avoid the unfair advantage beta participants may otherwise have in online play.” Sorry, guys.