Set during the Middle Ages between four warring empires consisting of the Romans, Han Dynasty, Kushans and Parthians, NetDragon’s Tiger Knight: Empire War is a mixed breed MMO that combines real-time melee combat with massive multiplayer siege warfare.

Oasis Games is publishing the title from NetDragon, and they recently announced that the title has entered into Early Access on Steam.

There will be more than 100 characters on screen doing battle, similar to Mount & Blade. Players who are leading a faction can command up to 40 soldiers on the field, utilizing battle strategies, formations and squad tactics not unlike the Battlefield series when in commander mode.

The game is being powered by the Unreal Engine 3, but hopefully it’s the Unreal Engine 3.5, after all the necessary updates and improvements. Based on the gameplay trailer it doesn’t look too bad and you can see what the gameplay for Tiger Knight is like with the trailer below.

It almost looks like a dead ringer for an Eastern version of Mount & Blade. You can pick up rocks and throw them down upon the heads of your opponents. You can use siege weapons to break through enemy defenses, and you can even use mounted combat to get around the battlefield quickly, while utilizing the height advantage from the mount to rain down terror upon your foes.

The game is free-to-play so there’s nothing to lose but time and bandwidth. This does mean, however, that you’re at the mercy of a cash shop that will likely be in constant fluctuation when it comes to content and pricing.

NetDragon is hoping to steer clear of the cash shop woes by focusing on the content, though. They reiterate that there are customization options available (though, some are locked behind the cash shop) and that there is the ability to outfit your horse with gear (though, some of that armor is also locked behind the cash shop) and that there are 800 different weapons and armor types available for players to outfit their soldiers with.

Tiger Knight isn’t scheduled to stay in Early Access for long, the game is already garnering positive feedback and NetDragon plans on using that to polish up the game as quickly as possible and launch it in full over the course of the next month or two.

You can learn more about Tiger Knight: Empire War or grab a digital copy by paying a visit to the Steam store page.