SEGA and The Creative Assembly finally have a release date for their highly anticipated strategy game Total War: Rome II. Fans can purchase the game worldwide on September 3rd both digitally and through retail.

A Collector’s Edition physical release will be available from launch and will run for a limited time while the 22,000 units last. It will come packed with a campaign map, a handful of dice and card games, and a fully functional miniature Roman catapult, just in case you needed one. This edition will cost a steep $154.99. Check out the contents here.

Pre-orders also lands the first three DLC packs for free, which will open up different factions to bring into battle, and each will have their own missions and campaigns to complete.

Total War: Rome II is a sequel to the massively popular Rome: Total War which was developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Activision in 2004. Even to this day, it is considered to be one of the best RTS games ever created, and heavy modding from the user base expanded it way beyond what the original designers had in mind.

The Total War series has visited other eras of history, such as the Napoleonic Wars and Feudal Japan, however, Rome remains the most popular era The Creative Assembly has ever created. Fans are eagerly awaiting their return.

SEGA and The Creative Assembly extended their partnership in late 2012 as part of SEGA’s digital reconstruction efforts. Once the game is released, they will be set to work on the Warhammer series, which SEGA purchased through the THQ auction in January.

Total War: Rome II will be released on September 3rd exclusively for PCs.