Neocore Games, as the developer, and Paradox Interactive, as the publisher, have announced that they are partnering up in order to create and release a new real time strategy title called Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade, which is expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2010 and will be depicting the battles that the English king waged in the Middle East between the years of 1189 and 1192. The game is set to realistically depict some of the toughest wars of the Medieval period and will allow players to control both sides that fought in the bloody crusades.

Players will be able to take on the roles of one of two kings: Richard the Lionheart, one of the greatest warriors of his time and a determined Christian ruler, or Saladin, the Saracen leader who outwitted many crusaders and liberated much of the Holy Land.

Neocore is saying that the starting positions of the two sides will be historically accurate but after that, players are free to actually re-write history and lead any of the sides to overall victory while making sure generals are loyal, armies are fed and paid and the enemy is demoralized.

It seems that Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade will use the same underlying structure as Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come and the recent King Arthur - the Role Playing Wargame, and will allow for heroes to be upgraded as they gain experience and for every unit to be customized in order to fill a particular role on the battlefield.

The battles themselves are played out on a fully 3D map, with hundreds of units engaged at the same time and it will be interesting to see whether the control points system from Arthur returns. Between combats at army camp, players will be able to manage their armies and prepare new tactics.