THQ have announced details of its plans for the Dawn of War II - Retribution multiplayer beta.

The beta will begin on Monday, January 31st when key community members will be given access, this is followed a day later when everyone who pre-ordered the game through Steam gets their access details. Players who have bought a Dawn of War game through Steam or have registered a Dawn of War II product on their Steam account will receive their invite on February 8th.

THQ notes that there will be no open registration phase to this beta so if you want to be on it, you must pre-order your copy now!

The beta will feature all six multiplayer races and is expected to run until the 24th of February so they can monitor the Steamworks networking and matchmaking features and to help balance the multiplayer mode. All new units for each race will be available in the beta along with the new multiplayer maps which ship with Retribution.