It's an RTS in that it is a strategy game that is played in real time. You don't have battle like you in the Total War series(or C&C, Age of Empires, Company of Heroes, etc.), so you don't have direct control of individual units. You can adjust speed and pause at any time.
The individual units on the map represents 1000 troops, and the battles visually look like they do in the Civilization series(the unit model just hit each other, the outcome is simulated based on multiple stats).
the demo is on steam to try out.