Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March

There's a new campaign, offering spots in the limelight for Orcs, Gobbos and Dark Elves alike, and it's aiming to be a little flashier. These are not noble races, so the humor's turned up higher - the Orcs especially bicker among themselves, make daft claims about their own awesomeness, and generally cause a big mess rather than having some grand plan. That's more like it.

What of the combat? There's no major shift, but it has been tweaked. There seems to be more sense of impact when armies collide. Whether this will remain true beyond our initial celebrations at hot goblin-on-elf action, we don't know. Certainly, the Total War feel is stronger than ever. There's no resource-hunting or base-building. You field a huge army against another huge army, ensuring you've got the tactical advantage even if you don't have the numbers. The twist is magic. There's still something hilarious about seeing an enemy advance in meticulous rank and file, then hurling a fireball to scatter the arrayed troops like ninepins.

So, Battle March has got the character it needed. If it can also nail the scale and brutality of Warhammer combat, we'll be looking at the usual respectable RTS expansion. But with more troll vomit.

Feb20, 2008