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For those who didn’t wallow in their parent’s basement dressed in cloaks with a homemade staff, Warhammer (Mark of Chaos / Battle March) and Warhammer 40,000 (Dawn of War) are completely different things. The model based table top games in which their based on are from the same company; Games Workshop but when it concerns the games, the developers, publishers, game universe and critical reception are as far apart from each other as possible. So ignore what standing you have about the Dawn of War series and it’s time to concentrate on Black Hole Entertainment’s Warhammer: Battle March. If you head over to http://www.markofchaos.com/ then you’ll be able to see their previous game, Mark of Chaos. Sadly, despite its ideas, its execution was depressingly average and disappointed much of the community. Luckily, the developers have been given another shot at the Warhammer genre and have come back fighting. We get a chance to play through the preview build in advance of its 14^th March release. If you played Mark of Chaos then you’ll be happy to know that there are many improvements over it, but if not (as Battle March is a standalone expansion) then it’s not too important.

The best place to start, as it’s where you’ll be spending most of your play time, is the single player campaign. Battle March takes the table-top elements to heart and instead of base building and building up a force, it favours the Warhammer approach of where you choose which units (purchased with gold) you want and jump straight into battle. You’re limited as to how many units you can actually take into a skirmish, but you’ll more often than not have some to spare. This all takes place in the town screen, where alongside the option to purchase troops (and powerful heroes) you can upgrade your units with weapon / armour upgrades, bless and heal them, buy siege weapons, buy your heroes kit and basically define your force in a personal way. Once you’ve finish pimping your battle force, you exit a town and are greeted with a meta-campaign map. It’s akin to the Total War series but unlike Total War you can only follow a set path and as well as that, the battles are restricted to set points. The campaign map is decently rendered and you traverse it with your armies (which are represented by a movable hero figure).

Once you come to a battle point it’ll ask you if you wish to fight or retreat and subsequently engage the chosen option. Once you’ve chosen fight and got past the lengthy loading screen (which we presume is evident because it’s a preview copy) you’re presented with your army and the deployment stage. When you’re happy with where your troops are played (within the set deployment region) you can hit begin. Standard RTS controls apply and there isn’t anything that will surprise you / confuse you as long as you’ve completed the tutorial. It’s left click to select and right to move / attack (with a double click making your troops run.) You’ll have objectives (depending on the battle) and some will be secondary / optional. The main premise is to work your way through the map, kill all the enemies and come away with character loot and gold, ready to spend it and repeat.

The environments are varied, from lush forests to arid desolate mountain ranges. The landscape is crisp and detailed with foliage and wreckage bringing the battlefields to life. You can zoom in to the floor and the game looks as good close up as from a distance. Character models are detailed and shine and the individually controlled heroes have distinct character, whether it is a battle-hardened general or a cloaked sorcerer. Each hero has a skill tree with various passive / active skill upgrades and performing a fire ball or sword sweep will use up power from your pool. The power pool can be seen at the top of the screen and removes micromanagement. Hero skills are easy accessible and don’t require retraction away from the action. Hero’s as well as units level up and become more powerful as you progress along one of the three campaigns; Empire, Orcs or Chaos. The same premise is there but the races are definitely different and play is unique to each. You’ll have no problem playing through the campaigns and its gameplay is engaging throughout.

Battle March is definitely looking the part and its merger of RPG-Lite elements with traditional strategy works well. Sound design is on form with weapon strikes and battle cries chilling the soul. The niggles and flaws from the previous game have gone and it’s looking like a decent, well rounded product. A further two weeks of polish should be enough to rectify the mistakes of the past and hopefully ensure that Warhammer has a RTS that it can be proud of. Stay tuned for our review when it’s released.

Warhammer: Battle March is out 14th March.  9th May.

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