Battle March continues the conflict brought to you in the original Mark of Chaos, adding a new single player campaign and breathing a bit of life back into the game by adding two new factions, the Orcs and the Dark Elves; each with their own unique units and champions.

For those new to Mark of Chaos, this is a real-time strategy game with an emphasis on combat. There’s no resource collection, no construction of buildings or defences, no unit production or any real micro-management to deal with. The only thing to do (other than fighting) is the purchasing of upgrades for your units, but the upgrading system is a fairly straight forward process and isn’t done on the battlefield, so you’re not dealing with upgrades and fighting at the same time. So if you just like to jump in and fight, then this game could be for you.

For those who’ve played the original game, first released in 2006, there are no real changes to the gameplay. You get a new single player campaign and two new factions, with all the extra units and champions you’d expect.  Each of these two new factions has three sub-factions, which affects what units can be selected. The Orcs having units such as the Orc Boyz, the Orc Arrer Boyz, Night Goblin Fanatics, Trolls and the Rock Lobber - a very large catapult. The Dark Elves have units such as Crossbowmen, Witch Elves, Cold One Knights (being large, mounted reptiles a bit like a T-Rex), then we have the Reaper Bolt Thrower, which shoots a hail of six foot long barbed bolts at your enemies and even a five headed War Hydra that breathes fire.

The setting is a late medieval fantasy world, with units ranging from your standard real-world type of units, such as close combat infantry using swords, ranged units firing muskets in volleys, horse cavalry and cannons firing long range heavy hitting shots. You then have your fantasy elements, such as magic, like a champion throwing fireballs at the enemy or healing your troops, and various fantasy creatures such as dragons, giants, Trolls, Rat Men and so forth.

Your army is made up of units consisting of individual solders or creatures. So an infantry unit would be made up of a set number of swordsmen. The maximum number of soldiers in a unit is dependant on the type and experience. As their experience increases, so does the number of soldiers in that unit, but more about this in a moment. Some units, such as giants, which are classed as Siege Units, only ever have one creature in them, but that creature is usually very powerful.

Your army is persistent, following you from one battle to the next, assuming it survives the battle, of course. You build your army by either meeting friendly units on the battlefield, or purchasing new units in-between the fighting. Any units that do survive can be picked to fight in the next battle. This unit cap increases as the campaign progresses, depending on the battle, allowing you to field more units and therefore larger armies later in the game.