Warhammer: Battle March, an expansion of sorts for the underappreciated PC RTS Mark of Chaos should hit shelves in September and will include the original game in the package. The console version offers “new” controls, an additional campaign with the Dark Elves and Orcs as playable races-- in addition to the Empire, Skaven, and High Elves, as well as Xbox Live multiplayer support. The biggest hurdle for the game is the transition from PC to 360 – this isn’t specific to Battle March because real-time strategy games just flat out don’t work as well on the consoles and the control scheme here doesn’t look to solve that particular riddle. We'll have to spend more time with it before passing any real judgment but this still should work best on the PC.
Much of the basic control scheme has been inspired by the Xbox 360 version of Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. The A button serves as a nexus for nearly all your actions from selecting units to targeting enemies for attack to interacting with objects on the map. For issuing attack orders, “A” works just fine; however, as a means of selecting units, it's cumbersome. Grabbing multiple units is impossible using the A button alone, so the game utilizes additional buttons for alternative ways of selecting multiple units.
Pressing the left thumbstick, for example, lets you select all units on the screen. Remembering the various button presses for each level of unit selection already seems to be a pain in preview, not to mention having to tap different buttons is totally unintuitive. There’s still time to iron this stuff out, but from what we’ve seen don’t expect the game to fix the basic problems of the console RTS. Of course, all of this stuff is personal preference and if you were a wiz at controlling Tiberium Wars then perhaps this issue won't bother you -- but for other gamers it's going to be a deal breaker.
On the other hand, there are actually two control systems in place -- "advanced" and a "basic" method which might actually work better even though you're going to be limited in how much micro managing you can do. Still, by simplifying the controls to basic attack commands it might make controlling these massive armies a bit easier. We'll have to wait and see as the advanced controls were a bit challenging to say the least. (In fact even some of the developers prefer the basic controls, if that tells you anything.)
All that said, as far as strategy is concerned, Battle March retains the fundamentals of the original Mark of Chaos PC game—which is to say it plays fairly well, focusing on fighting rather than resource management; there's no bases to build, food to gather...there's no sitting around while buildings pump out units. This is about tactics: moving units into proper position, flanking, attacking weak spots, using terrain, etc. Best of all, it is loaded with superb Warhammer flavor. Heroes lead your armies, and you can deck them out with classic ‘Hammer gear, spells, and skills. The “duel” system also has remained where champions from either army may meet in a circle of death, one on one. The duel impacts army morale, which is a huge component of the design – when morale falls, your army flees or becomes next to useless on the field.
Limitations on screen space prevent support for local multiplayer, leaving online play via Xbox Live your only option. Head-to-head matches and two-on-two team battles are planned. Disappointingly, Bandai-Namco won't be tracking any stats—not even win-loss records. At a bare minimum, keeping tabs of overall wins and losses on a leaderboard isn't too much to ask.
