Warhammer: Mark of Chaos

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Warhammer: Mark of Chaos

Developer(s)	Black Hole Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Deep Silver, Namco
Release date(s)	November 14, 2006
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics (RTT)
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Rating Pending (RP)
Platform(s)	Windows
Media	6x CD or 1x DVD
System requirements	Windows 2000/XP - 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD Athlon - 512 MB RAM - 3GB HD Space - 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6800/128 MB ATi Radeon 9200

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos is a real-time tactics game set in the Warhammer universe using the Warhammer Fantasy Battle ruleset. It was produced by Namco, developed by Black Hole Entertainment and distributed by Deep Silver. The game was released on November 14, 2006.

According to the developers homepage, WH:MOC is a wargame focusing on operations while de-emphasizing "the tedious aspects of base and resource management".

1 Game background
2 Features
3 Story
4 Controversy
5 Screenshots
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Game background

Though not a sequel to these, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos (MoC) is the third real-time tactics wargame based on the Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game rules following Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (1995) and Warhammer: Dark Omen (1998) by Mindscape.

MoC is, similar to its two predecessors, a wargame of battlefield tactics, thus not featuring RTS gameplay aspects like base-building, resource harvesting or in-battle unit production. Instead, the gameplay is intended to be focused on high fantasy/late medieval battles. Though superficially similar to Shadow of the Horned Rat, Dark Omen and the Total War games, the basic game play model is significantly more simplified, and battles are more similar to real-time strategy games like Warcraft III than other real-time tactics titles.

Mark of Chaos is situated in the Old World of the Warhammer Fantasy universe. Playable armies includes The Empire, Chaos, Skaven and High Elves, as well as additional controllable races (Orcs and Goblins and Dwarfs) as mercenaries.

[edit] Features

When playing the single player campaign, the core of the game,the battles, are played in a real-time battle map mode interspersed by a separate strategic mode where troops can be replenished and items can be purchased. Multiplayer modes are basically deathmatches which allow for allied victories. The game also features siege warfare. During battles hero units can be challenged to duels, where they fight uninterrupted until one wins resulting in a morale penalty for the losing side.

The game features four graphically distinguished factions, though virtually identical in disposition and features. In homage to the original table top miniature game the armies can be customized in their colour scheme with the army painter and some of your soldiers' accessories can be individualized.

Borrowing from role-playing games, heroes and regiments gain experience and heroes can level up and improve their skills of; Combat (ability to inflict massive damage to entire regiments), Duelling (enhanced combat ability in duels) and Leadership (bestows tactical advantages including morale boosts to your army). Additionally, magic weapons and armour can be found and equipped on your heroes giving them an edge over opponents with an inferior armament.

[edit] Story

"Over a year has passed since the Great War, during which the brutal Chaos armies swept across the Empire lands. Many fierce battles still rage across the Old World.

Portions of the defeated Chaos armies have retreated to the distant Northern Wastes, while others have fallen to hostile groups. Among these tribes, new Champions rise up in an effort to reunite the Chaos forces, yet eventually all fail. None can match the power of their fallen leader, Asavar Kul.

The united Empire and High Elf forces hunt the Chaos hordes from the Empire territories, still alert as danger lurks around them in the form of smaller enemy war bands that loot the settlements of the border lands."

[edit] Controversy

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The game created a host of controversy, mainly centred around two things: the marketing of the game, and, related to this, the lack of faithfulness to the Warhammer original.

Before release, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos was claimed to feature "dynamic cooperative campaign mode and a full assortment of multiplayer modes for both casual and competitive gamers". However, the cooperative campaign was silently omitted from the released game(It infact means that one could choose to asign the armies to different players on the same computer since only 2 missions in the "good" campaign feature both armies). Namco also targeted the existing table top fan-base in their marketing of the game by creating the impression that Mark of Chaos is faithful to and a full-fledged computer instantiation of the table top rules. However, the game implements very little of the table top game; f.i. army movement rules (wheeling); solid, non-overlapping formations; and proper handling of army lists and balanced unit selections are all missing from the game.

Mark of Chaos was marketed as a tactically deep and engrossing game, promoted features included elevated terrain, different terrain types and destructible terrain. Though these factors do exist they have very little impact on the game. Further, lacking features like friendly fire from the missile troops, many realistic tactical considerations as well as tactics from the table top are invalidated.

Mark of Chaos was marketed as of "epic" scale, with "thousands of characters battling on screen";^[1] in reality, the game features hundreds rather then thousands individual characters.

Mark of Chaos introduces "hero" characters, immensely strong individuals unattached to regiments. These heroes can be equipped with items and potions that make them invulnerable and insurmountable; it is common that an "army" only consisting of one single hero defeats the entire opposing army.

Though ostensibly a real-time tactics game, Mark of Chaos requires careful micromanagement rather than strategic overview. The hero duels, in particular, which is one of the main selling positions of the game, have been recurrently singled out as dull, lacklustre and requiring close supervision to not miss manually activating any special ability.

Further common sources or criticism in reviews, discussion and technical support fora are that the game suffers from numerous bugs, instability and prohibitively long load screens: "the standard loading screen is preceded by its own loading screen, for meta-loading", as Game-Revolution put it in their review.^[2]

[edit] Screenshots

Empire and Chaos are two of the four playable factions. Notice the regimental disposition of the troops.	The terrain is elevated and can be of different types, which has tactical implications	A duel being fought between an Empire Grandmaster and an Orc Warboss	Siege warfare is an important part of the game
Dwarves engaging Goblins. Both factions are Dogs of Wars, races that can be added to the armies as mercenaries	Empire cannons, infantry and cavalry engaging Skaven troops in an unordered confrontation	Greenskin troops and buildings. Buildings are of tactical use only since the game will not feature base building or in-battle unit production.	A deep and ordered formation of High Elves against a Goblin rabble formation rush
Empire troops idling in a village designed in typical Warhammer style