It was developed by Black Hole Entertainment and co-published by Namco Bandai Games in North America and Deep Silver in PAL territories in November 2006.

An Xbox 360 version was released and titled as Warhammer: Battle March, dropping the Mark of Chaos moniker.

The objective for each battle is defeat of the enemy army by either completely destroying it or causing the remaining units to flee off the battlefield.

Battles are fought on a variety of landscapes and settings, with specific terrain types granting bonuses or penalties to units.

[9] Units also have morale, and will break and flee if they suffer enough damage or get hit by specific types of weaponry,[10] and stamina, which will cause them to lose defense and speed when sufficiently drained.

Between battles the game switches to a map of the area, with the location of their army denoted by a figure of their champion.

On the map the player can also access towns and encampments, which serve as the replacement for bases found in other strategy and tactic games.

In the aftermath of the war, the chaos warbands scattered, some returning to their homelands in the north, some staying and raiding the farms and villages in the northern fringes of the Empire.

The Empire, already pushed to the brink of collapse as a result of the war, is undermanned and struggles to protect the isolated farms and villages.

In addition they are, along with the Dwarves, one of the few races who have developed black powder weaponry, and have access to handguns, cannons, and other gunpowder based siege weapons.

During this time he is guided by a sorcerer by the name of Sudobaal, who instructs Thorgar to lead his men to a Chaos shrine.

After enduring a series of trials Thorgar obtains the favour and patronage of one of the chaos pantheon; either Nurgle or Khorne, depending on the player's choice.

The campaign concludes with Thorgar killing Sudobaal for turning on him and his elevation to daemonhood, and the subsequent destruction of the city of Talabheim.

In the distance a huge greenskin army is preparing to launch its own attack against the Old World, this possibly heralding the game's expansion: Battle March.

The Empire is placed from the perspective of "Stefan von Kessel" a captain in the army of Ostermark under Count Otto Gruber.

In the end they go their separate ways and Stefan, after helping Brother Gunther (a warrior priest of Sigmar defending a shrine from the Skaven), learns that Count Otto Gruber (whose army could not be found) was guilty of worshiping Nurgle, the Chaos god of the rot.

Stefan retrieves a Daemon slayer's sword from the tomb of a vampire count and heads east to deal with Gruber.

By right of deed and ancestry, Stefan claims Gruber's sword, a Runefang and symbol of an Elector Count of the Empire.

The Reiksmarshal returns and informs Stefan that the Emperor has restored him the lands taken by Gruber and named him the new Count of Ostermark.

Stefan then must face Thorgar the Bloodied One, a Chaos Champion that has ascended to Daemonhood, in the Campaign's final chapter.

The game features an orchestral soundtrack composed entirely by award-winning composer Jeremy Soule, who is most famous for his work on Supreme Commander, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Icewind Dale, and the Guild Wars series of video games.

The entire soundtrack is included in audio CD format in the Collectors Edition box set.

Reviewers generally praised its distinctive and varied visuals, with the character models and the special effects earning high praise from the majority of reviews, but also criticised the rather basic combat animations and a shallowness of tactical depth for a game focusing purely on battlefield operations.

The single player campaigns received criticism for its linearity, and the storytelling especially when compared to the game's opening cinematic.

The multiplayer support was also disparaged for its temperamental and glitch-prone account system and connection issues, although this was addressed and partly fixed in subsequent patches.