diff --git a/src/marked-up_text.cpp b/src/marked-up_text.cpp
index 1084e0f5b86..46f87a3b048 100644
--- a/src/marked-up_text.cpp
+++ b/src/marked-up_text.cpp
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 #include "font.hpp"
 #include "marked-up_text.hpp"
+#include "team.hpp"
 #include "video.hpp"
 #include "wassert.hpp"
 
@@ -64,6 +65,27 @@ static std::string::const_iterator parse_markup(std::string::const_iterator i1,
 			break;
 		case NULL_MARKUP:
 			return i1+1;
+		// semi ANSI colour escape sequences at the start of the line for now only
+		case '\033':
+			if(i2 - i1 >= 4) {
+				++i1;
+				if(*i1 == '[') {
+					++i1;
+					if(*i1 == '3') {
+						++i1;
+						if(*i1 >= '0' && *i1 <= '9' && *(i1 + 1) == 'm')
+						{
+							if(*i1 != '0')
+							{
+								Uint32 rgb = team::get_side_rgb(lexical_cast<int, char>(*i1));
+								*colour = int_to_color(rgb);
+							}
+							++i1;
+						}
+					}
+				}
+			}
+			break;
 		case COLOR_TEXT:
 		  {
 		    //very primitive parsing for rgb value