I think it may be important to note that there is a difference between Mars and Ares. Ares represents the passion of war (the love for bloodshed, the fury behind the blows, the fear of death or harm, every emotional aspect of conflict. He is more of the internal aspects of war). Mars, while being the Roman equivalent of Ares, was more focused on the defensive aspects of war (protecting your homeland via conflict, protecting individuals from harm caused by conflict, bringing the end of conflicts, etc. Think of him more into the external aspects of war). They are definitely two sides of the same coin, but the difference may be important to you. Mars, as worked with in more planetary magic as opposed to approaching Mars the god, brings both aspects to the table. It can be extremely aggressive and envoke the internal emotions of conflicts, but it also can be defensive and work with the external aspects as well.
As far as working with Mars, you could also create the Magic Square of Mars and carry it with you. You could also make a sigil with it by using the intention “resolve this conflict” (being clear on what is going on), dropping all the vowels and repeating letters, changing the letters into numbers (1-9) and creating a sigil on the square by drawing a line by moving from one number to the next on the square. Then activate it as you normally would.