I must admit in my household the wife got heartily sick of me screaming encouragement at my PC Army as it cleaved a path through the ungodly. Cossacks and its addon Cossacks: Art of War were a big hit with me. The shear scale of the battles you could play were breath taking and the wonderful mix of historically based units made this RTS a hit throughout Europe and into the States. In the next month or so we will see a further sequel called Cossacks: Back to War...
The original game was centred around the 15th Century through to 18th Century, at a time when the infantry man was emerging as a tactical unit of some note on the battlefield rather than as a disposable speed bump for mounted knights. What attracted me to the original game was the wonderfully rendered battlefields and the ability to have really big battles. No, really big battles - we're talking 4,000 units a side which was unheard of at the time. It had all the traditional RTS bits with resource gathering, technology, trees and unit building all well handled but oh the armies you could build! All backed up with a single player campaign and multi-player option.
Despite the large amount of units the game engine had simple controls that made commanding units relatively easy. Varied pre-set formation options made setting up complex formations just as easy. All in all the game engine was well thought out and executed and deserved all the accolades it received.
So what can we expect in this add on? Well first off it ain't an add on, it is a standalone game. Expect basically the same engine with some tweaks but a heap of new content to make what was a really good game into something even better.
Here is what to expect:-
- 20 nations to command
- 101 new single missions (yes that's right 101 missions!)
- 2 new nations: Switzerland and Hungary
- 4 different difficulty levels
- 3D landscapes that have a tactical impact
- 20 new building types for Switzerland and Hungary
- Extra: Mod with an additional 30 units and 3 cannons
- Extended and historically accurate encyclopaedia
- Improved AI
All this will be backed up with a comprehensive tutorial and map editor.
There are some other neat surprises in store, with an online championship system (where you can have yourself ranked against the worlds best) and something that I have not seen before - an application to view online games as they are played. With a major contribution from down under, it's a game we can be proud of as well.
All in all Cossacks: Back to War is shaping up to be something pretty special (not surprising when you take into account the Kiwi connection). I was not disappointed with the original and I know that myself and other Cossacks fans won't be with this next incarnation either.
"……saddle the horse wife! I have nations to conquer!"
Check out the Official Site.
What do you think? 
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