Cossacks: European Wars

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Cossacks: European Wars
Developer(s)	GSC Game World
Publisher(s)	CDV
Release date(s)	13 September 2002
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen
Platform(s)	Windows

Cossacks: European Wars is a computer game set in the 17th and 18th centuries, and renowned for the seemingly infinite amounts of units the player can control at the same time. This ability set it apart from other games of the time such as Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and Civilization. Even today the only games that can come close to comparing to Cossacks in the area of unit count are found in the Total War series.

1 General Description
2 Basic Gameplay
3 Nations
4 Maps
5 Expansions
6 Sources

[edit] General Description

Swedish army besieging Russian town in Cossacks: European Wars.

Cossacks is an RTS, tending toward the tactical end of the spectrum (see also real-time tactics), with a balance between graphics and gameplay. The gameplay in Cossacks is fluid and fastpaced, while still allowing for large battles and appropriate graphics. The single player form of the game is very fast paced, unless the player should choose to set the map type to Islands. The game makes stringent use of height advantage and line of sight.

In most cases the beginner will find it very difficult to survive the incessant attacks that are issued by the game's AI. These attacks will plague the player until such time as he should completely eradicate the enemy's city or suitably fortified his own (unfortunately by such time as the player has suitably fortified his city, his enemy is sure to have acquired mortars which easily knock down buildings, given enough time).

Cossacks attempts to focus on realism in its gameplay, with the graphics seeming quite in proportion, and not in the least cartoonish, such as seen in Age of Empires III. The makers of Cossacks also have attempted to retain as much historical accuracy as possible in their game, both by providing detailed histories of all the units available, as well as rendering the units accurately according to historical descriptions. However, the actual tactics necessary to win bear little relation to reality and many people have complained about there not being a separate Scottish country in the game. England becomes, in effect, Great Britain in this game, due to the fact that only Scottish troops, not English troops, traditionally had bagpipers.

There is a fully playable demo that includes a random map playing with only the Spanish forces available, load and save options and three levels of difficulty. Another demo exists where the player can use multiplayer and can play as either England or France. Up to four players can play simultaneously.

[edit] Basic Gameplay

There are 6 basic resources in the game crucial to the player's military victory which are:- gold, wood, food, stone, iron and coal. Gold, iron and coal may only be acquired by constructing mines over a designated resource area and sending peasants into them whereas food is cultivated from mills. Wood and stone are gathered by conventional means and there are also specific areas where these may be collected. Depending on the type of unit or structure being built, the amount of resources needed to create a unit/structure would inflate quantitatively with each successive one built or trained. Depleted resources would result in an undesirable penalty for the player such as a lack of food will signify a famine for the state and the player's units will die from lack of supplies. Similarly, a lack of coal and iron means that shooters and cannons will cease to fire their weapons whereas a lack of gold will mean that units which require maintenance paid will commit mutiny against the state. The economic workforce consists of peasants who can multitask and also attack enemy soldiers. They can, however, also be captured by enemy troops and turned to the enemy's allegiance.

Cossacks depart from common RTS titles in that military actions may be conducted by assigning formations to soldiers or allowing them to attack solitarily without proper formations. Formations may be made by grouping exactly 15, 36, 72, 120 or 196 of a single unit type in the presence of an corresponding officer and drummer. 3 different types of formations may be assumed and used for different attacking strategies. Units in formations may also be issued a 'stand ground' order where they would also be granted a defensive bonus as well as a morale improvement. Cavalry units may also be grouped into formations and function in a similar manner as would an infantry formation minus the officer and drummer units. Upgrades which affect weaponry and defensive stats can be researched in the barracks or the stables. An academy or a minaret (for various scientific research) is also needed to train officers and to build formations.

Artillery in the game are divided into mortars, cannons, multi-barrelled cannons and howitzers and all have distinct functions which are suitable in one situation but may not be appropriate in the next. Mortars are primarily used to bombard enemy buildings and ships from afar. The resulting shrapnel and debris upon impact on the building(s) would also kill nearby enemy units as well as the player's own if in the vicinity. Cannons are the staple of the artillery forces in Cossacks and possess good range (which can be improved with its corresponding research) and shot power but are not particularly powerful against buildings, especially after the buildings' upgrades have been researched. Cannons are also able to fire a grape shot to eradicate a cluster of enemies at short range whereas a multi-barrelled cannon (must be researched at the academy and is not available to all nations) also functions in a similar manner but reloads quicker than the cannon. Howitzers are the shortest ranged artillery but possess the best shot power. They fire in an arc which means that enemy walls will not block their ordnance. They are good against both soldiers and buildings but should be escorted by guards. All artillery units may be captured by enemy forces as are the peasant workforce. The main upgrades for artillery are the extended range, the accuracy and its build time and cost.

The player may also construct ships to wage naval battles and may build from a choice of yacht, galley, frigate or an 18th century battleship. Nations which are historically not well-developed are restricted in the building hierarchy to just galleys. Turkey may build xebecs which are technologically equivalent to the Western powers' frigates. Ships are used for naval domination or for shore bombardment. A player may also build ferry units to prepare for a naval assault over large bodies of water. Larger ships typically require gold for upkeep and its crew would mutiny against the owner if the resource has been depleted.

Shooters (such as the musketeer and the strelet units) take time to reload their weapons after a volley and are vulnerable to a melee counter-attack. Ranged units also require a fair distance to be able to shoot at targets and will often retreat backwards to acquire the required distance. Different shooters possess different ranges while shooting and mounted dragoons do more damage than the regulars. Significant upgrades can be conducted to raise the level of damage possible and certain upgrades can also be purchased to half the cost of producing shooters.

Grenadier units can destroy buildings with their grenades as well as engage enemies in both melee and ranged attacks. Military production buildings (e.g. barracks and stables) may only be destroyed by artillery and/or grenadier units whereas civilian buildings may be captured as per the usual means.

[edit] Nations

In Cossacks you are permitted to play as and against a large number of nations. These include the following factions with their unique unit types;

Algeria - mamluk cavalry unit. Algeria are not permitted to train musketeers and are restricted to building only artillery.
Austria - croat horsemen, roundshier and pandur. Austria possess one of the more diverse armies of the game.
England - (historically inaccurate; see above)highlander and bagpiper. England's highlander units are one of the best shooters in the game.
France - king's musketeer and chasseur. The King's musketeer deals the most damage for a shooter.
Netherlands - special 17th century musketeer. The Dutch are one of the weakest armies in the game due to their poor default 17th century muskeeter.
Piedmont - padre (a healer unit)
Poland - winged hussar. Poland also have one of the best cavalry units in the game.
Portugal - shipyard armed with cannons for defence
Prussia - hussar. Their 18th century muskeeter are the best among all its counterparts.
Russia - streltsy , spearman, don cossack and vityaz. Also possess one of the more diverse armies in the game.
Saxony - Saxon grenadier
Spain - special 17th century musketeer
Sweden - Swedish rider and Swedish pikeman.
Turkey - Janissary, Spakh, Tatar and xebec.
Ukraine - serdiuk, sich cossack, register cossack, hetman. Ukraine may not build any defensive towers and do not have a 18th century barracks nor have officers and drummers to accompany their armies. The serdiuks are competent shooters and (as claimed in the manual) one of the best in the game.
Venice - galleas.

As in Age of Empires II, each side has advantages and disadvantages, as well as buildings with its own unique national appearance. However, many players lament the fact that, in game, it is only possible to play with six nations at once, and without additional expansion packs it is impossible to play with a team on the player's side.

[edit] Maps

In Cossacks there is a multitude of playable, randomly generated maps in addition to five long campaigns which are considered extremely difficult to beat. These campaigns are historically accurate, and often pit the player against impossible odds.