Cossacks Anthology

I've got the series on disc. Back in the day this was quite fun in it's way, though I just can't understand all the rave reviews because this is definitely not in any way at all "tabletop wargaming" brought to the PC. There are no tactics or strategy, at least from the AI. It just builds units and sends them in a lumpy stream without proper formations or co-ordination. However, there were at least some naval elements to the fighting (something which elsewhere back then was pretty much non-existent), and at least for raiding ships the lack of a proper battle-AI was much less problematic. And it looked nice and was more than just fighting as you had to build a bit etc. Still, I felt cheated because the pics on the boxes always showed some fantastic formations in huge battles, and that just doesn't happen. If you're interested, I'd suggest you instead start with their American Conquest: Fight Back game, and play as a colonial power, that way the lack of proper or huge enemy combined unit formations or any pretty battlefield manoeuvres really don't matter so much because the tribes didn't really employ them and nor did the colonials employ them as much. Thus the endless stream of skirmishers trying to slowly overwhelm your fledgling colony seems less unrealistic.

I love the gameplay. I am generally not a big fan of old games. This one is a rare exception. The game back in 2001 was revolutionary due to the amount of characters it can have on screen at once which was much more than AOE at the time and character management was and still is great. Surprisingly graphics are still great by todays standards and the best part is they run on a potato PC. I was an 11 year old kid when I first got my grubby little hands on this game and could not put it down. I am 28 now and nostalgia aside I am very happy on how well the game aged and still plays with great satisfaction today. It rivals newer strategy games despite being about 17 years old and offering similar fun levels as compared to newer games of this style. I find that a bit shocking myself. That is something most games can not achieve.

I have played Cossacks series when I was younger. Really fun game. Will even work on slow computers with thousands of soldiers. I thought it might not work with my windows 7 and fast computer but no issues so far.

I really do like this game. And this is the same version I played on years ago on an older computer with an older OS (probably Windows 7). But at Windows 10, this game just doesn't seem to want to work anymore. Some people in the forums have mouse problems, others have speed issues, others have outright crashes or errors. I had the issue where everything was fine until I started the game and the screen froze and none of the units moved (my mouse could still move oddly enough). After spending the last three hours going through the forums and trying every single bootleg remedy out there, I'm throwing in the towel. GoG usually does a good job of making sure the games they release function properly on modern Operating Systems, but it seems this collection of games is the exception (I've heard similiar complaints about American Conquest as well.) There is a chance that the games will work for you and you'll dodge the miriad of problems that could await you. But you'll also be playing Russian Roullete with your debit card. I'd recommend not taking the risk of wasting your money and buying Age of Empires 2 instead. Since that has always worked with modern computers.

Works well on Windows 7, although get too large an army and it'll crash with a dmcr.exe error...but overall, a great classic game, much recommended.