Казаки

This game is a bit too complex for me, I like the complexity of RA2, or other simple RTS games. I use to manage to win only naval wars since the ships are simple compared to land armies. So if you like complex RTS games, this is quite fun. One of my most favorite features is the cooperative styled multiplayer where more player can give orders to the same nation, sharing the tasks is quite fun. I liked to care the financial tasks while my buddy did the complex stuff with all the different kinds of soldiers, cavalry and artillery.

I bought Cossacks + add-ons on CD years ago and loved it. On that basis I bought Cossacks 2 but I never really got into it; I definately prefer Cossacks 1. However, over the years the PC's were replaced, and newer versions of Windows were used, and I was no longer able to install and play the game (on CD), so when I came across GOG selling it as a complete bundle for a few ££ I was instantly attracted to it, but I was concerned it still might not work on my even newer machines using Win 7 and Win 8.1. I read various peoples comments and I got the impression that it 'should' be ok. As there is no real risk to purchasing from GOG I went ahead and bought it and I can confirm that it works great on 2 of my 3 Win 7 Laptops. 1. HP Pavillion DV8000 (about 7 yo) - Win 7, Dual Core, 2gb Ram, 128mb Radeon Xpress 200m Gfx - Works great (Suffered Graphics corruption with CD version) 2. HP 4730s (3 years old) - Win 7, i7, 4gb Ram, 1gb AMD 6490m Gfx - Black Screen, hasn't crashed, but won't display properly - I reckon I can get it going with a little more effort. 3. Samsung (1 yo) - Win 7, i7, 8Gb Ram, 2gb AMD Gfx - Works great, The game itself - Excellent use all the various features that you expect of RTSs. Research tree, Multiple Building Types/Upgrades, Unit Types/upgrades (Infantry/Horse/Cannon/Ships etc). Peasants for buidling and Resource collection. Terrain/Fog of War/LOS all affect battle. Multiple mixed types of soldier can be grouped, but they won't be proper formations. However, proper units/formations are created using a Leader & Drummer and an even number of one type of men. e.g. 72 Pikemen and the other 2 together. Click on the leader to form them into a proper unit; Much more effective. Games can be quick skirmishes, or long epic battles with massive armies. See the photo's. You'll loose the first few games quickly, but you'll get the hang of it. One trick is to keep a few men dotted around the map as spotters. Anyway, it comes highly recommended by me :)

I think I never had a game where "You either like it or not" did fit the most. I normally don't play strategy games. I appreciate the genre, but it is not for me. So here we have a game that I like a lot, which you can now take how you'd like. The thing is, the game is actually less in-depth than the counterparts of its time. So what long time investment you can actually get by the game depends on how challenging you make it for yourself - or how much you enjoy the charme of the game and how it plays. Seeing that the AI in this game sadly never reacts in any clever ways besides cheesing the terrain to gain advantage (you can do too, though), the game quickly becomes a run for resources and spamming your army. Yes, you can have formations, and use tactical map environments and units, but this probably matters at most on highest difficulties. Even than, the game starts to lose its technical depth quick. On the other hand: The different styles for countries, their units and music are great. The way upgrades work and you built your "towns" is always a highlight for me. And yes, spamming the enemy with ships and units is kind of amazing for a while. Oh, and yes, the game has naval fights, which are actually quite cool. Again, rather simple, but the foundation is solid to have fun for a round or two. If some stuff would be used more critical, and the enemy would be smarter, this foundation would shine so much more. Generally speaking. The game worked out of the box for me. It has higher resolution and some settings to adjust. Graphics are nice, music is great. Controls work as expected. The game has some minor bugs, but some of them I think even since its first release. Back to War is the last expansion by the way. I've also only played that one. There is a campaign that is... brutal. And free play mode which can be adjusted quite well. For the price, if it seems charming to you, give it a shot. It really has something going for it, even if it is a more simpler game.

If you love Age of Empires, then there's really no reason not to love this. Cossacks took almost everything that was great about Age of Kings and stuck it in a unique 17th/18th century setting, with significant improvements such as the capacity for hundreds of thousands of units and more tactical combat.

These games were my childhood (along with sudden strike). I love them to bits and although graphically dated it still holds its appeal to me today. The biggest problem thus far is that I have yet to get a LAN battle working as the game speed is ridiculously fast due to modern processors. This is not a problem with the single player however. The AI is definitely dated so don't expect the skirmish modes to be very thrilling but the campaigns were painstakingly designed and are very challenging to this day. The game was pretty complex compared to similar games and makes you think about what you are doing, it does take quite a bit of micro management however especially if you prefer not to group your units into formations.