Compared to the excellent Cossacks II the game has been dumbed down considerably. Officers can only command units up to 15 men, artillery is completely unmanned and has the habit of switching sides immediately when an enemy grunt manages to get closer to it than own troops. There is also no possibility to switch from round shot to grape or cannister. Cavalry has no officers at all. Infantry formations like line, column or square can only be ordered to units of 15 men with an officer and a drummer. There is also no possibility to fire in ranks or full volley. Everyone blazes away at will. So while you fiddle around with your microunits the AI approaches with blobs of 30, 40 or 50 foot and cav plus a few cannons and gives your men short shrift. Even if you manage to wipe him out, he reappears almost immediately with the same number of troops at your doorstep, all supported by a meager windmill and a few mines, while you have to deal with famine and other shortages to fill the losses in your ranks. Battles lack any tactical finesse and usually look like a big heap of men and horses kicking the living daylight out of each other, and even the winner most of the time suffers 80% or more casualties. Artillery will also fire on enemy targets even when mowing down own troops to do so. Fortifications merely impede movement and offer no other protection as infantry can shoot through the walls. Cannons on the other hand refuse to fire from behind a wall, apart from howitzers. Towers can`t be connected with the walls and while expensive and time consuming to build, are no match for enemy cannons who have a longer range and dismantle them fairly quickly. The whole game is a tedious slog against an AI which, no matter what you throw at it, can throw twice the amount back at you - and will. (Played on normal difficulty)
