Cossacks 2: Napoleonic wars review and screenshots

[SpencerH]

I tried Cossacks 2, but couldnt make it through the tutorials. As far as I can tell, this is a standard RTS- collect stuff, build houses, build armies. Attack. Lots of clicking. Lots of micromanagement of trivial stuff. Do I really need to decide where the barracks goes while busy defending my town? Planting charges to destroy a blockhouse was a nightmare!

Some of the combat elements were good but so far as Napoleanic TW goes, I'll have to wait.

This one gets a 3/5.

EDIT: uninstalled it

[Mikeus Caesar]

I'm currently downloading the demo for it (65%, nearly there!) and if it meets my incredibly high standards of approval (wow, they have big cannons! I must buy this game!) then i'll get it.

[lars573]

I tried Cossacks 2, but couldnt make it through the tutorials. As far as I can tell, this is a standard RTS- collect stuff, build houses, build armies. Attack. Lots of clicking. Lots of micromanagement of trivial stuff. Do I really need to decide where the barracks goes while busy defending my town? Planting charges to destroy a blockhouse was a nightmare!

Some of the combat elements were good but so far as Napoleanic TW goes, I'll have to wait.

This one gets a 3/5.

EDIT: uninstalled it

Meh, tutorials suck it's a rule. I haven't played a game yet where the tutorial didn't blow. You should've jumped off the deep end right into a skirmish game and gotten your ass handed to you once or twice by the AI. When I got C1 that's what happened to me. Train 100 peasants and put 50 on to both wood and stone gathering then trian 480 musketmen to make 4 units send 2 to capture more resource villages (2 of each kind is best) and the other 2 protect your town and you need little in the way of micromanagement.

[SpencerH]

Meh, tutorials suck it's a rule. I haven't played a game yet where the tutorial didn't blow. You should've jumped off the deep end right into a skirmish game and gotten your ass handed to you once or twice by the AI. When I got C1 that's what happened to me.

I tried to enter the campaign and was forced to do the tutorial. I agree that games and tutorials can be substantially different. In this case though, the flavour of the game came through. It's a standard RTS. The only reason the AI would've beaten me is because (as with most RTS) I would've spent too much time trying to use the unwieldy system to control so many units while maintaining production.

Train 100 peasants and put 50 on to both wood and stone gathering then trian 480 musketmen to make 4 units send 2 to capture more resource villages (2 of each kind is best) and the other 2 protect your town and you need little in the way of micromanagement.

If thats the case then why bother with the whole peasant/gathering portion of the game. I was hoping to re-fight the napoleonic wars, not worry about how much iron my peasants had mined or whether and where to build a blockhouse.

RoN is miles beyond this game.

[Efrem]

Don't be rediculous, If you'd waited and actually played a skirmish game you would see how off the mark your comments are.

You capture a villiage and it automattically makes resources... How the hell is that micro managment????????

There are reality only 2 resources you gather in typical sense and all you have to do for them is through 50 on a resource and leave them there for the rest of the game, Doesn't sound like micromanagemnt to me.

90% of Cossacks 2 is spent manouvering forces for battle, 8% building things which is a simple click and ignore it then after. 2% is spent making sure your resources aren't gonna run out on you, in which case there isn't much you can do as the process is so streamlined.

[SpencerH]

Don't be rediculous, If you'd waited and actually played a skirmish game you would see how off the mark your comments are.

You capture a villiage and it automattically makes resources... How the hell is that micro managment????????

There are reality only 2 resources you gather in typical sense and all you have to do for them is through 50 on a resource and leave them there for the rest of the game, Doesn't sound like micromanagemnt to me.

90% of Cossacks 2 is spent manouvering forces for battle, 8% building things which is a simple click and ignore it then after. 2% is spent making sure your resources aren't gonna run out on you, in which case there isn't much you can do as the process is so streamlined.

If I have to tell workers where to go, what to build, what to gather, etc then its micromanagment. If workers are set and forget then whats the point of including them? Either way, managing resource gathering is a critical component of a typical RTS. From previous comments, I didnt expect this game to be a typical RTS (and it is).

[lars573]

I tried to enter the campaign and was forced to do the tutorial. I agree that games and tutorials can be substantially different. In this case though, the flavour of the game came through. It's a standard RTS. The only reason the AI would've beaten me is because (as with most RTS) I would've spent too much time trying to use the unwieldy system to control so many units while maintaining production.

First off there is no campagin just the tutorial. The single player is the battle for europe mode. Skirmish is the best way to learn the ins and outs of the game. Second it's not a standard RTS. But Efrem already said how.

If thats the case then why bother with the whole peasant/gathering portion of the game. I was hoping to re-fight the napoleonic wars, not worry about how much iron my peasants had mined or whether and where to build a blockhouse.

RoN is miles beyond this game.

Which after you get your economy set you can. And believe me in the right cercumstances a blockhouse is a god send.

[Cheetah]

I have tried the demo and I have to say that I like the feeling of the game (which is a lot since generaly I dont like RTS games too much, last ones I played were AOE, the very first, and warcraft I and II). Also I have to agree with Laars and Efrem that the resource gathering is different, more logical and simplified, even though I would have got rid of the stone and wood gathering part of it, IMO it adds nothing to the game.

I very much like the fact that there is fatigue, morale, limited ammo, considerable reload time, etc. Also unit experience and position (flanking, rear attack) are also very important which is an other good thing.

However, I think that there is one major weakness of the game, perhaps not surprisingly the AI. While head on it can be challanging and sometimes even outright impossible to beat, it becomes helpless when it comes to protect its rear and its resources. In the skrimish battle I conquered the AI villages one by one with a single battalion of fusiliers and the AI did nothing! It kept throwing his units against my prepared defenses without sending a single unit to protect its resources! Of course the predictable outcome is that it ended up boxed up in the upper right corner of the map around its barrack with dozen of useless, out of ammo battalions.

If the AI behaviour is the same in game (and why should it be different?) then IMO the SP part of the game is close to useless, despite of the more or less realistic and highly welcomed morale, fatigue, ammo system.

[SpencerH]

First off there is no campagin just the tutorial. The single player is the battle for europe mode. Skirmish is the best way to learn the ins and outs of the game.

Since I've uninstalled it I cant check for error. Are you telling me that the first "button" on the main screen wasnt "campaign" or "european campaign" etc?

Second it's not a standard RTS. But Efrem already said how.

What Efrem said in no way changes that what I played is a standard RTS. The fact that it has more complex combat components such as morale and fatigue in no way changes that. So long as you have to manage resources in 'real time' that will be the most important component to victory i.e you have to build fast while disrupting the AI's ability to build- it's standard RTS strategy.

Which after you get your economy set you can. And believe me in the right cercumstances a blockhouse is a god send.

So is building towers and castles in AoE2.

[lars573]

Since I've uninstalled it I cant check for error. Are you telling me that the first "button" on the main screen wasnt "campaign" or "european campaign" etc?

Not having a screen of the main menu handy it goes,

Campagin -the tutorials
battle for europe -not sure if this is the actual title or not but this is the single player game
battle/save load -this is the skirmish game and where you play the historical battles like Austerlitz, Jenna, Ulm and others.
Multiplayer
options

If you really don't like more standard RTS style then try the battles or the european conquest mode. But since you uninstalled then I'm just talking to hear myself talk. The battles are like the one off battles from RTW except they have video clips of re-enactors and art to give the battle set up.

[Efrem]

What Efrem said in no way changes that what I played is a standard RTS. The fact that it has more complex combat components such as morale and fatigue in no way changes that. So long as you have to manage resources in 'real time' that will be the most important component to victory i.e you have to build fast while disrupting the AI's ability to build- it's standard RTS strategy.

But thats not the stratagy!!!!!!!

Its not how quickly you build Its how you use your units with flanking and stuff. Cossacks 2 is absoultly nothing like a standard RTS. The Economy is basically non existant FFS.

So long as you have to manage resources in 'real time' that will be the most important component to victory

IT BLOODY WELL ISN'T. The most important component of victory in C2 is how you manage your units in battle.

[screwtype]

So long as you have to manage resources in 'real time' that will be the most important component to victory i.e you have to build fast while disrupting the AI's ability to build- it's standard RTS strategy.

Yeah, I agree. Why can't they just provide a button for people like us who want to separate the strategic from the tactical element?

You hit the button and time stops, at which time you can plan your strategy, place your buildings and so on. Then you hit the button again and your workers start building and your armies start marching and so on.

They could still provide the classic RTS experience for everyone who wants to play clickfest. But there are so many people out there like me who hate clickfests, these game companies are missing out on a whole market. It's sheer idiocy on their part.

[Androo]

Why can't they just provide a button for people like us who want to separate the strategic from the tactical element?

Well, I think for many, but not all, RTS games the necessity for the player to click and build madly is used to obscure the laziness of the designers in regards to creating a strategic level which is complex, realistic and demanding of thought. In other words, I think most RTS's are 'no-brainers'. However, for those RTS's which do have an interesting strategic component, such a specific kind of pause button (ie time stops but one can still give production orders) would be a brilliant addition. (Of course, in its absence one can just normally pause or stop the game while one considers one's options.)

By the way, I'm not suggesting that this game is a standard RTS. I haven't played it, but it sounds pretty interesting to me.