User Reviews (1 - 11 of 12)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Very Rewarding Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 20
Date: May 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've had Cossacks 2 for about a month now, ordered it from Germany. CDV never cease to amaze me. The graphics are top notched,sound,unit formations,and the interface, as well. Also the zoom feature is right on par. All facets of this game is well thought out. Trust me, buy this game ,you won't regret it..... The only thing missing for me is the Naval Battles in skirmish mode.

Cossacks is a great game for you........D Hodge

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: May 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

With this year marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, it seems a bit fitting that the Napoleonic Wars seem to be getting a little more attention than normal. Case in point is Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars, the follow-up to 2000's Cossacks and the latest game in the real-time strategy series. In a way, Cossacks II marks the first major upgrade for the franchise, as it sports a much updated graphical look, as well as some significant new features. The gameplay, however, remains unmistakably Cossacks, which is good news for fans of the franchise. Newcomers, on the other hand, will discover a somewhat quirky but enjoyable real-time strategy game that focuses on formations and tactics rather than base-building and tank rushes.

In Cossacks II, you take control of one of six great powers of the era and attempt to settle your differences on the open field of battle, like civilized gentlemen. The game features a single-player campaign that's a bit loose with the facts for dramatic purposes, a battle for Europe campaign with both turn-based and real-time elements, and a variety of skirmish and historical engagements. At the heart of Cossacks II, though, are the real-time strategy battles that remain relatively unchanged from the earlier games.

When you get down to it, Cossacks II is a real-time strategy game for history fans. This is a big game with battles that take place on huge maps dotted with villages and towns connected by roads. You'll have hundreds of peasants gathering resources and building a variety of structures, while formations of 120 men march to and fro across the map. As in real life, roads play a strategically critical role in warfare, since they're the only efficient means to march men across the map. Thus, you can create blocking positions at key crossroads, and you get to feel like a real field marshal as you attempt to maneuver your army around the map.

The combat in Cossacks II is very faithful to the era, so you have the fun of marching your formations on to the battlefield, lining them up, and firing at the enemy. This was the era, after all, when armies stood in open field and exchanged fire until one side shattered and fled. Despite the apparent simplicity, there was actually quite a bit of strategy involved, especially since it took upward of a full minute to reload muskets. Fire too early and the enemy would make you pay while your men were busy trying to reload. Thankfully, the new color-coded range system lets you hold your fire until your men can see the white's of the enemies' eyes, or, in this case, until they enter the red zone, which is helpful in gauging the effectiveness of your volleys. The artificial intelligence of your opponents varies, but generally it's pretty good about finding your flank and trying to lure you into wasting a volley. If you fire prematurely, the computer will waste little time in exploiting the fact.

You can also select from three different formations, depending on your tactical position, and you also have to worry about your men's morale, as well as their fatigue level. Furthermore, you have cavalry and artillery at your disposal. However, the infantry represents the core of your army, so it'll do the majority of the fighting, as well as the majority of the bleeding. Thankfully, you can pull depleted formations out of battle to send them to the nearest friendly village, where they will replace their losses. However, if a formation takes too many losses or loses too much morale, it will break and shatter, meaning it's out of the fight for good. It's also critical to capture villages, which are the source of the various resources in the game, including iron, food, coal, and gold. Food and coal are particularly important, because your army's logistical needs mean you must secure these sources, or else your army will starve to death or run out of bullets. Unfortunately, we wish the same could be said for the enemy, because during the single-player campaign, we noticed that even after choking the enemy off from all sources of supply, it still managed to keep fighting for a pretty long time.

[...]
We mentioned before that the single-player campaign is a bit loose with the historical facts, and that's an understatement. The campaign puts you in control of a British officer trying to save God, king, and country (not to mention his fiancée) from some rebellious nobles in league with the French. The dastards even go so far as to besiege London! Melodrama aside, the campaign features some static cutscenes and dull voice acting, and it only exists as a contrived reason to stitch together some missions that vary in difficulty from challenging to frustrating. In fact, one starts you off in such a horrible tactical position that it takes hours and hours, not to mention a large amount of saving and reloading, to claw your way to victory. Unfortunately, there's no "easy" difficulty setting in the game, and one of its strange quirks is that "normal" is the easiest difficulty setting available. And it only gets harder from there.

After you're done learning the ropes with the single-player campaign, you can then tackle the Battle for Europe campaign, which adds a turn-based strategic layer to the game, kind of like the one featured in Medieval: Total War...only simpler. You control one of six nation-states, and you get to capture provinces, build defenses, and move your army around the map of Europe. While the turn-based strategic layer is a nice addition, it's a bit lacking, especially since it doesn't take into account naval combat, which played a pivotal role during the Napoleonic Wars. As a result, it's possible for France or any other power to invade England from across the English Channel, though it will need a sizable army to capture the heavily defended London. There's also a lack of depth that separates Cossacks II from other strategy games with turn-based modes, because you only get one army stack to push around on the map, and the only building options at your disposal are to increase the defenses in a territory.

On the flip side, the lack of depth can make for a fast-paced game, especially since the real-time battles unfold differently from the ones found in the single-player campaign. Instead of grinding battles of attrition, the battles are relatively quick, since your main task is usually to shatter the enemy's will to fight. It helps that logistics play a big role during battles as well. For example, you go into battle with only the resources you gathered during the turn-based portion. This means it's possible to encounter critical shortages that can cripple your army. If you don't have coal, your army can't shoot. It also means you'll want to capture key territories from the enemy. Seize someone's coal-producing territories, for example, and he, she, or it will have a hard time fighting you on the battlefield.

Multiplayer offers some interesting modes, including Land War, which lets players from all over the world battle it out for parcels of national territory on a map of Europe. Simply choose a nation to attack and you're matched up against a comparable opponent based on you and your opponent's ranks. If you win the battle, you win a small piece of that nation for your country. Multiply this by hundreds of matches, and eventually a group of players can try and conquer a nation whole.

Meanwhile, Cossacks II offers some traditional skirmish battles, which you can play in a head-to-head game or in teams. Playing in a team can be fun,

Cossacks II = Cossacks + American Conquest Fight Back

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: December 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Two years later - Dec/07 - Jan/08 I'm playing the commercial version and have to agree completely with the review "A botch .." particularly with the large paragraph where describes all horrors and punishments of the game. And I am not even playing the 1st edition "Napoleonic Wars" - but the 2nd edition "Battle for Europe" instead, however problems are exactly the same as (very well) described.

I keep playing I guess as a matter of honor, for the challenge. I'm playing all single missions against the AI, methodically from the first one, and I don't start the next mission until I have won the prior.

So far I have won (painfully - a week more or less of suffering each) the first seven or eight missions. Some tips, choose carefully your side and your foe's. Don't go in your first missions against Britain, France or Prussia. Is a lot easier going against Russia. I have won most of missions so far playing Prussia and even Poland against Russia.

However some missions seem to have a particular geographic meaning.

The "Dessert" mission has a definitely North African-Arabic ambience, so I choose to play Egypt against Britain - to keep true to history France would be a more veridic enemy: Napoleon winning the Pyramids Battle against Mamluks and so, but I don't like play against French by sentimental reasons, and for my complete surprise I was able to route the British proud infantry and win. I heavily relied in irregular infantry - Tuaregs, and the colorful Mamluk cavalry.

Then I started to play the mission "Winter Fight", after failing to hold several times against Russia (a foe I had defeated in four or five prior missions), I decided to switch sides and took Russia as my nation against Austria. This time things ran a lot better and my armies have reached the critical point where you control half or more of towns in the map and the enemy attacks are less frequent and less violent, so your victory is only a matter of time.

The comments I did below for the demo still stand true, but I have found the commercial game a lot harder than the demo. Here there are a few more tips:

- in all missions I have won so far never needed more than 3,000 units at the same time.
- build the academy ASAP so officers and drummers become available and you can assign them to your battalions. However, do not mind standard bearers - they are extremely expensive - 300 gold coins, and soon you will be needing all the possible gold to buy ..... coal for your firearms.
- build the palace ASAP - it will improve your gold income even if you don't control any gold miner town. Then build the market, so you can use your gold to buy coal ... and, eventually, food.
- place your goood stores and town centers the closer you can to the towns producing - in this priority order: food, then coal, then gold and iron in last place.

***** original comments below ************

This game is a sequel of Cossacks series (European Wars, Back to War, Art of War) as it is of American Conquest Fight Back as well. The scenario is Europe, as in Cossacks, but terrain, buildings and units behave and look a lot as in ACFB.

What is better than the prior games is the new concept of villages and roads. Judging by the demo, villages are scattered everywhere, like in a real 18-19 century European country, and roads connect them. Each town has its own economical activity, such as mines, farms, etc. and its own authority: militia. Roads are used by carts transporting goods between towns. Better yet, organized infantry units as well, when commanded to move from a town to another using the mini-map, they will use the shortest road way.

Starting the demo, a few villages recognize you as their master; you can decide then further enhancements and production development. If your enemy attacks, militia of your towns will help you, as long as the fight is near or surrounding its own village. Still more, your formations near to your towns, when fighting, will receive recruits automatically from towns to replace casualties. However, you can't control your militia nor give them commands.

There are neutral villages. They could supply you with goods, if your trade centers (goods stores, town centers) are close enough, but nothing more. You can take over a neutral town. Send an organized unit, under an officer command, of infantry or firing cavalry (chasseurs, dragoons) to the town. Upon arriving, they will be attacked by local militia, give them the order of line or square formation, start shooting and soon militia will be defeated. If your unit is close enough or within the town, you will see your colors in the main production building (mill, mine, etc). Click on it and you will be able to control development. Better yet, send in several of your peasants and make them build a goods store or town center. Supplies will get faster to your warehouses because carts will make shorter trips.

Units graphic design is very attractive, and looks really true to history. Formations can learn and improve their capabilities. Click on any of them and you'll see a panel with basic commands and information: men, morale, casualties inflicted to the enemy, etc. After a while, as long as the formation is earning combat experience, and succeeding against the enemy, military rank symbols start to appear to identify it. Top formations, with highest morale and large numbers of enemies killed, will earn the "Guard" distinction, this is, the Napoleon's best of the best. When my enemies faced such units, a lot of times, they simply ran in panic.

Finally, to be brief, I can say that, after four or five failed attempts, and a couple of days without sleeping, I was able to win the demo scenario, defeating the AI.

Just a few tips:

First strategic target: grab and hold (using organized units or formations) a couple of towns where coal and iron are produced. If you lack either of them, your soldiers won't shoot, and you will be lost. Even the gold, being important, is not as iron or coal. Of course, food, wood, and stone are basic. As soon as possible, improve all mills in your initial towns. Recruit a lot of peasants in the beginning of the game. Peasants do not account against your population limit.

Forget about unorganized soldiers, they are useless against enemy formations. Build a barrack and then, immediately after, build the academy (needs a lot of stone), so you'll be able to train officers and deploy formations.

Start with basic infantry: fusiliers. Forget national guards, they are almost militia. Voltigers are good and long range shooters, but they can't stand cavalry or bayonet charges. When you have enough fusiliers units, deploy voltigers units behind the first line. They will make great damage to enemy.

Select two or three key spots, and make your peasants build blockhouses in them. When you had lost two or three games to the AI, you'll learn which ones are these key spots.

Follow with cavalry, armed with guns (chasseurs, dragoons) better, even though ulans (lancers) could be useful for ambush and chasing routed enemy. Chasseurs units are very good at flanking enemy infantry (better when moving), and surprising them with heavy side fire. They can fight hard as well with swords at melee.

Forget cannons until you are in a winning position. They are expensive and consume a lot of precious resources: iron and coal. Use them at final stage, when enemy army is on the run (assumed you are winning, of course), together with sappers, to blow out enemy's town centers.

A couple of cons:

Despite the similarities to ACFB, I missed the buildings feature of garrison soldiers, depending upon the building size the amount of soldiers allowed to have inside. Also, the actual size of the buildings your peasants construct looks gigantic when compared against the terrain accidents and the distance between towns. Comparing to ACFB too, at least on the demo map, there aren't any water surface like creeks, ponds and the likes.

The AI looks like doesn't have much of strategic thinking. At the beginning of the demo, it identifies your weak spot and start sending formations to deprive your side of the more important resources, those you have to posses if you want your soldiers be able to shoot. Of course, the AI never lacks any resource, and its speed of deploying formations is double, at least, than yours. But if you manage to survive the relentless attacks, and start to hold successfully, I didn't see the AI trying of maneuver to attack from other directions. It keeps coming to the same point, until its numerical superiority overwhelms your army, unless you start to advance instead of merely defend, when you obtain superiority.

At last, for somebody who wants to play the Napoleon's epic from a really strategic point of view, I would recommend the title "War & Peace". Games like this, "Cossacks 2", judging by the previous versions and this demo, are more focused in tactical and local events. Is like comparing the film "Waterloo" against the "Sharpe's .." series. Either are enjoyable, from its standpoint of the historical events.

A botch

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: May 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Cossacks II, as other reviewers have stated, has so much potential, but it is wasted.

That said, starting with the good points: The feel of the Napoleonic Wars is preserved fairly well, as you maneuver 120-man companies in three formations, using roads to aid movement, firing in three lines, and worrying about fateigue and morale. You can also limber your artillery to move it about faster, and cavalry can play a significant role. When a unit (or artillery) fires, there is a cloud of white smoke, which adds to the battlefield feel.

The neutral points: the more major fortifications don't do much, compared to how difficult they are to get the resources for. The mighty fortress, for example, an example of the star-shaped designes of Vaubain, just shoots a cannon shot every two or three seconds. I've had my fortress destroyed by a 15-man squad of combat engineers who, literally, planted powder barrels when i wasn't looking. Furthermore, it's hard to keep your units in sufficient supply of ammunition, at the game's start. Also, there doesn't seem to be a way to attack in column, as the column used seems to be for movement purposes only. Last, artillery doesn't play as large a role as it did in the actual Napoleonic Wars.

However, despite these good things, Cossacks II is, ultimatly, a frusterating game. From the start, i've had problems with it, which is all the more frusterating because of the lack of a decent Napoleonic Wars game. It comes with the StarForce protection program, which has a reputation for causing problems. Furthermore, i have had extreme slow-down problems, even though my computer far exceeds the minimum requirements, is closing in on the reccommended, and is playing on the lowest detail setting (which, by the way, one can only choose on install). Sometimes, these slow-down problems were so crippling i literally could not play the game. While these problems are extremly frusterating, the AI is by far the most irritating part of the system. The AI literally has no sense of tactics, instead relying on its ability to micromanage far faster than a human can ever hope to and its seemingly endless resources to overwhelm the player with troops. In one game, i killed nearly seven thousand enemy units (6,879), while losing under a thousand (958). While i would like to believe it is because i am a genius, in reality it is because the computer keeps throwing its units in endless waves against your troops. It doesn't seem to matter how many times you destroy their units, or how many villages they have; they always have enough resources left to send another massive wave at you. In addition, since the maps in Cossacks are large (a good thing), you end up fighting on multiple fronts. The computer takes advantage of this, and will attack you in one front when your attention is directed elsewhere. While this may seem good, the problem is that the computer's units will literally march up to your entrenched/standing ground units, and fire a massive volley and cause significant damage for the simple reason that if you put that unit on autofire, they will fire as soon as the enemy comes into range. Since they have muskets, this is absolutly ineffective. You, as the general, have to tell your troops when to fire their volleys, even when the enemy is in the yellow or red zone. This sort of micromanaging would be alright in some games, but it makes it ultimatly frusterating in Cossacks II. Another problem is how the AI will, literally, build buildings right next to your units, or behind them; since only a handfull of units can destroy buildings, you cannot capture them (unless they're being built, in which case the computer would destroy them anyways), and your units will not go after the peasants building these buildings. I have had the computer build a blockhouse in front of my army, and had my soldiers do nothing to impede it. Also, there are a lot of irritating bugs; the british rocket, for example, seems to only be good for a few rockets fired, and sometimes the enemy will "defect", and fight on your side.

All in all, Cossacks 2 has a lot of potential, but it was spoiled by the terrible AI, and systems problems. This game, in my opinion, is worth about ten dollars; don't buy it for more than that.

Great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Cossacks 2 is a great game;one of the best strategy games of 2005.Dont listen to the negative reviews....this game has it all.The graphics,sound,computer A.I.,historical detail,etc. all make for a rewarding and entertaining gaming experience. The game ran perfectly on my PC(which is several years old and not a high end machine).So I dont really relate to all this talk about crashes,unfinished product,etc....I guess people will always find an excuse to whine and compain...lol.

Good fun, needs a patch though

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When I first got this game it failed to run on either my windows 2000 or xp systems. I later reformatted both computers and discovered that this game fails to run on a fully updated install of windows. Although there is one patch out at the moment, it fails to fix the problem. I'm hoping another patch is in the works that will fix it. What I have played of the game however, is fantastic. If and when this game gets another patch, I would raise my overall score to 5, until then, it gets 2.

So much potential - So much disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: April 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having anxiously awaited the US release of this game, I was so excited to finally be able to play it. American Conquest and America Fights Back were so enjoyable. The Napoleonic period is my fav and I was expecting great things from Cossacks II, the next edition in a series from CDV. Basic to my expectations was that the game would be bug free. As it turns out, the game has some serious bugs in it. For one, enemy units on occassion, will actually fight against themselves. Secondly, although I run the game on a Dell XPS 600, which more than satisfies every system requirement, the game has a tendency to crash.

CDV has issued one patch, but clearly additional work needs to be done to make this game playable. Someday, I hope game designers will debug their programs prior to their release to the unsuspecting public.

A Serious Disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: June 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I will try to give as brief a review as possible without it seeming like an article or thesis. I had really hoped that this game delivered, after all its hype. After trying Rise of Nations, and Empires:Dawn of the Modern World (which features a nice Napoleonic era, albeit too limited regarding unit choices and buildings) I really looked forward to C2: Napoleonic Wars, as this great time in history is often neglected in RTS gaming. After playing the rather choppy tutorial, I jumped in to the different modes of play and was immediately dismayed.

I could not distinquish easily the icons or buttons for resource management, the fog of war was way too small for the structures I built, I could not manage the population or troop building - the only choice seemed to be 'infinity'. Also, although the game promises a realistic feel for the battles, it just ended up being a free for all rush-party, troop formations not withstanding. The look of the units was not at all good. While the reenactment videos were OK, it is essentially the playability of the game that matters.

I can't help but wonder why CDV could not simply keep the same interface as the original 'Cossacks' and expansion, or even that of 'American Conquest'. Those formats worked well! Instead they chose to change it for the worse. No improvement here, and no justice to the Napoleonic Wars. I traded it in for Imperial Glory by Eidos/Pyro Studios, which is a far superior all-around game of this wonderful period in the 19th Century, along the lines of 'Rome Total War'. Please see my review on that, I highly recommend it over C2.

This game is crap

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 12
Date: May 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game for my high-end machine.

The game would not even load properly and the music studdered throughout the little introduction which could be seen.
This is an unfinished product, perhaps they released the beta version. The official CDV forum is full people complaining.
Before you buy, do yourself a favor and check out their forum for more insight.

It just does not work

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Too bad, the demos were good, it seemed like a fun game. Excessive game protection measures make it impossible to run. Save your money.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions