Cossacks: European Wars is a real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows made by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. It was released on 24 April 2001. The game has an isometric view and is set in the 17th and 18th centuries of Europe. It features sixteen playable nations each with its own architectural styles, technologies and no limit on unit numbers.[1]
Players must avoid famine and engage in army expansion, building construction and simple resource gathering.[2] Mission scenarios range from conflicts such as Thirty Years' War to the War of the Austrian Succession, and the game is renowned for the seemingly unlimited number of units players may control. This ability set it apart from other games of the time such as Age of Empires and Empire Earth.
Cossacks Art Of War Game
Cossacks is a game which allows the user to gain strategy skills and learn history of that period by the inclusion of a comprehensive encyclopedia.[3] The game has won two awards and was positively favoured by a majority of reviewers. It was a financial success.
There are 6 basic resources in the game that are crucial to the player's military victory. These are gold, wood, food, stone, iron and coal. Gold, iron and coal may only be acquired by constructing mines over a designated resource area and sending peasants into them whereas food is cultivated from mills and via the use of fishing boats. Wood and stone are gathered by conventional means and there are also specific areas where these may be collected. Depending on the type of unit or structure being built, the amount of resources needed to create a unit/structure would inflate quantitatively with each successive one built or trained. Depleted resources would result in an undesirable penalty for the player such as a lack of food will signify a famine for the state and the player's units will die from lack of supplies. Similarly, a lack of coal and iron means that shooters and cannons will cease to fire their weapons whereas a lack of gold will mean that units which require maintenance paid will commit mutiny against the state. The economic workforce consists of peasants who can multitask and also attack enemy soldiers. They can, however, also be captured by enemy troops and turned to the enemy's allegiance.
Artillery in the game are divided into mortars, cannons, multi-barrelled cannons and howitzers and all have distinct functions which are suitable in one situation but may not be appropriate in the next. Mortars are primarily used to bombard enemy buildings and ships from afar. The resulting shrapnel and debris upon impact on the building(s) would also kill nearby enemy units as well as the player's own if in the vicinity. Cannons are the staple of the artillery forces in Cossacks and possess good range (which can be improved with its corresponding research) and shot power but are not particularly powerful against buildings, especially after the buildings' upgrades have been researched. Cannons are also able to fire a grape shot to eradicate a cluster of enemies at short range whereas a multi-barrelled cannon (must be researched at the academy and is not available to all nations) also functions in a similar manner but reloads quicker than the cannon. Howitzers are the shortest ranged artillery but possess the best shot power. They fire in an arc which means that enemy walls will not block their ordnance. They are good against both soldiers and buildings but should be escorted by guards. All artillery units may be captured by enemy forces in the same manner as the peasant workforce. The main upgrades for artillery are the extended range, the accuracy and its build time and cost.
Cossacks: European Wars was developed in Ukraine by GSC Game World. The game has been noted for artistic qualities and great graphics, in particular the special effects which were once described as "second to none".[2] Another remarkable feat, is the technology tree having more than 300 upgrades.[4]
Desires to create the game Cossacks began in 1997, when Age of Empires was published, and development started in 1998. The 17th and 18th centuries were selected because the most obvious continuation of Age of Empires would be medieval Europe and Cossacks was its logical successor, not a competitor. At first, Cossacks was supposed to be about the confrontation in Ukraine and Russia and there would be four nations: Ukraine, Russia, Europe and Turkey. The game would be sold in the domestic market. After the exhibition MILIA in Cannes, where a demo version of Cossacks had received good reviews from reputable people associated with the creation and publishing house of computer games, it was decided to increase the number of nations to 16 and sell the game around the world. In order to be able to play on the map with thousands of units, 2D graphics were selected.
The number of people who developed the game was increased from four in 1998 to twelve in 2000, when the project was nearing completion. At different stages of the work, authors of maps and testers joined the development. In March 2001, Cossacks: European Wars appeared in stores.
The Art of War, released on 1 April 2002, is the first standalone expansion pack. Like the original Cossacks, the game is set in the 17th and 18th centuries, and 8000 units can be controlled. Cossacks: The Art of War adds 5 new campaigns, 2 new nations (namely Denmark and Bavaria), a map editor, and 16 times larger maps with new terrains. Both new nations possess an 18th-century Musketeer unit, which have different attributes.
Cossacks: Campaign Expansion, released on 1 November 2002, is a piece of downloadable content for Cossacks: Back to War. It contains four single-player campaigns from the original game, Cossacks: European Wars, and five from The Art of War: nine campaigns with 63 hardcore missions.
John Bye of Eurogamer described Cossacks: European Wars as a "massive hit".[5] Publisher CDV Software told investors that the game was "very successful" through the end of 2000, after its release late that year.[6] It sold well in Russia, where consumers purchased over 300,000 units by December 2001. It was also popular in Britain, reaching #1 on the sales charts and selling roughly 100,000 copies by that date, according to GSC Game World.[5] The United Kingdom's Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) ultimately gave Cossacks a "Silver" sales award in September 2002, for 100,000 sales in the region.[7] Conversely, the developers were let down by the game's poor performance in the United States,[5] where it launched at #8 on NPD Intelect's computer game sales chart for the week of April 29, 2001. It was absent by its second week.[8] By May 2004, Cossacks had sold above 150,000 units in France alone.[9]
Cossacks' initial performance in the German market pleased CDV.[6] The title debuted at #5 on Media Control's computer game sales chart for December 2000, and proceeded to place fifth, fourth and seventh over the following three months, respectively.[10][11] The Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) presented the game with a "Gold" award in July 2001,[12] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.[13] By October, the game had held in Media Control's top 30 for 11 consecutive months, retaining 11th in September and 18th in October.[14]
Reviewers generally praised the detail and accuracy during gameplay and felt the cut scenes and opening video were impressive.[23] A GameSpot review noted how the game followed the traditional formula of the RTS genre, exhibiting significant similarities to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings but that the diverse types of factions and military units added to the replayability.[21] Another conclusion was that some of the larger scenarios can be quite daunting due to having to manage many resources and a large fighting force. A review in ESC Magazine described it as a complex game with many mouse clicks and fast artificial intelligence for computer opponents.[23]
A review by IGN staff concluded that the game's depth, potential and lasting appeal were its strong points but poor design decisions detracted from its playability.[3] They also thought the artificial intelligence was below par, as the variable defensive abilities of their forces resulted in significant imbalances.[3] The PC Zone review described the game's graphics as detailed and impressive, and liked the historical accuracy, smooth unit movement and 3D landscapes.[citation needed]
The official game sequel is Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars. There is a spin-off of Cossacks from GSC Game World using the same engine, American Conquest.[25] GSC Game World developed Alexander for Ubisoft in 2004, a less successful strategy PC game based on the movie Alexander. Also to be noted is the real-time strategy role-playing game Heroes of Annihilated Empires released in 2006; which, owing to poor AI, became a less successful project.
Provided that you have at least an ATI FireGL T2-128 graphics card you can play the game. An Intel Pentium 4 1.60GHz CPU is required at a minimum to run Cossacks: Art of War. In terms of game file size, you will need at least 100 MB of free disk space available. The minimum memory requirement for Cossacks: Art of War is 1 GB of RAM installed in your computer.
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Cossacks: European Wars is a 2000 Real-Time Strategy PC game by GSC Game World, and the first entry in the Cossacks series. The game has an isometric view and is set in The Cavalier Years, the 17th and early 18th centuries of European history. 2ff7e9595c
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