Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars Hands-On
Wage the Napoleonic Wars from a strategic and tactical level in this upcoming strategy game.
Two hundred years after the Napoleonic Wars raged across Europe, CDV and Russian developer GSC Game World are preparing to revisit the era with the newest entry in the Cossacks series of Napoleonic real-time strategy games. The first three Cossacks titles all debuted in 2002, and they let you take control of one of the major powers of the era and battle it out on a huge real-time battlefield. Those games were met with success, as CDV claims that they sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. Now, with Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars, the series is looking to get a graphical and gameplay upgrade.
The first three Cossacks games were all real-time strategy games. But the big new feature in Cossacks II is the Battle for Europe, a turn-based strategy component that is not unlike the kind seen in Creative Assembly's early Total War games. In the Battle for Europe campaign mode, the game will alternate between a turn-based strategic layer, where you'll move armies across a map of Europe and manage your provinces, and the regular real-time strategy layer, where you will resolve battles. The two layers are interconnected. If you invade a province with a powerful army, you'll increase your chances in battle. Win the battle, and you'll seize control of that province, giving you more resources as well as a more experienced army.
The map in the Battle for Europe is divided into provinces, and each province specializes in one of the key resources of the game. Each province also has a population that you can recruit from, though the more populated provinces will be able to provide more men than the sparsely populated ones. This will play a role if you can conquer key provinces that are vital to the enemy, and vice versa. To protect your holdings, you can move armies into provinces for defense, and you can also invest resources and gold into beefing up the defenses in a province. It also doesn't hurt to have friends, and Cossacks II will feature improved diplomatic options, such as signing non-aggression pacts and alliances with other nations in the game. You can also turn another nation into your protectorate, or vassal state, as well as negotiate for passage rights so that your troops can march through their territory unharmed.
You will take control of the major powers of the era, including France, Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia. As Napoleon also campaigned in North Africa, Egypt will be a playable nation in the game. Each country has a number of its own famous military commanders that you can play as, including Napoleon Bonaparte himself, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, and Gebhard von Blucher, the famous Prussian marshal. Each commander will start out at a junior rank, which determines the number of squads that he can lead at a time. As commanders gain experience and rank, they'll be able to lead larger and larger armies in the field.
Compared to the chaotic tank rushes featured in other real-time strategy games, the combat in Cossacks II is very formal. Keep in mind that this was the era of gentlemanly warfare, when armies faced each other in the open and took turns firing at one another. As such, the game allows you to build hundreds and hundreds of soldiers, group them together, and march them across the map in splendid formations. Each nation had its own unique style of infantry, artillery, and cavalry, which will be reflected in the game. The British, for example, can recruit Highlanders, the French can get chasseurs, and the Prussians have musketeers and the Black Corps. While a formation of one of these units can easily accommodate up to 120 men and more, you'll quickly discover that numbers can only go so far, and this is because the game will model morale. Very few battles in history have been battles of annihilation. In most battles, the victor is the side that can break the other side's will to fight first. In Napoleonic warfare, this meant lining up the armies and having them shoot at each, with the occasional bayonet and cavalry charge throw in for good measure. You can improve your chances in battle by using sound tactics (for example, don't get flanked), and you will be able to bolster your troops' morale by adding officers, drummers, and flag bearers to each formation.
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- GameSpot Score7.9good
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Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars Gameplay Movie 1
The sounds of battle fill the air as the cavalry charges into battle.
- Feb 9, 2005
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- cdv Software
- GSC Game World
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- Release: Apr 27, 2005 »
- ESRB: Teen
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