Real-time strategy games have evolved in fits and starts since the genre arose with the release of Dune II almost nine years ago. During that time, real-time strategy games have gained notoriety for requiring more mouse-clicking than actual strategy. While games such as Total Annihilation and Age of Empires II streamlined the interface and unit artificial intelligence so as to remove some of the micromanagement, the real-time strategy genre has largely remained fast-paced and thus hasn't appealed to players who prefer a more deliberate approach. The fantasy-themed Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns could very well be the game to bridge this gap.

Each unit onscreen represents a company of warriors...

Kohan does the inconceivable: It introduces real strategy to traditional real-time gaming that doesn't involve any unit micromanagement. While even previous standouts in the genre have relied to some extent on requiring players to get the most out of each individual unit, whether military or civilian, Kohan eliminates this by establishing a completely different level of abstraction. The number of actual units on the map at any given time is quite low, at least at the level of player control. The complexity and strategic depth arise from the construction and manipulation of these units on a larger scale. It's an application of turn-based concepts to real-time gaming that is very much along the lines of Strategy First's more complex game, the recently released Europa Universalis. What Kohan has in common with that game is that it requires you to really think about what you're doing whenever you click a mouse button.

The military model in Kohan is built on the concept of companies. You can raise a limited number of companies based on the number and size of the settlements under your control. The composition of each company can vary widely, and this is the basis for much of the strategy involved in combat. A company has one frontline unit type and up to two support unit types, as well as a captain. The identity of these units depends on their classification and what structures are present in the settlement where the company is being raised. For example, archers and footmen can be either frontline or support units, while paladins and magicians are two types that can take only the support role. In addition, a paladin can be recruited only in a town that has both a barracks and a temple. These unit distinctions and structure dependencies are well integrated into the economic design. There are different factions (ceyah, council, nationalist, and royalist) that have different buildings, upgrades, and units available. Companies can further be grouped into regiments.

...comprising infantry, cavalry, archers, mages, a captain, and more

Once in combat, a company functions as a unit, although the individual units in that company fight and sustain damage individually. This is where the careful combination of unit types is crucial, since different units grant certain bonuses and have varying attack and defense skills. Once a company is engaged, it will fight until told to retreat or rout (or until it routs on its own). The captain of the company can either be in command mode or engage mode, and when in the latter he fights as a normal unit. Captains can be replaced by heroes (the Kohan immortals of the game's title), and these have additional abilities, such as spells. When a Kohan is killed, he can be "awakened" in a town by paying a price in gold, but only as part of a newly raised company. Otherwise, damaged units heal their hit points while in the "supply range" of a friendly settlement. Awakening a hero is only one of the uses for gold, which is the only resource in the game that is actually used directly.

Unlike almost all real-time strategy games, Kohan has no fixed resources. Instead, settlements produce a variety of resources according to the structures they contain. The key is that while wood, iron, mana, and ore are used to produce gold, none of these resources needs to be mined (except in the rare case of a mine or other reservoir appearing on the map). Instead, resources are generated by structures, and these resources in turn generate gold. A deficiency in one resource can be compensated for by a surplus in another, more valuable resource or by the combination of surpluses in less valuable ones. Constructing a building or other structure almost always causes an increase in the rate of one resource being collected but a deficit in another, so managing these structures is a key element of strategy. Ultimately, the only resource that is actually spent is gold. Gold is collected as a function of other resources present and is generated at the rate of a certain amount per minute. Gold is used to buy buildings and upgrades, awaken heroes, raise and maintain companies, and everything else in the game. One of the skirmish modes even has the amassing of gold as the scenario objective.