Cossacks | A Series Retrospective | Scav Merchant Hub

[@scavmerchanthub]

Thanks for watching! I clearly had a lot to say about Cossacks and I hope the video didn't drag on for too long. Next video will be shorter ;)

[@dnaseb9214]

If you want to flank in cossacks. You need to engage the enemy first, then flank them with cavalry while they shoot at something else.

[@ДмитрийАбрамов-щ9я]

You know that in the world settings you can disable "balloon"?

[@986KuroYuki]

17:11 Ctrl + Left Click and Shift + Left Click? ну ты даёшь!

[@FullmetalDeveloper]

I enjoy big videos)

[@mehmehmeh360]

Thank you, its a very nice review!. Have you ever played American Conquest?

[@zizka2515]

Cossacks 2 is one of the most realistic RTS games. Large scale battles can just evolve from two units running into one another and each side rushes to get reinforcements and the next thing you know you have battle lines that look like historical battle maps. Would love for a Cossacks 4 that updates 2 to come out!

[@горобчикрусофобчик]

unfortunately cossacks 2 had a problem of stacking infinite units on top of each other which nothing can punish, not even artilery. Also, ai is a bit jenky at its kind of hard to make units do whatyou tell them. Also, the morale mechanic is vastly criticised because it doesnt work. The things he said are not problems of running it on modern machine. Those are regular bugs. And the mechanic itself makes expierenced squads overpowered and undefeatable. Especially in a late game. You can thrrow infinite rookies on two veteran squads and you will loose. The villages mechanic is also unfinished. It really lacks the ability to do more upgrades to the village and intercepting the shipments. The artilery is just jank. Fortifications are autowin if your opponent doesnt have artilery and do nothing if they have. Lots of problems. Main thing it did is make it look much better and squad based fighting. If cossacks 3 had bigger emphasis on squad combat and better unit ai with it, it would've been golden.

[@MajorCoolD]

I agree! It's a shame that Cossacks 2 never got the love it deserved on Steam and came out at a weird time when it came to the Operating Systems, back when compataibility wasnt as big as it is now.

[@Piece-Of-Time]

Cossacks 2 is basically Napoleon: Total War 2005 edition

[@горобчикрусофобчик]

@@Piece-Of-Time yeah. Sorry it didn't get popular. Maybe in sequels we would've gotten something golden.

[@gae_wead_dad_6914]

@@горобчикрусофобчик "Infinite units on top of each other" You could literally do that in cossacks 1 heck, you could literally do that in any classic RTS game like Stronghold, AoE, Warcraft etc. That's why area of effect weapons are there

[@davidliddelow5704]

I understood buildings exploding when you take them as the AI deletes them just before you capture.

[@NemooSK]

This is the correct answer.

[@VikingKong.]

What he said.

[@MajorCoolD]

Yep. Also very valid in multiplayer with light cavalry for example. If you can capture enemy Units and peasants and buildings and artillery - wonderfull! Cant capture and hold them? Well just delete them to bereft the enemy of these resources/advantages :)

[@aztecgoldmontizuma]

@@MajorCoolD D-do you still play Cossacks? I thought it was a dead game

[@andreassewell7413]

Very dickish AI strategy that you are morally obliged to do against them in kind.

[@asch7906]

They made American Conquest in the meantime. It's very much "Cossacks in the Americas", and it shows how graphics and features evolved from Cossacks I to Cossacks II.

[@VK-sz4it]

Actually, my favourite game of series.

[@stirpsromana]

It's something in between Cossacks 1 and Cossacks 2. It's amazing

[@galvanic.warlock]

They also made Alexander game as an official tie-in for Oliver Stone's 2004 movie (even Alexander's avatar has Colin Farrel's face). It was released half a year before Cossacks 2 looks and feels like a blend of Cossacks 1-2 and AoE. Being a Ubisoft title, good luck finding and running it (I tried for research purposes, it's not very fun). There are some gameplay videos on YT kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3bGl513bsuao6s

[@mutterfresser]

​@@galvanic.warlockyeah, I forced it to run on my pc. The game was a big disappointment for me. It lacks a lot of nations and units. It had a great potential, and totally wasted it. It has almost no replayabilty. After a one skirmish you're totally done with it. Totally like the American Conquest Divided Nation. I remember when I bought it after playing first cossacks and American conquest fight back which hqd many playable nations with different approach each. Divided Nation was a disappointment bcuz it had only a few nations to play with. It felt like a semi playable mod, not a standalone game

[@MrRockHamster]

Also on this game engine is the game "The Entente " about the first world war, made by other developers kzbin.info/www/bejne/labZnZpql6yenLM

[@denarte6986]

17:10 Oh your poor sweet summer child…in Cossacks 1 you can hold shift, Ctrl or alt + click and it will give queue 5,10, or infinity units respectively

[@rinollaig]

cant remember in Cossacks 1 (probably does) but in Cossacks 3, ctrl+alt+click would give you 100 units

[@vitaliialoksa9881]

mostly, no one used any options other than the infinity option. Except it is Dip Center, and you need just a few units

[@АлександрАнтипин-к6д]

Ctrl+click - locks production on infinite. Useful when you under constant raids. Even 1 unit works as distraction and you can hold the enemy for pretty long time

[@natetendencia]

Cossacks 1 has been part of my childhood. One of my best rts games during the early 2000s.

[@biocat9568]

Good to see the Ukraine game still remember in europe too)

[@Volodymyr.Yermakov]

The problem is, Cossacks 2 were a lot less popular, or even disliked, among supposed main audience - people from post-soviet countries. You too seem to have had similar impression when younger. It is irrational, but it's what it is. It goes without saying that when poorly managed company (there even drama about it) without enough financial resources decided to make a "sequel", their choice was remastering a more popular game, especially because it's probably a lot cheaper - Cossacks 2 has a lot of more complex and thus expensive features.

[@TheShmrsh]

Я не знаю , я помню когда я в первые увидел казаки 2 у меня дыхание перехватывало , все эти механики просто казались каким то некстгеном, графика была топ. Да и за границей в эту игру играли не меньше а может и больше

[@dd-qz2rh]

Sorry, but this seems like unfounded criticism directed at the company without any clear rationale. Are you by any chance russian? This might provide some context. It's known that Cossacks 1 was a groundbreaking and well-known game, especially in post-soviet countries. It's likely the reason it was chosen for remastering. It wouldn't make sense to remaster a less popular and lesser-known game. That's about it. If you think that a bunch of unit mechanics that were already developed can be complex or expensive to remaster and you think this is the reason they picked cossacks 1 you have no idea what you are talking about.

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

isn't cossacks2 not even an rts? also it just doesn't work so i bought it 3 times but never could play it

[@mikemandalorian9226]

I love cossacks 2 and all my friends did too years ago

[@gae_wead_dad_6914]

@@dd-qz2rh Ugh... what? Cossacks 2 was less popular. That was his point. He's clearly Ukrainian too according to his name.

[@looping9248]

Since im 6 or 7 i play cossack back to war with my father, now im 21 and still play it with him when i visit my parents. Such a great game.

[@ACE1918]

Fun fact: The intro to Cossacks is a shot for shot recreation of battle scenes from Sergei Bondarchuk's War And Peace in 1967.

[@ivkolya89]

It was shot at the reenaction dedicated to 190th anniversary of the Borodino battle in 2002, the devs travelled there via a bus with reenactors from Kyiv. The scenes of small groups of the French and the Russians charging at each other, as well as the videos of individual soldiers reloading etc were shot with Kyiv reenactors only, and the scenes with massive troops and cavalry are from the reenaction itself (around 2000 reenactrors from all over the world took part in it) and from rehearsal the day before.

[@petertoth7575]

You said that you don't understand why you sometimes steal the building, and why sometimes you "torch" it. The answer is that the AI is programmed to delete buildings that you will capture, so they hit the delete button one milisec before you capture the building. And because demolishing buildings in this game isn't instant, you'll get a "burning" building. Not sure why, but it only occurs sometimes. It was a pretty annoying mechanic... I haven't see this in Cossacks 3 though.

[@SleazySpliff]

scorched earth tactic is this called, if i can't have if, the enemy also won't have it

[@BobcatSchneidermann]

I also loved this game as a kid. As a Dane I was thrilled when The Art of War came out, and we were finally in it.

[@junker154]

It's so great to see that somebody appreciates Cossacks II. I honestly really love the changes and dynamic of having the neutral villages. Battle for Europe is also a solid mode. I just wish the game would have more maps, support multiplayer against bots. The campaign is also really hard. Overall, I wish there was a revamped version that would still keep the same aesthetics, the game looks marvelous.

[@BIGluisluis]

Cossacks 2 is what Age of Empires 3 should have tried to emulate

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

nope

[@warthunder7730]

​@@incaseofimportantnegotiationsyup

[@thenarkknight278]

Im pretty happy with how Age of Empires 3 worked out. They two are pretty different games with different mechanics which are both mostly fun. I myself like Age of Empires 3 more because many things/mechanics in Cossacks are just plain annoying and didnt age very well. But I gotta admit that Cossacks really offers you this large battles and feeling that Age of Empires 3 just cant deliver.

[@MD-yd8lh]

Totally different

[@aleksapetrovic6519]

Cossacks 3 is one of my favorite games. I love the time period (Early Modern Period and Classic Antiquity are my favorite), old school mechanics, artstyle, etc. However I only say this because I've never ppayed previous games. I saw Cossacks 1 and saw the exact same I already have, American Conquest was wiersly zoomed in and I was too lazy to fix it and I couldn't run Cossacks 2. I understand why old fans are upset and frankly I don't understand why devs simply didn't say this is remaster, because I see nothing change except people adjusting their expectations properly.

[@mattb5658]

I played all 3 games and this is such a great video ! I loved messing around on cossacks 2 in the historical battles as a kid :)

[@galvanic.warlock]

Not-so-fun fact: the reenactor guy riding as Napoleon in the live action cutscene at 14:08 is a russian historian that shot and cut into pieces his fiancée who was his ex-student. They were 64 and 23 at the time of the crime (2019). He is also known to be overly enthusiastic in his Napoleon cosplay, up to demanding to be unironically called Sire by his fellow reenactors even out of the events.

[@JeffBourke]

The grape shot was so OP against infantry😂

[@Раковийсупець]

in multiplayer we even had an agreement not to use it

[@LyamOfficial]

Alright, you have some nice style and such, hope the algorithm decides to bless you at some point, something I gotta point out, please dont use or mute any song that had vocal singing on it, it was hard hearing you with what I though at first was another video tab of mine perhaps playing another video only to see once I paused your video that it came from you

[@scavmerchanthub]

Yeah, that's fair enough. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment :)

[@magnusbruce4051]

Personally, I played Cossacks 1 way more than the others, but 3 is the one I think is best. 2 was good for the campaign but I found the skirmishes to be far too slow and the available space to actually build your base far too small compared to the size of the buildings (i.e. good luck getting a few thousand soldiers when like so little of the map can actually be used for building on) The mechanics for the fighting were really good, though. And Cossacks 3 is just a remaster of 1, yes, and I did find it a bit odd that they didn't call it as such, but it's a really good remaster. Not without flaws as you stated, but I really enjoyed the new content and the updated graphics. I haven't played it as much as the original, but mainly because it's a lot harder to find the time when your responsibilities begin and end at "spend 6 hours a day in school and do up to 1 or 2 hours of homework a night".

[@sneakyturtle305]

Cossacks 2 combat system was fantastic, easily my favourite napoloenic warfare game.

[@MidlandsAirsoft]

did you ever try American Conquest?

[@scavmerchanthub]

I have not. Definitely something I need to try out at some point though.

[@dmman33]

Would love to hear what you think! It’s the bridge between Cossacks I and II

[@leongashwig]

i did not expect this high quality on such a small channel neat

[@dmman33]

Thank you for this!!!!! I can’t believe I just found your channel! Cossacks II is a genuine masterpiece that really could use an update and remaster like how 3 did the original.

[@dmman33]

Heck, this video inspired me to give C2 another play! It really is so good. It just needs an update to improve resolution, General jank, and quality of life like a paused orders function

[@buburbasi3983]

I played the crap out of this game during my middle school years. I need all that realistic needs and massive army battles. Couldn't enjoy AOE at all.

[@Unknown-zs8ex]

They should really rename Cossacks 3 into Cossacks remastered. I won't get pissed off even though I bought it already as Cossack 3...

[@jamiehughes5573]

Cossacks BtW was a classic, I remember playing many years ago. Kinda want to rebuy it

[@nicorozner7417]

The buildings are actually devout Muslims, and will defend you from enemy soldiers by triggering their suicide vests upon entry.

[@TheGodEmperorOfMankind_]

Cossacks: European Wars was my first ever RTS, that intro is forever burned in my memory. Loved the massive amount of units and the formations. Later playing Warcraft 3 and Age of Empires I was always missing these two features

[@МаксимВостріков]

Glory to Ukraine! Thank you for content)

[@birdguy6262]

I love how he’s talking about micro management with the rimworld soundtrack in the background

[@czarnykot6154]

This original Cossacks 1 intro is incredible, bring back memories

[@Rasbiff]

FINALLY someone who talks about how absolutely amazing Cossacks 2 is. One of my all time fav RTS games.

[@anna-flora999]

"cossacks 3 should be called cossacks remastered" That's all you had to say, honestly. I'll get it next sale

[@cccpredarmy]

Played a ton of Cossacks 2, played through various campaigns and conquered europe. However after a while you learned all the OP mechanics and units so you start to maul through your AI enemies easily. E.g. you'll rush every new battle field with your light cav in order to get villages fast. The AI responds to slowly for that so you end up gaining way more resources and produce way better units + replenishments. The battles become literally copy-paste because of those, at first glace really great and thought through mechanics. The ONLY value you get is from shooting in the red circle while trying to make the enemy shoot you in green or yellow ones. That's pretty much it. It's never worth it to retreat once the enemy is willing to shoot at you, because you get debuffs when facing the enemy with the rear. once the enemy shot at your unit you have no excuse to do anything else aside from running towards the formation and maul it down at point blank from the red circle. then you afix bayonett and charge. No matter the outcome that's literally the best and only thing you can do EVERY single encounter. Even if you have way worse units at your disposal, you try to hit the enemy the hardest you can with what you have and See cav advancing towards you? -> afix bayonets and press caré formation. No cav can break through this. With no villages and heavy hits taken the enemy can't recover and just gets steamrolled over...

[@lyonette1153]

Cossacks 1 was my 1st computer game. I Remember on father's job his colleagues were creating a 1 unit for me and I was walking on the map while they were working. And after that I played for almost 2 years only cossacks 1, before switched to other games

[@MajesticOak]

I find the randomness aspect of building capture/destruction historically accurate, as to reflect the sometimes lack of control generals/rulers have over their armies to curb looting & burning... even if it's their own shit. See 30 years war for plenty of examples.

[@wiking22pl53]

17:03 Wait, you could do that?!? Holy shit, I though shift-clicking to recruit 10 was the only option.... So I just spent most of time playing Battle for Europe. Despite it's flaws (weird AI, defence being too strong), I still loved it and had so many fond memories playing it. Man, I think it's time to fire up GOG Galaxy and test my new knowledge. Thanks Scav! :)

[@retro2405]

I got Cossacks 2 after watching this video, despite never having heard of the series before. Thanks!

[@DuskoSTV]

Absolutely enjoyed Cossacks 2 as well as the Alexander the great RTS from the same studio, same graphics style, just different eras, both had amazing massive battles and everything.

[@saulgoodman4235]

Finally, a video about a videogame from Easter Europe (Ukraine, if talk about Cossacks) and it's not a STALKER

[@КарбованеСрібло]

But the studio is the same)

[@lennic]

hmm actually played cossacks 2, I had no clue I did but honestly it was refreshing controlling an army of that size, but also overwhelming as a kid

[@ZioMcCall]

Cossacks:Back To War,Imperivm III:The great battles of Rome and Codename:Panzers were prolly my most played games in late elementary school and middle school. I'm more of an FPS fan nowadays but sometimes i do pay respect to these "old friends" and replay them.

[@Раковийсупець]

As a fan of Cossacks BtW and a member of the community -- we HATED the Napoleonic wars on release and beyond. Cossacks stood out because of the absence of the usual micromanagement hell when you micro a few units and cap out quickly if you want to use massive formations. Napoleonic wars brought it back and were "just another like the others" for us, kinda like CnC 4. Thing is, BtW fans were more aligned to today's Paradox than today's DotA (and those 2 things are the end points where RTS finally came to). NW was the step in the wrong direction for us. Research and eco taken out, micro hell taken in, it feels like Praetorians (btw you looked for marches? There's your marches) more than like classic RTS. That's why GSC brought the remaster instead of trying to merge -- almost anyone who was a fan of BtW hates NW -- you're the first human alive I know of who isn't lol.

[@ondrejstepanek6597]

this is very nostalgic for me... i played a hell out of Cossacks 1. It was great game at its time. Unfortunately, i never persuaded any of my friends to really try it and play against me. So i was forced to beat all AI players on highest difficulty all the time.. :( :D

[@encure]

cossacks back to war i played so much as a kid i love it to bits. thx for the video this game seems to be forgotten mostly when it comes to reviews on youtube. and also thanks for the link for cossacks ultimate pack it really is awesome

[@Joshknar]

Criminally underrated channel! I only knew the first game and some nostalgia, but stayed for pure entertainment-value!

[@mykolagelato]

cossacks 3 is a good competition game. Lots of interesting matches can be found online. It might be not realistic but a lot of people find it fun to play. Maybe after stalker 2 they'll start working on cossacks 4, would be nice.

[@perasturiaadastra]

i remember cossacks as fantastic jank with beautiful art and music

[@dmytrosemonov2005]

So cool review of all Cossacks, thanks!

[@bumpermanthesecond615]

Cossacks combined the elements of total war and age of empire into this underrated rts It's glorious and amazing, I'm looking forward to remaster american conquest

[@Ifroze18]

damn, this YT channel is incredible

[@Igor-ug1uo]

I really enjoyed this retrospective. Thank you.

[@sokolovremwwii2205]

As an absolute fan of all Cossacks games I loved your video, thank you ! Maybe you could have added regarding Cossack 3 that there is now the Steam workshop with integrated modding added to the game, which allows to vary the game experience a little bit :) nothing groundbreaking though, but still a nice addition.

[@pourilkinalexandros8632]

True 100% . Thanks for information.

[@t.n7648]

First off for Cossacks: BTW, there is difference in betwen 17 and 18th century musketeers, 17th century were vurnerable to meele as they had no meele attack. Formations worked for most units except grenadiers, atleast back then, those you never put into formations as they would seize using the ranged attacks and go only for meele. That was some funny bug that they never adressed. Besides that, you wanna do Denmark for its 18th century grenadiers, those used to be in BTW the best marskman/meele unit that had relativelly fast build time, high AP and fast reload, faster than Prusian or Bavarian musketeers who have been comparativelly similiar in terms of firepower, and well for meele other than commading officers. Besides that, the multiplayer meta used to be to lump everything together without formations other than armoured pikemen, armoured horsemen and dragoons, first of those two were used to soak enemy fire and for your own ranged units to close up on enemy. The only special nation that could somewhat challenge 18th century Denmark is pretty much either other Denmark or Ukraine, ironically enough YES THEY HAD SMALL BIT OF BIAS. Ukranian of 17th century serdiuk were among the strongest of ranged units when it came to firepower/speed of fire ratio, they did lack range and the amout of coal they used in combat was higher but the dmg and their reload speed was payoff, Ukraine may have been limited in may other ways, but their mounted cossakcs and serdiuks combo were among the best. Having some flashbacks... Cossacks 2 was for it´s time an evolution from its predecessor and it was shame that they did not continue and expand upon that, to some degree the mechanics, graphics and overall feel of its craftsmaship seemed far better in comparison with most competitors of that time. Age of Empires III that was set in close time period yet in comparison to CS2 seemed so boring and stuck in its old glory days, having no inovation whatsoever. Total War franchise had at that time released its Rome and they did not touch upon that history period for another 5 years, which shows how unique and ahead those ukranians were at the time. Besides that, the single player campaign of CS2 if I remember correctly did offered sort of battle map similiar to earsly Total war games, there was not that much of a difference. What was deffinetly refreshing for that period was addition of firerange zones, that made a lot of sense both for that time period and also funcionaly and served as great internal mechanic that enchanted combat. Also the soundtracks present were very thematic and nicely crafted. Cossacks 3 is nothing else than a remaster of Cossacks 1. While that is fine as it is OG classic of RTS genre, however it is also lost opportunity to attemp to do something new and unique, as GSC for better or worse have been struggling to remain somewhat relevant due internal and external factors when one is living in post-soviet country, which Russia considers its own backgarden. With that being said, I wish them best and I wish best for their upcomming Stalker release, which seems very impressive. Hell, if things go well for STALKER, we may yet see another Cossacks, it´s their brainchild after all.

[@michamalinowski8015]

Well I like both 2 and 3 but find myself mainly going back to 3. The musketry, stamina and morale mechanics in 2 are good, but demand micromanagement, and I feel that does not fit a game about massive battles. What I think GSC clould do with this system is to make a multiplayer focused napoleonics game where you take the role of a regiment commander, you have 3-4 battalions of infantry or cavalry under your command or a battery of cannons and together with other commanders you cooperate to dominate the battlefield. That would make the detailed mechanics less tideus, because you only manage 3 units and have to base to tend to. That worked very well in Total War Arena and I would play a napoleonic game like that for years.

[@jericho7852]

I loved Cossacks when I was a child. My dad still plays it until this day.

[@Vanalfaust]

Great sense of Humor. Keep it up!

[@Reynevan100]

I too love Cossacks 2 more than 1, but thia video, while technically complete, could use an... addendum. American Conquest is worth mentioning, so similar (but also quite different)!

[@zombiehunter501]

Cossacks, Sudden Strike, Command and Conquer 1 to Yuri's revenge. That was my childhood right there. In Cossacks EW, BTW and AOW. The Serdiuk were my guys and I spammed the hell out of them while pouring all my resources into making them OP.

[@Hardcrafter]

In Cossacks you can set infinite units recruitment or order by tens using Ctrl/shift, don't remember exactly it was long time. Might as well try Alt.

[@ZealotOfSteal]

Didn't even know cossacks 3 was a thing. It basically being a remaster explains why, since even if I would have heard of it before I likely just forgot.

[@palenkoff]

Actually, in cossacs one, you dont need to click million times to produce units: shift+click is for 5 units, and ctrl+click for infinite production. Buildings are destroyed or burnt instead of capture, only if you play with bots, they burn their building in moment then you capture it, like you press del, normal building burn, but mines always goes boom.

[@johnadams2900]

The cosacks spin off set in the americas is also really good, it was my first entry into the series.

[@eugenegorelikov9378]

The things with the buildings catching on fire while you are trying to capture them is actually AI acting the last moment to set them on fire just before you capture them. You can do the same by selecting your building that is about to get captured and pressing Delete button. The buildings catches fire immediately and its hitpoints go down to 2k and quickly go down to zero when it explodes.

[@mojungle3054]

I missed out on Cossacks entirely until I grew up and had my own computer. But as a kid, my dad found wonderful gem at the Target $10 CD game section: American Conquest!! No one else will talk about how American Fusiliers were on that 18th century Tren. All other fusiliers had a "pike" attack of 9-12. We Americans? FORTY 4 - 0

[@shdba]

I like cavalry in cossacks 2 very very much. I think it works as it should. Having 3 squads of polish lancers smashing in musketeers and obliterating them is very nice. You can also quickly scout with them and i like the distinction between heavy and light cavalry. But then again I like cavalry very much in general 😄. Good video.

[@TenTenTamten]

17:10 - you could press RMB for infinite recruitment. You could also press with shift or control, for 10, or 5 recruits in European Wars 😅 There were also some options to show the people limit, and number of people who mine the resources, you just had to turn it on in the menu. 20:54 in European Wars, shots also used coal and iron.

[@Athielmon]

Always knew about the cossack series but i was never really interested in it because i felt it just had 'a lot of units to control' feature to offer. But damn, Cossack 2 has some really cool mechanics so I might try it. I always enjoyed the age of empires 3 combat mechanics and that game has some really cool elements too, so if you really enjoy that, age of empires 3 could be your game.

[@xSoulhunterDKx]

Huh, basically same thing here 😂 Love that intro clip so much in EW

[@toxicwar]

As i;m watching along this video which hits my nostalgic feels. Hearing rimworld background now makes me wanna watch every single one of your videos and subscribe. This is a god-tier channel holy shit lmao. i love your editing and choice of music.

[@Ivan-vn1pd]

but what about american conquest

[@HeHoSeverin]

sheesh, this was way more entertaining, interesting and helpful than i expected

[@voidghost84]

Hi. So, in the Total War series, the largest units had 240 soldiers in them. In Rome TW 1, you could have only those in an army, without a general. I think the limit of units was always 20 per army, so 4800 soldiers was the maximum. Reinforcements would come in only if a unit was destroyed or routed, but you could have an allied army. Now, in Warhammer TW 3, you have to have a lord and the largest units have 200 entities. You can however have 2 armies on the field, so 7602 entities. In addition to that, you can have allies on the field. I also saw a mod once for Rome TW 1, that increased the number of soldiers in a unit to 600 or 800.

[@DeValiere_]

The original Cossacks is still an enjoyable game to this day and there's a good reason it is the one that got the "remaster" treatment as Cossacks 3. Experienced players that know the hotkeys for mass producing units and how to work the stone economy and the marketplace to their advantage will get more out of Cossacks 1 of course. Who hasn't just set the basic barracks to infinite spearman spam and sent them off to harrass the enemy? It had its flaws (I'm looking at you mortars) and when playing against the AI you'd soon find yourself facing cannon and mortar spam but at least your soldiers won't break and run every time a horse farts. Unlike Cossacks 2 there is also something of a tech tree in 1 that allows for improving accuracy and fire rate of your troops and especially your artillery. It is also the polar opposite of Cossacks 2, where you actually have the ability to control your economy and your peasants will move faster than a snail. Cossacks 1 is by far the more enjoyable game for me as strategy actually plays a part in things. Cossacks 2 is shallow, dumbed down and the defense and moral systems for units were utterly broken and arbitrary in the case of moral. Not to mention the artillery was manned by blind men. I dare say for those with little patience or interest in base building, Cossacks 2 would be better. But as a card carrying turtle, I'll take Cossacks 1 every time. Watching a sea of Hussars swarming the enemy base is simply... sublime.

[@clownofwar]

Empire Earth: Am i a joke to you :D the whole dam time line in that one.

[@danielomar9712]

I bought Cossacks 2 recently on the sale , and damn its so fun to see Egypt just DOMINATE europe with the power of ARCHERS AND *NO COAL USAGE* MWAHAHHAHA

[@Vlad-1986]

You are funny and actually I learnt a lot about this game which at the time I only knew for "Age of empires with tons of units". Glad I found your channel

[@dma8728]

probably my all-time favorite game

[@weedling3552]

flanking is very important in cossacks 1, mainly flanking the entire enemy, not just their troops. you distract them with a frontal infantry attack and then you send in fast cav into their town. thats how you win against impossible ai, constant flanking, until you break their economy. and its the ai killing/blowing up buildings, before you can capture them. the ai does the same with peasants and artillery, that you can also capture. and you can do the same to the ai, just gotta be fast enough. fast cavalry is fast enough to out run the explosion from mines most of the time. and if you have/have captured some peasants its easy to repair the burning buildings.

[@Sydrooo]

The editing is fantastic throughout! Good job dude!

[@SaltySlanko]

Is that Seven Kingdoms music playing in the background? A man of culture, indeed

[@uberjens]

The part about not knowing anything about the period and being confused about Prussia and Russia is so fucking accurate.

[@Fitzgerald934]

I hope that one day they will remaster the american conquest games.

[@balex55lp]

i love cossacks 2 "there is a map pack with 136 maps that you can dl"

[@CrossHolder92]

Great video! So, for someone who has never played the series, do you recommend to play either 1 or 3?

[@scavmerchanthub]

1 will be much cheaper, though I can't really say if it'll run on your system. It may also be tricky to set up multiplayer servers on it if you're looking for that. You can always refund it though if you can't get it to run so worth trying considering the price.

[@winstochurgle9133]

Finally : Slav Merchant Hub

[@praevasc4299]

I'm so sad that they only remastered the first game, and not American Conquest, and not the Napoleonic Wars. These two had really unique gameplay elements, and a morale system, making battles much more realistic.

[@conscript900]

Ah cossacks, I ahd the demo for that game. HARD. AS HELL! And i ddint know i could slow the game down so i could figure out what was going on. I need to go grab it off GOG and come back to it.

[@alexdodd5175]

11:32 Moscowia background music is a poor choice for a ukrainian game review.

[@ChrisVideosGreek]

l grew up with playing Cossacks 1, but l VERY recently have started playing the 2nd game (battle of europe) and HOLY SHIT l have to agree those changes of combat and the change of goal in the games (capturing villages) and the change in capturing makes the game SO satisfying, maybe a bit more than Cossacks 1, although l am very sad that the 2nd game misses the random map generator and this game has no ships. The graphic improvements slap so hard in nostalgia terms (even if l had never played this game in my 15 years that l live in this world, until now). The UI is also really cool. l think you forgot to mention that the 2nd game adds SO MANY voicelines for narrators and peasants, at this point they have burnt to my brain (like the Scribe from the Stronghold series XD). l have sadly never played multiplayer in those games (and you can possibly guess why), but l think singleplayer is truly addictive and doesn't feel cheap (if you exclude some removals in the 2nd game) Concluding, amazing review! Hope it will get its highest attention it truly needs. Thanks for the "Ultimate Pack" mod btw, l was always saving Art of War too to play some of campaign :D

[@szymonbien9595]

You should really try the Amrican Conquest games, I grew up on cossacs and AC was fixes almost every issue i had with Cossacs while beeing almost the same game.

[@clearlypellucid]

The only time I ever played Cossacks, I played it against a dude named Chuck who really liked it, and I played as the Ottomans and beat him by spamming Xebecs.

[@Mykola-l1c]

Make retrospective about American conquest titles from same developers

[@HeavyMetalGamingHD]

You made me buy Cossacks 2 again. It's only 5€. I hope it will run. But I remember, that I already had issues running the game when I was a kid on win xp and vista

[@bobsbigboy_]

this takes me back

[@sergolt74]

What a great video to start my day

[@dnaseb9214]

What are the live action clips in cossacks 2 ? Did they buy rights or used the budget to make them ?

[@lutzderlurch7877]

Clips the shot of reenactors who keep portraying napoleonic battles to make history vidible for spectators.

[@diamondhamster4320]

No. 3 just means it follows after 2 numerically, it does not mean that it will be deeper, more complex or objectively superior.