Battle of Fleurus
One thing that the Napoleonic Wars has become renowned for was the modernisation of armed warfare. Napoleon was instrumental in making basic standardisations that allowed him to efficiently run a modern, massive army. It was simple things like standardising the size of cannonballs and musket shot that allowed him to simplify the supply process. He also pioneered large army tactical manoeuvres though I don’t think that anyone will dispute that retreating to Russia was just about the worst decision ever made (other than Coke’s infamous flavour change…).
Click for larger imageAnyway, all of this is unimportant as this isn’t a history lesson, this is a game. So let’s grab that bright red, highly conspicuous uniform and form up for a charge through the ranks…
Built into Cossacks 2: Battle for Europe are three different game modes; the single player campaign, the one-off battle skirmish mode and the bloody enormous Battle for Europe which also features the multiplayer part of the game. Choosing each of these drops you into the Cossacks 2: Battle for Europe game engine and the actual gameplay is pretty much exactly the same in each, the only difference being what happens when you win (or lose) a battle.
The campaign mode is where a lot of player will start, so that’s where we’ll get the action going too. The first thing you’ll notice is that resource management, as with many recent strategy games, has been simplified into building types producing resources you need. So towns and settlements produce gold, iron and coal, mills produce food and peasants do their peasanty thing and collect stone and wood.
Click for larger imageNow Cossacks 2: Battle for Europe uses a slightly convoluted troop building system in that each trooper is individually created and it’s not until he’s joined up with a squadron, which you then command as a unit. In battle, the two biggest deciding factors on success beyond your tactics will be the morale and fatigue of your troops. If you’ve marched them hard and fast across rough ground they’ll be too knackered to fight and if you leave them unsupported in the face of withering enemy fire, their morale will take a rapid drop. If you keep on pushing your troops once their fatigue is gone, this will also affect their morale. Once morale hits zero the squadron will break with individual troopers making their own way all over the map… Under fire this would be called panicking, if they were just marching along its desertion… sadly, you can’t shoot your own troops for either…
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