![cossacks art of war mods cossacks art of war mods](https://mediamaster.vandal.net/m/31076/cossacks-3-201732910930_5.jpg)
After a while I found formations became rather too much like hard work as they began to fall apart. I’ll admit I did find it little tricky to get to grips with controlling the units and getting them all in group formations at first but there’s a handy icon at the top left of the screen that reveals the current formations you have created for selection. Formations can now also be grouped which essentially means you can now move the army as a unit which is pretty impressive to watch, especially now that you can also reinforce a formation if you have enough units once you’re going in for the attack. Players can now place different types formations, Line, Column and Wedge depending on your strategic preference. Probably one of the most important additions is the inclusion of formations.
![cossacks art of war mods cossacks art of war mods](https://mediamaster.vandal.net/m/31076/cossacks-3-201712792222_12.jpg)
Players also now have the ability to form alliances with the computer AI which is an interesting addition and a replay function is included which allows you to watch recorded battles and pick out your enemy’s tactics. As you win more games you now climb in rank and title giving you more of an incentive to actually go online and play. A completely new ranking system has been put in place which makes the game a lot more competitive and interesting. Once a game’s been out for a while, you have normally become pretty adept at multiplayer games, so it’s always good to see an expansion offer something new for those that have moved online. With any expansion the most important features are not always the additional units or maps. Also, to make things a little tougher for the veteran players there’s now four difficulty settings for the single player and it is an improvement. How many people actually use this function is anyone’s guess, it’s certainly not a feature that really gripped me while playing. While this takes the ‘Real’ out of the RTS, it does offer something new. Gamers now have the ability to pause the game while you make those so important strategic decisions. A new building called ‘log cabins’ has also been added which should stop those pesky rushes at the start of games, garrison up the cabins with up to ten men and watch the enemy suffer. Also, to build on the original game GSC have added six new ships and the Prussians have two new units, the infantryman and Prussian Hassar. So there’s plenty of new maps and campaigns to explore but is that really enough? As you’d expect, there are also new factions to play with, Denmark and Bavaria, each with completely new units and structures. If you’re not familiar with these then pull out those dusty history books to get the picture. Art of War adds six new historical battles which include the Battle of Dunbar, Battle of Hohenfiedberg, Battle of Marston Moor, Battle of Newport and the Battle of Rimnik. As with the original, the single player also focuses on historical battles, something the more serious fan of Cossacks will get a real kick out of. This comes to around 30 mission in total which is plenty to keep the single player gamer amused for a whiile.
![cossacks art of war mods cossacks art of war mods](https://images.gamewatcherstatic.com/review/image/0/6c/10440/index_00000837.jpg)
These new missions are based in the 17th and 18th century for Prussia, Austria, Saxony, Algeria and Poland. Art of War s**es things up a bit by adding new single player features which include five new campaigns. Now that Cossacks has been out for a while, gamers have probably moved onto multiplayer and played the game to death. This new add-on, going by the name of Art of War, builds on the historical RTS gameplay fans of the original have come to love, adding new features to keep gamers hooked to the screen. GSC return with the expansion to their RTS hit Cossacks.