środa, 11 kwietnia 2012

Buy Cossacks? or Buy...

COSSACKS VSWizard101 Logo.jpgMEMBERSHIP?

Something about Roundshiers... And something about Blocking...

As you have read Roundshiers are rubbish.This is proven because 10 roundshiers can be beaten by 4 peasants! Though make  30 of them at the very moment you can make them and send them straight out into the enemy's town. This should eliminate most of the peasants and take over the buildings.

Now, If you don't want to DESTROY a building or even CAPTURE it send out about 20 pikemen and 5 officers next to the exit of the building (i.e. where the units come out) this will eliminate them as they come out. Oh, yes a couple of 18th Century Dragoons would be good too!

Other Cool Games ALERT!

Spore,Age Of Empires,Wizard101,SimCity and Tony Hawk are all cool games which I play 24/7 365 a year!

NEW COSSACKS TIPS!!

During gameplay, press Enter and type any of the following Codes:

Code          Result
-------------------
supervizor  - Toggle Fog of War On/Off
money       - Give Resources
izmena      - Switch Player With Numpad Keys 1-9
multitvar   - Press P to Access All Units
www         - Enables supervizor, multitvar, izmena Cheats
VICTORY     - This wins the game
resources   - All resources
shield      - Unlimited cannon
Gods        - Help from the gods :-D
AI          - Control enemies


Note:
-----
Remember that the cheats are all cAsE SeNsItIve

Note:
-----
Once the multivar or www code is used and you place the units that you
want on the map, you need to press [F9] to return to normal click mode to
play game. When you press P it will bring up a list of all units available
in that mission. Select the unit, then left click on the screen to place
the unit. When you are done placing your units, press [F9] to return to
being able to left-click to select the units as normal.


Hint:
-----
Submitted by: Rob v.d. Broek
E-mail: rvdbroek@casema.net

First hit enter, then type "moneyand" hit enter again. Now you have lots of all
things.


Unit list screen:
-----------------
When you press P to display the list of units, the words on the buttons are
in Russian. The lower-left button translates to "Bring" and the lower-right
button translates to "Cancel".


Buildings:
----------
Complete the indicated task to unlock the corresponding new building type
when playing as England or Poland.

17th Century Barracks: Build a Blacksmith.
18th Century Barracks: Progress to the 18th Century.
Academy              : Build a 17th Century Barracks.
Artillery Depot      : Build a Stable.
Blacksmith           : Build a Town Hall.
Church               : Build a Town Hall.
Diplomatic Center    : Build a Academy.
Dwelling             : Build a Town Hall.
Paling               : Build a Storehouse.
Shipyard             : Build a Windmill.
Stable               : Build a Blacksmith.
Storehouse           : Build a Town hall.
Tower                : Build a Storehouse.
Wall                 : Build a Storehouse.


Unit list screen:
-----------------
When you press P to display the list of units, the words on the buttons are in
Russian. The lower-left button translates to "Bring" and the lower-right button
translates to "Cancel".


Make and clone new troops and buildings:
----------------------------------------
Press P during game play to display a list of countries and items from that
country. Choose your country (for example, if you are playing as France select
the country France) from the right side of the list. This will bring up a new
list on the right side, with people and buildings from your country. Choose
what you want to build (for example, King's Musketeers) from the right side and
click on the button on the bottom-left corner. The button looks like a word in a
different language. This will take you off the list screen and back to the game.
When you left-click the mouse you will be able to build multiple duplicates of
what you selected. To build the duplicates you mist have the correct resources.
To get it to where you can select troops instead of make them, just P again,
select your country, and press that same button you pressed in the bottom-left
corner.


Speed up the game:
-----------------
Press enter and type speed. This will speed up the game twice.


Sinking enemy ships:
--------------------
The situation will present you with much lighter naval force than your enemy
where frontal attack can only yield in failure for your cause. However, by bug
or just bad intelligence, there is a way to sink much tougher ships with your
light ones. Use one as a lure, and set up a trap by your other ships. Enemy will
start to track the ship they spotted first and will follow it all the way, so you
can just go along and sink them with your other ships while they won't react to
that and will continue to follow your first ship. Use small yacht as a bait as it
is faster than those heavier ships and will give you more time to sink the pursuing
enemy ships.


Market Tricks
--------------
Markets are definitely one of the more interesting facets of Cossacks.
There is more to using them than meets the eye...

Don't click trade more than once. New players may not realize this but clicking 'trade'
5 times with 1000 resources is one of the worst things that can be done at the market.
It is much better to specify 5000 resources and click 'trade' once. This is because
the buying price for the target resource is increased with each trade.
The only exception to this rule is 'reverse trading' (keep reading).

All players share in the fluctuating market values. New players may not realize that
market prices are the same for all players. If one player makes a trade, the prices
are changed for everyone. Nearly every good start involves selling resources, so to
get the best prices, you want to be the first player to build a market and start
trading.

Reverse trading. An important feature of the market that is often overlooked is the
fact that prices can be inflated by 'reverse' trading. Say for example you want to
buy some gold, and you have 100000 stone (thanks to the 400% stone upgrade). Simply
trade away gold in 1000 increments and you'll notice the buying price for gold drop
dramatically. An example would be: 83 gold currently sells for 1000 stone(1:12).
That's really high. Reverse trade 8000 gold in 1000 increments to bring the price
down to 205 gold per 1000 stone (1:5). Now, trading away your stone will yield over
100% greater profit.

a question for you!

Does anyone know where I could buy European Wars? If they do, they'll get a thankyou and a fankit!

From BestOut3321 (actually ???ACCESS DENIED???)

ADVANCED COSSACKS TIPS! no amateurs

Only great long-time players of Cossacks will understand this----
Hints & Tips
Things the Cossacks don't want you to know.
Time.
Time is measured in frames, with one unit of Game-Time (GT) equal to 50 frames of animation in fast mode, and 25 frames in slow mode. Most time-units in the game are measured in frames, including buildtime, rate of attack and rate of movement. All GT measurements listed within this site are based on fast-mode, so one diplomatic center unit will train in one Game-Time second (50 frames).
Construction Time.
The construction times listed in this database represent the time it takes to construct a building with 10 peasants. This time can only be attained by assigning 10 peasants to the construction. When fewer than 10 peasants are assigned, the increase in construction time can be quite dramatic however the construction time can never be longer than 10x that obtained with 10 peasants. To predict how long it will take to construct a building, use the following formula:

actual_time = 10 / num_peasants * db_time / 50 frames per second

For example, an English tower can be constructed in 90 GT with 10 peasants. We know from experience that it is only possible to put 9 peasants on a tower, so a buildtime of (4500/50) 90 GT can never actually be attained:

Peasants/ Time (GT)
9 100
8 113
7 129
6 150
5 180
4 225
3 300
2 450 <-- sigh
1 900 <-- ouch

When more than 10 peasants are assigned to the building's construction, the construction time will be faster, for example, the English Academy (with a construction time listed at 2000, or 40 GT):

Peasants/ Time (GT)
25 16
24 17
23 18
22 19
21 20
20 20
19 22
18 23
17 24
16 25
15 27
14 29
13 31
12 34
11 37
10 40
9 45
8 50
7 58
6 67
5 80
4 100
3 134
2 200
1 400

The more peasants the better. Generally speaking, 20 peasants will reduce the construction time by half, 30 by 67%, 40 by 75%, etc. No buildings in the game allow more than 40 peasants (the average is somewhere around 24), and the actual number allowed varies from building to building. In the Unit Explorer, the max number of peasants allowed to construct each building is presented next to the buildtime.

Yes there is always an exception to the rule. Russian peasants actually build slower than all the rest. Use the following formula to determine how long it will take a Russian peasant to construct a building:

actual_time = 14 / num_peasants * db_time / 50 frames per second

So, to achieve listed construction times, 14 Russian peasants are needed. To reduce the construction time of a Russian building by half, 28 Russian peasants are needed. Many thanks to Tomi for pointing this out.
Construction time points of interest.
I feel like it would be a good idea to highlight a few points of interest here. While this sort of information does not necessarily affect the overall balance of the game, it can be useful to know.

18thc Barracks Peasants Time (GT) Time (With 75% faster construction time upgrade)
Austria 37 136 34 <-- awesome
Sweden 36 139 35 <-- awesome
Spain 30 167 42
Piemonte 30 167 42
France 30 167 42
Saxony 29 173 44
Prussia 29 173 44
Poland 29 173 44
Portugal 28 179 45
Venice 27 186 47
Holland 27 186 47
Bavaria 26 193 49
Russia 36 194 49 <-- sigh
England 25 200 50 <-- sigh
Denmark 23 218 55 <-- ouch

  • Markets:

    - Nations using the Spanish or Ukrainian style market can build the fastest, in 5 GT: Piemonte, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, Venice.

    - Nations using the Austrian style market come next, at 6 GT: Austria, Bavaria, Denmark, England, France, Poland, Prussia, Netherlands, Saxony, Sweden.

    - The Russian market comes next, at 12 GT. Slow, eh?

    - Nations using the Algerian style market build the slowest (17 GT): Algeria & Turkey. They only use 9 peasants (you can manually assign 10th builder to bring the time down to 15 GT if you are desperate), so these guys have no chance of getting an early market under any start.

  • Academies: From best (13 GT) to worst (22 GT): Spain, Bavaria, Piemonte, Austria, Saxony, France, Prussia, England, Portugal, Sweden, Poland, Venice, , Turkey/Algeria, Denmark, Netherlands (18), and Russia (22). Ukraine, the exception, can build an academy in under 1 GT (that's not a typo).

  • Diplomatic Centres: From best (7 GT) to worst (10 GT): Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Spain, Ukraine, Piemonte, Saxony, Prussia, Poland, Venice, Russia, Netherlands, Bavaria, England, Sweden and France. Turkey and Algeria come in last at 15 GT.

  • Shipyards: Turkey & Algeria can afford 28 peasants (36/9 GT), followed by Portugal with 27 peasants (38/10 GT), Ukraine peasants 25 (40/10 GT) and everybody else with 24 peasants (42/11 GT). Russia, with 37 slow-building peasants can erect a shipyard in (39/10) GT.

  • Towers: Turkey and Algeria can put 14 peasants on their towers. All other nations are limited to 9. These guys already build a tower fast, so this actually means a Turkish or Algerian tower can go up in as little as 50 GT, while the quickest anybody else can put one up is 100 GT. With 14 peasants, a Russian tower can be built in 70 GT (remember, Russian peasants build slower).

  • Turkey and Algeria: For all other buildings, they have the lowest numbers of peasants available to construct buildings, often 50% fewer.
Food gathering.
Forget everything you've read about these upgrades. A peasant will always return to the mill after 13 seconds, regardless of the number of upgrades he has. The upgrades he has determines how much food he will collect during that 13 second time period:
  • A peasant gathers 30 food in 13 seconds (650 frames).
  • Academy upgrade #1: +12 Gathered
  • Academy upgrade #2: +12 Gathered
  • Academy upgrade #3: +15 Gathered
  • Mill upgrade #1: +42 Gathered
  • Mill upgrade #2: +75 Gathered
A fully upgraded peasant can collect 186 food in 13 seconds. Not too shabby.
How quickly are other resources gathered?
Stone
  • A stone miner gathers 40 stone in 7 seconds (350 frames).
  • The first stone miner upgrade increases this to 80 stone in 7 seconds.
  • The second stone miner upgrade increases this to 160 stone in 7 seconds.
  • Warning: These upgrades are not cumulative. Researching the first upgrade after the second will cancel the effect of the second upgrade entirely.
  • Hint: Those of you who are familiar with version 1.15 may have noticed that in the addon, the label of the last stone mining upgrade has been changed from "400%" to "300%". The effect of the upgrade has not changed. The previous label, 400% was simply wrong. If you do the math, you see that 400% implies the effect of the upgrade is 40 + 40 * 4, when the real effect is and always has been 40 + 40 * 3.
Wood
  • A wood cutter gathers 28 wood in 5 seconds (250 frames).
  • The wood cutter upgrade increases this to 56 wood in 5 seconds.
Minerals
  • A miner gathers 2 minerals in 1 second (50 frames).
Fish
  • A fishing boat gathers 1000 food in 50 seconds (2500 frames).
  • The fishing upgrade increases this to 2000 food in 50 seconds.
  • In games with water, fishing is extremely important. You don't want to build more ships than a pond can handle though -- as boats need room to move around. A small pond can generally support 20 boats, a medium size pond can support 40. On maps with a lot of water, most players build 75-200 boats, and the food income at those levels is awesome. A good fishing fleet also means you can free up peasants to gather wood, stone or do more mining.
  • If your boats gridlock, you'll need to manually scatter them to keep them working. Keep an aye out for this, as a gridlocked fleet is just as effective as no fleet at all.
  • Don't train ships near your fishing areas. If you do, your ships will run right over your little fishermen, sinking them along with all their fish.
In all cases, it is extremely important to build extra mills, storehouses and docks to keep your workers from jamming up at a single mill, storehouse or dock and to reduce travel time. Remember that units always drop off resources at the top-half of buildings, so always construct your town hall, storehouse or mill below a resource to minimize travel time. Regardless of how many drop sites you have, eventually your forests and stone quarries will be overrun and peasants will stop working. Pressing <ctrl>p will select all your idle peasants. Then pressing the spacebar will allow you to cycle through them and put them back to work.
Market: Don't click more than once.
New players may not realize this but clicking 'trade' 5 times with 1000 resources is one of the worst things that can be done at the market. It is much better to specify 5000 resources and click 'trade' once. This is because the buying price for the target resource is increased with each trade. The only exception to this rule is 'reverse trading' (keep reading).
Building a Market: Be the first.
New players may not realize that market prices are the same for all players. If one player makes a trade, the prices are changed for everyone. Nearly every good start involves selling resources, so to get the best prices, you want to be the first player to build a market and start trading.
Trading: Every resource has a minimum selling price.
With each trade, you'll notice the amount offered of your target resource go down. You might begin to wonder if there is a 'minimum bid', and the answer is yes. Each resource has a minimum selling price:

Gold per 1000:
  • Food - 20 : 1000 (1:48) -- terrible
  • Stone - 83 : 1000 (1:12)
  • Wood - 83 : 1000 (1:12)
  • Iron - 166 : 1000 (1:6)
  • Coal - 166 : 1000 (1:6)
Food per 1000:
  • Stone - 500 : 1000 (1:2)
  • Wood - 500 : 1000 (1:2)
  • Iron - 1000 : 1000 (1:1) -- excellent
  • Coal - 1000 : 1000 (1:1) -- excellent
  • Gold - 2000 : 1000 (2:1) -- best
Stone and Wood per 1000:
  • Food - 83 : 1000 (1:12)
  • Stone - 333 : 1000 (1:3)
  • Wood - 333 : 1000 (1:3)
  • Iron - 666 : 1000 (2:3) -- good
  • Coal - 666 : 1000 (2:3) -- good
  • Gold - 1333 : 1000 (4:3) -- excellent
Iron and Coal per 1000:
  • Food - 41 : 1000 (1:24) -- terrible
  • Stone - 166 : 1000 (1:6)
  • Wood - 166 : 1000 (1:6)
  • Iron - 333 : 1000 (1:3)
  • Coal - 333 : 1000 (1:3)
  • Gold - 666 : 1000 (2:3) -- good
An important feature of the market that is often overlooked is the fact that prices can be inflated by 'reverse' trading. Say for example you want to buy some gold, and you have 100000 stone (thanks to the 400% stone upgrade). Simply trade away gold in 1000 increments and you'll notice the buying price for gold drop dramatically. An example would be: 83 gold currently sells for 1000 stone(1:12). That's really high. Reverse trade 8000 gold in 1000 increments to bring the price down to 205 gold per 1000 stone (1:5). Now, trading away your stone will yield over 100% greater profit. Keep in mind that the same technique works for all resources, and the more resources you have to trade, the better. 300000 stone is a lot more effective than 100000, and selling anything less than 70000 is not really worth the effort. Likewise, reverse trading 6000 gold in 1000 increments will help bring the price down a bit (maybe you'll get 170 per 1000), but 12000 is far better (you can get as much as 235 per 1000). Using the market-watch window, it is possible to spot other players doing this. Many thanks to [DF]Piktou for telling me about this.

Tomi suggested that a list of the maximum bidding prices would also be useful. Bear in mind that the higher the maximum bid the more reverse trading is needed. For example, to realize a 7:1 benefit on gold for food, over 2 million food needs to be traded away. Assuming 1000 stone is trading for 83 gold (the lowest possible bid), 10 trades of 1000 will bring the gold bid for stone up to 210. 15 trades will bring it up to 235, 20 will bring up to 255. To reach 285, 50 trades of 1000 are needed. For the best return on investment, use the following rule when trading stone for gold: For 100000 stone, reverse gold 10 times. For 200000 stone, reverse 12 times. For 400000 stone, reverse 15 times. For 800000 stone, reverse 20 times.

Gold per 1000:
  • Food - 142 : 1000 (1:7)
  • Stone - 285 : 1000 (2:7)
  • Wood - 285 : 1000 (2:7)
  • Iron - 570 : 1000 (4:7)
  • Coal - 570 : 1000 (4:7)
Food per 1000:
  • Stone - 2000 : 1000 (2:1)
  • Wood - 2000 : 1000 (2:1)
  • Iron - 4000 : 1000 (4:1) -- excellent
  • Coal - 4000 : 1000 (4:1) -- excellent
  • Gold - 7000 : 1000 (7:1) -- best
Stone and Wood per 1000:
  • Food - 500 : 1000 (1:2)
  • Stone - 1000 : 1000 (1:1)
  • Wood - 1000 : 1000 (1:1)
  • Iron - 2000 : 1000 (2:1) -- good
  • Coal - 2000 : 1000 (2:1) -- good
  • Gold - 3500 : 1000 (7:2) -- excellent
Iron and Coal per 1000:
  • Food - 250 : 1000 (1:4)
  • Stone - 500 : 1000 (1:2)
  • Wood - 500 : 1000 (1:2)
  • Iron - 1000 : 1000 (1:1)
  • Coal - 1000 : 1000 (1:1)
  • Gold - 1750 : 1000 (7:4) -- good
Hotkey buildings.
Another tip for new players. It is a good idea to assign buildings of a certain type to hotkeys. Doing that will allow you to easily distribute build orders to all buildings of a certain type -- minimizing the number of clicks needed as well as the time needed to train the units. Also, putting the market and academy on separate hotkeys allows you to quickly execute trades (say you run out of coal during a battle) or research the medicine upgrade without looking away from the battlefield. NOTE: AS OF v1.29, NONE OF THE REPAIR UPGRADES WORK. THE VICTORIA UPGRADE IS PRETTY EXPENSIVE, IT ALSO DOES NOT WORK.
4th Town Hall.
Another tip for new players. It is important to get your economy up and running as quickly as possible, and in 0pt games, to be prepared for all kinds of early rushes. I do not want to write a start here, as many other players have written good starts, but a few things to consider with any start are the number of Town Halls you build (and when), and the timing of the first few economic upgrades. In a 30+ pt game with high (5000) resources, it is crucial to get 4 Town Halls up early, and to keep them busy producing peasants. Ideally your 4th town hall should go up before 440 GT. This will require selling excess resources at the market, and getting a wood and stone upgrade early on (no later than 350 GT). Many thanks to TinyCerebellum for timing this.
Typical counters.
Unlike other RTS games, Cossacks does not center itself on the "rock-scissors-paper" concept. Rather, it is based on a balanced selection of historical units, each having many uses.
  • Heavy Cavalry: Useful for flanking units having a low-to-medium steel attack and disabling multibarrel positions. Can easily withstand low-powered musket fire. Massive heavy-cav armies are a favourite of Saxony (cav guard), sometimes Sweden and sometimes Russia in mid-to-long PT games.
  • Light Cavalry: Light cav tend to train quickly, so large numbers are easy to obtain. Good for flanking units having a low steel attack and temporarily disabling enemy artillery positions. Massive light cav armies are a favourite of Poland, Ukraine, Algeria and Turkey.
  • Fast Cavalry: Natural counter to dragoons, 17thc musketeers and high-powered musketeers. Best when attacking enemy units not in formation. Also useful for surprise attacks and raiding enemy towns (if that's the sort of thing you're into). Massive fast-cav armies are a favourite of Prussia.
  • Dragoons: Excellent counter to 18thc muskets, heavy infantry and light cav. In large numbers, can handle heavy cav and smaller fast cav detachments. They also eat a lot of gold, iron and coal. Large dragoon armies are a favourite of France. Also Piemonte, Spain and Sweden in the Mod.
  • Merc Dragoons: In large numbers (150+), excellent hit-and-run unit. Also good at laying down cover fire. They also eat a lot of gold, iron and coal (which makes them impractical early in the game when that money is needed for upgrades). Any nation can make use of massive merc dragoon armies, but: Massive merc dragoon armies are a favourite of Algeria and Turkey.
  • 17thc Musketeers: A support unit, very effective vs. light infantry and light cav. Fully upgraded, can be moderately effective vs heavy infantry and non-upgraded heavy cav. Large 17thc musketeer armies are a favourite of Austria, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Venice (Mod), Algeria (Mod), Turkey, the Ukraine, and sometimes Russia in mid-to-long PT games.
  • 18thc Musketeers: Train fast. Very effective vs all types of melee infantry and cavalry units. Best in formation. Expect any western to have a large 18thc musketeer army late in the game. Massive 18thc musketeer armies are a favourite of Bavaria, Denmark, Prussia, and Russia (Mod).
  • High-powered Musketeers: Good support unit, very effective vs heavy infantry and heavy cav. Often preempted by regular musketeers, only Austria, England, France and Saxony have unique musketeers. Best in formation. Bavaria, Denmark and Prussia have high-powered regular musketeers.
  • Archers/Grenadiers: Highly effective vs. walls and buildings when fully upgraded. Best in formation. Grenadiers also have an excellent minimum range and bayonet attack, making them very effective vs all kinds of infantry and cav. Large archer armies are a favourite of Algeria and Turkey (tatar), and grenadier armies of Saxony. Nobody uses merc grenadiers.
  • Heavy Infantry: When in formation, can absorb a lot of damage. Excellent at protecting musket lines or rushing an enemy base in 0pt. Also useful for disabling multibarrel positions. Massive 17thc pikeman armies are a favourite of Russia, Poland and England (Mod).
  • Light Infantry: Usually a fodder unit, these can be highly effective in large numbers. 18thc pikes should be put into formation. Massive light infantry armies are a favourite of Algeria and Turkey.
  • Artillery: Cannon in small numbers are good to break enemy formations and reduce enemy morale. Cannon in large numbers are difficult to counter except with other large cannon batteries. Multibarrel cannon are an excellent counter to light units.
  • Siege: Mortars tend to be the best counter for enemy towers.
  • Small Ships: Low minimum range, good for swarming larger ships and scouting.
  • Large Ships: Excellent for siege, securing transport lanes and providing cover for remote deployment of transport units.
It is apparent that when sending any kind of unit to attack a group of enemy shooters, the flanking units can easily be distracted by any melee units that may be nearby. They will often stop their charge to attack the melee units, meanwhile being shot to pieces by the very shooters they were intended to attack. A sure way to prevent this from happening is to disable attack. When attack is disabled, your units will calmly ignore any melee units that may be sent to distract them, and walk right up to the shooters. Once they are right on top of the shooters, then re-enable attack. The shooters will scatter, and the flanking manouver will be much more successful.
Academy shot power upgrades: Plan carefully.
The order in which the shot power upgrades are researched in the academy is important. They are multiplicative, which means a percentage of your current shot power is increased. As you can only research these once, you should plan which units you want to have fully upgraded before researching the academy shot power upgrades. Many 17thc musketeers have an attack lower than 10. Due to the rounding effect discussed below, researching the 10% upgrade before a unit's attack strength is 10 or more will result in that unit not getting any benefit at all. Also, 7000 gold is a lot to spend on a mere 1 or 2 extra attack points. Plan carefully to maximize your benefit.
Academy shot power upgrades: rounding.
The order in which the upgrades are researched can make a small difference in the result. When a shot power upgrade is researched, the current attack strength of each unit is multiplied by a decimal. The result often includes a decimal. As you might guess, that number has to be rounded off. Who wants a Chasseur running around with an attack strength of 46.8733333? It just so happens that it is most efficient to round the number down, so the Chasseur effectively loses a potential 0.8733333 attack. Because there are 4 upgrades in the academy, it is actually possible to research them in different orders to minimize the attack points lost through rounding. For example: Researching the upgrades in the normal 10%, 15%, 20%, 30% order will leave your 18thc dragoons with 89 attack. Not bad. If you had researched the upgrades in a different order, for example: 30%, 10%, 15%, 20%, they could have had 92 attack. I am working on compiling a list of the best upgrade orders for each nation. In the meantime, kasperkopp@t-online.de has contributed a useful tool to help figure them out.
Melee attack rates.
When looking at the various melee units in Cossacks, it is important to consider attack rate. Having a better attack or defense does not always translate to a more effective attack. A famous example is the Swedish 18thc pikeman. With a fully upgraded attack of 22 and a defense of 25, he appears stronger than the English 18thc pikemen (21:24). The fact is however, his rate of attack is a full 30% slower at 13 frames compared to England's 9. Tests between the two (130 vs 130) in the map editor show that England wins every time, with anywhere from 10 to 50 units leftover. 9 is the fastest melee attack in the game, and 22 is the slowest. Most units attack with a rate of once per 15 frames.

  • Roundshier: 13
  • Scottish Swordsman: 13
  • Light Infantryman: 14
  • Ottoman Infantryman: 14
  • Peasant: 19

  • Sich Cossacks: 14
  • Spahk: 15
  • Registered Cossack: 15
  • Don Cossacks: 15
  • Mameluk: 15
  • Light Rider: 15
  • Balkan Light Rider: 15
  • Croat: 15
  • Hussar: 15

  • 18thc Pikeman: 9
  • Saxon Grenadier: 10
  • 18thc Swedish Pikeman: 13
  • 18thc Musketeer: 16
  • Grenadier: 17
  • 18thc Bavarian/Danish/Prussian Musketeer: 22
  • Stefan (yes there is a Stefan unit in the game): 51

  • 17thc Russian Spearman: 10
  • 17thc Polish Pikeman: 13
  • 17thc Pikeman: 15
  • Ottoman Pikeman: 13

  • Vityaz: 13
  • Winged Hussar: 13
  • Heavy Rider: 15
  • Cuirassier: 15
  • Cav Guard: 15
  • Swedish Rider: 15
  • Hetman: 15
Cav formations are a somewhat complex subject. In summary, there are 3 types of formations (line, wedge, and "u"). There are 3 formation sizes (40, 90, 160), and 4 formation types (heavy 17thc cav, light cav, dragoons and king's musketeers). As a general rule, line formations of 40, 90 or 160 offer the best formation bonuses. Wedge and "U" formations of 40 and 90 cav offer no benefit at all, and Heavy 17thc cav in formations of 160 recieve the most interesting bonuses. 160 heavy 17thc cav in "U" formation stand-ground have a defense of +80! Their +95 attack in Wedge formation stand-ground is nothing to ignore either -- it is possible to cut down a pikeman with a single blow, with no upgrades! 160 King's Musketeers in "U" formation stand-ground have 100 attack AND +80 defense -- that is simply awesome! Details regarding the 5 types of bonuses are listed below:

Cav Formations 40 Line 90 Line 160 Line 160 Wedge 160 Wedge
(Stand Ground)
160 "U" 160 "U"
(Stand Ground)

  • Heavy 17thc Cav (Heavy Riders, English Riders/Mod, Swedish Riders, Cav Guards, Vityaz)

  • +0a +1d +1a +1d +2a +1d -10a +9d +95a -19d +5a -5d -27a +80d

  • Light Cav (Cuirassiers, Light Riders, Register Cossacks, Don Cossacks, Light Riders, Mameluks, Spahi, Hetman)

  • +0a +1d +1a +1d +2a +1d +1a +1d +1a +1d +1a +1d +1a +1d

  • Dragoons (17thc Dragoons, 18thc Dragoons, French Dragoons, Tatars)

  • +0a +1d +0a +1d +0a +1d +0a +1d +0a +1d +0a +1d +0a +1d

  • King's Musketeers

  • +0a +1d +0a +1d +0a +1d +0a +9d +0a -19d +0a -5d +0a +80d

    Yes, you read that correctly, the King's Musketeer, in "U" formation (not stand-ground) of 160 actually receives a penalty of -5 defense. For any unit that receives -5 defense, including the heavy rider and cav guard, 5 is subtracted from the defense rating. So for example, a king's musketeer with no upgrades has a defense rating of 0. If he is in a "U" formation of 160, any unit he attacks will have an attack bonus of +5 vs the musketeer. Strange, eh? Don't put King's Musketeers into the "U" formation unless they are standing ground! Here's the formula:

    enemy_attack = the greater of 1 or (enemy_attack - defense)

    Another example, consider the fully upgraded Saxon Cav Guard (40 defense). If he is placed into a "U" formation of 160, he has +5 attack and -5 defense. So his defense effectively becomes 35. The +5 attack in "U" formation is actually very good for him (who needs +50 defense anyway?). 160 heavy 17thc riders are better off charging shooters in wedge formation, then switching to one of the other formation types to inflict maximum damage.

    Unfortunately, the battle simulator does not yet take all possible cav formations into account. For now, all cav formations receive the 40 cav line bonus of +0 attack and +1 defense. For all other formation types, you will simply have to use your imagination. If you really want to see these modeled in the simulator, let me know, and I will consider it :)

    Many thanks to Swissboy and Tomi, both of whom brought this to my attention at the same time. MG42maniac was the first to point-out the immense bonuses of heavy 17thc cav in stand-ground. I did my original tests with 40 and 90 cav in wedge formation, and just assumed no cav formations had any bonuses. Doh!
    The keeping cost of the 18thc dragoon is pretty high at 106 miners per 1000 dragoons. The cost alone is not the killer here, its the 875 training time. As each dragoon is produced, he sits there collecting a salary while waiting for his fellow alumni to join him. You can also think of it like this: it's going to take a looong time to train all the dragoons you order. Every second, every dragoon already produced is going to require a small payment of gold. As more are trained, you have more dragoons sitting around collecting money. There is no way around this except to train them faster. There are only two ways to train cavalry faster: get the 4x upgrade at the 'smith, and/or build more stables.

    In the time it takes one stable to train 10 dragoons, you pay a hidden fee of 167 gold (that's how much the first 9 collected while waiting for the last dragoon to come out). That is not a whole lot of money, but if you are like most people, you are used to training 100 or more of these guys. Depending on the number of stables you have, expect to pay the following:

    18thc dragoons in version 1.29 3 Stab 4 Stab 5 Stab 6 Stab 7 Stab

  • 100 will cost an extra

  • 6009 4460 3530 2910 2464

  • 200 will cost an extra

  • 24417 18220 14500 12018 10248

  • 300 will cost an extra

  • 55221 41276 32910 27330 23345

  • 400 will cost an extra

  • 98421 73628 58755 48834 41755

  • Per second afterwards, 100 dragoons ask for a hefty 21 gold pieces.


  • French 18thc dragoons in 1.29 3 Stab 4 Stab 5 Stab 6 Stab 7 Stab

  • 100 will cost an extra

  • 5454 4048 3205 2640 2240

  • 200 will cost an extra

  • 22161 16536 13160 10908 9303

  • 300 will cost an extra

  • 50118 37460 29865 24804 21189

  • 400 will cost an extra

  • 89325 66824 53325 44322 37891

  • 500 will cost an extra

  • 139779 104624 83530 69468 59420

  • Per second afterwards, 100 dragoons ask for a hefty 37 gold pieces.


  • Note: French 18thc dragoons in version 1.29 Train about 50% faster, but cost 18% more to maintain.


  • Most 18thc Dragoons in Baddog's Mod M129 3 Stab 4 Stab 5 Stab 6 Stab 7 Stab

  • 100 will cost an extra

  • 5151 3824 3025 2496 2114

  • 200 will cost an extra

  • 20931 15616 12430 10302 8785

  • 300 will cost an extra

  • 47334 35380 28205 23424 20006

  • 400 will cost an extra

  • 84360 63112 50360 41862 35791

  • Per second afterwards, 100 dragoons ask for a hefty 21 gold pieces.


  • Note: With Baddog's Mod M129, 17th & All dragoons train about 15% faster than in 1.29 (no change for the French 18thc or English 17thc dragoon) The Polish 17thc Dragoon trains 33% faster.


  • French 18thc dragoons in Baddog's Mod M129 3 Stab 4 Stab 5 Stab 6 Stab 7 Stab

  • 100 will cost an extra

  • 3636 2700 2135 1758 1491

  • 200 will cost an extra

  • 14775 11024 8775 7272 6202

  • 300 will cost an extra

  • 33411 24971 19910 16536 14126

  • 400 will cost an extra

  • 59550 44548 35550 29550 25263

  • 500 will cost an extra

  • 93186 69748 55685 46308 39613

  • Per second afterwards, 100 dragoons ask for a hefty 25 gold pieces.


  • Note: Salaries were reduced by 33%.


  • Spanish/Swedish Dragoons in Baddog's Mod M129 3 Stab 4 Stab 5 Stab 6 Stab 7 Stab

  • 100 will cost an extra

  • 4719 3500 2770 2286 1939

  • 200 will cost an extra

  • 19173 14304 11385 9438 8050

  • 300 will cost an extra

  • 43356 32408 25835 21456 18326

  • 400 will cost an extra

  • 77274 57808 46130 38346 32781

  • Per second afterwards, 100 dragoons ask for a hefty 21 gold pieces.


  • Note: With Baddog's Mod M129, Spanish and Swedish 18thc dragoons train about 9% faster than other mod dragoons.


  • Piedmontese Dragoons in Baddog's Mod M129 3 Stab 4 Stab 5 Stab 6 Stab 7 Stab

  • 100 will cost an extra

  • 4293 3184 2520 2076 1764

  • 200 will cost an extra

  • 17442 13012 10355 8586 7322

  • 300 will cost an extra

  • 39444 29484 23505 19518 16674

  • 400 will cost an extra

  • 70302 52592 41965 34884 29820

  • 500 will cost an extra

  • 110013 82340 65740 54672 46767

  • Per second afterwards, 100 dragoons ask for a hefty 21 gold pieces.


  • Note: With Baddog's Mod M129, Piedmontese 18thc dragoons train about 17% faster than other mod dragoons.


  • Needless to say, you might start to see more 17thc dragoons over the coming months -- they are happy with just a decent meal.
    Training/keeping costs of mercenary dragoons.
    While we are on the subject of dragoon salaries, let's take a look at the merc dragoon:

    Version 1.15 and 1.29:
    • 100 merc dragoons will cost an extra 309 to train. Not bad.
    • 200 will cost an extra 1243.
    • 300 will cost an extra 2803.
    • 400 will cost an extra 4987.
    • 500 will cost an extra 7796.
    • 600 will cost an extra 11231.
    • 750 will cost an extra 17554.
    • 1000 will cost an extra 31218.
    • Per second afterwards, 100 merc dragoons ask for a modest 6 gold pieces.
    With Baddog's Mod M129. Merc dragoons take 60% longer to train, and cost 60% more to keep, so upkeep costs incurred while training are 156% higher:
    • 100 merc dragoons will cost an extra 792 to train. Not too bad.
    • 200 will cost an extra 3184.
    • 300 will cost an extra 7176.
    • 400 will cost an extra 12768.
    • 500 will cost an extra 19960.
    • 600 will cost an extra 28752.
    • 750 will cost an extra 44940.
    • 1000 will cost an extra 79920.
    • Per second afterwards, 100 merc dragoons ask for 10 gold pieces.
    Shooter minimum range.
    Often overlooked, this factor is important to keep in mind when planning a battlefield layout. For example, the higher the minimum range, the fewer shooting units can respond when in stand ground, and the fewer shots they can fire while being approached by melee units. Most musketeers have a fairly short range when you subtract the minimum range from the maximum range. The shooters having the best minimum range are:

    • Grenadiers (75/850)
    • Mercenary Dragoons (200/900)
    All other minimum ranges are listed in the unit explorer.
    The 25th shot.
    Any shooting unit, including the lowly mercenary grenadier, has a 4% chance of killing his enemy with one shot. Many thanks to [CRT]Wrangel for telling me about this.
    Fishboat "formations".
    Fishing boats have a large grouping radius, so if you shift-click a fishing boat along with a group of infantry or cavalry units, then tell those units to go somewhere, the result will be that the units spread themselves out along the way (similar to the old 'scatter' formation from AOK). This can be a very effective way to guard your own artillery when facing enemy artillery. Many thanks to [CRT]Wrangel for telling me about this.
    Unit stacking.
    New players might not realize at first, but the increased prices for units don't apply until the units have been trained. It is always better to queue several mercenary dragoons, fishing boats, yachts, cutters, 18thc frigates and victorias all at once to get them for the cheapest possible price. Mercenary dragoons are best in quantities of 100 or more. Their fast rate-of-fire (37) and awesome range (200/900) are extremely useful, but their low (19) attack suggests they are not very effective in groups of less than 50 or so. Most players, when playing million resource games will queue up 1000 mercenary dragoons (the max) as early as possible. When playing 30 pt or more, it is common for players to stack 200-600.
    Formations.
    This is probably one of the first lessons in the tutorial, but one of the least-used features in multiplayer Cossacks. A quick review of the bonuses given by formations shows that an infantry unit gets +3 defense and a melee unit gets an additional +2 attack. The +3 defense is the cheapest and most effective counter to 17thc gunpowder. Also, the AI is MUCH better at targeting enemy units when in formation, eliminating the clustering effect caused when a human player selects dozens of units and targets a single enemy unit. This extra efficiency alone is worth the cost and trouble of assigning an officer to a formation. Nearly every unit-pairing in the Battle Simulator reveals outcomes that can be completely reversed with the use of formations. In fact, the only time formations shouldn't be used is on long marches. On long marches it is best to send a few officers/drummers with the units, then put them into formation once they arrive at their destination.
    Scouting with drummers.
    Drummers, for one reason or another, have an excellent line of sight. Early in the game it is a good idea to build 10-20 drummers and send them off to monitor various locations on the map (especially corners). It is generally acceptable to scout with drummers during peacetime, provided they do not capture anything or interfere with the enemy economy.
    Map size.
    Larger maps take longer to play. A 20 peacetime game on a 2x map is roughly equivalent to a 60 peacetime game on a normal-sized map. This is due to the fact that it takes forever to move units across the map, and a defensive player can easily train and upgrade an 18th century army before any major battle can occur. A 4x map would most likely play out like a 90 peacetime game, with most units fully upgraded before any major battle occurs.
    Global 8000 unit population limit gone.
    As of version 1.28, the global pop limit of 8000 units has been removed from the game. The global pop limit is now infinite. Many thanks to Stefan Hertrich for telling me about this.

    Cossacks Tips!

    Right, so if you want to conquer a town send out a couple of archers (about 20) accompanied by 3 officers and about 10 pikemen. Send them out to the town and watch. They should take over.
    Also if you want to with those 33 soldiers above you could send out a peasant or two to be able to build towers or barracks in the enemy's town.

    Another good one is sending out enormous amounts of 18th Century Dragoons from your Diplomatic Centre, Dragoons are quite armored and they have ranged and sword attack so sending out a 100 or so will make an excellent army. Of course if the enemy has a tower you could either try and get through the gaps in the buildings or use them for defence instead, which has proven to be stronger than a wall!

    Also, never ever ever bother making musketeers or roundshiers, they're rubbish though a couple of musketeers along with a couple of pikemen and an officer could defeat a small army.

    And, another - Boats can gather food very very fast, much faster than a peasant, but only food as they cant collect iron or coal or other resources. JUST food. This can help a lot if you are low in food,have a lot of cash and wood but you don't have time. Of course then there is also the fabolous Market which also lets you build Docks...

    COME BACK SOON FOR MORE!