Real-time strategy fans are in for a real warfare treat. Forget about fictional characters or places, in Cossacks you have the chance to rewrite the history books. If you fancy yourself as a military general this is the title for you. Cossacks recreates more than 85 large scale wars and battles from the 16th,17th and 18th centuries. With up to 8000 units battling at once, Cossacks is an epic game. You can even re-live the English revolution or fight the sea war against pirates.An important element of Cossacks is the resource management. It is important to maintain your economy as well as your troops. There are six main resources: food, wood, stone, gold, iron and coal. All game units consume resources; for example, artillery and handgun shots use iron and coal. If you expand your army too fast and cannot feed it or maintain it, there is bound to be a riot. The price of goods in the game is even balanced to a supply and demand economy.Like other comprehensive strategy games, Cossacks features a technology tree weapon and technology structure. You will initially only have the technologies available to the country that you choose to play as. As you spend time researching new weapons, new sub-options and technologies become available from your decisions.Cossacks is a game that will make you think and test your leadership abilities to the max. Good tactics combined with a long term strategy is essential for victory. Remember, history is written by the winning side.