12 years ago, I had an interesting 2v2 battle (online PVP).

It lasted 9 hours.
9 FRICKING HOURS.

Had to call in sick just to finish the game.





---- EDITED + CONTINUATION STORY, 10 Sept 2019 ----

So what happened?

Well, in that particular PVP match, my friend and I had lost a large-scale engagement after a mis-timed assault, resulting in me losing most of my infantry, mercenaries, and cavalry.

Sensing the end the match, our opponents gleefully taunted us (in-game text chat) and relentlessly fobbed themselves over an easy victory.

Then came the now 'infamous' taunt - "Quitters are looooosssers....."

My friend and I cussed loudly at the same time (we were on the phone so we could co-ord) and at that moment, the fire in our hearts turned our testicles into of balls of cold, hard steel.

We were stung and wanted payback.

But that would have to come later; I had to survive first.

Our opponents were advancing on my base and if that was taken, everything would be lost. We decided that I should evacuate all my villagers to the safety of his town's stone walls (he was playing 'Poland' while I was 'Ukraine'), about half a map's distance away.

Whatever infantry i had left took up fighting positions on the numerous small hills between my base and Poland's town, ready to fight a desperate rearguard action.

Hundreds of villagers (4-500 est.?) streamed from farms and mines, merging into a column of while and yellow, flanked by my remaining cavalry.

Seeing what was happening, our opponents sent a wave of fast, light cavalry to cut off my evacuation route. My cavalry escort unit was outnumbered 3-1; nevertheless they formed up and met them head-on.

The battle was going to be one-sided and it almost seemed like a lost cause.

Almost.

The brave cavalry escort had bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive!

Charging out of Poland's town gates came the winged hussars, feathers fluttering and sabers swinging, smashing into the rear of our opponents light cavalry line, cutting most of them down.

By this time enemy infantry units had caught up and opened fire, killing my remaining cavalry. The winged hussars withdrew, but the job was done.

Not one single villager had been lost and they were now safely behind Poland's walls.

We had hope. A new hope.

A flurry of activity followed. Farms, mines, barracks, stables, dwellings - everything had to be rebuilt, while the enemy bombarded Poland's walls with grenades (no artillery).

Poland was now encircled and under siege. Our opponents outnumbered us greatly; the walls were beginning to crumble, and time was running short.

So we decided to use a sneaky trick to regain the initiative.

We were going to use the town walls offensively!

One section of the wall was almost destroyed and that was where both opposing armies formed up, waiting for the final, inevitable showdown. I built 3 lines of palisades just behind the damaged wall section and placed half my Seljuks (really good shooty units) behind it. The rest of our ranged units were deployed on the left and right of the damaged section.

At the appointed time, just before the wall section could be destroyed by our opponent's grenadiers, we blew the wall, showering the densely packed attackers with deadly shrapnel.

As they streamed in by the hundreds we blew more walls, section by section, causing more casualties.

What sowed even more confusion was, when the walls blew, enemy grenadiers and 18C musketeers automatically went into 'hand-to-hand' mode due to unit proximity. The wooden palisade behind the stone wall served its purpose, and the enemy infantry were cut down like chaff as they moved forward without shooting in return.

In less than 30 seconds almost half of our opponent's infantry were dead. Now, THEY were desperate. Sending in their cavalry, they hoped to push through but were well received by Polish 18C pikemen. They could not break through! The assault was broken!

Casualties were high on both sides but our opponents had come out much worse. They pulled back beyond musket range and reformed.

A flurry of in-game text suddenly filled the bottom of the screen (one of our opponents hit the text-to-all i/o text-to-team, if i remember correctly).

"My Base! Protect my base! No base raping!"

"Your (sp. THIS i remember :P !!! ) cheating! No base raping!"

Or something to that effect.

My friend and I laughed at the same time. Evilly. Loudly. At 5am+ in the morning.

Anyway, veterans of RTS games know that when combat starts some people get too focused and fail to keep an eye on the mini-map.

My friend, being a sneaky and bastardy git (sometimes) likes to choose the colour purple because its the hardest colour to spot on the mini-map (if its a small amount of troops).

When the walls were blown and the battle began, he sent a squadron of about 50 winged hussars on quite a journey, skirting the the map edges and into one of our opponents base, killing all its villagers and razing every building. No capture, no prisoners, just wanton decapitation and burning.

It was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GLORIOUS sight.

Our opponents immediately sent all available cavalry to save what was left of a burning hellhole at the far end of the map.

And that was exactly what we were waiting for. It was time for our counter attack!

Blowing even more walls, our troops surged forth, cavalry on both flanks rapidly closing the distance with pikemen and musketeers following up.

The opposing army, mostly 18C musketeers, were left without cavalry and the following battle was short and sharp.

We took the field with minimal casualties.

The guy who typed "Quitters are losers" quit. Anon.

The game wrapped up shortly after, 6am-ish. Called in sick.

Met my friend for breakfast (he skipped work as well), spent two hours chatting and laughing about the mad ♥♥♥♥ we had just gone through.

It still brings a smile to our faces today.

18 years later.

Good game

I still remember when I got the game, it was an accident...
My friend gave me a demo cd with a bunch of games on it and cossacks: back to war was one of em.
I kept play that one demo mission again and again...
I think STILL this is the best strategy game of all time, it amazes me how you can control thousands, big cities and navy fleets.
And it takes hundreds of hours to finish the game because there is so much missions in it and of course an editor too.
And this strategy game is unique because the game mechanics are so different than most of the other strategy games, you dont have to rush for resources, there is always a few mine places around you where you can get the resources from.
But it takes a long time to upgrade yourself and meanwhile you have to defend yourself too and thats why almost all of the missions takes 2-3 hours to finish, so this makes you feel like you are in a real hardcore war I think.
I had so much epic battles in this game

Better than Cossacks 3

Neskutecne vyborna hra doporuci vsem fandum strategickych rozsahlych bitev
ma to vse vsak jednu obrovskou nevyhodu je temer nemozny se spojit v multiplayeru.

Jsou k tomu nejake navody jak to spravit ale pro normalni cloveka temer nemozne provest.
proto je tato hra odkazana na jine sitove spoje jako napr hamachi tungle apod.

proto musim tuto hru hodnotit jako hodne spatnou jinak by ziskala 8/10

It was one of my first computer games and it's still one of my favorites!

-Amazing battles
-Many possible strategies : mortars to attack from a huge distance, cavalry to attack the rearguard or to quickly pillage mines, officers and drums to make troop formations (up to 196 soldiers with one officer)...
-Enormous battlegrounds filled with soldiers (up to 10 000 if I remember correctly)!
-A lot of available countries with different architectures and troops
-Possibility to capture citizens, artillery and buildings with only some simple soldiers (there are priests too but they can heal a bit)
-Interesting use of ressources (to be able to fire you need coal, to keep mercenaries on your side you need gold etc.) so if your coal mines get captured for example you can no longer fire anything! (of course you can buy coal on the market but the prices can vary a lot depending on your behavior)
-Pretty good soundtracks

It's often really cheap on sales so if you enjoy RTS games, grab it!

<3

Better than Cossacks 2

this was my childhood, i knew it by a different name since i spoke a different language, good thing i found it :) brings back memories

What to say? The best strategy game!