THE original Cossacks game was released in 2001 and has now sold over a million copies so it was inevitable that the add-on pack, Art of War, would follow.

However, what they've now done is taken that addon pack and turned it into a stand alone game of its own so you don't need the original to play it.

This is all good news for people new to the world of Cossacks.

This is a huge game with over 100 separate missions and the ability to generate your own random maps to play over.

The game comes with some very detailed tutorials that take some working through but they do give you an excellent insight into this game and its many facets.

The aim of the game is to build a strong economy based on various resources and use these to fund the development of your armies so you can expand your nation.

The game will allows you to have up to 8,000 units on the map, though as you can imagine this can take some management.

You select peasants to do all the building, starting off with the basics like a mill to provide food and mines to produce iron, coal, and gold.

You don't have an unlimited supply of certain items so you may need to build a market to allow you to trade for other resources you need.

It is also important to realise that your resources are also your weakness as without them you can't expand so keep them guarded.

The creation of armies is straightforward and the game allows you to upgrade your armies, so they are more efficient fighting machines all that is needed are enough resources.

Once created you can control your armies in battle, choosing their formation and which of your troops go first.

If you've got cannons then send them in first, guarded to ensure the enemy don't catch them and use them against you, but let them destroy the opening ranks of your enemy before you send the troops in.

The ability to build ships means that you can engage in sea battles and this adds a different dimension to the game.

The only problem is the speed of the game, if it's set to fast then small battles can be over before you get a chance to do anything, so while it's best to build in fast mode you need to slow it down for the battles.

Your troops either have no fear whatsoever or they're completely dumb, because they'll fight whoever you tell them, even if it means they're all killed, so fear isn't an option.

If you haven't tried the Cossacks series before then this is an excellent place to start.

Overall: 4/5