Hello,

I am pleased to announce that I have finished my new campaign for Cossacks Back to War. It took a lot of work, so I hope you will enjoy it. It contains 5 missions connected by a fictional story.

I did my best to make the missions bug free and fun, so please post feedback. Tell me what you like and don't like, would you like a continuation and so on. I will welcome any kind of constructive feedback.

The release is now designated 1.0. If you find any kind of bugs please report here and I will release a fixed version.

Thank you and enjoy!

-- DOWNLOAD --
Regular RAR - extract to your root BtW folder

Known bugs:
- Intermittent problems with mission 5 transport paths. Enemy transports may brake. Will try to fix when I get some free time.

Hi,

I would try it out, but Chrome thinks that it is a malicious file.

3/55 on VirusTotal

https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/cf427cbf07f6a249d7f12e452412882926fba6a10800de9f8c7a09e881d4e9aa/analysis/1408950253/

I know it can be also a false positive.

Hi. The antivirus programs hate exe files that come from the net. I made my installer a rar self extracting archive to make installation easier, so that could be the problem. I will post a new link with just a regular rar file, but you will have to extract it to the game root yourself.

The problem could also be my batch uninstaller I made, but I assure you no malicious files are involved, that would be the last thing I would want. Try the new link in the first post and report back please.

I installed the campaign from the RAR archive.
It works. I have completed the first mission.
I don't know why the guards standed still at the shipyard, it made killing them so easy. I mean I shot them with my soldiers from a distance and the pikemen didn't come to kill my soldiers. Is it a bug or you did on purpose?
Besides this, it seems like a professional work for me. There was a special Frigate from the 18th century (I don't remember its name) that you got at the shipyard. It shoots like a Victoria, I don't know how you did this, but it is really cool.

I have started the second mission, but I haven't finished, yet. I think that the smail island in the right bottom corner (where you start the game) is too small, because the mini-map covers one-third from the area of the island.

http://s7.postimg.org/6xfsh2jm3/cossacks.jpg

Hi,

did you read the mission instructions? You're supposed to get two messages at the start of the mission. You need to embark your units onto the transport and head north to capture a wheat plantation there and gather 60,000 food. You are not supposed to develop a base on it :-P If the minimap is in your way you can use the "M" key to make it smaller, or use CTRL-A to simply select all of your units.

Regarding the soldiers at the shipyard, I made this on purpose. The units are in stand ground. You are supposed to shoot them from a distance ;-)

Yes, I had read the introductions. I hadn't had time to complete the mission, I had been just curious about what comes next.

I have completed the second mission by now. I think it is a good mission, but you have to know what you should do.
I had run out of iron and coal once, so I had to continue from a saved game. I have found some other sources of ammo and gold on the island (chest, bandits' camp), so I didn't run out of ammo last time.

I have mentioned a special frigate, its name is Red Fang. Did you make this special ship or it is in the original game?
I ask this because I can spawn Red Fangs in other missions by cheating, but I haven't seen Red Fang before.

I did not want to make the missions too easy to beat. It is a strategy game after all. However, as I have said, this is kind of an open beta, so in case I messed anything up, including the difficulty, I will fix it, but I did thorough testing to make sure the missions are as bug free as possible ;-)

About the new units, no, they were not in the original game. I made some new units by modifying the old ones to better fit my campaign. You can find them all under the "Originals". No original units have been changed, just new ones added. They will not interfere with the stock game in any way.

The second mission is not extremely hard I could complete it with 3 or 4 attempts, I think this is OK.

You added new units, wow that's cool. How did you do that?

I tought myself to mod cossacks when I was in high school, but I had a lot of help from this site (http://cossacksworld.ucoz.co.uk/) I learned much from it, and I learned the rest the from experience - trial and error. The code of the game is incredibly simple once you get into it. If you want to learn more, try the above site.

I know that site, but I haven't checked the information on modding Cossacks.

I tried to install the Campaign expansion (Campaigns from European Wars and The Art of War, also made by you), but I can only see Tutorial and Over the Horizon in the Campaign menu. Will there be an option to keep all the original Campaigns and Over the Horizon?

I've started the third mission. It's a challenging and exciting one.
I've noticed a bug. I had continue from the autosave and when I load it I get a message: You have destroyed the flagship or something like this, but I haven't destroyed it. (The flagship is the Victoria if I am right)

I've uploaded the saved game to MediaFire: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ex00azda6eaa109/bug.sav

(edited)
The bug has been fixed for now. Re-download the rar and overwrite, then load your save again and try it. It should work.

As for the Campaign Expansion, it won't work with any custom campaigns, because they both modify the same file (CAMPAIGNS.TXT). When I de-bug the OtH campaign, I will try to release a fixed Campaign expansion (with packhorses) that will also include my own campaign, so you can have all in one.

Yes, it works. Thanks for fixing the bug.

Thanks in advance for the all in one Campaign expansion (with Over the Horizon).

I noticed a pathfinding problem. Last time I played the mission the Victoria didn't come, only the the Ships of the line came. I was curious about why it didn't come so I hit www. It stuck to guarding ships of the line.
Screenshot: http://s14.postimg.org/neb4gnas1/Pathfinding.jpg
It's a pathfinding bug in the game and not in the mission and won't happen every time, but it makes the mission much easier.

I have completed the third mission and the fourth mission.

The fourth mission was a tough one, but I've managed to win from 7 or 8 attempts.

Unfortunately, it looks like the game is not saving spawned units properly. While I was able to work around this issue in mission 3, I will not be able to do this in mission 5. Therefore mission 5 does not play properly after you load the game. I will do tests today and try to fix this problem. Sorry for the inconvenience :(

UPDATE: I managed to find a workaround for the problem. I'm not sure if this is my fault or a game bug. The game does not save spawned group for some reason, so I'm forced to save the units to another mission group after spawning. I'ts good you reported this bug. If you want, I will add you to the credits as a beta tester.

OK thanks, actually it was fun to play these missions. :)

I have completed mission 5. It wasn't as good as the other missions in my opinion. I think it would be better if I had to deal with economy and make new troops. The gold mine and the mills are inside.
It was the third attempt when I won. I realised that I don't have to defend mines and other buildings, I only have to defend the town hall. My tactic was selecting all units and moving them near to the town hall. I did some upgrades at the nearby tower. I easily defended the town hall until the reinforcement arrived.

I may have to re-balance some things there. For now, I'm releasing the campaign as 1.0. If no more major bugs are discovered, I will move on to the Expansion project.

Thanks for all your help in de-bugging this campaign.