You can group formations to act as a single entity. Artillery now has the ability to attack the ground to ward off incoming forces threatening your borders. Both of these options are best used to defend units that can be captured, such as cannons and peasants. Units can now be ordered to guard other units or patrol an area. Other improvements are seemingly simple yet strategically important. It helps prevent stalemates when players avoid attacking for fear of losing their entire army, and it more accurately represents that artillery was expensive to create and maintain. Since there's an exponentially increasing cost associated with constructing multiple buildings of the same type, this effectively limits the number of cannons you can have in an army. An artillery depot will not let you build a sixth cannon if it has already produced five that are still on the battlefield. The most drastic change is that each artillery depot can now field only five cannons at a time. Once in the game, you'll find that there are lots of gameplay improvements. With all of these different options, players are bound to find a game type that they can enjoy. That way, you can enjoy a large-scale battle by yourself without having to worry about seven nations demolishing you within minutes. Another noteworthy addition to single-player random maps is that you can now choose teams for the computer opponents. What prevents you from attacking someone else? If you attack someone during peacetime, your attacking units will be destroyed instead. The host can select a length of time when players can build up their economy and military with no pressure. One of the more interesting options is peacetime. You can disable the capturing of peasants and buildings and also choose to not let players build cannons and defensive structures. There are also other types of choices, like starting in the 18th century or having the whole map revealed. You can start the game with an army, or with cannons, or perhaps you'd just like a swarm of peasants. There is a huge list of choices to select from. Anyone should enjoy the new customization options in launching a random map, though. Being able to adjust the skill level of the opponent makes the campaigns accessible to both new players and to those with a lot more experience. First of all, you can now select a difficulty rating when playing campaign missions. There are numerous new options to select when starting a new battle. They make naval battles much more devastating and stress importance of dominating the seas if the map has water. The majority are ships that you can build once your nation advances to the 18th century. There are also new units in The Art of War. At any rate, these are very similar to every other European nation in the game. Bavaria and Denmark have been added to the roster of playable nations, but curiously enough, neither is featured prominently in any of the new missions. If the campaigns weren't enough, there are also new single-player missions and new historical battles to fight. Each campaign spans several missions and will take you all over Europe as you proceed. There are five new campaigns, which will place you in command of notable historical figures like King Frederick of Prussia or Algerian pirates in the Mediterranean. The Art of War's new content will keep any strategy fan busy for quite a while. While the expansion doesn't drastically change the core elements, its additions to the gameplay make Cossacks much more enjoyable by opening up more strategic options. The Art of War continues on this theme by adding new campaigns, historical battles, and two new nations. What makes the game particularly interesting is that it focuses on epic-scale historical events and the nations that forged them. Cossacks is a real-time strategy game set in Europe during the 17th through 18th centuries. Cossacks: The Art of War is the expansion pack to last year's Cossacks: European Wars by GSC Game World.