Kohan II: Kings of War

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $5.70

Features:

• A unique blend of strategy, tactics, and resource management as you create a successful kingdom, conquer enemies and restore the Kohan
• Lead immortal heroes with powers beyond your imagination, waging war across five full 3D continents
• Choose from five political factions and six unique races, and experience 32 missions f epic battles, heroic deeds, and personal redemption
• Long character-driven storyline with challenging AI, to offer the ultimate challenge

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

The RTS for the Strategic Minded [Posted on 2006-03-10]
I decided to write a review for this game as I did not feel that the other reviews gave it justice. You just can not compare this game to games like Warcraft 3, Warhammer, etc. as it's not your typical RTS.

This is the game for the Turn Based Strategists who want to play an RTS. Most RTS's really aren't for the Tacticians / Strategists - they are more geared towards the good micromanagers and quick minded. Kohan 2 is not the same - it's in real time but is more slow paced and requires more strategy.

The main review on here does this game justice in terms of the game basics. However, there is more strategy involved in this game then other reviews have noted. My guess is that none of these others have even played this game online... it's much complex than they describe.

Terrain makes a difference (for example, forest gives you increased defense from archers), flanking is very important as the physically weaker but important units (like mages) are in the rear of the battle, and your companies formation makes a difference as well (you need to know when to switch from one to the other - some are better for movement while others for battle). Also, there are many different units to combine together... There is a strategy involved in just the types of companies to build (some work better against certain races or units). What I'm trying to get to here is that there is much more strategy / tactics involved that your typical RTS.

The only drawback to this game is the multiplayer community is not very large. However, most are consistent players leading to some good, large battles (most games are team games).

The single player is only decent (hence the other bad reviews). If you are strictly looking for a single player experience, I'd say this is a good one but there are much better ones.

I have been playing this game for over a year now (online) and I am still playing it. This game is still the best RTS there is for the strategic minded.

Real "strategy" gamers will like this [Posted on 2006-06-05]
If you like to tell every spellcaster when to cast his spell, every peasant exactly what to do, and where every building should be placed, this game is not for you. If you enjoy telling your peasants to cut another tree 10 yards away from the tree they just cut down, this game is not for you. If you enjoy clicking the mouse around quickly to have your military units dodge cannons, catapults, and slow-firing ranged artillery, this game is not for you.

If you are single-player minded and do not care about the online experience, there are better single-player RTS games (though I thought this one was OK though not at the "top").

However, If you want an RTS game that focuses on strategy, where to attack, and when to attack, without the managing of the insanely annoying details of most current RTS games, this is THE game for you. The online community is very competitive (though not extremely large), and will provide one of the best multiplayer experiences you can find even several years after release. Players that like and are good at this game tend to be college age / 20ish and older. It requires more thought and isn't as "twitchy" as the other RTS games.

I've played all the RTS games (some for a really long time), but I always come back to Kohan because I simply do not enjoy all the micromanagement and/or lack of strategy of the other RTS games.

Kind of bland. [Posted on 2007-03-26]
This game kind of stands on its own amongst other RTS games like Dawn of War, and Warcraft which makes it kind of difficult to objectively review it. It's good in it's own right I suppose, but it's a little too simplistic. You can be really tactical with the game by choosing what terrain to fight on and how to build up your units and towns, but there's rarely ever any need for fast thinking once you have a good understanding of what works. The same strategies are going to come in to play over and over again and there's very little skill involved after implementing these tactics. This may hold true to other RTS games too, but there's a certain chaos factor that forces you to think differently and adjust your strategies in those games that you won't find in Kohan. It is a breath of fresh air when compared to your standard RTS but there's simply no flair to draw me back to playing it. A decent game if you can find it cheap and it really isn't "bad" but in no way shape or form do I see how anybody could give this game a 5/5.

Not Groundbreaking but Worth a Look [Posted on 2008-02-12]
Kohan II is a Real Time Strategy with a wide selection of units and races and some fairly interesting gameplay mechanics. Though in many ways it seems a mishmash of other RTS games, it has a couple twists to it that make it more of its own game.

The game takes place in an epic fantasy land. There is a vast campaign mode that covers the many different races present in the game. The sides in the war are defined both by what race a group is and what affiliation they hold. Races in the game include Humans, Drauga (a warlike tribal race similar in some ways to orcs), Gauri (a stone-based race similar in theory to Dwarves but influenced more by Sumerian culture), Haroun (nature-worshipping elves), Shadows (demons and their worshippers), and the Undead. Each race has a couple different affiliations available, as well. Royalists get bonuses in combat. Nationalists have bonuses in more supply-related areas. Council followers get a reduction to structure costs. Ceyah, or exiles, can entrench and run faster to support their guerilla warfare. The Fallen - the dark forces that seek to invade the world - can see farther and are more resilient than the other groups.

The races have similarities and differences. All groups use the same basic formula for units and buildings; both are reminiscent of Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth's particular style. Buildings are constructed in settlements - towns or cities that can only be built on certain spots. These settlements have a limit to the number of structures they can hold, which necessitates upgrading. Upgrading also increases the strength of the city's walls. Building structures allows you to access new technologies and new unit types. Units are grouped into "companies" of 4 to 8 units. Unit types include melee soldiers like swordsmen and pikemen, ranged units like archers, and support units like catapults, engineers, healers, and mages. Aside from the homogenous regular companies, it is also possible to create custom companies that mix and match several unit groups. Companies are led either by a generic captain or a hero. Heroes give bonuses to the units they command, and can also gain experience from combat. In non-Campaign missions, the number of heroes can be set and all are available from the start to be attached to a unit.

Resources come in two varities: Gold, which can be stockpiled, and miscellaneous materials like wood, iron, and stone that are done with a different mechanic. Both types are generated by certain buildings. Gold is used to pay directly for units. Materials, however, are necessary to keep them. For example, training a cavalry company costs gold and wood. For the gold, you can simply wait until you have the amount that you need. Wood, on the other hand, will be generated in a certain amount by buildings like sawmills. Non-upgraded sawmills generate 6 wood. A lancer unit costs 4 wood. So basically as long as that company is alive it will consume 4 of the 6 wood units generated by a sawmill. Resource collectors can be built either in towns or on resource deposits outside of towns. Inside of towns, resource collecting buildings can either be upgraded to make more of their resource, or upgraded to markets to get gold at a slight cost to the resource. Which to do - keeping in mind the limited space in each town - is an important tactical decision.

Combat consists of companies clashing against each other. The front line will engage first, with the leader providing support. When the front line is destroyed, the leader will come under attack. There are several options for combat. Formation can be changed, basically trading speed for power or vice versa. Morale can falter in dire circumstances, causing the unit to rout until it recovers. There are also strengths and weaknesses for each unit; for example, cavalry can easily ride down archers. The other main thing about combat is supply areas. This is an area around towns and outposts where friendly units can heal and replenish their lost members. It is better to fight close to your towns and outposts so that you can get this bonus, or you can go there to recover after a battle. Furthermore, the maps are littered with important sites; settlement points where new towns can be built (once the point's monster inhabitants are removed), creature lairs and bandit camps that can be attacked and destroyed for gold, for research bonuses, and to ensure safe passage through the wilderness, and resource points where engineers can construct mines.

As a whole, the gameplay works pretty well. While it is complex, the nuances and options available make the experience pretty interesting. I think the main problem is pacing - the game starts to slow down once you go through your starting gold, and apart from finding gold deposits out in the wilderness there's not a lot you can do to speed it up. The races do have their own little unique touches despite keeping the same basic formula.

The graphics in this game are reminiscent of Warcraft 3, though not as cartoony. The game uses the same style and the same "animated head in portrait" that WC3 uses. Overall, they're pretty good, and the colors are bright and identifiable to avoid confusion during play. There's not a lot that's really spectacular about them - I wouldn't say that they're great by any means - but they do the job and they look pretty nice too. The sound is about the same - it's good, but not great. It's serviceable, if anything. The music is an exception, as the composition is really nice. The voice acting is bland, and tends to be over-enunciated, but doesn't have a lot of active problems.

As a whole, this game is pretty good. It's not groundbreaking, and it's not fantastic in any particular field, but it's a pretty solid package. It's worth a look if you're a fan of either Warcraft III or Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, but don't expect anything extraordinary.

Rating: 6/10.

More complex than Kohan 1, but not quite as fun [Posted on 2008-06-26]
At first I really enjoyed Kohan 2. As the campaign wore on, I began to wonder if I'd ever play as the shadow. I didn't, but I always build maps to play as well, so that didn't worry me.

OK, several things Kohan 1 had that this doesn't and I want it:
1. Khaldunite golems - I loved those units
2. Slaanri as a playable race - Totally removed except for 2 units that anyone can get.
3. The really big evil monsters - The strongest monster you can get now excluding Abbadon is a dragon, and not much of them
4. Independently moving units - By this I mean the monsters and units which have no control mechanism. Some may build more lairs, but that's it. The monsters are strictly defensive. If they have no lair, you must engage. If they do, they'll engage only when you go to the lair. I personally thing this a step backwards. I liked being able to generate shadow lords, khaldunite golems and having critters like Ceyahdev to wander around at random killing things.
5. Technology cheats - You can only have so many kinds of tech and then no more.
6. This ties in with number 5. There are actually fewer specialized units. I just liked the choice.


Not to say there wasn't a lot I liked. It's just that what they got rid of was some of the stuff I liked best about Kohan 1.

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